Is perfectionism ruining your art?

When we talk about creating art, there's a difference between a 'complete' work and a 'perfect' one. A work would be complete simply if it explores the technique the artist wanted to experiment with or if it meets with the client's requirements whereas, when trying to attain perfection, the art has to live up to the expectations of perhaps its biggest, meanest critic: the artists themselves.

This need to achieve perfection, unfortunately, is usually drilled into artists while learning their craft and it makes budding artists doubt the significance of taking chances, which is a huge hinderance for any skill development. In order to grow one has to learn to make mistakes, that is the best, most effective path to success. It is also important to know you aren't alone in this pursuit and what you need is to learn how to use this perfectionism to grow and improve, not abandon your work because it's not as good as you imagined it to be.

Finding a balance between productivity and abandonment is the cure for the creative block that perfectionism causes. My way of getting over perfectionism is to remember what inspired me to create in the first place and hold on to that feeling. You need to be confident about yourself and remind yourself that every artist out there is going through the same things as you. Focus on enjoying your creative process and learning as you progress, even if it doesn't live up to your expectations of the work, don't be too hard on yourself. it's better to have finished something than nothing at all.

The pursuit of high standards can make an artist improve just as much as it can weigh them down.