How to Practice Confidence in Your Art
Dean Mitchell (Ep.30) knows that the best watercolor paintings require confidence.
That’s because when you lay down a stroke in this transparent medium, you will see that stroke even after many layers. There’s no covering up indecision with opaque upper layers. When you put down something, it’s there forever.
The good news though is that confidence can be practiced, and Mitchell says it should be practiced. Here’s how.
Put it to Practice:
First, like all other skills, confidence as a skill will grow the more you understand your materials, your process and your medium’s fundamentals. For confident paintings, keep adding to all of your art skills.
Second, learning to paint confidently means being ready to accept that not all your work will be perfect.
You are building a new skill. Skills take practice and practice means potentially creating a lot of paintings that never see the light of day. That means you are on the right track.
Mitchell attacks the paper. And sometimes that works and sometimes it does not. When it doesn’t, he puts it aside so he can take the lessons from his first attempt and bring them into the second attempt.
Third, practice saying YES when your inner voice asks, “Should I try this?”
Mitchell has both learned to hear it when it speaks and to follow his instincts when it does.
Fourth, follow through on an idea.
So often we forget what we’re trying to do. This is in part because we aren’t really clear on what we’re trying to do or even if we are, we forget the goal mid painting.
Confidence is knowing your goals. Work on building systems to verbalize and record where your aiming in a given painting.
Fifth, LEARN from what happens.
Try a confident brush stroke. Practice having a vision and seeing it through to the end.
Then ask yourself, “Did this work?” And for either answer, “Why?”
Mitchell’s studio is strewn with half finished, abandoned paintings. He hasn’t tossed them because he is taking advantage of all the lessons they have for him and his next painting.
You never know where those ideas could take you. You won’t know if you don’t try. You risk nothing but paper and paint. And in the process of the work, you’re building your confidence as an artist.