Progress, not perfection. That’s my motto at the moment. Does that resonate with you, too? Are you also juggling a million tasks, and sifting through a gallon of priorities? How do we even start?
This is how I started today: this morning I lay all the illustrations for one children’s book on my desk like stiff, white quilt squares and started painting them assembly-line style. I mixed my colours (cobalt green, opera rose and indianthrene blue) and lay the colour in washes on each illustration, one at a time. Slowly the layers built up and the squares of paper transformed from white to multi-coloured.
This is an efficient way of painting. Quick even. But not easy. It means pulling the images apart in my mind so that I’m not painting people and characters and emotions, but fields of colour. The emotions will come at the end when I add the final details.
So, I repeat, “progress not perfection” to myself as I work. The perfection will come at then end. Right now, progress is the most important.
What are you working on? How could you simplify it? Make it easier and more effortless? Would making progress of any sort give you a confidence boost? Can I give you permission to start today, just start and do anything so that you’re toes are wet? I promise the water is nice, once you dive in!