Posting my work

Seriously… who are these two characters? I honestly can’t remember.

Caption time tho:

Let’s talk about processing “failure”. I never posted these two because at the time, if I remember correctly, I wasn’t especially fond of how they turned out.

This is a big no-no for me. And I’ll tell you why…

Looking at them now, I honestly have no idea why I was unhappy with them. They both turned out clean and the last one in particular I’m quite fond of how the hair and hand holding the sword turned out.

Often our dislike of our own work isn’t as justified as we believe in those moments. The “idea” in our head didn’t come to life like we wanted, and we are comparing THAT to what we actually successfully accomplished.

It blinds us. It takes away our successes and turns them into failures.

My only failure was not standing on my principles.

“Posting my work no matter what” is a principle for me for multiple reasons. The first we’ve already discussed. But the second is because whether the piece is good OR bad, it provides a record which I can reflect back on to see how I’m progressing. It’s evidence of my success in not giving up and not fearing criticism.

It’s bizarre. I don’t necessarily FEEL like a better artist. But I do often look back and realize how far I’ve come. How much I’ve learned. How I’ve improved.

I can SEE the evidence of it.

Success is found in the act of DOING the work. THAT IS SUCCESS. Every minute you put in is a minute you DIDN’T quit. And we all know how easy quitting is.

So if quitting is easy and NOT quitting is SO DAMN HARD, maybe we should give ourselves more credit for SUCCEEDING simply for the act of NOT quitting.

Anyway… who are those two again? 🤔