Okay guys, day nine’s video is coming to you a little bit later than the rest.
As I’m recording this voice-over, it’s about 9pm here, I’ve been away from home
all weekend, just got back about an hour ago, and wanted to make sure I got this video edited
and up for you guys and didn’t mess up my 9-day streak.
The more I go along, the more addictive this is getting.
So today’s house is a little different.
It’s a greenhouse that’s being haunted by the chill of winter.
I struggled with this one, getting the transparency of the glass, getting the things inside to
kind of stand out, obviously a lot of the point of this one was to show that the plants
inside were suffering and I don’t think I gave myself enough room to kind of pull
that off and show it effectively.
It was also quite hard to convey a sense of cold.
I think if this was something that I had a bit more time to plan, I would have been able
to try a few different things and experiment a bit more.
I think this is probably my first time ever drawing a greenhouse at all so definitely
not the best I could do but overall it’s another nice addition to the sketchbook, another
day down, another new idea executed so I’m happy.
Today’s topic is gonna be what commenter CreativelyFree2Bme really cleverly called
the comparison monster.
Something that a few people have asked about really, how to not be disheartened by the
work of others.
How not to start putting yourself down when you see people doing better, people improving
faster, people who are younger than you whose work gets more recognition, more attention.
How to not let other peoples skill make you feel bad for your apparent lack thereof.
And then have that bad feeling lead to you not wanting to create at all.
I think the first thing thats needed, is the most difficult thing, which is a complete
shift in attitude.
Which of course is a lot easier said than done, but it is something that you can train
yourself into over time.
And it will benefit you in all aspects of your life, not just in your art.
I do this a lot.
When I catch myself thinking, ‘Ah, that persons work is so good, I could never do
that.’
or ‘Ugh, they’re so much better than me,’ or ‘Why didn’t I think of that.’
If I catch myself having those thoughts, I have to be stern with myself and turn it around.
Like ‘y’know what, no, good for them.
They’ve worked hard, they’re good at what they do.
They’ve created something there thats really nice.
I aspire to be able to do that one day.’
And of course the next step would be to really look at what it is about their work that’s
appealing to you and see if it’s something you can actively work on improving in your
own work.
Maybe it’s their use of colour, maybe it’s the control they have over their lines.
Someone else’s success doesn’t equate to your failure.
You can be happy for them and optimistic for yourself.
It can just take some work and some commitment on your part to be able to catch those feelings,
be aware of your attitude and make that effort to turn it around.
Now, I’m always very honest about when a piece of work doesn’t turn out how I want
it to.
I think that’s fine, I think that’s fair, it’s just an observation really.
But what I don’t like is seeing people really put themselves down, and I get it a lot in
my comments.
People saying ‘well I suck at drawing so I could never do that’, ‘I’ll never
be that good’, or ‘everything I do is rubbish.’
I totally understand that kind of feeling, and I know even now people are gonna be like
‘oh, well it’s easy for you to say', but you know we’re all our own worst critics,
you know we all see flaws in our work that other people don’t, and we all started somewhere.
I just think it’s really important to be kind to yourself.
When I see comments where someone is putting themselves down, I almost read it as if they’re
talking about someone else.
Like thats how it sounds to me.
And if you looked at it like that, next time you have something to say about your work,
you’d realise how mean we can be to ourselves.
Like swap ‘me’ with the name of your best friend.
So instead of saying ‘This other person’s work is great but I’m too bad at drawing
to ever be able to do something like that.’
you’d instead say ‘This work is great, my friend Ellie is too bad at drawing, she
couldn’t do that.’
How dismissive.
Of course you’d be disheartened.
And the thing is, if you were talking about your friend, you’d probably actually say
‘Wow, that paintings great.
My friend Ellie draws and she’d love to be able to that.
She’s really trying, so I’m sure she’ll be that good soon.’
This is all a long, rambly, I-should-probably-go-to-bed-soon, way of me saying, treat yourself how you would
treat a good friend.
Be aware that your words have power and the more you tell yourself you are something,
be it talentless or lazy, or beautiful, or driven, the more you’ll radiate that.
Learn to appreciate the talent of others and train yourself to turn envy into aspiration.
That’s all for today, thanks for watching.
I’ll see you tomorrow for the next one, bye!