Getting Out of Your Head and Embrace Your Creativity: A Chat About Perfectionism and Art
Lately—if I’m being honest, like, always— I’ve struggled with getting stuck in my own head. I am sure a lot of you know this feeling, right? That endless loop of overthinking, self-critique, and this weird fear that whatever I create just won’t measure up. It’s like the artist’s curse. But, one thing I have noticed is that when I have an assigned project and deadline, suddenly, I have an easier time focusing and actually completing the project. The same goes when I’m following a course or studying a reference, those processes feel more comfortable and thus I have an easier time completing them.
Overall, even when doing a more “comfortable project” starting seems to be my kryptonite. I never feel “prepared” enough to actually get started, I always feel like there’s a right way to start and that gets me stuck in my head. Another reason that following a course or giving myself some structure really helps me.
The Comfort of Structure: Why Deadlines and Courses Work
Structure is like this safety net for my creativity. It keeps me from spiraling too much and letting perfectionism take over. But, when I start to try to do something for myself—something that doesn’t have an external motivator—, or if I try to do something new—like when I am trying to learn and practice—this is when I start to get stuck in my head about my own creativity and skill. Like most people—I’m sure—the insecurities and the perfectionism kicks in.
“Am I starting this right?”
“Would I get a better result if I did the brainstorming in a different way?”
“Could I do this whole artwork in a more efficient way”
“What if I spend all this time and energy and it doesn’t look good enough?”
The Search for the Perfect Reference: A Double-Edged Sword
Cue the frantic search for the ‘perfect’ reference with just the right angle, the perfect lighting, colors, and essence. Anything that will help me feel like I can control the outcome and make the final piece look the best that it possibly can. But the joke’s on me because half the time, I don’t even make it to the final piece. I just keep putting roadblocks in my own way until I eventually just don’t work on the piece at all! Even when I do make it to a finished piece, no matter how good it is, I never truly figure out my own process or get better because I don’t do it enough to get a lot of practice.
I want to push past this—to practice more, to get better at manipulating references, to make more “original” art. But my perfectionism keeps making me want to find the perfect reference and copy it because it is comfortable and I know the outcome looks better when I copy it than when I try to change and manipulate it and pull things out of my own imagination.
Balancing References and Originality: Finding Your Creative Flow
But here’s the thing: while references are super helpful, relying on them too much can actually hold us back. To be truly creative, you can’t always find the perfect reference for every idea. There has to be a balance. We need to learn how to use references without becoming dependent on them—how to analyze them, learn from them, and then step into that uncomfortable space where our creativity can really shine. Getting out of our own heads and allowing ourselves to go through the “I suck at drawing” phase, so that we can learn how to draw the things that we want and truly let our creativity flourish.
This mind block, this perfectionism—it’s a creativity killer. It convinces us that every single mark we make on paper needs to look good and be perfect immediately. It makes us self conscious to doodle or sketch or even thumbnail, because they are unpolished and they don’t always look as good as other people’s work. But here’s the reality: those artists who seem to draw amazing stuff from their heads? They got there by sketching and doodling all the time. They didn’t let the “ugh, this looks gross” phase stop them, and neither should we.
The people that are drawing things from their heads, they also practice A LOT, they observe and study and learn from the things around them all the time! They start creating a bank of references in their heads. There are things that we see all day, every day and we still struggle to draw them without a picture because we don’t teach our hands to draw what we see and we don’t actively observe the things around us. As artists we should constantly be building this bank of references and actively observing what’s around us and practicing to draw it as well.
Balancing References and Originality: Finding Your Creative Flow
Another big part to all of this: Stop Judging Yourself!
Especially when you are practicing and learning. The whole point of practice is to be bad at first so we can grow, learn, and eventually be good—our own version of good. We each learn differently, practice differently, and like different things. Embracing that is how we’ll develop our unique style. Let’s stop trying to “fix” the way we do things and start trusting our own process.
So, here’s what I’m trying to do, and I hope you’ll join me:
- Try to doodle without any expectations or plans or judgment.
- Allow yourself to have ideas without filtering them or judging yourself based on what you think you can or can’t do or based on your supposed “skill” level.
- Have a friend or partner help you by creating some random open-ended prompts. Before you even start drawing try to write out the first idea that pops into your head and embrace it and elaborate on it without judgment.
I really hope this helps, and that it makes you feel a little less alone in your creative struggles. I know that as artists, we tend to work solo, and asking for help can feel super vulnerable. I still struggle with this, which is why I want this blog to be a no-judgment, no-pressure community—a space where we can share tips, help each other out, and grow together.
Join the Community: Let’s Grow Together
In that spirit, I’m going to start sharing random open-ended prompts for anyone who feels stuck and is too nervous to ask someone around you. Or maybe you don’t know how to even ask someone because in the end not all creatives think the same—which is good! I will try to mix things up to appeal to different types of creatives and if you guys come up with some fun prompts and want to add them into the mix—send them my way!
I promise not to spam you—if you sign up just for the prompts, I’ll keep the extra content to a minimum and deliver fresh inspiration to your inbox every week.
Let’s build this community together, and let’s start getting out of our own heads so we can let our creativity shine!
