The Making Of the Lot #15 Prototype: The Sooty Saga

Introduction

When Breyer asked me to design a colorway on my new Murgese sculpture for their 2025 Breyerfest Auction, I about fell out of my chair! What? Me? On Cosimo? Yes yes yes! I was so thrilled and honored, I couldn’t wait to dig in! So I anxiously waited for my blank Cosimo to show up and, wow, was I excited to see him in beautiful plain plastic, so full of promise and potential! Besides, I love the plain white plastic as it has a translucency that reminds me of parian (whiteware) porcelain a little bit. To tell the truth, too, it was neat to hold the blank slate in my hands, it being a full circle moment for me I just relished.

And his color just poured out of me, effortlessly and eagerly. It was uncanny. It was like I became a vessel for his self-actualization and I was just along for the ride. I love that feeling! Inspiration is a mystery and the Muse an enigma, but deeper still, becoming a vessel is a state of being so profound for an artist, in many ways it's what drives us passionately forward. So to give you a peek into the creative process of the acrylic-painted prototype for Lot #15, I thought I’d take you along in a play-by-play account of his making. Let’s just jump right in then, shall we?…

Ajaxing

I used a toothbrush and Ajax to duly scrub him clean of any hand oils, mold release, or whatever residue was on him, plus this gives the surface a bit of tooth. It’s really important to scrub clean your piece this way before primer because it prepares the surface for the hard work ahead. Just use cold or room temperature water though, not hot. We don’t want to create inadvertent bends and distortions in the plastic or resin.

Basecoat

The primer I used was Dupli-color Sandable Primer in White, which was allowed to dry for five days. Now it's a more transparent primer, not so powerfully opaque, but in the adherence department, it gets the job done while also not clogging up details. That's to say it's a very "tight" primer that protects your details really well plus it has a chalky finish that paint really sticks to well. But why five days to dry? Well, because I really want that primer to be hard, "cold," and fully de-gassed when I lay down the basecoat for a more durable finish.

For that then, the first acrylic basecoat layer was applied with beveled make-up sponges to create a sturdy membrane of pigment with just enough tooth to help the successive layers stick well. After that was applied, I used an airbrush to apply additional layers so that the color was even and opaque all over in a unified hue. Then that was set aside and allowed to dry for four days before I actually started painting. So why four days here? For the same reason as with the primer: Durability. But just as importantly, I also find that all this dry time helps to prevent a weird or tacky finish, which can be a real problem when painting before things are truly ready to accept paint.

Basecoat

Objective: Even coverage that sticks to the primer

Anyway, I decided to paint him with techniques that I thought Breyer would use in their factory so they could match him as closely as possible with their own paints and methods. So I didn't paint him as I would with my traditional drybrushing or color pencil methods, but instead in a “factory style” which would give Breyer the best shot at truly duplicating him. For instance, I used almost exclusively an airbrush because that’s what they would use in the factory. To that end, I also airbrushed his hooves rather than handpainting them because I figured that’s what they would be doing, too. So it’s little considerations like this I had to think about as I made my creative decisions. Anything I could anticipate in their methods I did to work in everyone’s favor. As such, he’s not technically a “classic Sarah paintjob,” he’s a “if Sarah painted at the Breyer factory paintjob.” It's a little distinction, but nevertheless, I still think he ended up looking like a "Sarah horse" all the same.

First Layer

I started by laying in the light color, beginning in the lightest key areas and working outwards. I'm using a lightish vanilla hue, placing it where my reference is telling me and where I want some pop. Note how I’m not dealing with dapples right now? I’m more interested in blocking in color first. Also note how I use this light color to add in muscle highlighting for more dimension? I also directionally highlighted his neck to catch those wrinkles. All in all though, don’t worry — it’ll all make sense in the end.

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Unbleached Titanium and Raw Sienna

First layer

Objective: Adding in preliminary highlights and dimension

Second Layer

Now I lay in the medium darks to add coloration and more dimension to the coat. I’m painting a sooty palomino, so I’m aiming for a rich medium rusty chocolate. I’ll also start to add in some muscling shading for pop. Note how I follow the sooty pattern with the darks even early on?

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna

Second layer

Objective: Add in the medium tones to deepen dimension and do shadings

Third Layer

Now I lay in the most intense darks, aiming for a neutral dark chocolate color. By "neutral" I mean that the target color be neither too "warm" nor too "cool," but be as true a neutral as I can get. You see, Burnt Umber, the most commonly used dark brown, is very red biased, but I needed something cooler yet still not as cool as Raw Umber (as my reference wasn't as cool-toned as that). The target color was right in-between, a neutral. So what's the trick? Mix Raw Umber and Burnt Umber together for a middle-of-the-road neutral brown then mix that with Ivory Black, and bam…I have my color. Anyway, note how I accentuated some key muscle shading, too, with this dark chocolate color? Gotta have that pop!

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Ivory Black

Third layer

Objective: Add in the sooty factor and some key dark shadings

Four Layer

Dapples! I went back in with my vanilla color and laid them in, and also reclaimed and accentuated key light areas again to preserve and amplify pop.

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Unbleached Titanium and Raw Sienna (my first layer color)

Fourth layer

Objective: Add in the dapples and accentuate some highlights

Fifth Layer

Now I go in with glazing to tint the dapples and selected areas in various thinned hues to add color, dimension, and glow while also compelling the dapples to “sit back” into the coat. I also glazed the muscle highlights so they make more color sense. Sooty palominos often look glowy, and clearly that’s what I’m aiming for here. Plus, I think the Breyer paints and techniques really produce a lot of pop n’ glow — which is so darned appealing — and I’m hoping that this approach will help that along even more when they translate this prototype with their methods and materials. So anyhoo, I wager all those lightened areas make a lot more sense now, now that they’ve been colorized with various golden and rusty glazes. So what I was doing in the first four layers was to create a strategic “white canvas” to allow the glaze to pop on top of it. In other words, those light areas were meant to intensify and purify the color of the glazes. And the neat thing about this technique is that you can go back in with your light color to add more “white canvas” portions wherever you want, to re-tint them with glazing to amplify them even more, even change them. In this way, you can create so many complex layers of color and depth and in a way that helps to avoid mud. And that’s important since it’s equally easy to over-complicate your colors this way, too. Really, it’s a delicate balance. 

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna.

Fifth layer

Objective: Add in the golden glow with glazing

Sixth Layer

This is the adjustment layer where I brighten or darken key areas to pop the color and accent the sculpture, or futz with the glazing to adjust tones. Lots of back and forth at this stage to get things just so with the various hues. Now if this were my traditional paintjob, I’d really go bananas here. However, I have to paint like I’m in the factory so I have to rein it in. In other words, I have to first think about how Breyer is going to approach this paintwork and try to stay as faithful to that as I can so their translation is easier and more authentic. Creating a good prototype isn't just about creating an appealing prototype, it's also about creating something that's easily and truthfully duplicated in production with their methods and materials. Do that and you hedge your bets for a successful, consistent result.

Sixth layer

Objective: Make adjustments

Seventh Layer

Now I’ll add in the grey skin to the face and groin. Note how I didn’t use straight black? I used a charcoal color for softness and depth. But even so, I shot the inside of the nostrils and ears with black for dimension. It’s little things like this that can help a production paintjob along. Pro tip: Give the ears, eyes, and nostrils similar levels of intensity so the face looks more balanced, cohesive, and interesting.

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Ivory Black and Taupe

Seventh layer

Objective: Add in the dark skin

Eighth Layer

Now I paint his mane and tail, and add in some shading and highlight for luxurious dimension and interest. I asked Breyer to give the mane and tail a pearly finish, too, like lovely little Augustus. So super pretty! Now note how the mane and tail aren’t stark white? It’s more of a light vanilla-y greigey-beige color? It’s important to get the colors tones correct in order for your paintjob to read correctly. See, we don’t want the piece to look painted, do we? We want it to look grown, organic, and real. As such, often painting in stark colors, especially stark white, can bust apart that illusion by looking more “painted” than grown, more artificial than organic, more contrived than authentic. Soften soften soften and mute mute mute when you can, and especially when your references tell you to do so. It just really helps along the sense of mass and organic realism. Plus, I thought that toned down color would be so extra beautiful with that pearly finish Breyer would pop onto him. It would really allow that pearl finish to shine! 

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Titanium White, Taupe, Ivory Black, Burnt Umber

Eighth layer

Objective: Paint the mane and tail

Ninth Layer

It’s time to wake up his expression with eye whites and painted eyes! I also did his hooves and chestnuts. And yes, horses can move their eye orbs side-to-side, like a “cat clock.” I have many reference photos of them doing just that. In fact, my buddy and I even did an experiment with both my Dar and her Defiant some years ago and confirmed horses can do this. Pretty cool!

Soft Body Liquitex acrylic colors used: Titanium White, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Ivory Black, Taupe, Burnt Umber

Tenth Layer

Now this step is a final adjustment stage, of overall re-evaluation. What needs further futzing with? And I thought — moar dapples. Brighter and more of them! And I think it worked beautifully. I also thought I should deepen key aspects of his sooty factor for even more punch, so I did that, too. And then I went to work on his shoulders which I thought could use some lightening up to punch up the palomino color with a bit more clarity. And bingo…all that did the trick! Exactly as I envisioned! Love him! Then I signed him with paint and a small, pointed round brush. Never forget to sign your work!

Eleventh Layer

Now I let that dry for four days then as a finishing spray, I used Testor’s Dullcote to seal him up. Then I let the Dullcote dry for two days before handling him again after which I glossed his orbs with DecoArt Americana Triple Thick Gloss Glaze and then let that dry overnight. While that gloss takes forever to dry, it does give the most brilliant, glossy shine! It also doesn’t dissolve the underlying paint like clear nail polish can, so disaster averted. To apply it, I use a little round brush with a good point and clean up with water.

Finito!

My finished acrylic-painted prototype

And voilá! All done and I just love how he turned out! Even better, I'm confident that the Breyer painting team will bang out their interpretation in fine order. What's more, along with the pearly mane and tail I requested, I also asked for a glossy finish to really make his color pop and glow even more! That Breyer gloss...it turns the dial up to eleven then breaks the knob off! This color will become so stunning with gloss! So spiffy! Now why didn't I gloss glaze the prototype? Because I needed the Breyer painting team to see his color clearly, not obscured by strong reflections in a gloss glaze. The team needed clarity more than anything else!

But gosh, I couldn’t wait to see him all Breyered up! What fun! So imagine my squeal when I finally saw the Breyer reveal in that auction blog post!...

The glorious Breyer-painted version. Look at the pop the gloss created!

Image courtesy Breyer Horses

Yeah, I died! The Breyer painting team did such a marvelous job translating the color, it's just flat-out impressive! It wasn't easy by any means. And it's such a treat to see the finished official piece so close to the original also because I knew then that I had painted the prototype properly for them. That was gratifying!

Trivia: This guy was originally supposed to be a sooty palomino tovero with a blue eye! Once I finished his sooty palomino color though, I just couldn't bear to cover any of it with white for the pattern. So I decided to leave him as is with no markings and I think the end result is stronger for it. In this way, this guy is a classic example of the importance of listening to your piece as you work. Really, I went into this paintjob fully inspired to slap a tovero pattern on him, but as he came alive, the louder he told me “no.” And because I’m a big believer in listening to your piece, I followed suit. A pattern and a blue eye just wouldn't serve him this time 'round. Point being, it’s okay if your inspiration morphs as you work. It happens. Sometimes it’ll even make a sharp directional change, and that’s okay, too. Just always listen to your piece. It knows what it wants, what it needs to be the best it can be, and it will speak to you if you listen.

Insights

Again, I find that it's very important to allow your primer and basecoat to really be dry before diving in. Especially the primer. Give it at least three days to fully chill out, ideally up to two weeks. This gives it time to truly dry and de-gas, and if anything weird is going to happen, it usually pops up during this time. Then at the end, when you’re finally done painting, give that final paintjob at least four days to fully dry and de-gas before applying the finishing spray. It can make a big difference. Julie Froelich, famous for the durability and stability of her materials, actually let her acrylic basecoats dry for thirty days before painting, and her paintjobs are absolutely rock solid even over forty years later! Likewise, let your finishing spray sit to chill out for at least two days, too, before applying glosses or whatnot. Then let those glosses chill out at least overnight as well. All this downtime can be a little bit frustrating, I know, but it can all make a big difference in the end. These materials, layers, and chemicals need their own time to process and so we need to work with them rather than rushing things to then have regrets later. 

Pro tip: If you plan to ship your piece, I strongly urge those wait times. I also recommend gently wrapping your piece in unbleached muslin first, then in lightly sealed bubblewrap. Don’t put the bubblewrap directly onto the piece, especially if you haven’t allowed for the wait times. Same goes for TP or tissue paper. All that’s just asking for trouble. Our work needs to breathe and doesn’t do well hermitically sealed up in bubblewrap and tape. Why? I’m not sure, but I’ve just noticed that gumminess and tackiness tend to be generated when too sealed up for too long. Indeed, I’ve unwrapped sealed up Vintage Customs — pieces as old as forty years — and the whiff of chemicals you get when you unwrap them is still there. Never forget that these materials are not inert. So the more air they get and the more stabilizing wait time before you ship, the better.

Glazing is the powerhouse in this paintjob by tinting the lightest color into glowing golden hues. So the golden color wasn’t achieved by using golden tones per se, it was achieved through glazing which is why the paintjob pops so much. Somehow glazing just deepens and adds luminescence to a paintjob, and with sooty palomino, glow is everything. It has to look lit up from within and glazing is a super way to mimic that.

Raw Umber and Raw Sienna are the stars of this show. How so? Well, Raw Umber provided the brown coolness to counteract the strong red shift of Burnt Umber. Mixed together for a neutral brown then mixed with Ivory Black, I got my neutral darkest chocolate color for the strongest sooty areas which created lots of pop and dimension without being shifted too red. As for Raw Sienna, that produced the golden luminescence, that “sunset glow” so necessary to a sooty palomino. It’s also a translucent hue, making it even more ideal for glazing.

Avoiding a stark white mane and tail was important. Now it may look stark white, but it’s actually quite off-white in person. Because granted, it’s tempting, isn’t it? To make it clean, bright white? For that extra contrasty pop? But often toning things down produces a much better or more truthful result. For example, in this paintjob, the creamy light greigy-beige mane and tail adds interest, richness, depth, and more of an Old World feel to the piece. And I think this tone will really help the pearly effect I requested pop all the more into something really quite lovely with that golden coat.

In the sixth and tenth layers, the adjustment layers, there was a lot of back and forth between all the colors to get things just so. In this, it’s okay to go light over dark and dark over light, layering and layering until you get things just how you want them. So while you’ll often hear some insist that you can only go dark over light with airbrushing, my work is proof that’s not the case. I absolutely layer layer layer every color onto each other to get what I want, and it works! If you’re doing it right, arting is a free-for-all as you learn what works for you and what doesn’t. Not that there aren’t bad ideas when working with pigment, as not everything actually works, but the point is, learn the ways that work for you even when they break the “rules.”

On that note, I took some artistic license and made the color pop more than in my references. Why did I do that? Because I wanted him to be seen from space like the Luxor beacon. Or more specifically, he was painted with being glossed in mind. And so what’s better than gloss? A color that pops even more under gloss, that’s what! And if ever there was a color that truly did just that, it’s sooty palomino! So yeah, I wanted his color to be so vibrant, contrasty, and glowy, he’d literally grab your eye and run away with it. I wanted him to fascinate you, entrance you, and hypnotize you like a budgie in a mirror, and I trusted that would happen with his glossed Breyer counterpart!

Conclusion

So there ya go…the birth of my 2025 Breyerfest Auction Lot #15 prototype on my Murgese sculpture! What a blast! And it actually was a pretty neat exercise to factory-like paint him because it asked for an economy of decision and approach. Like I couldn’t complicate things too much as Breyer has to be able to translate things clearly enough on their end to duplicate him authentically. So I had to be as straightforwards with him as I could be while still delivering a lovely color. In other words, it had to be an economic airbrush job without looking like one. That’s always an instructive challenge to undertake! And I think I achieved that, I think I delivered something Breyer could duplicate quite nicely to provide the winning bidder with something truly special. Mission accomplished!

And I'd like to thank Breyer for this splendid opportunity to paint this Cosimo prototype for the 2025 Breyerfest auction! What a wonderful experience and a delightful challenge! But even more, thank you for giving me the free rein to paint whatever color my inspiration asked for which I think made a big difference in the outcome. I was able to let ol' Cosimo call the shots, and he knew exactly what he was doing all along!

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Redefining Success: Some Thoughts On True Accomplishment

Introduction 

What is success? Really, what is it? Is it routinely getting big prices? Is it exceeding the accolades of others? Is it winning prize after prize, the best in show? Is it being considered the best artist in the public hivemind? Is it being famous, being a star? Is it winning huge company contracts? And who’s qualified to determine when we’ve been successful? Yet if we don’t achieve these milestones, does that mean we’re a failure? And does that doom us to failure forever? 

These questions can have different answers for different people but for the artist, they pose a particularly valuable meditation. Because it’s easy to get swept up in the maelstrom of public opinion as a means to gauge our success. Yet public opinion can be contradictory and misinformed, and also unwelcome and harsh even for the thickest skin. Our prices and prizes and stardom could be used as a gauge to determine our success, sure, but we all know the brilliant talent who gets overlooked and the questionable talent who gets all the kudos, don’t we? Often times, there’s just no sense in trends. And companies have their own agendas that make using their attention a dicey proposition for measuring our success as well. Indeed, there are plenty of ingenious artists out there who companies ignore. In the end then, we’re actually left with a lot of subjectivity and inconsistency with these metrics, aren’t we? So how does an artist cultivate a healthy, more accurate measure of success that also empowers their studio and bolsters their relevance in the market? 

These are not easy issues to address because they require a deep introspection that can be uncomfortable, especially when realism is such a lofty goal. Disillusionment and discouragement are easy emotions to indulge here in knee-jerk avoidance but they’re the worst influences on both the creative urge and the desire to dissect it. However, if we want to truly gauge our success, dissect it we must. So what are some better ideas about success so we can get a better handle on our own sense of worth? Let’s explore some… 

The Essence Of Success 

It’s important to consider our goals with our work, like a reliable, well-plotted map. And not just about specific projects we’d like to tackle, but about the driving forces behind those projects. For instance, do we wish to express our feelings? Depict the subject more accurately? Explore different interpretations of anatomy and motion? Communicate equine nature? Raise awareness about some aspect important to us? Learn or perfect a new skill or media? Challenge some entrenched paradigms and conventions? Challenge and evolve our own perceptions? More than one goal is fine, of course, and they may change over time, too. But the important thing is to be honest to identify those goals that most compel us to keep creating especially through the rough times of self-doubt and inevitable setbacks. So if we can honestly recognize what drives us to create, to stay enthusiastic in our art, isn’t that a solid measure of success? Indeed, a firm grasp of our goals could certainly be considered a win because now we have our little fuel cell that keeps us humming along we can efficiently rev whenever we want to get our arting roaring forwards. We can also pivot much more effectively and maneuver our motivations at will. What’s more, all the accolades, prizes, prices, and whatnot seem to lose their luster as we gain a new agency, a new freedom in our choices with this independent means to measure our success. Absolutely, if our goal was to nail the tone of our colors on each of our paintjobs, who cares if it wins a blue ribbon, right? “I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free,” said Georgia O’Keeffe. If ever there was success to be measured, let that be the ruler! 

Along those lines are our values, our convictions and value judgments that are akin to the readings on a compass by letting us know when we’ve veered off track from our goal. Recognizing and understanding our value system is essential for staying on-target and actually is more important than the goals themselves. Really, we can always revisit a goal, but if our value system keeps sabotaging us, we’ll keep sailing in circles. So how can we deduce our value system? Well, it comes by honestly answering more questions. Like what do we want to embody in our work? What’s our focus and why? What aspects of our subject alarm us or, conversely, give us joy? What are those things we wish to honor and those things we seek to avoid and why? How do we view our work within a larger context? Are our perceptions something we’re sure of or is advancing or clarifying our knowledge base necessary? Should we seek outlets that share our values or challenge them? How open are we to new paradigms and perceptions? Can we adopt new better information or are we resistant to change? How do we value our processes and methods? What does our art say about us as a person and as a horse enthusiast? What’s more, further education that challenges or fleshes out our values usually reveals ways to refine or even change them. It’s those who seek to expand their understanding who sail forward on the fastest winds. So—yes—there’s a lot of introspection, but that’s the point. Our value system is our artistic soul so if we don’t have a handle on that, we won’t have a handle on what we’re doing, will we? As such, we’ll eventually lose our way or get blown to the four winds without any roots. However, an artist with a solid set of values won’t create work that’s disingenuous to the subject or to themselves. They’ll create honest, authentic work according to their convictions and so come to really believe in their art, becoming its best advocate, its greatest champion. In that light, isn’t identifying and remaining true to our values in our art a great indicator of success? When we create work authentic to what we value, when we have that level of understanding, surely that’s a big win? Undeniably, creating in full awareness like this is one of the most empowering positions because it imbues our work with impact, credibility, power, and authority. If success is ever to be measured then, absolutely this should be an important metric. 

Being an artist requires a plethora of self-confidence, or an independent sense of self-worth and the moxie to defend it. Without a doubt, creating something out of the ether to then display it for public review requires a ton of courage, a solid sense of perspective, a heapin’ helpin’ of gumption, and a pile of coping mechanisms. Why? Well, because people will talk and compare and, of course, point out all our artistic shortcomings rather loudly, right or wrong (often wrong). Let’s be honest here, public opinion can be a bewildering morass of conflicting aesthetics, information, and ideas that can steer us completely off course if we aren’t firmly rooted. Everyone is a critic, right? And everyone has their own idea about the nature of our work—so how relevant is all that to our goals and our values? Probably not much. (Recommended reading: The Critic In The Creative Space) If our goals and values are steadfast though we can put the running commentary into a healthy perspective or even come to ignore it all to remain true to ourselves and our art. 

On that note, artistic self-confidence accepts that our work won’t appeal to everyone all the time which is essential to understand to protect our authentic creative identity. See, if we try to please everyone, we just end up diluting our Voice, don’t we? We stop taking risks, we become more reluctant to stretch ourselves, we take safe routes instead of expanding our possibilities, and our body of work will suffer for it. Never dumb down your art! Absolutely, remain true to yourself to create work with authority and power. In other words, build your boat exactly as you wish and the right people will board to join your journey—and then ignore the rest. Simply ignore them! And we do this by having a solid grasp of our goals and values and then expressing them in confidence to create firmly rooted work, then just darn those torpedoes. 

What’s more, confidence also enables self-introspection that can recalibrate our creative compass without beaching our entire ship. Indeed, when we’re confident enough to question ourselves and our work, when we can rethink and re-evaluate it at will, our portfolio will become all the stronger for it. In this way, too, confidence gifts us with the ability to discern what ideas are helpful or hopeless or hurtful in the public arena that will keep us steadfastly moving towards our goals and remaining true to our values in an empowering way. 

But how do we develop artistic confidence? Well, at the core of it is our artistic pivot, our creative center-point, that one force that compels us to create. Elizabeth Gilbert refers to it as always “coming home,” of always coming back to that one compulsion that lies at the center of why we’re arting in the first place despite any wild accolades or horrible failures we endure. What keeps us going as our essential baseline? And it starts and ends only with us, no one else. Our goals and values are clues to that center-point so be sure to be honest when teasing them out. Once we find that centerpoint then, we’ll discover a sense of roots, purpose, composure, and heightened awareness that maybe have eluded us before. We’ll truly know our “home” and always know how to return there no matter how far off the map we careen. Everything will simply fall into place and we’ll find our authentic voice and come to truly appreciate it for what it is with boldness, poise, and courage. This being so, our confidence will naturally bubble up because we have a firm footing and clarity in our passions, purpose, and Voice, a natural outcome. So isn’t that a great measure of success? When we’ve attained a level of composure that keeps us boldly arting forwards despite everything, that’s absolutely a huge win. So many artists lack this gift so to have it is truly a triumph! 

Competition and exhibition are part and parcel of being a working artist, for better or worse. Indeed, simply debuting new work invites comparative commentary. Because—yes—everyone is a critic, all the time. Being so, people will simply impose their own values and goals on our work and that rarely jives well. They want our art to be their art, to be something that synchs with their tastes, expectations, and ideas, rarely able to truly accept our authentic Voice on its own terms, for its own sake. (Recommended reading: Pickled Art) This creates an inherent conflict when displaying our work because different tastes will then vie for authority when in all actuality, there’s only one that matters—our own. Never lose sight of that. (Recommended reading: Arting In A Bubble: An Empowering Way To Create Art) If we place inordinate emphasis on other people’s opinions then, if like Don Quixote we start chasing impossible windmills of external validation and acceptance, we’re going to end up confused, frustrated, embittered, and our Voice will have completely lost its power. We’ll go completely off the creative rails. Never become a Don Quixote! Stay your course! To that end, it’s through a firm grasp of our goals, our values, and a hefty dose of self-confidence that we remain true to ourselves and our art despite it all, even when our pieces don’t place, when it doesn’t get accepted into that juried show, or when people pepper our experience with unwelcome criticism. And when we attain that level of composure and empowerment, that degree of freedom and agency, that’s undeniably a great indicator of success. How could it not? A creatively poised artist is a powerful artist! Acting from this position of power and composure makes our art all the stronger and more authoritative and above all, more authentic and genuine, creating a legacy of work that cannot be denied. If that isn’t success, I don’t know what is! 

On that note, public opinion can bite, can't it? Ouch. But the truth is that every artist, no matter how skilled and seasoned, will have a bad art day from time to time. That's just part of the arting process long game. But—wow—is the public quick to point that out! This reaction can be so catastrophic though that it can compel some artists to stop arting altogether, or at the very least, pour heapin' helpings of crippling self-doubt on their creative decisions and self-worth. However, if we have our own compass readings to pilot our creative efforts, our own independent and deeper measures of success, all this backblow begins to mean absolutely nothing as we learn to interpret it for the noise it is, not the gospel it professes to be. We know our Truth, we have a grasp on our goals, values, and confidence, and so we can put it all into a much healthier long game perspective to just get back into the studio to make more art. Hey, every new piece is your comeback, right? Because that's always—always—the best response to a bad art day: Make more art. Made a big embarrassing mistake on a piece? Big deal. Make more art. Screwed up trying to master a new media? No big whoop. Make more art. Struggling trying to perfect a new technique? Been there, done that. Make more art. You've got the play the long game! "Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art," said Andy Warhol. Absolutely spot on. Indeed, when we have this new perspective plotting our course then, inspiring us to stay enthusiastically creative despite the inevitable choppy waters, that new measure of composure is definitely a big win, isn't it? If ever there was a tried and true measure of success, especially in this brutal art form, that would be it, right? Score!

Conclusion 

All artists sail their own ships and so we need to be our own stalwart Captain. In this way, developing our own sense of success lends strength, authority, and credibility to our work while also promoting its special uniqueness, and all in a way that’s courageous and composed. When we protect and nurture our own voice in this way rather than compromise it, that’s a clear testimony of success, isn’t it? 

Just note that we didn’t define personal success by what color ribbon or kind of accolade or big price tag our work earned, did we? Why? Because such determiners can be superficial and often false, particularly when the standards by which works are measured may be ambiguous or conflicting. And again, that’s more chasing down people’s opinions and mercurial applause rather than standing on our own firm footing, isn’t it? Really, the more meaningful layers of success reveal themselves as we grow as an artist and come to realize our true creative selves and drives. 

Likewise, notice how excelling past our peers—whatever that means—also wasn't used as a metric? Too often in art the pressures involved turn our colleagues into competitors. Not a very healthy perspective to operate from, is it? Our fellows are so much better framed as creative kin! It builds bonds and helps with our networking, avoiding awkwardness, feuds, and bad feeling altogether. Why build walls when bridges are so much better? And see, every artist struggles with their own challenges and every artist is on their own creative journey in their own time. So to use "beating" them as a means to measure our success isn't only unreliable, it's unfair to both them and ourselves, isn't it? The truth of the matter is this: We are our one and only true rival and so we should only be interested in beating ourselves. Self-betterment is the key to true success! It's said that each new piece should be our new comeback, a better version of our previous attempts, which is absolutely true. Indeed, "Each piece is practice for the next," as my friend, Ed Gonzales promotes, and he's absolutely correct. This being so, we should always be focused inwardly, not outwardly, if we truly wish to succeed in deeply meaningful ways.

Ultimately then, the more telling measures of success are those personal triumphs we achieve in our individual journey which reinforce our values, take us ever closer to our goals, and build our self-confidence, inspiring ever more joy and power in the studio with a serene sense of accomplishment. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a massive win to me! 

Keep sailing towards that horizon with confidence and fearlessness then, using your authentic map and tried and true trusty readings. In this way, you won’t only find tremendous success, you'll do so with poise, authority, and conviction, definitely a win-win! Truly, when you can come to your art confidently and present it to the world empowered, what better measure of success is there than that? 

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” 

— Charles Horton Cooley