This is part 1 of the Battle with Creative Anxiety series. In this series, I will share with you the three most effective tricks that pushed me through the creative anxiety block. This is the first and my favourite one, will you try it?

I am not the most confident artist. Self-doubt creeps in suddenly from nowhere whenever I draw. Often my head is telling me to stop this nonsense, even though I am enjoying it.

At first, I thought it could be a lack of confidence in my abilities. So, as a highly logical person (yes, you can be both logical and creative being, rare, but it happens.), I did online courses to learn to draw faster and better. Unfortunately for me, the more courses/online tutorials I do, the more insecure I feel.

“Look at what the teacher/others can do, you are wasting your time!” - My inner critic barked.

“Thank you, I hear you and it is not helpful to me right now.” - My heart responsds calmly.

Interestingly, the same logical brain tells me the only way to get better at something is to do it again and again, yet somehow push through the anxiety and carry on.

Okay, but how?? How to not give up when I want to dig a hole and hide?

After weeks of research, the top result everyone said is not to compare with others, you do you. Great (with eye-roll). It is easier said than done when we are all glued to social media.

So the search goes on.

Finally, I found and tried this trick - Just complete this drawing no matter what! - as if it is some sort of magic, it worked.

Somehow, this trick helped me to be present with the drawing right in front of me. Magically, I started to detach the outcome from the process.

Over time, my belief system changed. I would rather be an artist with some (or many) questionable drawings than an artist with many unfinished projects.

Another reason this is my favourite trick, because I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. It even turned more than half of my “ruined” drawings into something I like.

Let me show you an example.

This “Reading Under The Mushroom” drawing was meant to use gouache paint only, a matt finish drawing with clean, bold lines, Studio Ghibli vibe. But no matter how hard I tried, it looked nothing like how I pictured it in my head, I didn’t like it at all, so I left it unfinished and was seriously contemplating burning it for warmth.

As soon as I discovered the "Just complete it" trick, this was the first drawing I retrieved from the dusty folder. I continued where I left off with gouache paint again, nothing magical happened, and I still didn’t like it. But this time, I am determined to finish it. So I started to add colouring pencils which got a bit better, then I throw everything I could find within my vicinity to complete it.

It is now a mix media piece. Even though it doesn’t scream Studio Ghibli at all, it is a piece of drawing that I like and proud of simply because it is now completed.

I pinned it on my bedroom wall for a while as a reminder to never burn a drawing and finish it, even if I lost faith in it because the drawing did not lose faith in me. 

Now, if you have any half done drawing, poems, songs that are collecting dust, bring them out now and do the best you can because they want to be completed.

Thank you for reading this long post. When you have time, read the part 2 of this topic - Two minutes creative play. You will see some silly projects I did to keep my creative balls rolling.

- With Love, Vienna