Remaining Confident About Your Art

"Warming Tones"
24" x 24" acrylic abstract on stretched canvas
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I shared a few tips yesterday about how to be confident about your art. I have a few more I would like to share. I hope they work as well for you as they have for me.
1. Take a course or class
If you want to learn something new in your field, or if you just want a bit more reassurance that you do already know the basics, a course or class should help. It doesn’t need to be anything expensive or time consuming: you might be able to find a simple day course or a series of evening classes in your area, or you could look for an online program to join.
2. Don’t rush your process
If you’re pressuring yourself to get your creative work out there as quickly as possible, then you may be uncomfortably aware that it’s not as good as it could be. Perhaps you’ve had some disappointing feedback, or you simply feel that you’re not very proud of your work.
Taking a little extra time at each stage of the process means you’ll at least be able to have confidence that you’ve done a good job. That might mean allowing more time for planning or research at the start of a new project – especially if you tend to jump at new ideas, only to give up when they prove more difficult than you expected. It could mean giving yourself time to create plenty of rough sketches of a planned painting, or to edit your first few drafts of a short story.
3. Push yourself to try new things
It's important to keep on trying new things. Yes, this can be terrifying – but successfully getting through a new challenge is a great way to grow your skills and your confidence. You won’t be perfect first time (no-one is), but you probably will realize that it wasn’t as bad as you were expecting.
4. Work through your doubt
There will be days ahead when you will feel like every particle of talent you may have ever had has left you for good. Gone. Adios. Some days you will struggle, some paintings simply won't work out. That's okay. It's supposed to be like that. Without some kind of failure we wouldn't constantly be striving for that next great painting, novel, photograph, beaded earrings. Whatever. Accept this and move on.