Perfection

And Why It Has No Place In Art

Since learning to draw properly (I couldn’t draw a stick man properly until the age of 22), I have gone through several stages in my journey into art.

First, it was a struggle to get the images from my head down on the page, and I grew impatient, turning out images that weren’t quite what I wanted.

Practice helped me to fix that, but then, I faced a different problem… the innate desire in me to produce ‘the perfect drawing’.

The thing is, that there really is no such thing as ‘perfect’, when it comes to art. Art is an expression of the soul, and it is not something that can be judged in the strict terms of good and bad; it is simply what feels ‘right’ to the artist creating the work.

I’m not saying that you can draw a hand and call it a house, but I am saying that sometimes it is possible to fall into the trap of trying to make something perfect, when, really, in doing so, you lose the whole point of why you began the drawing in the first place.

I have done this so many times, and it has led me to abandon a large number of pieces; it is something that I struggle with on a daily basis, thanks to my need for perfection, and it is something that I have decided to work at conquering, because in the end, it is the creating that is important to me, and not the final piece (although I try to at least strive for accuracy).

So, if you’re a seasoned artist, or someone who has never done any art past lessons at school, I want to encourage you today to just pick up a pencil, or paint brush, and create. You won’t regret it.