Admiration, if you’re not careful, can turn to needless envy. You appreciate what someone else is doing, and, before you know it, you find yourself wanting to be them and thinking you should be doing what they do in precisely the same way they do it.
Things Get Strange
But then you begin and you slowly start to notice that you don’t have the same passion, don’t find the same attraction, and don’t get the same results.
And that’s when you start to hear those little voices, the ones that tell you you’re a failure, that you have no discipline, no commitment, no staying power, and essentially no talent.
Things Get Mixed Up
That’s how it’s been for me with drawing. I look at and admire the sketchbooks and art journals of artists like Danny Gregory, Michael Nobbs, and Lisa Sonora Beam and wonder why mine don’t look the same.
Theirs are filled with color; mine are largely black and white.
Theirs are filled with images; mine are largely filled with words, lots and lots and lots of words.
“What’s wrong with me?” I wonder, and then the answer comes to me. Nothing. Nothing at all.
I’m a writer who happens to draw. They are all artists who happen to write. Begrudging this is like being a plumber who feels inadequate for not being a better electrician.
Things Get Sorted Out
My sketchbooks are filled with words because I love to write. Drawing definitely adds an enjoyable new dimension to my writing, but if I get caught up in thinking I have to both draw and write with equal passion and skill, I can make myself a little crazy.
Everybody has their thing.
Some people plumb, some people wire, and together they make a home more livable.
Some people sketch, some people write, and together they make the world more meaningful.
Things Are Alright
There’s nothing wrong with learning something about another person’s thing, trying that thing, or even making that thing your own, but thinking you have to do all things and do them equally well is a good way to find yourself doing nothing – except worrying.
Find your thing, do your thing, and, when you have a notion, try some other things, but always find peace in knowing the world has provided those who will do the other things, their things, as well as you do yours.
Trust me. Everything will be alright.
Are you getting all the Quiet Inspiration you need? Subscribe to Quiet Inspiration, the Mildly Creative Newsletter. You can also subscribe to these blog posts via RSS feed or by Email.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, I found your website on the list of the 50 Best Blogs for creative thinking. Congratulations. I’m always interested in creativity of all kind. Great site.
Words of wisdom for all of us. Well said.
.-= pj finn´s last blog ..photographer on the loose =-.
Very well said. I am in the sad position of being an artist who cannot draw well. Therefore, I do many abstracts. I can draw in class, with the given pressure of a teacher looking over my shoulder, but now that I am out of school, and out in the “real” world, my drawing skills have suffered. I envy those who can draw so well. I want to be able to paint lovely watercolors of beautiful beach scenes, or forests and flowers, but just cannot pull it off. I’m thinking of returning to the classroom this fall, so that I do have a teacher watching over my shoulder and see if I can figure out if I truly do better work when she or he is around, and, if so, why?
I started in the world of art/creative journaling about 6 months ago and I found that I really compared myself a lot to others and how their journals looked.. I am learning to find my own voice in it and just be inspired by them instead of comparing , also it’s helpful for me to sometimes look at what I really like about that page, most of the time for me it’s layers or a sort of messiness that is still attractive.. Great post, we all have our own way of doing things, it’s your voice you are expressing, not someone else they should not look exactly the same!
I really appreciate the message here Ken.
I used to hate art class. Because I’d spend my time comparing my weird surreal-esque paintings to what other people were doing. Stuff that I thought was way better/more skilled/more sophisticated than mine.
But it’s really sweet when we get that we have our thing. The thing we do really, really well. And when we can dig into that and let go the compare-ey stuff…. ahhh. That’s so so good.
Oh, how we love (and hate) to compare.