Look! A digital painting!
This time I did a study of Din, because let’s face it, The Mandalorian is awesome.
In this post, I talked about how drawing became a source of pain for me. I have this driving need to improve, to be perfect when perfect doesn’t exist. When you stop enjoying something you used to love, that’s when you know you’ve let your perfectionism get way out of hand. Be proud of the best you can do at the time. Always strive to improve, but never be sorry for being human. We all start somewhere. Part of my pain has also been attributed to society and how things aren’t worthwhile if you aren’t making money.
My main goal for 2020 is to actually do less. I always pile more and more projects onto myself until everything is sharing time with something else. It gets crazy, to the point I can’t focus on anything properly. This year, I want to laser focus on one project from conception to completion. Of course, I still need to advertise and market, but as far as the book-creating part of my life goes, that’s the idea.
I have a goal for drawing, too. It’s nothing crazy like piling more on top of myself, because I just said I need to stop that. It’s simply about finding joy. If I want to doodle, I need to damn well let myself doodle. Why should I deprive myself of such a simple source of joy? I told myself it doesn’t make me money, that if I want to draw, I should do commissoins and get a hell of a lot better. That’s not what I want to do, though. Not really. Drawing is something I do for myself. I want to get better, but not within a specific timeframe, like my goals with writing. I like to share my drawings on my website and social media. Maybe someday I’ll open a merch store for book-related art, but that will be about fun and not money, because I very much doubt it’ll “pay off,” but it should definitely be fun. For me, yes, but also for die-hard fans. Win-win.
I love what I do. I love writing books, and I love the business part of it, too, but I have no desire to apply it to all artisitc aspects of my life. Well, and let’s be honest. If you’ve lost your joy in your creative business, that is just as bad as what I’ve done to drawing. I’ve come close to doing that as well. Burnout is a real thing. So, creatives, take a step back and ask yourself what you want. I’m here to tell you art doesn’t have to be perfect, especially when it’s a creative release for you and no one else. Do you want to be a professional? Are you willing to put in the time and money to do that? There’s no one right answer. Find the answer that works for you and forget the rest.
