The first stage of creating a piece of art is, hands down, the most chaotic and anxiety-inducing part of the artistic process.
I can’t speak for other artists, but nothing is more frustrating in my opinion than that feeling of sitting at the easel, almost bursting with excitement to create, unable to will your pencil to draw even a single line. I’ve felt it on many occasions, usually (and ironically) following a piece that I seemingly knew start-to-finish exactly how I wanted it to look. It’s truly intimidating having the infinite possibilities of a canvas staring back at you, but it’s not the intimidation of that infinity that often stills my hand. It’s the fear of something much more terrifying, a fear that even with a solid decade of experience behind me still creeps up every now and again to block my creative stream: the fear of messing up. “Messing up” can come in many forms. Maybe the anatomy in my sketch will be off, and I won’t notice it until it’s too late, or maybe the idea I contemplated won’t make sense once it's on the canvas. Perhaps I don’t yet have the requisite skill to take the image from my mind and replicate it in real life. Or, the worst case scenario: I’ll dedicate multiple weeks to a project that becomes increasingly loathsome the more I work on it. You’ll note, as I sometimes fail to, that none of these outcomes are possible without starting, but neither are any of the (more realistic) good outcomes. It’s easy to forget how often a messy start leads to a beautiful finish while in the depths of your own insecurities, how just allowing the process to unfold naturally opens up interesting paths and creates something unexpectedly perfect in its own way. Every so-called mess I’ve encountered to this point has been an opportunity to build, learn, and evolve. No artist ever grows without getting a little paint outside the lines; in fact, we’re lucky enough to be tasked by the world to dive into what exists outside of perfection. So, if the process if going to be -- and is supposed to be -- messy, we might as well get started and see where it goes. - Jasmine Green, Center for Creativity Assistant. Find Jasmine's work here or follow her on Instagram.
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