This has been going through my head for quite some time. I have been busy drawing what I can to pay the bills as well as working on side projects that do take up a good amount of time to do. Every drawing I create, personal or business, I try to make it the best I can and feel proud of what I created as well as the one I'm drawing for, but there are times when I draw something and I don't feel 100% satisfied with it for one reason or another.

This is typical for all kinds of artists of any kind – they create something when they are motivated and make sure it turns out just the way they envisioned it or better. They concentrate on the piece and try to make it perfect and to their personal standards or beyond. In the end, they take a step back and look at what they created, and for some reason, explainable or not, they suddenly get a feeling of un-accomplishment. There are times during midway through their creative process, their drive slowly starts to deplete and they find the lack of motivation in themselves to continue, believing that what they are creating is nothing but crap. They can either discard it or try to fix it and polish it the best they can without trying to feel like they are just making their creation worse.

Artists are their own worst and harshest critic in whatever they do and create. They envisioned a masterpiece in their head and try their best to create it with what tools and drive they have. In some cases, the artist becomes too harsh on themselves and give up on their masterpiece, discarding it like meaningless scrap because they can believe they can do better, or can't at all.

What can be crap to the creator's eyes doesn't mean that it is in the eyes of someone else. A different pear of eyes can see beauty and something amazing in the artist's piece. They see something unique and amazing that the artist is blind to or is used to seeing too often that it becomes invisible to them. The observer points out all the positive things in the creation that the artist can't see, trying to show the artist how they view the piece from their own point of view and why the artist shouldn't label their work unaccomplished.

Artists need this kind of positive criticism from others once in a while. All creators have that small voice in their head that gives them negative feedback and criticism that can lead the creator to feel like what they are creating is worthless and/or have them completely stop all together. But someone who can't do what the creator does and have no background in the creator's profession, can see something brilliant in their works and convince the creator that what they did is amazing and unique. Such positive feedback can help the artist block out that irritating negative voice in their head and will give them that small drive to continuing their art and give them a better perspective of anything they create in the future.

artwork © 2015 Alex Cockburn