There is always something on the canvas in my work studio. Or I usually have a sketchbook out working on drawing what I see. This has comes from years and years of habit and now it is to the point that I feel restless if I don’t have something in the works. What do you do though when you want to start a painting or want to start a new project and can’t?
Or you are in the middle of a painting or project or idea, and feel like you are stalling? I am in the middle of a project just like this, and I feel, myself going in that direction. It feels like an albatross around your neck. You know that you need to finish the work, but now that you have started it there are so many other things that have come up you would rather be doing. Paying your bills all of a sudden has become really important, or looking at that old photo album that has been on your desk for months. It seems appealing to look at right now that you have this project to work on.
For me working on a painting is a like riding a bike up a steep hill.
There is the set up stage where you get on the bike. Here you start laying down color and ideas and setting up the structure (that’s going up hill.) Then there is the part of the painting where I struggle with the work. The idea that I had in my head and the idea that is starting to show up on the canvas are not the same things. Suddenly the painting looks like a piece of sh*t and I want to give up and start over or start another painting.
Keep Going:
Stop right there. That feeling you have about stopping half way is what makes painting the idea in your head worth it. Imagine if an architect building a massive structure suddenly decided, that the job is too hard, and decided to give up? Or if NASA quit half way when trying to send the astronauts to space in the 60’s etc. etc. The point is that you don’t give up. Even if the computer crashes, or the house is on fire or your burning dinner, or there are million other ideas in your head that would look “so much better”. Don’t stop the project that you are working on. Keep going.
This strategy builds a muscle (I call it the completion muscle). It is what will train your mind to focus on seeing things through to the end. This can also be used for other things in your life (not just art). My basic rule is that once you start a project, don’t stop until it’s done. Only stop if it is causing harm to yourself or damaging another part of your life. When I struggle with work, and I keep going, it’s so much sweeter at the end of the struggle. I can say “look at what I did”. It’s an educational moment for yourself, because that little struggle adds another brick to the foundation of determination that you are building.
Scale Down:
If the projects that you start working on are too grand and overwhelming, why not scale the project down? Instead of painting a giant plate of fruit, why not just paint an apple? You can scale the scope of your paintings down so that you can complete more of them which will still build your completion muscle (again). Competing work often has the positive effect of both building the completion muscle and encouraging to get to the next painting a lot faster. The bigger your other projects, then the longer it takes to get to the end of them so the struggle seems harder. If you scale down you can get more done and the drudgery will also reduce itself in scale.
Quit:
Just kidding.....don't do that ever.
Work in Cycles:
Know why people like to work out to music? It’s because the music is a motivator and it takes your mind off of the hard work. The same thing can be said for creating work. Part of if can feel super easy and not like work at all, but then sometimes creative work can feel like a drag because of the detail in a dress that you are working on. Another way to lift the drudgery I have found is to work in cycles. Use the pomodoro technique and work in 25 minute blocks, put on a movie for 2 hours and take a break and the end of the film, put on music and take a break after 10 songs. Doing this passes the time a lot sooner, and inserts forced breaks in the middle of each working session. Soon you will have worked an hour, and are that much closer to being finished.
Whatever option you decide to use from the above, the main message here is keep practicing. You will slowly start to see improvement over time, and will build a body of work that you can look back on. The only way that you will fail is if you give up or don’t try at all. So keep going!
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