Karen Sperling’s Blog

Painting by Karen Sperling from a photo by Frank Stewart, featured in the July 2009 Artistry Tips and Tricks.

I received this email from one of my Painting for Photographers readers:

“I haven’t done much in the way of digital painting since I received your book (not a fault of your book, but my waning interest in digital painting at the present time). I had an unpleasant experience taking a studio painting course a few months ago, my first acrylic painting course, and that experience made me wonder if I had any artistic ability at all. So, I’ve stayed away from art and photography for a while.”

And here was my response:

“I’m sorry to hear about your experience with the studio painting course. And I want to encourage you not to get discouraged.
I always say there are 3 ingredients to painting: knowing the art concepts, knowing the tools and practice.
You get better through practice at incorporating what you learn about the art concepts and the tools, whether you’re painting traditionally or digitally.
Everything is an interim image and the more you paint, the better you get!
I speak from experience.
I took art classes in college and never thought I was very good, and now I’ve had my art exhibited in New York.
The difference is that back then I gave up too soon. In recent years, when something looks awful, I just keep in mind that it will get better the more I work on it, and it always does!
I hope you’ll try painting again. The paintings you sent to me were very good and you’ll only get better the more you practice.”

And his reply:

“Thanks for understanding and for your encouragement. You should have been my instructor!”

This email exchange sure hit home for me and I am sure others can relate to this reader’s experience, so I thought I’d post about it to help anyone who’s feeling discouraged.

The emotional makeup that results in our pursuing creative fields, whether it’s painting, or photography, or writing, or making movies, includes being sensitive to the world around us. That sensitivity gives us the ability to put ourselves into other peoples’ shoes, to act and react to the world around us and to create art in whatever form that both communicates our perceptions and also speaks to others.

Sensitivity is a double-edged sword, however, and it’s that understanding and insight that makes criticism–whether from outer sources or from inside our heads–feel so acute.

I can’t speak for everyone–maybe there are people who never experienced a sensitivity to criticism– but I can tell you that I’ve felt it and everyone I know has.

If you’ve tried to paint your photos–or tried to write novels, or screenplays, or you’ve tried to take photographs, or tried any other creative pursuit– and you haven’t gotten very far and you’re thinking you don’t have “talent,” I can tell you that you’re experiencing self-criticism. The critic in your head is shouting at you that you can’t do the thing you’re trying to do.

Well, the critic is wrong.

If you want to do something, recognizing the desire is the first step toward doing it. You have to find a way to listen to this OTHER voice in your head giving you the idea that you’re interested in painting photos or whatever creative activity you want to pursue.

And the way to pursue that interest is to learn the theories, learn the tools and practice.

I set up Painting for Photographers to give you the art concepts and step-by-step instructions for painting photos in Painter and in Photoshop.

The practice means that you continue to paint, without getting discouraged.

When you find yourself thinking that what you’re doing is horrible, change your thinking to telling yourself that it’s an interim step and it will get better the more you work on it.

This isn’t just my experience. I learned this when I first started writing Painter tutorials. In the beginning, I hadn’t painted for many years, and I wrote instructions based on the artwork from others. And I saw firsthand how “bad” the interim images were. They weren’t bad at all, of course, they just were not finished!

Now that we’ve silenced that critic in our heads, let’s take aim at the outer critics–the people like this instructor that my email correspondent had. If someone is telling you that your work is no good, then there’s something wrong with him or her. I’m not kidding. Why on earth would someone want to teach if they don’t want to encourage people? One of my biggest joys as a teacher is helping people in my Artistry Retreats to pursue their interests and cultivate them into passions. And yet, I’ve had so many instructors and teachers and professors over the years who ripped apart my writing and my painting. Why? What purpose did that serve? It only discouraged me and stopped me from creating for many years. And I’ve subsequently published several books and had several art exhibits. Obviously, these detractors didn’t know what they were talking about, and I wasted many years listening to them!

It’s not just teachers who criticize, of course–parents, friends, siblings, acquaintances, so many people bashing our creativity, so little time. You have to learn to either avoid the detractors or at least not listen to their critiques.

Again, I can’t speak for others, but maybe you have the same little voice that I have nagging, “What if they’re right?”

Here’s the answer-they’re not right. Tell yourself this: “Everything is an interim step and I’m working to learn the tools and practicing to be able to do what I’m trying to do. And what is the critic’s ulterior motive for bashing me? They can’t have my interests at heart.”

I had an experience that to me epitomized the absurdity of criticism.

I’ve made no secret about my own desire to write movies, something I have studied over the years and really want to accomplish in 2010.

I knew a guy who is a produced writer and director and who teaches film at USC, one of the most-respected film schools. At one point I showed him one of my scripts.

Not only did he rip it–and me–apart, but he also said something that really made crystal clear how ridiculous criticism is.

In this conversation in which he bashed me and my script, he said this to me:

“You’ll never be able to write movies.”

At this point in my life, I had been teaching Painter for many years.

This sentence shocked me. I couldn’t imagine ever telling anyone they’ll never do something. How could anyone predict about anyone else what they are capable of? I believe that if someone really wants to do something, if they study it and practice hard enough, they can do it.

Up until that moment I had been quietly listening to this guy’s “feedback.” When he said “You’ll never be able to write movies,” I replied, “How do you know?”

He didn’t have an answer. He wasn’t being polite, he had no problem ripping me and my script apart up until that moment. He had no reply because he didn’t have an answer. There is no way to know what the outcome will be for someone who works hard at learning and practicing.

So pick up your Wacom stylus, or pick up the paint brush, or go back to the keyboard, or pick up the camera, and try again to pursue what you’re interested in.

If you start to feel discouraged, follow these steps:

1. Take a look at who is discouraging you. Are you hearing discouragement from an outside source, are you being your own worst critic? In either case, question the motivation of the negative feedback you’re hearing. Realize that someone who really has your interests at heart wouldn’t criticize you, and that includes your own, inner critic.

2. Take a look at what’s discouraging you, whether it’s a painting or writing or music. It’s an interim step. It will get better the more you work on it.

3. Maybe your discouragement stems from lack of knowledge or direction. Are you not sure how to proceed? Get some information or review what you’ve learned. Getting better at your creative pursuit includes learning how to incorporate your knowledge with your creativity.

4. Surround yourself with supportive people and ignore the critics. I think it’s human nature to focus on the negative. Focus on the positive and ignore the negative.

5. Read my other blogs on never giving up, finding confidence and confidence, not talent, leading to creativity.

Tags: The process of art (Corel Painter) by Artistry
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Never Give Up is something people involved in creative pursuits say all the time.
It may seem obvious that they mean never give up your dreams.
But after creating and publishing Painting for Photographers and putting together several gallery shows of my art, I have experienced many ways in which “Never Give Up” is tested day to day, moment by moment, beyond the broad concept of pursuing dreams.
As a result of these experiences, I’ve been wanting to write out a detailed list showing all the ways in which you are tempted to give up throughout a creative project. I’ve wanted to write about it to help you to keep going in your creative pursuits and as a follow-up to my previous blogs on confidence being the key to creativity and how to find confidence.
I was reminded about the subject, again, while reading the blog belonging to my Twitter pals, husband and wife producers, Joke and Biagio (@jokeandbiagio at Twitter. You can follow me at Twitter, too! @KarenSperling).
I highly recommend reading all the information at their blog, whether you’re a filmmaker, photographer, artist, writer or anyone looking to get inspiration for moving your ideas and goals forward.
Reading their encouraging words reminded me of my thoughts about how often giving up seems like the only answer, until I think the situation through and come up with the solution to keep going!
In this blog, I have come up with a list of rules for how to overcome the temptation to ditch your creative goals.
I offer this list as a way to encourage both you and me to keep going and to recognize all the ways in which our resolve is tested.
I want 2010 to be the year that I make progress with one of my biggest yet unrealized goals, making movies. I’ve tried and given up on writing movies many times and I don’t want to do it again-give up, that is. Making the little book trailer movie above for Painting for Photographers was great fun! I’d like to take that experience and expand on it to make real movies! So I’ll be referring back to this list, and I hope you find it useful, too, whether you are a photographer trying to paint photos, a writer trying to write scripts, a filmmaker trying to make movies, an artist trying to paint, or anyone else going after a creative goal.
So here they are:
Karen Sperling’s Rules for Not Giving Up
Rule #1
Never give up on your ideas.
Don’t just talk about them, take them seriously enough to actually do something about them. It’s great to get the idea that you want to paint photos, or make movies, or shoot weddings, or create paintings.
Don’t just talk about how much you want to do something, find a way to do it.
Another Twitter pal, filmmaker David Baker (@indiemoviemaker) touched on this aspect of not giving up in one of his vlogs, and how having the ideas doesn’t mean anything, it’s doing something about the ideas that means something.
David speaks from experience. He’s created movies, including Mission X, and he’s working on a new one, Death Movie.
I had been thinking about writing this blog about not giving up, and I realized watching David’s vlog that coming up with a lot of ideas and not doing anything about them is the most basic example of giving up that there is.
Why do people talk about their great ideas and not follow through with them? Because they give up on what they think they’re capable of doing, maybe not consciously, but if they really believed in themselves and in their abilities, they would talk less and do more.
If you get an idea for something that you want to do, then sit down with a pen and paper-OK, you can type on the computer or an iphone or whatever way you like to get your thoughts committed to written form-and make a list of what steps you have to accomplish to achieve your idea.
It is OK if you come to a step that you don’t know the answer to or a roadblock that seems to stop the whole project, because then you’re on your way to creating something, and you have reached Rule #2.
Rule #2
Never give up on problem solving.
You have started to devise a plan to accomplish your great idea, but don’t know how to get to step 4, or worse, can’t even figure out what step 4 is?
Never give up. Do research and find out how to do the step or to determine what the step is.
Creating anything requires finding solutions to seemingly impossible problems from the beginning of the project through its completion.
You have to learn to look at every situation, challenge and obstacle as a problem that you will solve to accomplish your goal of completing your project.
Rule #3
Never give up on being determined.
You have to really be determined to find that solution even if it doesn’t come to you right away. Without the solution your idea remains an idea. Never give up on your determination to make your ideas reality.
Rule #4
Never give up on being flexible.
Know your strengths and weaknesses, and know when an idea is just not feasible.
If you really can’t figure out how to accomplish the next step or can’t decide what the next step is, then get help. Do research, read books, contact people, join groups in real life and online where you will meet people more experienced in your field. Don’t be afraid to learn from others.
I just finished reading filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s great book, Rebel without a Crew, in which he chronicles his experiences making a movie in 1992 for $7,000 at the age of 23.
I highly recommend reading this book, not just if you’re interested in making movies, but also if you want to see how a person who doesn’t just talk about ideas gets things done.
He borrowed a 16mm camera to make his movie, though he didn’t know how to use it. He called up used camera equipment places and asked around to get the information he needed to operate the camera to make his movie.
1992 was pre-internet. Nowadays, getting your question answered is as simple as typing it at google.com and reading all the sites that come up.
Rule #5
Never give up on being resourceful.
It’s OK to seek the answers to the questions you have, but never give up on your ability to figure out solutions yourself. Don’t be a lazy thinker and expect everybody else to tell you how to execute your idea. Get the satisfaction of finding the way yourself around a problem/obstacle/roadblock.
Rule #6
Never give up on giving yourself credit.
It’s easy to look at the project that isn’t done and to want to give up.
You have to take a moment and look at all you’ve accomplished up till this point, rather than look at all that still needs to be done. Never give up on feeling good about each little accomplishment. Each of these successes is leading to completing the project.
Rule #7
Never give up trying to find great ideas.
Don’t settle for mediocre ones.
Know when to keep going pursuing your ideas and when to stop.
Sometimes, determination is misguided. Maybe you find out after you’ve completed the step-by-step list to accomplish your goal that it doesn’t make sense, logistically or financially. Maybe it’s been done before. Remember, rule #4 is never give up on being flexible. If something really, really, isn’t going to work out, then know when to fold. Never giving up means knowing how to analyze and recognize the ideas that are worth pursuing and going after them with passion and conviction. You know they’re good ideas because you wrote out step by step how you were going to achieve them. Never giving up means not latching onto one idea because that’s the one you had. Never give up looking for the right idea that is worthy of your time and ambition.
Rule #8
Never give up based on factors outside of your control.
You lost your job, find another. You lost your funding, find more. The economy goes into the worst recession since the great Depression and you don’t get as many preorders as you thought, find alternative funding (yes, this is what happened to me during Painting for Photographers, and I have a published book! I never gave up!)
Rule #9
Never give up having faith and courage.
Your faith and courage will be tested every step of the way in pursuing your creative goals and dreams. You will wonder why you’re working so hard, why everything is so difficult, sometimes you’ll even wonder how everything’s going to work out when it all looks so bleak. The answer is that you believe in your creative goals and you will reap the benefits when you have accomplished the task you have set out for yourself.
Rule #10
Never give up ignoring negative people.
If you really believe in whatever artistic goal you are pursuing, then parents, spouses, relatives, friends, acquaintances, enemies–no one can sway you from your goal.
Your creative goals will find supporters, but you’ll also find the haters, the people who want to tear down what you want to do.
I have found that for some reason the bad feels worse than the good feels good.
We all do it, we focus on the negative person, the negative words.
If you’re online or in a party, watch how people respond to the haters instead of responding to the positive people.
Comedians always say on talk shows that they could have an entire audience laughing at their jokes, and they’re still bothered by the one guy who is staring at them not laughing.
Learn to focus on the positive, supportive people and to ignore the negative, critical ones.
Never give up ignoring negative people. Don’t listen to them. They have hidden agendas for seeing you fail, many times having nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own set of problems.
Rule #11
Never give up being positive.
Maybe you’re the negative person in your life!
Never give up being positive. Never give up looking at the bright side.
Here is my guiding philosophy in life: It will work out, it always does. You have to always believe that what you’re doing will work out great, and you have to operate under that belief, even in the bleakest, darkest moments when it doesn’t look like any of it will be OK.
You also have to look for the bright side.
At the end of 2009, there were a lot of stories in the media about how 2009 was a bad year and how the first decade of the new millennium was bad.
Com’on. There were bright spots in both the year and the decade.
Only seeing the bad things is negative thinking.
Count your blessings, always look at the bright side of life.
Rule #12
Never give up breaking down your gigantic project into little pieces.
Gigantic doesn’t necessarily mean big. You might have decided to write articles for your local newspaper and you may have your first writing assignment for a short 200-word piece. If you’ve never done it before, that little article can seem gigantic. Whether it’s an article for the local newspaper, or a book, or a movie, or a painting, if you start to feel overwhelmed by the idea, just refer back to your step-by-step notes about how you’re going to accomplish your goal. And if you’re still overwhelmed, then write out steps to accomplish the step that’s standing in your way.
When I created my Magical Mystical Tour abstracts for my first New York gallery show, I had notes for each painting describing what I was trying to accomplish. It made it easier to just paint and do the work instead of freaking out that I was getting ready to show my art in New York!
When I wrote Painting for Photographers, I had a list of what I wanted to accomplish in a particular day, and how I was going to do it. It made the idea of filling an entire book seem less gigantic.
Rule #13
Never give up turning a defeat into a challenge.
TV talk show host Craig Ferguson, who is originally from Scotland, said in an interview with Michael Eisner that one of the things he likes about the U.S. is that you don’t have to accept failure here.
If something doesn’t work out, it’s OK, it’s a challenge to make the next thing work out, no matter where in the world you live. It’s not geographic location, it’s mindset that determines whether you’ll keep going and never give up on your dreams.
Rule #14
Never give up learning.
Get a Masters in Fine Art (MFA) in whatever you want to do.
You don’t have to go to school to get one.
Research every new venture as if you’re earning an MFA degree in it.
I earn one every time I tackle another project.
I don’t actually go to school, but I do read everything I can find about a subject and many times attend classes.
After graduating college with a BA in English literature, when I decided I wanted to be a journalist, I read newspapers and how-to books on writing non-fiction in addition to reading style and grammar books.
I used to compare the same news story in several different newspapers to see how the information was presented in each one to get ideas for writing my own stories.
When I was a singer, I spent a year taking singing lessons before I sang in public.
When I decided I was going to design newsletters and brochures, I read how-to design books, I took graphic design classes at the School of Visual Arts and I analyzed newsletters, brochures and other printed collateral materials to see how they were created.
To write plays, I read every play I could find and I attended playwriting classes at New York University.
When I wrote short stories and novels, I read every story I could get my hands on and took fiction classes at Columbia University.
When I decided to write movies, I had already taken playwriting and fiction classes. I supplemented that experience by reading and rereading stacks of scripts and outlined the ones I liked the most to see how they were written and to understand script structure. I also read many how-to screenwriting books.
With art, I supplemented the drawing and painting and art history classes I took in college with reading every how-to-paint book and art history book I could find.
To publish my book, I supplemented my real-life experience of writing three published books and publishing printed and digital newsletters with reading every book on self-publishing that I could get my hands on.
If you want to paint photos, read Painting for Photographers and Artistry Tips and Tricks.
Knowledge is power and don’t ever give up on gaining more knowledge.
Stick to your goals and ambitions, but never believe you know it all.
A wise man is a fool because he thinks he’s wise.
A fool is a wise man because he knows he’s a fool.
Rule #15
Never give up believing that you know enough to accomplish your goal.
While I believe knowledge is power, I also know that you can over-research and over-analyze a project to death and never get anywhere.
You don’t need to know everything there is to know about something to be able to do it.
You just need to know enough about it to accomplish your goals.
I’m saying to get a masters degree in your chosen pursuit, not a Ph.D.
Rule #16
Never give up on creativity.
If you’re painting, drawing, photographing, writing, filming, composing, doing anything that requires creating, you’re going to get stuck. It’s just part of the process. Find a way to get unstuck and keep going.
Rule #17
Never give up learning from the past.
I don’t even want to call them mistakes.
You can do everything right, create your artwork/movie/photograph, you can market it and it still doesn’t sell. Capitalize on what you learned in the process by doing what you did and also doing it differently. Don’t assume your script/movie/artwork/photo didn’t sell because it wasn’t any good. The world of creativity isn’t black and white, there are many shades of gray. Maybe you could do something to edit the art/script/movie/photo/novel for it to sell better. Maybe you could find a different niche/market/community in which to sell it. Maybe you could change your advertising/publicity/marketing to improve the sales. Never give up means continually fine tuning what you’re doing to improve your chances of success and not thinking that something about you or your creative output is standing in the way of success.
Rule #18
Never give up looking at how you give up.
I hope you found this list interesting and useful, but there are probably other ways that you give up that I haven’t listed.
Learn to recognize the ways in which you give up on your creative dreams and devise solutions that will help you to keep going.
You’ll be a lot happier if you keep going than if you give up!

Tags: The process of art (Corel Painter) by Artistry
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