If You’re Scared Of Making Art

This is for you if you’re feeling scared or intimidated about making art. If you’re having trouble getting started. If you get so deep into the not-good-enough-itis that creating seems impossible. If you need some gentle loving encouragement.

(I recorded this video for Rainbow Journal students, but I thought this might benefit everyone who struggles with these things. You can still sign up!)

So, you know you want to create, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Lots of things can hold us back.

I remember a few years back when during the day at work I’d think constantly about making art, I was overflowing with ideas. Then when I was back at home at my art desk I would be totally paralysed, all the ideas were just gone and I’d end up just watching TV all evening. It wasn’t very satisfying, but the fear was real and hard to deal with.

First of all, I want you to know that it is OK and I understand if you have obstacles or issues. You have some stuff you might not be OK with and need to work through, but YOU are OK and you are wonderful J Be kind to yourself. Take yourself by the hand as if you’re your own caring guardian angel who only wants the best for you and let’s explore the reasons you might be scared. That way you can understand what drives you and stop your fears from having such a hold over you.

Some fears you might be experiencing:

Fear of creating something bad or not being good enough

Hey, you are doing an ecourse! Yay you for taking a positive step to kicking this fear in the butt! You are allowed to practice! You’re allowed to be at a place where your art feels sucky and you’re allowed to get better. Please know that YOU are not your art. You are ALWAYS ALREADY good enough.

Fear of the blank page.

Hey, I’m gonna talk you through everything we do! The first step after creating our journal is painting the pages in bright colours, we won’t even have a blank page to deal with!

Fear of what we might learn about ourselves.

Maybe our dark feelings will come out? Maybe stuff will come up and we won’t know what to do with it? This is difficult, but please talk about it. With us as a supportive group or with the people around you who care. Learning about ourselves is always a good thing, that way things can come into the light rather than controlling us from under the surface.

Comparing ourselves.

So many amazing artists out there, how can we not compare? I love this quote: “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle” you are exactly where you need to be. You’re creating YOUR work. Own it!

Fear of criticism.

I think when we fear other people’s criticism so much that it stops us creating, we’re really scared of our OWN criticism. We criticize ourselves and when someone else does it too, we use that as a validation of our feelings which makes the criticism feel 10 times worse. You can find criticism everywhere (especially inside your own head), so choose to follow your path and create anyway.

Fear of creating something good.

It was a fluke right? I’ll never be able to repeat that! Or…. Try to let go of the outcome. That was that artwork… the next artwork is the next artwork. It doesn’t need to be compared, it just is.

Thanks for letting me yak about this! To me it’s actually one of the biggest and most important things, understanding what drives us, what holds us back and what steps we can take towards being on our true path of joy.

Thank you for listening and as parting wisdom let me reassure you that:

You are wonderful. You are enough.