A creative process sometimes feels like a bomb full of inspiration, but at other times, it can be a long, laborious road where frustration ultimately prevents you from completing things. This can be due to various factors: a lack of inspiration, an incorrect approach, or perfectionism.
The insights below ensure that you will improve your artistic skills in any case, making the creative process enjoyable again, as it should be.
1. Embrace Your Perfectionism
If you think you’re struggling with perfectionism in your creative process, it is often considered something wrong. In other words, you should be more satisfied with a final result that could actually be better.
Perfectionism only becomes a real hindrance when there is never a moment of satisfaction. You always drag yourself along, and every idea that comes to you is already not good enough from the outset. However, a bit of perfectionism isn’t all that bad.
The line between ‘striving for quality and originality’ and pure perfectionism is very thin.
Every good artist has an image in their head of how something should look or sound. ‘Shaping‘ this idea into an artwork or musical piece is essentially about the right proportions and combinations that, in your eyes, are perfect. The extent to which you experience this or at what points you experience it also determines what kind of perfectionist you are.
So, being a perfectionist is okay? If striving for excellence and doing better than your previous work is the starting point of perfectionism, this is only beneficial for you as a creator.
2. Know Your Craft Well
It is more common than not for musicians and other artists to get stuck or feel like they can’t reach the next level. Not that it’s always necessary, but a lack of technique or insight can be a significant obstacle.
How much time have you spent practicing?
Of course, you will also learn a lot by doing what you love. However, only focused time on practice will make a difference in your artistic skills. You become faster at developing ideas without technical and skill-related obstacles.
This can be challenging, especially since you are not really engaged in your creative expression and the development of your ideas.
“Having fun doing what you do is a great feeling, but the key to mastery is consistency and dedication in the practice of your craft.”
3. Inspiration comes if you start working.
To see real improvement in your artistic work, whether it’s painting, acting, or design, inspiration at the right moment will always be the biggest factor. Inspiration simply means what motivates you to do your thing.
This creative insight is precisely what you cannot explain or force to be there when you want it. It comes at random moments and will sometimes, if you wish, not be present.
At such times, it is important for you as a creator to still do the work, however frustrating that may be. Why would you do something without having inspiration for it?
This statement by the composer Tchaikovsky perfectly captures how you, as an artist, should view inspiration.
How do you do that?
There are several things you could do to boost your inspiration, but one thing has always been the decisive factor in letting creativity flow:
Just start. It doesn’t matter if it’s improvisational or if you force your hand to put something on the canvas. You will notice that ideas, whether quickly or after a longer time, come to you where you can do something with them. As a creative person, it is a challenge to learn to deal with it and still make something out of it, even if you have little inspiration.
4. Connecting with Emotions
Do you ever recognize that you have a strong desire to be creative but just can’t? You know you can do it, but nothing meaningful comes out of you at that moment. These artistic blockages are therefore a reason for many (beginning) creatives to say, ‘I can’t‘ or ‘I’m not good enough.’ It is tempting to compare yourself to others who often have 10 years more experience than you.
The secret, or what not many people realize, to getting out of this is that you always have to make a connection with the emotion that your creative work should produce.
It may seem spiritual, but creative power is only stimulated by emotion. Thinking with your head about how something should look often doesn’t help and becomes very superficial.
You have to fully immerse yourself in the feeling, not the technique, of what your work should ultimately produce. That is the core of gaining inspiration.
- One of the most famous painters of the past centuries, Claude Monet, knew that feeling and not reason were crucial to letting creativity flow: ‘It is not necessary to paint details. It is about capturing the emotion at that moment.’
5. Finding Your Originality
Artists are praised not necessarily for their skill but for their originality. A specific painting technique or a unique touch on the piano can be what draws the audience and sets them apart from the rest. It is a journey of discovery to find your originality.
Finding originality does not lie in actively seeking it but in fully immersing yourself in your creativity. A distinct style and approach naturally emerge from this and will be recognized by others.
Whether this style will also be loved by a large audience is another question. What really matters is that having your own unique approach and a distinctive mark on your work gives you a motivation boost because you step outside your comfort zone and enjoy experimenting.
Some more tips to keep yourself motivated to stay creative:
Find a good mentor
Having a person you look up to is almost necessary to give your creative skills a boost. Not only to be in awe of that person’s work but also to take their advice. Therefore, find someone inspiring in your environment: a teacher or friend. Influential artists who give interviews on YouTube can also provide you with enough insights.
Know the people who encourage you
It may not be unfamiliar to you that there are people in your environment who are not so enthusiastic about what you do. A creative personality has a very different view of the world than other personalities. This is not necessarily problematic, but people who criticize you or do not understand you are also lurking. Therefore, find people in your environment who give you energy and inspire you.
Be critical of yourself
To come back to perfectionism, it is not the same as being critical of yourself. You do this with an eye on improvement. It is always good to take a close look at the details or storyline in the process. ‘Have I deviated from my original idea? Can things be clearer, more beautiful, or different?’ Every artist looks back on their previous work to learn from it and reach a higher or different level.
Take a walk
Yes, a short walk really works wonders to enhance your skills and focus on your creative work. Why? Because you can see the bigger picture again and are no longer focused on individual aspects. Especially when working on larger projects, you can sometimes get completely absorbed in small things. The movement you make while walking is good for your brain and therefore provides a fresh perspective on things.
Schedule your practice
Telling yourself that you are going to learn something is not so difficult, but actually doing it is something we sometimes like to postpone. If you know this about yourself and also see that you really need this practice, the only solution is to schedule it for yourself. How often you think you need this is entirely up to you, but know that it is crucial to improving your artistic skills.
Where are you in X years?
It is also good to ask yourself where you will be in a few years or where you would like to be. This can go as far as you wish, but focus mainly on your creativity and the work you want to have done. Do you want to release an EP or exhibit your art in a gallery? If you know this, you also know which of the above insights will really help you and improve your artistic qualities to achieve this.
Final Thoughts
If you have an improvement in your creative abilities in mind, these insights will help you make significant strides in the areas of inspiration and technique. The connection with what you want to feel is perhaps the most important way to bring out the best in your skills.
