Humility By The Bucketfull

I came to realize today that humility in the art world is surprisingly easy to come by. No matter how good you get, there's always going to be someone who will be so much better that your painting looks like Kindergarten Art Class spawn in comparison. Some people are just born with more talent, and that's fine by me. I'll claw my way to new standards as I always have, although I'll probably be sixty before I'm even half as good as some of these artists.

It is sometimes very frustrating, to be working on a piece for hours only to sit back and realize how ghastly it looks. It's even worse when you thought it looked awesome to begin with. It was like that with this picture I've been working on for quite a while now. The project for a printed poster has finally gotten off the ground. It's my first such comission and I want to make sure I put my very best into this. If the painting turns out not up to my satisfaction, I'd be too embarassed to mail it off to my client. As it is, I want to send it off to him, see it on his wall and shed tears of joy for a job well done.

So, I tried a few new techniques, keeping him well posted on the progress of the picture. He liked it. Almost everyone I showed it to liked it. Then I posted the partially painted image on these art forums and asked
for feedback. Humility came by the bucketfull. I'm glad for it though. After a few moments of anguish, I deleted the layers of the background and began again from scratch, this time working with new tips from the artists on the forums, my artsy hunky dominican Ari and my best buddy Wan.

It's turning out much better. Lessons learnt:

• You'll never get better unless you get feedback,
  
• don't overwork a painting and most importantly
  
• if it looks like shit, nothing can save it, start over.