How To Build Your Confidence As An Artist (Patreon)

Something that used to hold me back from creating was not feeling very confident about my art or my abilities as an artist. I felt like sometimes I would make things that I would be pleased with, and sometimes I’d make things that I didn’t like at all, so I felt like I was rolling the dice every time I created something whether it would turn out the way I wanted it to or not!

The thing that changed my perspective was realising that it didn’t matter, and over time I’ve built my confidence as an artist so much and I wanted to share with you a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Create Regularly

Nothing has helped me more than creating regularly, and there are two reasons:

It makes being creative a really normal habit and just something that I do

Our art gets better with practise so naturally I felt more confident the more I developed my skills

No doubt lots of you have busy schedules but if you can make a habit out of creating something regularly then you’ll likely find yourself feeling more like an artist because it’s something you’re prioritising and doing often.

You don’t have to spend long creating, and it doesn’t have to be ‘good’, if you can just commit half an hour a few times a week to sketching/doodling/painting/creating then that’s such a great start to building an art habit and feeling more confident. I’ve found that the more I practise my art the more confident I become because over time my skills have slowly improved.

Remove Expectations

The great thing about creating regularly is that it doesn’t matter if what you draw one day doesn’t turn out how you hoped, because in your next session you can have another go and work on improving your skills. Remove any expectation that everything you create needs to hit a certain standard and you’ll have so much more room to grow and experiment as a creative.

Let loose with some coloured paints/pencils or sketch something that’s outside of your comfort zone and accept that it might look really silly and that’s fine! Developing an art skill is not a linear process, so not everything you create will be better than the last thing, and removing the expectation that it will be is a game changer.

Be Your Own Critic

Even though we’ve removed our expectations of what our art will be, we can still be critical of our art in a healthy and constructive way to know what we want to improve on. I find it empowering to be aware of what I like about my art and what I want to improve on because it gives me confidence in what I’m doing well and also confidence in knowing what I want to change.

Of course we don’t have to be critical all the time, sometimes it’s just fun to create for the sake of it, but if you’re looking to develop your skills and aren’t sure what direction to go in then it can be nice to look at your recent art and be your own critic (but be sure to be kind and constructive!).

^ I did lots of experimenting early 2020, even if it was something silly and simple!

Self Encouragement

Along with being aware of what you want to improve on with your art, be sure to give yourself lots of encouragement! Creating things from scratch can be hard, so celebrate your wins whether they’re big or small. Build a mindset of being kind to yourself and your art and being aware of enjoying the process and your confidence will improve because you believe in yourself. It sounds super simple but it is - it doesn’t need to be complicated!

Grow Slowly

Take your time developing your art skills and style so that you can enjoy the process. If you’re struggling with confidence then fall back on what you know you can draw well and just work on adding a small element of challenge at a time, and if you’re creating regularly then you’ll make steady progress while being able to spare yourself a lot of the frustration of trying to improve everything all at once!

Change and learning can be hard and frustrating, so don’t feel like you have to go fully out of your creative comfort zone all at once, instead you can grow that comfort zone slowly if that feels better for your confidence (it certainly did for mine!).

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So those are some things that have helped me feel more confident with my art, I hope they help you as well!

This is my last post for October, so thank you so much for all of your support this month and I can't wait to share more goodies with you again next month! As always please feel free to let me know if you have any feedback, questions or ideas.