Creativity and Doubt: Unleashing Your Artistic Potential

Introduction

All creatives wrestle with doubt. It’s simply part of the creative process, of being a creative in the first place. Yes — even those who are wildly successful and established live with a constant flurry of doubt. It’s inevitable and inescapable. 

And make no mistake — doubt isn't to be trifled with! Honestly, it can be absolutely devastating to our creative drive, rendering us unable to create at all, even for a long long long period of time if left unchecked. Artistic block? Anxiety? Lack of confidence? Welp, that’s all a function of uncontrolled doubt running rampant in our studio. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way! Because while doubt can be an absolute downer, it can actually be something worth harnessing! Yes, really! Why? Well, in its benign form, it can actually lead to better work and bigger ideas. This is because doubt introduces ambiguity into our process and therein lies limitless potential! 

So how do we coexist with our doubts, even put them to work for us in a way that propels us forward rather than holding us back? Happily for us we have several strategies on our side to help befriend our doubting natures, so let’s explore them to help us make fast friends with our doubts!

Inducers of Doubt

Let’s first consider those aspects of the creative process that can generate doubt, as follows:

• Evolving skills: Maybe we’re fighting our methods or media because we're still learning them or we’ve actually evolved past them. It’s time to go back to the drawing board or try new stuff!
• Grail chasing: Perhaps our outcome isn’t as consistent to our Vision as we wish. This can be very confusing and frustrating, so maybe it's time to either go back to the drawing board or accept what the Universe has gifted us as it is.
• Raw wounds: Maybe our past artistic struggles are still fresh in our mind and our anxieties. Maybe someone was thoughtless and unkind. Unfortunately, our memory is long and nagging. Any struggle bad enough sticks with us which can cause undue stress and hesitation as we dive into a new piece.
• Chasing windmills: Are we too fixated on perfectionism? This is the surest way to invite doubt into our process, particularly the worst kind of doubt that will cripple us.
• Big investment: Could it be that the expensive body or body we picked is giving us pause? This can really be so intimidating because we don’t want to ruin it.
• Take the leap: Maybe we're on the cusp of a breakthrough which is why things are so uneven and odd. Truly, when things seem most wonky, it usually means that we’ve evolved so quickly, our hands just couldn’t keep up.
• Uneven development: Maybe our hands are out of whack with our perception, pointing to a problem with our translation phase. Here's the kicker, our Eye evolves faster than our hands or our skillset, creating a maddening gap in what we want to achieve and what we can at that moment, leading to feelings of doubt-ridden inadequacy.
• Worried over the outcome: Perhaps we're afraid of failure and judgment, two things that can just stop us dead in our tracks with serious doubts with our abilities and Vision, and even our worth. Or maybe we’re afraid of what’s worse — people simply ignoring our work. All this can cause us to second-guess everything! But creativity is inherently an act of vulnerability, and we need to learn to embrace and make peace with that at some point.
• Wrong priorities: Are we chasing external validation? This is exactly the wrong way to go about creating art because it opens the door some misguided priorities that can introduce needless doubt into our creative drive.
• Feel lost: Do we need more structure and guidance in our process? It’s easy to get overwhelmed and lost in the process as there’s so much to account for in equine realism. Do we need to build in more organized steps, maybe even a schedule? Do we need to find a mentor or maybe create within a classroom setting? Truly, unlike the hard sciences, art has no right answer but an infinite number of right answers. This can make arting rather full of uncertainties because without a solid measure of success, how do we even know if what we're doing is good? 
• Fixation on perceived mistakes: Here’s the big fact of things — only we see and fixate on the perceived flaws in our piece. Everyone else just sees a beautiful piece of equine art! So maybe it’s time to adopt a more wabi-sabi perspective to ease up on that self-flagellation. We should work to congratulate ourselves more than indulging negative self-talk.

And that’s just the start because there are always custom-made causes unique to each of us, too. But boil it all down and doubt is simply an outcropping of insecurities (our fear) which lead to hesitations that can rock us to our core. So learn to make friends with your fear, and you automatically take one big step towards reconciling with your doubts, especially the troubling form of doubt. So on that note…

Five Flavors Of Doubt

We need to understand the five basic forms of doubt if we ever hope to tease out aspects we can put to work. Because knowing these five forms — and how they’re all normal and natural — can really give us a hefty leg up on that horse!

First, there’s friendly doubt. This is the high form of doubt, the one you want to befriend. Why? Because it’s a potent motivator towards helpful problem-solving and better art. Specifically, friendly doubt entails the specific piece at hand. There we are, humming along on our piece when we eventually — because it always happens — run up against the question, “Is this working well aligned to my Vision?" Every artist stops and asks this question periodically throughout the process: Is this piece turning out as I intend? It’s natural and normal, and a  healthy question to ask, being an intrinsic part of the creative process. You see, we have this gleaming, inspiring Vision in our head, our governing concept for how we want it to turn out, the target we shoot for. So it's only natural that we’d pause and take stock every so often, right? Of course!

But maybe it’s not on target, maybe it’s veering off into left field a bit, maybe a lot…maybe it’s turning out nothing like we envisioned. Or maybe things just aren’t clicking and we’re left wondering if this piece will ever work. First determine if this all is just a function of an ugly stage — because that’s normal. Every piece has one, two, or multiple ugly stages, always “trash before the lash.” If it’s not though, now it’s time to problem solve so we apply our tactics and — bam — we have our answer and off we go. And if our Muse runs those subroutines well enough, we usually get our answer as well. But here’s the pickle: This problem-solving and correction would’t have happened had doubt had not been introduced! In other words, that piece is better because of the doubt. In this way, friendly doubt is a marker of a thoughtful and careful artist. It means we’re questioning, searching, and exploring. In fact, if we aren’t engaging our friendly doubt, like if we have no doubt at all, it could mean we aren’t doing things right.

Second, there’s hostile doubt. This is the bad one, the low form of doubt, the destructive one we want to dampen and avoid, even ignore. While friendly doubt deals with just the specific piece, hostile doubt deals with our creative life en total. Being so, it presses the questions:

• Is my creativity all just pointless?
• Why am I trying to be artistic at all?
• Do I even have any aptitude or talent?
• Why am I even doing any of this?
• Will I ever be good enough? 
• Why can't I be as good as so-and-so?
• Even if I was great, would it even still matter?
• Am I just a fraud, an imposter in all this? 
• Are all my achievements just a fluke?

And on and on. So while friendly doubt can get us thinking we might need to rethink or even scrap that piece to start again, hostile doubt compels us to wonder if we need to stop arting all together! Yikes! As such, this is the doubt that sets up artistic blocks which can last for years, even a lifetime. The thing to know about hostile doubt though is that it’s an irrational feeling based on hyperbole and so it cannot be tackled rationally. Unfortunately, we all know how it feels — nothing can perk us up when in its throes! This is because hostile doubt is actually a reflection of how much we love arting. Yes — yes it is. Really, we wouldn’t have such a strong opposite reaction if we didn’t love our creativity so much, right? So it hurts to think that what we love is pointless, worthless, and useless. It also painful to house so much resentment towards our inspirations, our efforts, even those artists we feel outpace us.

Third, there’s comparative doubt. This is the middle form of doubt, the one that can push us to new heights or dash us on the rocks of despair, all depending on how we manage it. We abut this brand of doubt when we compare our work to others or doomscroll studios on social media, or we compare our achievements and awards with that of others we regard as successful. Can you see how this can go either way? Yeah, that. Now it’s good to be inspired by other artists so don't worry about practicing that spin if we wish. Just don’t slide let it into the dark side of comparison because that’ll lead right to hostile doubt, in spades. Avoid that at all costs! Just know that it’s often unavoidable to compare our work to others. We’re human after all. But science has shown that the best way to practice this is to compare ourselves to another a rung or two up, not someone who’s at the top of the game. The former can lead to better work while the latter typically leads to hostile doubt. But even better, rather than comparing our work to others, think instead about comparing our current work to our previous work, looking for all the progress we’ve made. That’s a far more healthy form of comparison, so really lean into that instead.

Fourth, there’s Visionary doubt. This is the taskmaster form of doubt, the one that both guides our efforts or beats us up if we “fail.” Look, our inspiring Vision is potently perfect in our head, isn't it? Of course it is! It has to be powerful enough to get us off our duff to create it. But the thing is, the only place it’ll ever be perfect is there — in our mind's eye. It can never — never ever — be as perfect in real life as it is in our inspiration, and that’s something every artist must reconcile simply to function. So don’t fall into the trap of hostile doubt when that piece falls short of its Vision. That’s to be expected!

Fifth, there’s personal doubt. This form of doubt is seated in our self, deep in our own personal psyche and rooted in who we are as an individual with all our nature versus nurture qualities. Maybe we’re shy, timid, and introverted by nature which can inject doubts into our process a lot more than typical. Or maybe we’re bold, boisterous, and extroverted and so don’t have doubts at all, which is just as problematic. Or maybe someone was cruel to us with our work which has poisoned our well. Maybe we did a huge public faceplant with our work and that public humiliation and shame squished our confidence and moxie. Or any number of reasons that influence our arting today in relation to doubt. The point is, we need to face these nature versus nurture relics and somehow make peace with them if we ever hope to manage this form of doubt well enough to not only stay creative, but to also evolve and grow.

The Upside Of Doubt

Believe it or not, doubt does have its positives! As long as we latch onto those positives and actively smoosh the negatives, our work will actually improve and our enjoyment making it will bloom because a lot of those anxieties we may have will have a healthier context.

So while hostile doubt will deter us, friendly doubts generate a questioning mindset that asks us to consider alternate creative options, preventing us from opting for the formulaic, easy, or predictable answers. So a certain amount of doubt keeps our thinking flexible and adaptive that cannot come any other way. This is a bit counter-intuitive since so often it’s confidence that’s often presented as the key to success. But nope! The more we understand the creative process, the more we realize that the opposite is true: It’s doubt that leads to the questions that improve the work, even initiate creative evolution. Doubt simply generates innovation and originality in both concept and design, making doubt not a weakness but an artistic superpower, one necessary for finding new solutions or directions. As Milton Glaser phrased it, “Doubt is not a weakness; it is a way to avoid dogmatism. When you are confident in something, you tend to seek only confirmation of your beliefs, while doubt forces you to explore alternative paths.” In short then, it’s in doubt where we find creative freedom, not in confidence.

In fact, confidence can become a creative trap that shoehorns creative thinking and discourages the exploration of other options. Indeed, when we believe we have the correct answer, don’t we stop searching for others? Don't we reinforce what's familiar, safe and proven, what’s habitual and formulaic, and then doesn't our drive to explore new perspectives get thrown out the window? As such, too much confidence will lead to artistic plateaus, artistic rigidity, and stagnation whereas doubt keeps our perspective lively, evolving, adaptive, and limitless. While confidence corrals, doubt liberates. It turns our process into an explorative journey with many different options and though not all of them will pan out, still, that exploration invites invaluable insights. Put another way, doubt simply keeps us questioning our assumptions and conventions, a powerful way to invite evolution and experimentation to explore new avenues potentially more fruitful.

Indeed, that’s a big difference with a seasoned artist — they don’t fixate on what’s already been explored nor do they always quest after what’s conventional, safe, and “correct.” Rather they design an environment of exploration, experimentation, and discovery that encourages ideas to collide, evolve, and spontaneously pop into existence. They understand that creativity isn’t about following "correct" dogma but more about ongoing exploration and discovery. This makes every new piece a wonderful opportunity to challenge convention and to reject obvious answers, opting instead for what’s fresh, new, and innovative. In other words, every piece that’s truly fresh was first founded on a series of doubts that kicked what was expected to the curb. It’s doubt that cultivates this attitude by busting through boundaries, dampening complacency, and confronting assumptions. Indeed, if confidence was the trick to success, we’d all be creating by a set of rigid, predictable formulas, right? Yet creativity does best when built on the explorative journey and it’s doubt, not confidence, that fuels that forward.

In fact, it’s doubt that gets us to sidestep pedestrian solutions and can even inspire us to ask some uncomfortable questions about what we’re doing and why. This is actually a healthy practice, albeit not always pleasant, because doubt helps to make our work more complex and compelling. Indeed, sometimes great work requires ambiguity, and doubt cultivates that.

So if we step back and big picture it then, we find that those who are convinced they already know everything they need to know are the least able and likely to learn anything new. In contrast, those willing to question their assumptions and revise their processes tend to rocket ahead rather quickly. This is the power of doubt. Always asking ourselves pointed questions about the whys and what-ifs will strip away the encrustation of our conventions to make room for new understandings. In essence, the seasoned artist understands that creating within uncertainty, to create comfortably with ambiguities without quickly rushing to judgment, is often the better course. Instant thinking, knee-jerk reactions, overconfidence, and conventional thinking can actually erase critical data. In this way, doubt doesn’t narrow the options, it broadens them, it doesn’t weaken our vision, it cultivates it.

Strategies For Coexistence

So now that we know that doubt isn't all bad but is in fact an integral benefit to our process, how do we grasp onto the friendly doubt and kick the hostile doubt out the door? Well, to start, there are different strategies to handle friendly doubt, such as:

• Do proactive study, field study, and research.
• Study the work of admired peers for guidance to see how they tackled similar challenges.
• Query a mentor or respected peer.
• Remember the piece’s original inspiration or spark, and return to it.
• Do some collaborative work.
• Work on something else for a while.
• Do some doodling and sketches without any expectations.
• Engage some artistic exercises.
• Reevaluate feedback — solicit more or jettison it?
• Revisit and study previous work.

In fact, do anything necessary to jog that friendly doubt into working for you rather than against you. Now when it comes to hostile doubt, there’s no managing it. It will eat you alive. So don’t even try engage it, run from it — seriously. So some ways to tell to get stuffed are such:

• Take a break from our brand of creativity for a while. Try something wildly different like ceramics, print making, beading, glass-blowing, or visit a paint n’ sip, or take some art classes.
• Spend time with family, friends, and pets.
• Try new techniques, media, and processes. 
• Do some experiments.
• Participate in a challenge, even one quite different than what you regularly do.
• Go for nature walks and hiking, or horseback riding.
• Lower those expectations! Yes — crank those down. This doesn’t mean you don’t care about your work, but it does mean that perhaps your expectations are unreasonably too high and need to be brought back into balance.
• Never ever judge, redo, trash, or even look at the work in question while in the grip of hostile doubt. It lies to you —  nothing it tells you is truth — and so it will tell you that the piece is junk when it’s actually quite nice and salvageable. So walk away from the piece to save it, coming back to it much later when you can better see the truth of things.
• Show yourself grace, all the time! And revisit those first feelings of invigorating inspiration when you first started the piece, even when you first started to create art. Always remember to “go home,” as Elizabeth Gilbert would put it.

There are also many other tactics to help us coexist with doubt in a beneficial way, tactics that should become part of our skillset, too, such as:

• Do not ever — never ever — attach or tangle up the self-appraisal of your work with sticky stuff like self-worth, self-esteem, and external validation. You are important and valuable regardless of your art! Rather, focus on creating and improving your work on one thing — personal satisfaction. Keep plugging away on it in the faith that you are worthy of it and in the spirit of curiosity, and you will improve as a natural by-product.
• Continue to show up to do the work — that's the real trick. Just keep making more art because that’s how we get better, no matter how fast or slow that goes. So learn to enthusiastically say, “screw it” and just create more art. Who cares what anyone thinks of it! “I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free,” said Georgia O’Keefe, and that’s the headspace we need. Also consider this bit of wisdom from Andy Warhol, "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.” Bingo!
• Engage curiosity at every turn. When this becomes a primary motivator, catastrophic doubt just doesn't stand a chance of taking root!
• If that imposter syndrome raises its head again, understand that most of our self-criticisms come from our insecurities, not from fact. Your achievements are valid and well-deserved!
• Remember that we’re our own worst critic! What you see as terrible flaws just won’t be seen by others.
• Don’t creatively pretend to be something you aren’t — honor your Voice at all times! So what if your work doesn't look like so-and-so’s? It's your art alone and it’s just as special and magical as anyone else’s! The point of your art is to use your Voice purely and boldly, whatever form it takes, not to create like someone else.
• Dump perfectionism and adopt the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, the embrace of impermanence and imperfection. Talk about freeing your creativity!
• Understand this strange dynamic — what you love most in your work will often meet with crickets and what you dislike most will often be met with the most kudos. No kidding! It’s bizarre! So the point is you’re doing better than you think so stay open-minded and keep forging ahead.
• Remember that your Eye advances ahead of your hands, which creates gaps between what you expect of yourself and what you’re actually able to produce. So regularly do artistic exercises to keep that gap as small as possible as you evolve and progress. It’s empowering and practical.
• Employ philosophies that turn fear into curiosity, insecurity into excitement, and doubt into actionable solutions.
• Always remember that doubt is normal. Even those with the most achievements and success are loaded with their own doubts, too. We’re human, remember.
• Embrace this concept: The only way around it is through it. You have to push through your doubts in order to get past them. Be courageous, be bold, be thoughtful, and absolutely, be self-forgiving.
• Never forget that every piece goes through several ugly stages, so if it looks awful, power through it and trust that process! Whatever you do, don’t trash it out of hand. Take a step back, problem-solve, vet critique if need be, and have faith in your process and abilities.
• Interpret each new piece as a stepping stone to the next. Or as Ed Gonzales puts it, “Each horse is practice for the next.” No truer words about arting have been spoken! 

The Power Of Creative Faith

It’s not always easy, and sometimes you’ll flounder, but maintaining a sense of artistic faith in yourself can be a powerful antidote for doubt, particularly hostile doubt. Trusting in your ability to problem-solve on the fly, to bounce back from a blunder, of releasing your grasp on perfection, and even to cultivate your ability to create within the sphere of ambiguity all work together to keep doubts in a better context to put them to good work. Indeed, the unwavering belief that whatever you create, regardless of the outcome, has an intrinsic worth and unquestionable value helps along your struggles in creativity. You also come to understand that all the doubts and internal challenges you face while creating aren’t signs of weakness or unworthiness, but hallmarks of the love, diligence, and seriousness of your ambitions. Because ultimately, what is doubt but a reflection of the great care you put into your work?

To bolster your creative faith then, practice patience with yourself and seek positive reinforcement from peers, mentors, family, and friends. And always trust that you’ll get to your goal, even if you just chip away at it little by little at a time.

Conclusion

Perhaps it’s clear now that doubt isn’t your enemy — quitting is, not starting is, negative self-talk is. You see, doubt gifts us with the freedom to rethink and revisit, to actually make our work stronger, more Voiceful, better. Where certainty ends, that's where our potential begins! Now sure we need a measure of certainty in our technical art form because it give us the biological rules we need to create within. Even so, certainty is quick to stop asking questions and will double-down on what has already been established, making risk-taking that much harder, risk-taking that's necessary to take our work to the next level. In turn, doubt swoops in to restore the uncertainty needed to become flexible and adaptive again, compelling us to question our assumptions and habits, to test convention and pose new possibilities. This is exactly how new innovations, ideas, methods, and aesthetics emerge, aspects we need to explore from time to time in our work to keep it fresh and evolving.

It’s pretty clear then — when everything about our work seems crystal clear and set in stone, that’s exactly the time to start doubting. This isn’t to destroy what we’ve done, but to confirm that it’s the correct way forward. We need doubt to confirm our choices and directions. So wrap it all up, and it’s simply part of our journey to always struggle with doubt. Yet too much doubt can implode our efforts but too little can lead to stale, formulaic work. We have to find that middle ground, that greased tightrope to balance between these two extremes to march steadily forward in an artistically authentic way.

So whatever doubts you’re trying to tackle now, know that you aren’t alone. We all have our own poking us with sharp sticks. But employ the discussed strategies, remember why you love creating equine realism, practice creative faith then lather, rinse, repeat, and you’ll be well on your way with allowing doubt to catapult your work to untold new heights! In doing so, you’ll have learned one powerful way to unleash your true artistic potential, and there’s no doubt about that!

“You are a child of the universe, 

no less than the trees and the stars; 

you have a right to be here. 

And whether or not it is clear to you, 

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” 

― Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

Creativity and Doubt: Unleashing Your Artistic Potential

Speckled Sparkle: Painting With A Toothbrush

 

Introduction

It’s always a good painting day when you can Pollock paint your plastic pony! Whee! Yes…splatter flecking does have a place in our painting repertoire even today, and not only is a lot of fun to do, but it can be applied to many different colors and patterns. So let’s talk about this wild technique that has been with us nearly since Day One we started customizing. Indeed, it’s an old, time honored method that still has a lot of love today, making it an important skillset to have in our painting know-how. So let’s go!…

What You Need

• Toothbrush: Any manual toothbrush will do, new or used. I actually use the free toothbrushes I get in my go-bag from my dentist! Just keep in mind that different degrees of softness and hardness will produce slightly different results so experiment to see which effect you prefer. And the harder the toothbrush, the easier the technique because you get more “flick.” However, the harder the toothbrush, the bigger the speckles whereas the softer the toothbrush, the small the speckles, generally speaking. So pick carefully and experiment.
• Roll of paper towels or a few sheets of white printer paper: You’ll want to do a test flick on the paper to get out excess paint and make sure it’s the right consistency so you get the flecks you want. Never just flick right onto you model as that’s just asking for blobs or drips, a big mess. Always do one or two flicks onto your paper before you hit your model.
• Old towels: You’ll need as many as necessary to cover your larger work area to protect it. This technique is messy so if you don’t want flecks on something, cover it up or move it away. This includes your floor and walls.
• Old clothes: You’re going to get paint and speckles on your clothes so wear ones you don’t care about!
• Small bowl: You’ll mix and thin your paint in this.
• Acrylic paint: This is the ideal paint to use because it dries so fast, is easy to use with water clean up, and thins easily with water.
• #6 Brush or some kind of "workhorse" mixing brush: You’ll use this to mix up your paint.
• 00 Round brush: You’ll use this to touch up some flecks to fix them if they streak or get weird on you.
• Hand hold: Know where you’re going to hold your model firmly and carefully as you definitely don’t want to grab onto finished areas and smear your beautiful speckles before they’re dry.

The Idea Behind The Technique

The goal is to run your thumb through the paint-laden toothbrush to flick speckles onto your model. It randomized and somewhat uncontrolled, but with practice, you can hedge your bets with a bit more control.

Tips To Get The Best Results

• Practice on a junker first to get a feel for this technique. It’s all by “feel.”
• Your hand has to be at the perfect angle to the model so you create circular or slightly oval flecks, avoiding streaky or “shooting star” speckles. Practice on a junker and you’ll get the gist of this technique quickly.
• Holding your hand at different distances will garner different results. For instance, closer and the bigger the flecks but father out and the smaller the flecks. However, the closer you are, the more control in an area you have whereas the farther away, and the less control you have. It’s a balancing act. But for a starting point, try holding your hand about 4" from the model and adjust according to your own comfort zone.
• How hard your flick the toothbrush will produce different results. The harder you flick, the bigger the specks. But don’t flick too hard or you’ll create “starbursts” or streaky shooting star flecks. There’s a Goldilock’s Zone for the pressure you need so practice first.
• Take breaks! Your thumb and hand will get tired faster than you think, so break the session up with some hand rest.
• Don’t drench your toothbrush because that’s just asking for blobs yet don’t be timid either since you won’t create sufficient flecks without sufficient paint in the toothbrush. There’s a Goldilocks Zone and you’ll find it with practice. This is how doing a test flick onto paper once or twice helps to mediate blobs or lets you know if you don’t have enough paint in the toothbrush.
• Make sure your paint is thinned down to the proper consistency, about that of 2% milk or ink. And use water to thin, not acrylic thinner. Consistency is important: Too thick and you’ll create braille dots and blobs but too thin and they’ll run and drip. So practice on a junker first. 
• You don’t need to use a lot of paint for this technique so don’t think you have to put a big ol’ blob in your little bowl. Usually, just a dime-sized amount will do because once it’s thinned with water, it’ll make quite a bit of paint for you.
• Generally speaking, the less paint there is in the toothbrush, the smaller the flecks whereas the more paint there is, the bigger the flecks, so practice. This also means you’ll need to re-dip your toothbrush and re-test on your paper regularly as you paint because you want to create a consistent look over your model and on each side.
• You can use different colors of speckles for different areas on the body or for variety…or not. It’s up to you or what your reference is showing you to do.
• Use good reference photos so you know where to concentrate your speckles. Like notice on many fleabitten horses that the speckles tend to be sparse on the underbelly?
• Layer your speckles with different sizes and colors for dimension and interest.
• Use a contrasting color so your speckles show up well. However, using more subtle speckles can produce depth and interest, too, so play around with color with this method. Refer to your references, too — what are they telling you to do?
• This technique has a high degree of chaos so be ready to relinquish any sense of real control over it. If you want a more realistic fleabitten or speckled effect, handpaint them on instead. 
• Don’t worry about getting flecks onto areas that will later be painted over like the mane and tail. So that said, flicking is best done when all the shading and highlighting is done on the model but before the nitty gritty of clean up and detailing.
• Always allow each layer to dry thoroughly before proceeding with the next layer otherwise you’ll have flecks bleeding into other flecks into big drippy blobs.
• Some horses are lightly fleabitten or speckled while some are heavily so, so pay attention to your references and flick accordingly.

When To Use This Technique

This method is great for:

• Fleabitten greys: Use acrylic paint colors in various hues based on Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna or Mars Black or Ivory Black, or a charcoal color. Study your references to see what color your flecks should be over which areas of the body.
• Appaloosa patterning or certain ticking effects: Use Titanium White (which you can also mute if you mute your whites) to create white speckles in key areas.
• Roans: You can use various colors and Titanium White (you can mute it if you want to) to build up a speckled look for a roany coat.
• A template: Use a muted tone to lay down a template or “sketch” for later more-refined handpainted fleabites or ticking in order to reproduce that look of “organic chaos” so characteristic of these effects.
• After sealing: If you’ve painted your model in oils first, be sure to seal it with a varnish or Dull Cote or similar sealing spray that has “tooth” then let that dry. Then do your acrylic speckling on top otherwise the acrylic won’t be able to stick to the oils well enough and those lovely flecks will just rub off with time.

Trouble-Shooting

Oopsies are going to happen with this technique, even if you’ve being using it for years. It’s just the nature of the beast! That’s the price of chaos…more chaos! But it can all be fixed because, remember…it’s just paint! So here are some common errors we may encounter and how to fix them:

• Shooting star or streaky flecks: Easily fixed with the appropriately colored body color paint and a small round brush, painting key areas of the steak to break it up into dots. Or you can paint over it completely, your choice. Voilá…fixed!
• Blobs: Your paint is too thick so thin it down with more water. Hopefully you tested your flecking on your paper first so you determined this before hitting your model! Now if you didn’t, wipe it off quickly, and you can even use a bit of water with a shop towel to get as much off as possible. Then let that dry and restart with thinner flecking paint.
• Drips: Your paint is too thin so add more paint. You can tell if your paint is too thin by looking at it in the bowl plus it’ll be a lighter color on your paper than the intense color you intend. If in doubt, flick onto a junker to make sure first before hitting your model. But as you learn this technique, over time you’ll be able to tell quickly if your paint is too thin just by looking at it in the bowl.
• Oversized flecks: Sometimes a random fleck will pop out that just bugs you with how too-big it is. Easy fix…just paint over it with the appropriate color body paint.
• Donut specks: When the centers of your speckles tend to be paler which indicates your paint is too thin. Thicken up the paint a little bit then go back with a 00 round brush and fill in those middles carefully.
• Lack of variety: If you’ve been too timid with your flecking, you piece may lack a variety in size or color with your flecking. So just take a small 00 round brush, and carefully dab on some diverse flecking in key areas. In fact, you can go back in like this to accentuate certain areas or to “move the eye around” on the model better.
• Flecks that are too tiny: You need more paint on your toothbrush and get your toothbrush closer to your model.
• Flecks that are too big: Try less paint on the toothbrush and hold it a bit farther away from your model.
• Mismatched sides: You want to have a consistency in speckle density and general sizing on either side of your model, so compare the two often and make adjustments.

Conclusion

There are five main things to keep in mind with this method. First off, it’s all by “feel.” There are so many Goldilock’s Zones with this technique, ones that you only learn by doing, and doing a lot. Which brings us to, second, do lots and lots of practice on a junker model first! The good news is though, it’s a very easy technique so you’ll get the hang of it quite quickly I wager. And third, as-is it will produce more of a Vintage Custom feel to your piece. Now if you want a more modern look, you can handpaint over them to refine them, morphing the effect into the more specific standards we have today. Fourth, always use good references to work from so you can somewhat place flecks where they need to be in the proper hues. And fifth, remember to have fun! It’s amazing to see your paintjob “wake up” with this method into your full vision, so don’t let that moment slip away by being too caught up in chasing “perfection.” Let wabi-sabi rule the day and just enjoy this exciting painting experience!

So with all that under your belt, get out there and make your model sparkle with speckles! You totally got this! We can’t wait to see what you make all speckled n' special!

“In the midst of chaos lies creativity.”

— Unknown

Speckled Sparkle: Painting With A Toothbrush

The Comparison Trap: How To Make It Work For You

 

Introduction

Mark Twain said, “Comparison is the death of joy,” and he was absolutely right. It totally can be. In fact, comparison is more insidious than perfectionism insofar as it pits you against others rather than against yourself, where competitiveness and judgment need to stay. In this, comparison can pummel us, wear us down into sad little nubs of inadequacy and doubt, and all in the blink of an eye. And as our arts push the boundaries of what’s possible and we see all the amazing things our peers are creating to stretch those boundaries, we can feel left behind and lost if we feel we don’t measure up, if we think we aren’t creating such exciting, convention-busting work, too.

What’s more, we have to recognize that our niche art form is fundamentally a comparative situation with its showring element. It’s exactly how we determine “better” — we compare the pieces on the show table against each other and award ribbons based on “better quality” and "more realistic." But whatever that means to you, we should then understand that there’s no escaping the comparison trap in our art form — we can only manage it. As such, we need to develop hefty coping mechanisms specifically for this otherwise we’ll just go bananas.

That said though, we should also realize that comparing our work to others is a natural, inevitable, and very human thing to do, isn’t it? It really can’t be helped. Other work is just out there so we see it then BAM…there it is. So how do we keep comparison in perspective? How do we come to understand its nature? How do we manage our reactive feelings to keep us motivated and moving forwards rather than leaving us frustrated and defeated? How do we prevent our emotions from degenerating into envy, disillusionment, and resentment to keep us buoyant and joyful in our own studio? There’s a lot to consider, so let’s get to it…

The Social Media Trap

In 1954, it was psychologist Leon Festinger who hypothesized that we make comparisons as a way to evaluate ourselves and judge our situation as a means to protect ourselves and identify threats. In other words, we tend to relate information about others in relation to ourselves to develop an understanding of who we are, what we’re skilled at, what we’re bad at, and what needs work. And we do this automatically, that’s the key thing to remember — it’s involuntary. So we need to catch ourselves immediately after this comparison has happened to avoid the trap to instead lean into the good stuff that can come with comparison.

And there’s no other platform that triggers this comparison response more effectively than social media, something new in our long evolutionary history. Indeed, social media is ubiquitous today and the primary platform we relate to each other now, for better or worse. And there’s just no escaping it if you’re running an art studio nowadays. But social media must be engaged very carefully and with a firm grip on perspective! Indeed, it’s such a funny thing isn’t it? Because we only see the good parts, don’t we? People are most likely to share only their peak moments or most amazing news about themselves — their highlight reel — presenting a skewed picture of their reality and your social universe. Then those darned algorithms skew all this even further, distorting reality even more into something almost perfectly designed to make you feel discouraged and inadequate.

And you can get lost scrolling the studios of your hero artists on social media, coming to believe they’re simply more skilled and talented than you are and armed with better techniques, more creativity, better use of color and yada yada yada. All of this is very toxic for your own creativity plus it drains the energy you need for your own art. It can even distract you from all you can do to improve your art, and especially all the good stuff already in your body of work.

What’s more, the number of Bluesky followers, TikTok hearts, LinkedIn connections, Instagram hearts, or Facebook likes that others get with their posts compared to yours can feel like solid proof they’re doing better than you are — that their work is intrinsically better and more popular than yours. But that’s just another illusion! Because you're forgetting about that blasted algorithm that prevents most people from even seeing your posts in the first place, or how it manipulates engagement conditionally. The “likes” on your posts, especially when compared to others is just a windmill to chase, that’s all. Pay it no mind and just keep arting! Besides, why are you arting at all? To garner likes or for your own satisfaction? Which is the better measure of success here?

Because social media rewards us in ways that often activate the dopamine trigger within our brain, especially when we feel like we’re getting the attention and positive feedback from the public and our peers we crave so much. In fact, it’s actually believed to activate the brain not unlike how a drug would, which would explain why so many people get into terrible addictive cycles with social media or place undue weight on its experience.

More still, social media can skew what we think is important in the first place. Really, before social media, did we really care if so-and-so won this and that at some show? Did we really care if their dapple grey that won was a shade darker than ours? No. But because we’re bombarded by so much information — minute information where most of it is meaningless — our brain regards it all as important, giving every little thing equal emphasis that it wouldn’t even have deemed important before. So learn to let it all go — most of it is just noise.

So be careful with what you see and experience on social media. It’s literal lighter fluid on your self-esteem fire, forcing your mind to constantly make these comparative assessments, and often coming up short because of the skewed reality. And social media hits you in this Achilles heel not by deliberately targeting it but because it operates in spite of it. In other words, people simply post their carefully curated experiences to wide swaths of viewers with no real thought to who is looking, without any real thought to collateral damage. So you can end up with this distorted rosy picture you use to compare against your own skills and life — no wonder you might feel inadequate so often online! Never forget that you’re comparing your blooper reel to someone else’s highlight reel!

To that end then, here are some ideas for managing your social media experience when it comes to the comparison trap:

1. Seek connection, not comparison: Work to build relationships and learning experiences more than just passive scrolling. Social media is best used when we apply it to make connections and stay updated on those we care about, not just doom scrolling through people’s studios.

2. Look up, but just enough: Studies show that upward comparison can inspire motivation and pro-active effort. However, this is most effective when you do this with someone just a level or two “higher” than you rather than someone at the top of the game.

3. Count your blessings: Practice gratitude more than grousing. Pinpoint all the things in your studio life, skillset, and portfolio you’ve done really well. Actively acknowledge your accomplishments and triumphs and happy outcomes. Focus on them more than anything else. And stop being so critical, especially of yourself. See, being so down on life, especially your own, can actually change your brain’s wiring to amplify that negativity, compounding the problem, further distorting reality for you and turning it into a bad habit, a bad cycle. Avoid that then by becoming a pro at patting yourself on the back as your first reaction rather than tearing yourself down. Like adopt the role of a caring mentor or teacher when speaking to yourself rather than as a bully who’s trying to get you to quit. So instead of, “this sucks, I’m such a loser compared to so-and-so,” say to yourself, “gosh I really like x, y and z about my piece but next time maybe I can focus on a, b and c, too, more like so-and-so does.” Or instead of becoming envious of all the fame and kudos and recognition another artist is garnering, instead be happy for them because they surmounted untold challenges and hardships to get there. Your turn will come — trust that it will.

4. You do you: Stop competing against your peers! They aren’t your rival enemies, your competitors to be beaten and feuded with— they’re some of your inspirations! They can also be a support system when you need it so don’t burn bridges. Indeed, people at the top are collaborating, not competing. Instead then, focus on comparing yourself to yourself, not to others. Like in her song Rival, Ruelle addresses this directly…

The tide is high

It's sink or swim

My only rival is within

Giants calling round the bend

My only rival is within

I won't let my demons win

My only rival is within

I will fight through thick and thin

My only rival is within

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms end

My only rival is within

This is where it all begins

My only rival is within

The tide is high

It's sink or swim

My only rival is within

5. Foster Joy: Use any artistic comparisons as a springboard for your artistic growth. Instead of indulging envy, which really is a form of fear and therefore hostility, analyze what you admire about another work to see if you can learn from their example for your own. Let it be a catalyst for creative development rather than a source of resentment. 

Negatives

But yeah, that's great and all, but at the same time, there’s a host of negatives that come with comparison, too…whoa, nelly! Perhaps the most immediate and powerful are reactive feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. In this, we may quickly deduce that our work simply isn’t up to snuff in comparison, that it’s comparatively lackluster, not as enticing, or not as correct. And when we see our peers enjoy healthy sales and lots of public kudos…and for us, crickets? Ouch. Without a doubt, all this can be a real confidence shaker and self-esteem destroyer.

This kind of downspiral can auger us right into the ground of creative disillusionment that can be hard to pull out of. Indeed, I’ve heard some artists literally lament, “Why even try anymore?” This is a disaster! Our arts community is benefitted by having a plethora of active, happy artists banging out brilliant works every year, not by hemorrhaging creativity because artists are quitting out of disenchantment, discontent, and defeat!

If we aren’t very careful then, these initial feelings of inadequacy can rapidly transform into something meaner and more toxic: Envious resentment. So fast, jealously can rear its ugly head and permeate every aspect of our arting, poisoning it with its caustic influence. Such plagued artists may sink into a kind of hostile depression as their negative emotions percolate to gain power and potency. As such, they may lash out publicly, embarrassing themselves and making the landscape uncomfortable for everyone, and worst of all, hurting a peer who certainly didn’t deserve it.

Ultimately, perhaps most tragic of all, we may abandon our own voice to copy that of another in the hopes of regaining the traction we think we’ve lost. When an artist compromises, pollutes, or even loses their voice, well…that’s a creative catastrophe of the highest order and a terrible loss for our arts landscape. We need each of those creative voices out there to remain pure, potent, and powerful to feed the diversity and innovation in our art form and to keep it from sinking into clinical sterility, homogenization, and stagnation. This is a prime directive!

So while measuring ourselves against others is often a knee-jerk, natural reaction, it can become a real problem if it causes us to feel continually inadequate, inferior, and depressed. Because it’s important to remember that comparison is really a manifestation of fear, fear of pulling up short, of not being likewise acknowledged or valued or prepared. We’re afraid our art simply isn’t good enough because we lack comparative talent. Yet fear is never a smart place to operate from, particularly when it comes to arting, because it can paralyze and skew our sense of success, even distort our reality and stunt our potential. Indeed, "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering," said Yoda. So very true.

We also have to be careful with comparison because it can lead to artist blocks. Those feelings of inadequacy can be paralyzing, can’t they? Those little voices in our head beating us down with shame and discouragement can compel us to stop arting completely. What a catastrophe for an artist, for all of us! Truly, when an artist thusly gives up, we all lose. Likewise, always remember that jealousy born of comparison creates a kind of tunnel vision that narrows our ability to see the big picture to keep things in proper perspective. See, jealousy and envy create a false reality that poisons our entire experience, but it's a false reality all the same — it lies to us. The real truth is this: We are more skilled than we suspect, more talented than we know, and more capable that we believe. Never forget that, trust in that, lean into that and we can effectively short circuit the jealousy switch. And also always remember Martha Graham's "divine dissatisfaction" every artist struggles with — yes, even the super successful ones. 100% satisfaction with our work, now or later, has never been part of the promised equation with arting, but that's actually a handy thing by keeping us hungry and evolving and, in particular, prone to reflection to challenge our own conventions. So being dissatisfied with our work is normal, it's what most artists experience as part of the package deal with arting.

Along those lines, while self-improvement tends to happen when a comparison motivates us into a call to action, if we feel that the differences are insurmountable (“She has more talent than I’ll ever have”), our sense of self-worth can erode which is exactly where we can get into trouble. In particular, those with low self-esteem or who tend to seek outside validation are most vulnerable to this effect. In many ways then, poor self-esteem becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this way, leaning too much into outside validation can compromise our mental health by increasing depression, anxiety, and a general sense of unease. This is perhaps the best reason to reflect validation away from external sources and back into yourself, onto your own independent measures of success and satisfaction. 

Because our knee-jerk negative reaction is really a manifestation of fear, isn’t it? For example, jealously is derived from fear — the fear of failure, the fear of inadequacy, the fear of being overshadowed, the fear of being left behind, the lack of confidence in our own voice, feeling threatened by the success of others...lots of fears. Fear is the root of it all, so address your fears and you can usually diffuse it outright. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain," wrote Frank Herbert in his book, Dune.

Avoiding the Comparison Trap

Because — yeah — in many ways, creative comparison can be a trap for artistic growth. Like if we begin thinking that someone else’s work is better than ours and we’ll never be good enough, we aren’t only wrong, we’re getting ourselves distracted. We should always remember that our voice — our magic — is ours, and ours alone. It's unique in all of space and time, and it's a gift given only to us. But when we start trying to be like someone else, when we’re trying to create work that’s not really us, we’re dismissing our own magic, and may even compromise or pollute it. Ultimately then, we’ll miss our full potential and dishonor our magic — our voice — that was given to us by the universe. Don't do that.

So we need coping mechanisms to manage the comparison experience that inevitably happens every time we look at other’s work. Yet once we’ve developed those coping mechanisms, we may find they’re both a blessing and a curse in their way. Like we’ll come to be better able to learn from all those comparisons to improve our own work, but we’ll also have to constantly battle the sense of inadequacy, regret, and frustration that comes with that, too. Indeed, that sense of “will I ever be good enough?” as we’re learning can be a real task master. Because it’s hard to look at the stellar work of other artists and wonder if we’ll ever be that good, too. Yet every artist — every artist — has suffered this discomfort at some point in their career because it’s part of being an artist and it’s part of being human and it's intrinsic to the learning curve.

And artists are notoriously self-critical of their work to begin with, aren’t they? Truly, what looks like a masterpiece to the audience will still be poop in the eyes of the artist who created it simply because they see all the errors, all the shortcomings that don’t match their vision and expectations or milestones. And then we have that negative bias hardwired in our brains that makes sure we fixate on all those errors and ignore all the good stuff, putting us on a loop of failure and regret. But a couple of realities to note here before we descend into disillusionment. First, when we compare our finished piece against our vision, that's really an unfair comparison, isn't it? Why? Because that vision is that nebulous and impossibly perfect vision in our heads and not an expression of what's real. We're literally comparing an idealized fantasy to practical reality so no wonder why our art always comes up short, right? We're comparing apples to oranges! And then second, if we're really noticing reality, we see that others don’t see those flaws in our art we see, do they? Nope. Really, we might be quite surprised at just how many people love our work despite all its perceived shortcomings! And it’s amazing how this happy dynamic can be everything we need to keep going, isn’t it? Because hey, yes, we may not be creating art exactly the way we want to, but it’s still connecting with people and moving their hearts all the same — that’s a win!

So all the same, how do we know if we’re stuck in the comparison trap? Well, here are seven warning signs. And this trap is important to avoid. Why? Because comparison can lead to fear which can lead to jealousy which can lead to hatred which can lead to feuds and gosh knows what else. How pointless is that? So…

1. Are you lacking joy in your art? This addiction to comparison with other people’s successes can suck all the joy right out of arting so quickly, to the point where it can prevent you from arting in the first place. So if arting has lost its joy for you, think twice and reevaluate. Ask the hard introspective questions and get answers.
2. Do you have artist’s block? So often when we think we don’t measure up when comparing ourselves to others, our sensibilities become paralyzed and our creative flow just stops. And if we have a perfectionist streak, that can compound this problem a hundred fold. This fear of anticipated failure can indeed be debilitating for the artist, even leading to a lifetime of struggle. 
3. Do you feel resentment at your predicament, or at another artist because they’re enjoying more fame and success than you are? When we feel inadequate, we often feel threatened, we feel afraid, and that can manifest as a growing acrimony against our situation or any artist we feel poses a threat. And resentment can turn into a whole passel of other toxic emotions that can stifle you even more.
4. Do you feel insecure? Like when we’re constantly thinking we’re not ready enough to finish a piece or debut it or start showing or what have you, that a pretty sure sign that we’re feeling insecure about it, that we’re feeling insecure about our artistic endeavors even, that we aren’t comfortable in our own artistic skin. And what’s the likely culprit for this? Comparison.
5. Or do you find yourself rushing your work and cutting corners, too eager to finish quickly to garner the kudos, to get that reward of affirming validation? Well, it’s probably because we’re feeling threatened or inadequate and need constant and immediate external validation. But good work takes time, building your reputation takes time, creating a solid body of work takes time — it all takes a lot of time. So give it its due time and investment of your effort. Your art will thank you later and so will you. 
6. Are you unable to appreciate the success of others? Do you secretly rejoice in their failure? That’s your fear showing again. However, there’s evidence to show that we can reap positive benefits from social comparison if we just spin this reaction into something positive. For instance, we can feel good over someone else’s good news, right?
7. Do you indulge ingratitude? It’s easy to get wrapped up in the glories and good fortunes others are enjoying, wishing so much that this was all ours, too. But in doing so, we’re probably overlooking, even dismissing, all the awesome things in our own life, aren’t we? All the blessings and positives we have? It’s important to stay firmly planted on those positives, to count your own blessings before you even consider someone else’s life circumstances. Never take for granted the good in your own life! It’s the necessary balance to reality that comparison distorts!

In the end, the best antidote to the comparison trap is to develop and preserve a strong sense of self. For artists, that means developing and embracing a strong voice and sense of creative worth paired with engaging our creativity aligned to our convictions and truest beliefs and most earnest visions. Like do we need external validation of our work to feel good about it, or do we have our own independent sense of success and worth? What do we feel about our work in the absence of feedback and affirmation? Can we still be proud of our work even if we created in a social vacuum? Would we still love creating our work even if we showed it to no one? Consider these questions regularly and thoughtfully to help dampen the reactive fear that leads to so many problems. Because if we’re going to live an artist’s life, we need to lose the fear of failure because failure is part of the package deal. Indeed, arting promises many things, but it never ever promises perfection! Again, there’s that whole "divine dissatisfaction" effect Martha Graham so wisely spoke of, for instance, but there's this, too: Missteps and mistakes and regrets are as much a part of arting as paint and clay. If we’re always paralyzed by these reactions then, we won’t be making much art, will we? 

So always keep things in perspective. For example, we should focus on creating a lot of our art — eagerly and joyfully — which is where our energy should be spent, not on spending that energy comparing ourselves to other artists. That can be so very counter-productive. Honestly, throughout life we’ll always be confronted by art better than ours, by artists with more refined skills than ours, with ideas that are bigger than ours — and so what? What does that even mean? Really? Nothing. Why does it even matter? It doesn’t. It’s all relative, isn’t it? And if we’re creating our art for our own satisfaction, what other artists are doing really is quite irrelevant, isn’t it? “I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free,” said Georgia O’Keefe, and she’s absolutely on point. Create from that headspace, and we're all set.

Now if we find ourselves addictively comparing our work to other artists regardless, think about this: Replace those comparisons with the right questions. For instance, why am I fixating on so-and-so’s work? What do I need from this comparison? Why am I feeling this way? Am I feeling unrecognized and invisible? Why do I want the fame so-and-so has? What can I do to make my work more visible on the market? Is there a media or method I’d like to explore? What’s the necessary next step for me? What sort of pro-action can I do to get there? Along those lines, why are we even driven to compare ourselves in the first place? That’s an important question to ask. So to start that exploration, here are three compulsions that drive us to comparison so if we can avoid them, we’ll have short-circuited this pesky bad habit…

1. Circumstance: Get off social media’s addiction cycle! It’s just a tool and it’s not real — none of it is real. It’s an illusion, a skewed sense of reality. Remember, you’re comparing your blooper reel to someone else’s highlight reel! And the algorithms skew matters even more. So never forget that it’s all been curated, edited, and carefully manipulated to present a rosier picture than things actually are.
2. Inadequacy: Remember that when we look at someone’s “better” art and have a negative reaction to it, what we’re really experiencing is fear. We’re afraid, we’re insecure yet still desperate for validation and affirmation. And so very quickly, that fear can manifest as envy, jealousy, shame, lashing out, regret, resentment, depression, and anxiety, any number of toxic reactions. But ultimately, it all boils down to fear so if we recognize that perhaps we can reroute that energy into something productive, like towards improving our own work, circumstance, and attitude, towards growth rather than regression.
3. Impatience with ourselves: When we have these toxic feelings, we want a fast correction, don’t we? We want quick fixes to get us where we want to be with our work and our fame. We want that instant affirmation and validation. But creating good work takes time. Improving our skills and Eye takes time. Building our name on the market takes time. And effort — a lot of pro-active effort. And you can’t cut corners here! You just have to put the work in, no matter what. And honestly, that's where our energy is best spent anyway, right?

We should always dissect our need for comparison and external validation. Because when we ask ourselves these kinds of introspective, pointed questions, we quit being distracted by all these comparisons and refocus our attention back onto us — where it belongs — and away from things beyond our control, the circumstances of others. So let's free ourselves from this thief of joy — comparison — and stop looking outside of ourselves for validation. Reflect it all inwardly to truly find peace and composure as a happy, forward-striding poised artist.

However, more times than not, we — being human after all — slip into the negatives that come with comparison if we aren’t careful, don’t we? That whole “I should” dynamic can be a real pickle that can blast apart our motivation and paralyze us. For example, "I should be able to paint my dapples better, like so-and-so, I should be able to sculpt eyes more realistically and expressively, I should smooth my clay better so it’s more blended, I should be selling more of my work for better prices like who’s its." I should I should I should. That’s a trap in itself! So what are some ways out of this “I should” trap? 

Well, first, we should surround ourselves with artistic peers — our fellow artists. For one, they intimately understand our challenges and speak our language. They get the whole artist experience, especially in our curious little niche art form. Having that support system can mean the world when we most need it, too, so foster those connections and relationships. And for another reason, they can provide useful feedback and affirmations because they’re living the art life, too. They get it.

Then second, find an online community that’s positive. Not neutral, and definitely not negative, but positive. NaMoPaiMo is a great example of a positive community in our genre, for instance. And participate in these positive communities — we should give as much support as we get so make connections and offer positive feedback. 

Third, we should only compare ourselves to ourselves. So study our older work and allow ourself to be bowled over by how far we’ve come — be surprised. And use our own milestones to gauge progress, our own metrics of success, our own measures of achievement. What is most meaningful to us in our work rather than what we think what would be to others? So dump the need for external validation and turn that focus inwards. What makes us happy and feeling successful with each new piece on that deeply personal level? As Elizabeth Gilbert would say, always “come home.” Always always always.

Fourth, when we use comparison to establish new goals, we should build a strategy, a plan to achieve them. So break our comparisons down into actionable baby-steps, proactive strides forwards to rectify those gaps. Maybe more field study to get up close and person with our subject more? Maybe more artistic exercises to refine your Eye? Maybe take some classes and workshops to hone our skills and expand our media options? Work on our art more often to crank out more pieces? Do we need to engage art play more often? So we should study those artists who make us feel inadequate and dissect how they got to their level of expertise. What do we need to change to get closer to their example? Even better — do they offer classes or books?

And finally, fifth, if all else fails, we should pull ourself out of your own art head for a while and focus on something else, on something else that makes us feel like we're doing something productive. Organize our studio, take some classes, try some new media, do some sketch work or maquettes, participate in a challenge, or what have you. Just something that makes us feel like we’re still moving forwards — because we actually are.

Because does it all have to be doom and gloom? Can’t there be some productive aspects we can squeeze out of any given comparative situation? Yes, sure, feeling comparatively inadequate bites, but is that really the truth of the matter? No, not really. Are we really being fair to ourselves in this assessment? Probably not. Could there be better ways to frame our reactions when we make comparisons? Most definitely.

Positives

Happily, we can indeed reap benefits from a carefully managed comparison. For instance, self-improvement tends to happen when a comparison motivates us into a call to action. Like we can learn from them, we can jump start our inspirations and motivations, we can expand our own creative paradigm, and we can use them as a yardstick to gauge our own progress to stay focused and moving forwards. There are lots of ways to spin it upwards into a helpful lesson. For instance, if we accept that so-and-so painted the best dapple grey ever, use that to paint the best dapple grey that we’ve ever done, something squarely within our reach. Think about the Dutch term for benign envy, “benijden,” which describes the motivation generated by someone else’s incredible example.

The thing to remember about comparison in this regard is that we have a “negative bias” hardwired into our brains that fixates on the negative aspects of any given situation and jettisons the positives. This was probably engineered by evolution to increase our survival by avoiding future threats, but when it comes to art, it sure is a burden, isn’t it? With this negative bias then, we’ll simply fixate on all the perceived bad aspects of our work or our circumstance and ignore all the good stuff. We can get lost in the idealized lives of other people and their idealized work, and forget to enjoy our own amazingness. Like it’s precisely why we can get a hundred congratulatory comments, but instead focus on the one lackluster quip way out of proportion and ad nauseam. Likewise, it’s why we’ll fall into the trap of negative comparison rather than perceive all the great parts of our work that are there right in front of our noses. So here’s the point: Our negative fixation isn’t telling us the truth, is it? Nope. It’s presenting a prejudicial, lop-sided skew of reality, a kind of reality fib that we definitely shouldn’t believe. The greater truth is to be found in a more rounded interpretation of the situation so absolutely, work to factor in all the good, too. Don’t dismiss it, don’t ignore it, don’t down play it — it’s important. Why? Because it’s the balance we need to come to a fairer assessment of our work or situation. Absolutely then, pro-actively patting ourselves on the back more often isn't only good for us, it's the balance needed to counteract that pesky negative bias. So we should become our best advocate and cheerleader! It can take a little bit of extra work, but it’s creative self-care of the highest order — practice it religiously and enthusiastically.

So once we have a more balanced view of our circumstances, we can become more open to learning from the work of our peers, can’t we? We can flip that negative reaction into a productive one with a single attitude adjustment. So study their works…discover what works for us and what doesn’t, what’s innovative and where our work could use such an injection of novelty. Interpret their remarkable work as a springboard for our own new, original work, explorations, and innovations because that’s exactly how it all should work, and not just for a healthier situation for us, but for the benefit of our professional relationships and our larger arts community as well. Absolutely, the stellar work of others is literal permission for us to stretch even further in our wild whimsies. They’re the license we need to put our own skills to a harder test to really challenge ourselves in fabulous, fun new ways. Really, if we feel the work of another artist is way better than ours, isn’t that a call to action rather than a defeat? 

So take all that reactive energy from our emotions and reforge them away from fear and into amplified motivation. Morph them from disillusionment into determination, from resentment into rousing gusto, from ennui into enthusiastic forward momentum. It can be done with just a bit of a paradigm shift. So take this opportunity as a pivot point for improvement rather than fixating on any perceived failures. In fact, this is the perfect time to take classes and workshops to beef up our skillset, hone our motivations, and most of all, expose our sensibilities to new methods and aesthetics that could enrich our work in novel new ways. It can also be a great time to lean into advanced artistic exercises that challenge our skills and philosophies to push us up into a new level. See where it can all take you — it can be quite exciting! It could be the dawn of a whole new creative you! It’s a beginning, not an end, it’s adventure, not a debacle!

Conclusion

It’s a slippery slope to default into negativity. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s very human. Because it takes work to rise up to the positives, doesn’t it? We’re tasked with pro-active work to do that, and sometimes the energy and motivation to do just that is hard coming for various reasons. But be pro-active about it — make it happen, somehow. You’re worth the effort, your art is worth the investment, and your joy is absolutely worth that extra step. We need you. We need you happy, productive, and enthusiastic about your work so that our arts landscape is richer, more diverse, and far more vibrant than it would be without you!

What’s more, however, we should accept this unavoidable reality: For artists, it will never be enough. Good will never be good enough. There will always be art that is better than ours, artists who are more skilled or creative, some new idea or media to try, something new to learn, a new vision that needs manifesting…there’s always something! But all this and more is what helps to keep us moving forward and makes arting a lifetime obsession that often leads to our best work.

Above all though, never forget that whatever magic and brilliance you see in the work and fame of others, you already have in yourself, in your own way — it’s your own magic at work. So anchor yourself to the potential of your own artistic voice, and gauge your successes or failures compared to that. And learn to trust your own voice, your own artistic intuition, and navigate by that. All this will orient you on the path of excellence you need to be on, and you’ll find your own independent measures of success that speak more to your artistic autonomy and agency in healthier terms. When you can get to a centerpoint of creative poise and composure, with the chaos of creativity happening around you regardless, you know you’re in the right mindset to do your very best work — happily and joyfully. "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence....Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself...You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here," says the Desiderata.

So if “comparison is the death of joy,” then let it also be the birth of moxie so you can find a new kind of satisfaction in your work. Let it be the beginning of something great rather than an ending, let it be the start of a new creative you, brighter, shinier, and freer so you can keep striding forward, confident, focused, and determined. So let your fear go. Just let it go. It’s needlessly holding you back and throwing obstacles in your path, but only you can release it. So take a breath, learn to relax, open your hand, and just let it slink away. You’ll soon find that you never needed it in the first place and that your joy is such a better motivator than your fear. Find that love of arting again in your soul and finally “come home” again, content, happy, and empowered. The truth is, you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone. You have nothing to prove. You got this.

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

— Charles Horton Cooley

The Comparison Trap: How To Make It Work For You