Rediscovering Joy in Art Practice

When you’re feeling overly critical, lean on processes to help you move past fear of being wrong.

As an artist, I know that feeling. The one where you look at your work and something just feels off. Where self-criticism creeps in and suddenly making art feels more like a burden than a joy. But over years of practice, I’ve developed some approaches that help me break through these creative blocks and rediscover the pleasure in making art.

The Three Pillars of Creating

First, there’s play. I let whatever captures my mind and moves me build up. Not what sells. Not what interests my friends, but what I find interesting. My play takes many forms — arrangement of papers, photos, words, videos, song, dance. I record it. I make sketches.

Then comes respecting my sketches. They’re the record of play and I take them seriously. I record my color schemes. I write down favorite words. I revisit my sketchbooks over the years and redo or find inspiration from myself. I study other’s sketches to learn how better to express myself.

Finally, I warm up. This is the best way to get over being critical and making your one piece THE ONLY PIECE. Because it shouldn’t be and it’s not productive to think like that. Every artist makes dozens of sketches before embarking on a masterpiece. Then…