I know when you finally get the nerve up to follow through with your idea and put color down on paper. You might stand back and look proudly on that wonderful piece of art work. As you should, it takes courage to create, design, write, illustrate, draw etc. All creativity comes from a special place within each of us. Yes, we all have it.
But if you look and think too long you might start to NOT like your work, we all do that too, we over critique ourselves right out of completing some of our works, or we just put it away and move onto something else. OK that is me. Not anymore though, I am done with feeling overwhelmed with all that is life, so much that has come my way. OK I'm veering off the artwork track, sorry. My thoughts get ahead of my.
Everybody gets side tracked with all the responsibilities in life, I completely understand. I can't even count the things I've started, stopped and never returned to over the years.
Maybe your a little like me, get bored and long for something new? I really like NEW challenges and am finding that my children's books are not giving me that, sure each page is different, but I am not very interested in drawing the same character and same clothing and keeping each page " aesthetically pleasing" or staying cohesive throughout the pages of the book. Originally I made every page a new character, each different colors, clothes, etc. Then when I saw all my page files together, that's when I realized it looked all over the place, my eyes were overwhelmed and that is when I understood the reasoning behind keeping the subjects, characters etc. looking the same throughout your books.
Yes, I get it.
My first children's book I created in 2014, each page I did in soft pastels, I sent the files of to a local printer, I had 16 books made. I no longer have them because I overthought my artwork and got rid of each one!
A hard lesson learned, as " bits of an Artist life"
https://www.sandihester.com/
https://youtu.be/t9QDahh51dQ
I just love to binge watch her videos!
Anywho, Sandi says, " do not get rid of your works, whether you like the way it turned out or not...
Sandi is right, the good, the bad, and the ugly is all part of your art history and you should keep all of it, even if for your eyes only. If you have room of coarse, part of why I no longer have my old artworks is because I often clean out clutter, no pack rat here. That is why I no longer have old artworks. It is my dream to retire on a beach somewhere and so I do not want to have to pack up too much stuff. That being said I do wish I still had some of those works....
No crying over it though, I am always creating, moving forward and onward it's what I do. So should you. There are too many other worries in the world to bog yourself down with lost works.
You can create a little challenge for yourself and recreate some of your lost art, by memory, what fun that would be. I am looking forward to consistently sharing my videos and process with you. Though I still remain torn with my preferred work. Story telling is such fun, so is illustration, painting and designing. But the process of full color pages of children's books is so time consuming.
And on top of it, I start my new job Monday, that's in 2 days!
So much for my semi retirement and new art career. ( insert smirk here)
I will just have to be diligent and keep working towards my goals, sharing positivity, joy and happiness with all of you. Because it's good for the world.
God Bless!
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