As artists, no one can criticise our art as much or as harshly as we do ourselves. We see the flaws in each work more than we see the elements that shine. It's just a normal part of being an artist and it is possibly our best feature ( I will explain a little in a moment).
I am sure many artists (myself included) has had a moment or moments where you look at a finished piece and feel the sudden urge to take to it with a large brush loaded with gesso - to try and erase such a huge mess from your life. You second guess yourself after each artwork and wonder if that piece is going to be the painting that defines you as an artist.

This is where I explain that being overly critical of our work is our best attribute. Learning is a life-long process, we never stop learning - at least we never should. Instead of looking at that huge mess you see sitting on your easel, mocking you while you admit defeat. Look back at it and say "No! You will NOT be the piece that defines me as an artist - it's because of you that my next artwork will be the one that defines me."
Why?
Because with each mistake we see we can figure out a solution which we can then take with us onto the next piece.
If we can't see the flaws in our work - that's great for the ego but in all honestly do we want something that makes us feel great or do we want something that will teach us and help us grow?

The reason for this post is to encourage every artist to embrace the flaws and mistakes - to make sure that you do truly see them and awknowledge each and every one of them.
Alright - I know what you are thinking: "ok i have accepted that I will make mistakes and have done so many times over...now what?"

Now I am going to set up an exercise for you to do before next Friday:

Take a good look at your last artwork and do the following -

Make a list of everything that you see wrong in the piece
Make a list of things you would do differently that correspond to the first.
Identify 3 major weaknesses that you see in that painting.

Ok so now that you have done that, now you need to pick at least one of your weaknesses and actively try to make an effort to address it - check out tutorials online or art books at the library.
It is very important to try and get more knowledge on what ever it is that you are having difficulty with. Otherwise you will find that it is still an obvious weakness in your next work.

I hope this has helped someone realise that without accepting our mistakes it is almost impossible to look at past works and compare them to recent works and discover just how far we have come.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, how about your weaknesses - is there something that you have difficulty doing or tend to avoid?

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