Is too much perfectionism stopping you from making progress?
And if it were, how would you know?
Perfectionism is one of the most pervasive problems that budding artists suffer from. I know because I get a lot of emailsfrom people who single it out as an issue for them. If you think youmight be affected by too much perfectionism, rest assured: You’re not alone.
I’ve had plenty of experience with it myself. The evidence of it isall over this site, together with various attempts to deal with it.
Over time, I think I’ve found some constructive ways to deal with perfectionism. In this post, I want to share some of that with you.
I have two goals for this post:
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To help you decide if perfectionism is holding you back.
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To help you overcome it if it is.
Firstly, how do we know if we’re suffering from too much perfectionism?
Have a look at the following scenario. It’s one I’m all too familiar with. Perhaps you know it too. It’s that horrible momentof final disappointment when you realise the painting you’re working on has fallen so far short of your hopes for it that youthrow in the towel.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Here I am sitting glumly in front of the easel, wondering what went wrong.
I was so sure this one was going be different.
After all, I did my composition sketches. I did lots of preparatory drawings, so I know the drawing is accurate. I knowthe colours are accurate, it looks like what it’s supposed to be. It seemed like such a good idea for a painting when I started it.
But it just isn’t hanging together.
Maybe if I rework some of it I can save it. Perhaps that bit over there that I’ve already painted over several times and stillisn’t quite right.
But isn’t that the problem? The whole thing has already been worked over so many times now, the paint is building up like crudon the canvas and freshness of the original idea has disappeared from the canvas long ago.
Nope, there’s nothing for it: Yet another piece ends up stacked in the corner with all the others, facing the wall. Or worse:scraped off.
Does this happen to you?
I don’t mind telling you I’ve spent many unproductive hours staring at paintings I thought had failed and wondering what Icould do to put them right.
Not every painting will fulfil the promise of its original idea. And there is much value in making mistakes and learningfrom them.
I’m talking about something else here. I’m talking about what happens when you get locked into a negative spiralof self-doubt and self-criticism and nothing seems to come off as you’d hoped.
I think the most common cause of this sad state of affairs is perfectionism.
But perfectionism is a good thing, right?
You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
I’m all for trying to do the best job I can of whatever I’m working on at the time. But perfectionism is not just tryingto make something the best it can be. It’s trying to make it perfect.
The perfect panting has never been painted. The perfect drawing has never been drawn. How could they be? There are somany possible points of view to look at art from. There’s certainly no generally agreed objective scoring system forpaintings.
So if it’s not possible to paint the perfect picture, doesn’t that mean that striving for perfection in art is always doomedto failure?
Perhaps. But more importantly than that, too much perfectionism can have some very negative effects on our working processes,our progress, our levels of motivation and on the way we approach our work – even on how we view ourselves.
And that’s not good.
Negative Effects of Perfectionism
Negative self judgement, when it’s out of proportion, can be crippling. It can destroy not just our enjoyment of what we’redoing, but also our will to continue.
I’m sure that you can come up with your own list of the negative effects of too much perfectionism. I’d be really interestedto hear what they are. From my experience with destructive perfectionism, I think these are the most telling points:
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We lose motivation. We work less so we progress more slowly.
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Painting and drawing becomes a grind: Lack of enjoyment means slower learning. When we’re happy and enjoying whatwe’re doing, we learn faster and make more progress.
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We get tunnel vision. Missing the big picture, we become hung up on small, inessential details. We fuss around and tweakinstead of making bold, confident statements.
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We fall prey to insularity. Too much perfectionism can stop us putting our work out there and exposing ourselves to criticism.But we can’t create in a vacuum. If we keep our work to ourselves, never showing it to peers we miss out on constructivefeedback that can help us improve.
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We become less creative. Perfectionism is tied up the idea of judgement, in this case self-judgement. When we feelthat the outcome of our actions is going to be judged, our tolerance for risk is reduced. We err on the side of caution, welook for safety. But that can make for dull pictures.
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We give up trying. If it gets really serious it can stop us trying at all. Lost in anxiety and procrastination,we don’t even begin.
So how can you tell when perfectionism has passed the tipping point, become a negative influence, and started to slow downyour progress?
Four Warning Signs That Perfectionism Is Holding You Back
Here’s a few tell-tale signs that I’ve noticed in my own work that I think are signals that perfectionism has gone too far:
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A general feeling of frustration and lack of progress. This can come from other causes of course, but perfectionism isthe most common cause I think.
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Working on a piece for a long period of time and then junking it without getting it finished. If this happens repeatedlyit’s a pretty good sign that there’s something wrong with our approach. If it happens every time we try to make a picture,there’s definitely something up.
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Overworked drawings and paintings. But let’s be clear here: Working on something for a long time isn’t the same thing asoverworking. Overworking happens when we’re repeatedly going over the same areas without making the piece any better – infact we make it worse.
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Never showing our work to anyone because we think it isn’t quite good enough… yet. I think this is a sign that we havein mind some fictitious goal for our work that will never be achieved. It will never be perfect. We’ll always see things wecan improve. But if we can’t show it to anyone, in all it’s glorious imperfection, we miss out on the constructive criticismof our peers.
If any of these things sound familiar to you, you might have a problem with too much perfectionism. You might be a destructiveperfectionist, and it might be holding you back.
So what can we do about it?
From my own experience, I’ve tried to come up with constructive ways tominimise it’s effects.
Trying any or all of the following may help you break the stranglehold of perfectionism and move on:
Five Practical Ways to deal with destructive perfectionism
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Find some breathing space: Firstly, try allowing yourself some breathing space from your goals. Overemphasis on goals ispart of the negative feedback loop of perfectionism. Taking a break from focusing on the goal can break the loop temporarily,lessening the tendency to self-judge too harshly.
How can you do this? I’ll give you an example:
Some time ago I was caught in the negative feedback loop of perfectionism. To break it’s hold on me, I changed my practices.I started going regularly to my local cafe to draw. The value of this was that it was impossibleto produce perfect drawings when I only had five or ten minutes to get them down. It was hard at first. It was frustrating. ButI came to enjoy it after a while, and it broke the loop.
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Work on your core skills, not just finished pieces. Engage your brain with something more open ended and less finite thana particular painting brought to a finish. Set yourself a basic exercise and do it every day, something specific and within reach.
You could work on matching the local colours of objects, or on value scales.Drawing accuracy perhaps.
After working for perhaps a couple of weeks like this, take time to look at all your recent practicepieces together and notice the progression. Seeing your progress will give you something positive to offset the negativefeelings of imperfection.
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Enjoy practice for it’s own sake. Try mybreathing line warm up exercise,or something similarly relaxing, before starting work or a practice session. Increased peace of mind, clarity of thought and amore relaxed approach will help to stop you slipping down the spiral to negative feedback.
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Invite constructive criticism. Put your experiments out there, making it clear that’s what they are, and get someconstructive feedback. Join a forum and post some work.
You can always email your experiments to me if you don’t want to do it publicly. I don’t judge harshly and I want to see youprogress.
However you approach it, don’t wait till something is perfect to do that because take it from me, that time will never come.
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Take a break. Seriously, if you really can’t get out of the lock, it might be best just to step back for a bit andtake some time off. Do something unrelated for a while. Spend time with people you love. Get some physical exercise. Come backmore relaxed and with a more realistic perspective.
Progress not perfection
Letting go of perfectionism doesn’t mean losing the drive to improve and make progress. In fact it means choosing a moreeffective approach that’s rooted in the now and results in more progress.
If we see each piece for what it is, a step along the way on a longer journey and not an end itself, we can break thenegative feedback loop of perfectionism and begin to move on.
Does perfectionism affect you? Has it affected you in the past and have you found a way to overcome it?
Please share your thoughts in the comments – and don’t wait until your comment is perfect to post it! More than everon this post, half finished thoughts are more than welcome.
Posted: April 25th 2012
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Thank you Paul. I can not agree more! Your new post seems to arrive always at the right time.
Well this is my first DP meeting. My name is Arco, and I’m a destructive perfectionist. I’ve got another tell-tale sign for you. When you start to spend more time arranging your shelves, preparing canvasses or panels and reading ever more how-to books. Been there, still doing that, haven’t got the T-shirt yet.
I’m currently going through such a phase and it’s terrible. Nothing works, nothing seems right or nice and I am really trying too hard, forcing myself to have fun painting. And that just doesn’t work. So, I’m going to re-read your post, and try a few of the things mentioned.
Thanks!
I think you are right, and I have been doing botanical work, which makes it even worse. If I ‘finish’ a picture, even if it’s not perfect, I do keep them in a folder. It’s amazing when I look back 4 or 5 years to see the progress that I have made. I think you have to remember that you are normally comparing your own work with the work of others who are MUCH nearer to perfection and this makes your own work appear worse that it really is. Went to Society of Botanical Artists exhibition last week 720 paintings by some really impressive and in some cases internationally known artists. No, I can’t compete with the majority and never will, but there were a few smaller drawings/paintings that I could match on a good day. My teacher says that if you hit a brick wall with painting, you have to keep working to get through it – it’s simply a sign that you are on the point of making the next breakthrough! I hit the brickwall last spring. Had a total re-think about what I want to do and what I can do practically (given the work space I have). Decided to try a different media (pencil/coloured pencil either alone or in combination) and try small still life subjects which may include botanical elements but not necessarily so. This has made a difference. I have been teaching myself other drawing skills because of this and re-considering tones etc. because I drawing different types of subject. Took me 3 weeks to master an ellipse, for example. I also think I’m actually able to be more consistent with a drier medium and I have now completed 4 drawings since November. May not be perfect, but they have been challenging and I feel that I couldn’t have done any better with them right now. Am now going to do something more botanical, but much smaller than before and on vellum which requires a dry method of painting more akin to drawing. No more large wet washes that don’t always do what you want. Much less scary! More likely to produce a painting I’m willing to keep as the next benchmark.
Paul:
Excellent post Perfectionism hits me sometimes and I stop working, this is specially so with classical drawing. It is most important to work around this trap. I am finally starting my first cast study. Before this I finished many Bargue drawings, Loomis, Hogarth, Anatomy. I set out to cast drawings about 2 -3 years ago and have only reached them now. Then I stared at my easel for a while. But reducing perfectionism I am finally on my way. With the classial arts this is a very important thing to watch out for. You can see my efforts from the past 3 years at http://www.arjunasart.com
I”m glad to say this is something I don’t suffer from and I hope I never do. That said, it doesn’t mean that everything I do is a success. Far from it many of my works quite often fail in many areas, HOWEVER I always find an area which has worked. It may only be a line, a tone, colour, mark of brushstroke, but look at what you do, it will be there.
My advice to others is be aware of what hasn’t worked, but don’t focus solely on it. Look for what you did right and take that encouragement forward to your next piece. Negative thinking just leads to negative outcome.
Dear Paul,
Do you think a tendency toward the negative form of perfectionism can come from laziness (tinged with a touch of fear)? Your post really got me thinking. I’ve contemplated my problems with perfectionism and think my need to be perfect comes from hating to fix things–the thinking goes that, if I get it right the first time, I won’t have to fix it later. After all, portrait artists know that one little dot of paint in the wrong value or place on a face can affect the likeness you’re trying to get. I really am lazy about fixing things I’ve messed up, even slightly–I would rather just start over.
Hi Paul
Well said! I’ve also found that this is a very common problem and one that can easily lead to a downward spiral if left unidentified and unchecked. Being dissatisfied with what you’ve done can prompt you to try to ‘fix it’. This often leads to making quick changes that aren’t properly thought-through and are executed in a hurry, which is usually the start of a vicious circle that spirals straight into the bin. I find the best cure for me is to get the brain into ‘Alpha mode’. A really effective way of doing this is to copy a great drawing (preferably a line drawing) upside-down (the drawing – not you!). This slows everything down and focuses the mind at the very point of contact between pencil and paper. Once you’re in ‘the zone’ you forget about time (and achieving results within a certain time) and suddenly everything starts to work.
All the best,
Hugh
http://www.PortraitClub.co.uk
Thank you so much. Your email could not have come at a better time. I just finished a course with a teacher who is a perfectionist and an absolutist… “there is only one way to paint a palm tree”… since then, I have had painter’s block, just as you described it. I will follow your suggestions and look forward to your next post.
Many incredible painters such as Rembrandt, Picasso and Vermeer deliberately painted poor passages to keep themselves fresh. I assume it was to keep themselves amused or sharp having determined they had achieved enough proficiency that it rather bored them. I have a long way to go to achieve that kind of skill that I can then deliberately fight against it. Cheers.
Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
Salvador Dali
; )
Hi Paul
As a painting virgin, as you very well know, these posts are brilliant. Each one seems to be where I am at present. The biggest problem I have is worrying about what others think. Not just in art! So your practices etc are just what I need. Buy you a coffee soon.
Hope you don’t mind me saying all this –
You’re doing amazingly well with all this Paul and I admire you greatly. (Hope that doesn’t sound patronizing). I feel a bit guilty reading your progress – except that you ARE progressing – if you lived nearer I’d have said, COME ROUND AND LET ME HELP YOU! (or at least, come round and let me make you a cuppa tea so we could benefit from collective knowledge).
Instead, here’s a few phrases that I chuck at my students regularly…
1. Size matters. (Sometimes small is the only way, sometimes it just has to be large)
2. ALWAYS blame your tools. The term ‘student quality’ is latin for.. ‘there’s no pigment in this and that’s why its cheaper – it’s RUBBISH – and you’ll blame yourself.. wrongly..)
3. Don’t keep fiddling on this painting – move on to the next and do it better
4. Imagine, instead of finishing a brilliant painting, your aim is to get to Arizona. It’s a long way there, but every twist and turn is going in the right direction. Remembering that its a loooong way helps in two ways – firstly, you’d better find a way to really enjoy the journey.. Second, the journey is so deliciously interesting with detours to many other unexpected places, that we may never QUITE make it to Arizona, but thats… OK!! You’re getting there.. Besides, we might decide somewhere else is MUCH better than Arizona, once we get going.
5. The only way to really learn, is by…doing it.
6. While we are striving for perfection, it is good to have the next thing in our mind, so when we falter, we have a direction to go in. Nothing worse than finishing something (or giving up on it) and having no idea what to do next.
7. Varying the subject can be a big breath of fresh air.
8. Fresh air is a wonderful tonic. A walk outside is a MUST.
9. Have some Heroes, painters/artists who really blow you away. Make sure some of them are alive, and blowing your mind with their greatness. the better their work is, the more you’ll realize, they don’t get out much. Coz they’re busy..
10. Inspiration is a Myth. Just DO it… If you’re DOING it, you’ll become.. inspired!
Lastly, don’t listen to anyone else unless you feel like it…! Including ME!! hee hee!!
here endeth the unasked for lesson.
Get back to your desk immediately! I’m off to mine (before you smack me)…
Yours in art, art-education, and sharing knowledge
Julie
Your email was waiting in my inbox right after a particularly frustrating painting class, after which I had assured myself that I would never achieve what I wanted to achieve (perfection) and that I should quit my classes and instead spend the fees on a holiday, or clothes, or ice cream. After reading your post and the comments from other readers, I booked an extra class that went much better. Thanks, Paul, for another great post and to the other readers for sharing their experiences.
Hi Ayano, it’s nice to hear from you again. I hope your practice is going well.
Hi Arco. I know exactly what you mean! I really hope a couple of those ideas help you move forward.
Hi Anne, thanks for sharing that.
Working on something different that your usual subjects sounds like a great way to take yourself out of the negative feedback loop and come back refreshed. It’s great to hear that’s helped you get going again.
Hi Arjuna. I know how hard you’ve worked at improving. I think it is very easy with highly finished work to keep going beyond the point where you’re adding anything to the picture, and are perhaps just taking something away. Thanks for popping in again and commenting.
Hi Marian, that sounds like great advice, thanks for adding it.
Hi Marsha,
That’s an interesting thought, I don’t know.
I think it would only really be a problem if you found you couldn’t get started because you if you didn’t get somethign right you’d have to fix it! Actually, I think perfectionism is at the opposite end of the contuuum from laziness. It suggests to me a kind of obsessiveness which might actually benefit from a little laziness!
For people who find it hard to stop and switch off, like me, perfectioism is a bigger problem I think.
Hi Hugh, oh I definitely recognise the ‘quick fix’ attempt making a painting worse. I’ve certainly done that a lot in the past. Betty Edwards recommends drawing upside down in Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain, in order to get into what she calls R-mode, or right brain mode.
Phyllis, that really sounsd like a tutor you want to be running a mile from! It makes me quite angry that someone’s teaching could have an effect like that on you. Please feel free to email if you’d like some help with getting over that particular hump. Thanks for sharing that. I hadn’t considered that perfectionism might be something that a poor teacher can instill in therir students.
Hi Guy, well that’s an interesting thought. I can certainly think of pasasges in Rembrandt paintings that aren’t particularly well done, but personally I think it’s more likely that he was more concerned with the overall effect than with the details. I really can’t imagine what areas of Vermeer’s paintings could be considered to be deliberately badly painted though! Do have any particular paintings in mind?
Nice quote Noemi 🙂 And nice to hear from you again too, I hope you’re well.
Nigel, great to hear from you. I’m really glad you enjoyed the post. I think we all have that problem.
Next time the coffees are on me though.
Julie,
Thanks so much for coming in and posting that. I think there’s some really invaluable advice in there which I’ll certainly be bearing in mind.
Right, I’m off to Arizona…
Franchina, thanks so much for coming in and commenting. that’s a wonderful story.
I think you absolutely made the right choice! Holidays clothes and ice cream are all very nice of course (especially ice cream), but I personally get more long term enjoyment from personal development of my drawing and from the richer existence it gives me.
P.S.
Apologies everyone for taking a day or so to reply to all the comments on this post, I’ve just been extremely busy the last couple of days. Two year old boys will have that effect on you sometimes I’m finding!
I’d just like to say thanks for all the insights people have contributed.
hello Paul , i love reading your posts and suffer from perfectionism. Currently finding an underpainting is helpful in reducing the number of things you have to get right at once.
Hi Anna, thanks for popping in and commenting. It’s nice to meet you.
That’s a helpful tip. Do you find that the underpainting makes you less susceptible to overworking later?
Hi Paul,
I’ve been reading your blog for 3 years or more now and you’ve never failed to hit the nail right on the proverbial head. I am one of those perfectionists needing a dose of ‘little and often’ rather than deliberating over my next ‘masterpiece’.
Thanks for your motivating posts…i’m off to find a drawing implement.
Hi Janice,
Three years, wow. You must have a seriously high patience threshold to put up with my aimless ramblings that long!
Little and often, sums it up perfectly. Thanks.
Thanks so much for posting this, it really helps to know its not only me that gets caught in this constant loop.
It’s definitely not just you Tracey – I still get regularly snared by it myself!