“This drawing is terrible…you’ll never be a cartoonist…why are you even bothering?…”
…and those were merely the repeatable comments being levelled at Cathy’s artwork. To make matters worse it wasn’t an anonymous troll online that she could ignore, or even the vanishingly rare person who would say such things face-to-face, but rather the all-too-common inner art critic who supplied that internal dialogue - it was Cathy herself herself who her own harshest critic when it came to judging her art.
It was like having a pet vulture always at hand to pick over the bones of a canvas…
In this article, with the aid of both a goat and a penguin, we’re going to look at five ways to deal with the inner art critic.
Aim For Good Enough
The critic will never be satisfied, if you allow it to it will keep on trying to find something wrong with everything.
Accept the fact that it won’t be perfect - aim for good enough. And remember that what is good enough for you may not be the same as what’s good enough for someone else. Let’s illustrate this point with the help of a penguin.
Many moons ago, I had posted an image of a penguin sporting a set of wings. I can’t remember whether it was a stand alone image or part of an article or set of pictures.
I thought the image was a bit rough-looking, but had decided to put it up anyway.
A pastor from a church in the US contacted me and asked if he could use it as part of a T-shirt design. While pleased that someone wanted to use the image, I really didn’t think it was good enough to use. I contacted the pastor and offered to draw a new version from scratch.
He turned down the offer and said that the original rough-around-the-edges penguin was exactly what he was looking for. We agreed a price, and while the penguin may not have ultimately taken to the skies, it did take to several dozen T-shirts on a summer camp.
So it just goes to show that there may be a gap between what you think is good enough and what someone else does.
Which leads us to the next point..
2. Get It Out There
You don’t have to put everything you do on social media or on a website, however, it can help to show your cartoon to someone when its finished, This might simply be in the form of showing a good friend your drawing, especially if the drawing is specifically for them, as folks love being given personalized things, after all its the thought behind the uniqueness of the gift tailored just for them, rather than the object itself.
It doesn’t even have to be a great work of art, or a finished, polished drawing. It could simply be a doodle passed to a colleague at work or a friend over coffee..
Which brings us to the next point…
3. The Inner Critic Will Never Be Satisfied
No matter how long or how hard you work at a drawing, the inner critic will always find something wrong with it or something that if you just spent a little more time on it could be improved. However, its a bit like climbing a hill, only to find another hill that you’ve got to ascend as well…and another one…and so on…
We can keep endlessly chasing perfection, and just go round and round in circles, or we choose not to focus on the unobtainable goal of perfection and to enjoy the process more. After all, it’s the process that takes up 99% of the time spent on a project, so we might as well aim to enjoy the journey as much as possible.
Following onto…
4. Give the inner critic a name.
One way to help separate ourselves from the inner critic, is to give it a name. When we give something a name it becomes more of a separate thing, because things have names. You can also trying giving the critic a silly name, because, after all, we don’t take silly names so seriously…
And finally…
5. Tell It To Butt Out!
Try talking back to your inner art critic. After-all we probably wouldn’t normally let another person talk to us the way we talk to ourselves. So try telling the critic to leave you alone for a while.
Review Of The Five Points
Aim for good enough
Get it out there
The inner critic will never be satisfied
Give the inner critic a name
Tell it to butt out