You Suck at Art. Do It Anyway.
If you’re new to creating art, chances are you’re probably not very good at it. That’s not me questioning your capabilities, or saying you should quit doing what you’re doing. It’s quite the contrary, actually. Being a new creative can be confusing, daunting and frustrating. Overcoming the obstacle of starting your creative journey is exactly what’s necessary to propel you forward.
New projects, new creative endeavors, new paths of life will always provide challenges in the beginning, no matter what you’re doing or where you’re going. You’ll never be great at something right off the bat, it’s just not how life works. Some of us will have an easier time getting started than others, and that could be due to any number of reasons; financial start up, previous background knowledge, availability of free time, learning capabilities, etc. But no one is great at anything right from the start.
Anytime someone starts something new, it’s all too easy to become a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect. If you’re not familiar with what that is, very simply put, it’s when your confidence in a particular skill set exceeds your actual knowledge and competence. An example of this would be buying your very first camera and immediately calling yourself a professional photographer, or thinking that someone who works at a fast food joint is someone who “just flips burgers”. I see you, retail and fast food workers, I know the reality. If something like this has happened to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It’s a very common trap that we’re all susceptible to, and we’ve likely all fallen victim to at some point or another. What’s important to remember though, is that nothing is as simple as it looks on the surface. There’s always a deeper understanding and skillset that’s necessary.
All my life, I’ve been involved in creating art in some capacity. I gained an interest in different styles and mediums from a young age, and always wanted to create my own work. Throughout elementary school, all the way up through high school, I practiced with pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, paint, music, food, wood working, printmaking and I’m sure there’s a few others I’m forgetting about. All of these interested me, but I could never really figure out what exactly I wanted to do with any of those. Because of that, I never had any sort of real success with those mediums. A few of them I became okay at, but most of my work sucked. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I got serious about food, and although I was good at replicating recipes and the creativity of others, I still found myself struggling to find my own creative voice in the kitchen.
After years of working in kitchens and replicating the recipes of others, photography entered my life. Because I had so much background in the world of art, I had a basic understanding of things like composition, depth, light, and layering, so it came a bit easier to me than most others. But even still, I wasn’t very good at creating photos. I had no idea how to use a camera, or what the dials and buttons all meant. I could snap a decent picture with my phone from time to time, but the art of making a photograph was just not in my wheelhouse. The key difference with photography was that I stuck with it, and got serious about it. I practiced, and began to understand what it takes to create a good photo. Had I taken the easy way out and quit before developing my skills, I wouldn’t be here today trying to make a living out of it and doing what I can to help you get better and more in touch with your creative side. The only way that I got better at photography was just by doing it more and more.
The more you do something, the better you become at it. You learn nuance, you learn restraint. You learn the rules, and eventually understand when and how to bend and break them. If you’ve been doing photography for let’s say two or three years, take a look at your earliest work and compare it to your most current work. I guarantee you’ll think most of it was crap, because it probably was. But chances are, you’ve gotten better with time, practice, research, and focus. And that doesn’t mean it’ll ever stop, unless you make that decision.
Make no mistake, this doesn’t apply only to beginners who are just starting their creative endeavors. This is also for the seasoned practitioners of their crafts that constantly find ways to question the quality of their own work. A lifetime of experience doesn’t ever seem to keep doubt and self-criticism at bay.
So if you think you suck at art, do it anyway. You’ll get better the more you practice, and you’ll be more inclined to continue to get better every time you create something new. Create what you want to create, and do it solely for your own pleasure.
