There are two camps of creatives when it comes to refining an artwork: the over-workers and the under-workers.
Over-workers are typically perfectionists seeking their ever elusive “perfect.” They persist with a creation until they actively destroy the lovely, intuitive qualities that enhanced their artwork.
Under-workers don’t work enough on their creations. They will put one layer of paint on the canvas and call it quits or write a novel but claim it needs only one draft. They limit the quality of their products by not working on them long enough.
There is an underlying problem, fear, or obstacle at the heart of both of these creative leanings: what if I don’t have the requisite skill to finish my creation? What if I’m not good enough?
I’m currently an examiner for the IBO: essentially it’s college level study for high school students seeking advanced rigor and high quality academic investigation. I’m grading IBO student artwork, which comes from all over the world. I’m reading artist statements, research workbooks (sketchbooks) and viewing hundreds of artworks by students of all skill levels. It’s reminded me of an ever present discussion with my students: how do we decide when our artwork is finished?
Countless students claim they complete an artwork and bring it to class for our studio critique, only to be told by more than one teacher and their peers that their artwork wasn’t finished. I saw the same physical response in those students over and over: hunkered down, rounded shoulders, eye avoidance and a downward glance. There was always a frown that crossed their face showing in their forehead, eyes and mouth. It was as if being told their artwork wasn’t finished made them a failure. We’d work as a community to “say it ain’t so” and help each student see it was actually a call to action: because, in fact, we believe in you and know this artwork is capable of even more.
Being told an artwork isn’t yet resolved means people see even greater potential in your artwork. (Now that’s a compliment!)
I see this in my students of all ages and in myself. We always have at least one artwork that leaves us feeling nervous when we ask for feedback. And then we feel personally rejected or a failure when our work isn’t finished or “right” (whatever that means) the first time. This perception only acknowledges one small piece of the creative process, while ignoring another very important, integral element of creative process: refinement.
Refinement has three definitions that pop up when you ask Mr. Google:
All of these definitions relate to today’s discussion. When refining an artwork we must seek to remove unwanted elements from our creation. We must also clarify our technical choices and ideas through making small changes to our artwork. But, what does cultural elegance in behavior or manner have to do with our creativity?
Meet Julie. This week she met up with her weekly artist group to share her work and get feedback. Julie was confident that with all of her planning that went into the work, the painting was finished. In fact, she worked so hard on it she keeps hearing in her head, “I’m over it!” Besides, she has a new idea in mind getting her all excited for a new project. But when it was her turn to present and she proudly announced it was complete, she got crickets.
That’s when it starts to hurt.
What steps do you take to refine your artwork?
Her friend Ruth told her she loved the concept and color, but wondered if some additional texture would round the work out. Beth noticed some of her values should be more exaggerated. And as Julie listened to this constructive, useful criticism, she instead heard:
“You aren’t good enough.”
“You aren’t refined. How can we call your work elegant when you can’t even finish it?”
“It’s ugly.”
The word refinement is cursed by its third definition that suggests our work should be cultured, elegant, with sophistication and polish. None of these are inherently bad traits, what IS concerning is when we speak of a refined person we never talk about the work and education that took place to get them there. And that leaves many artists feeling like their creations, upon initial reveal to the world, should be perfect and polished.
By showing work as Julie did, and then discovering her work could use additional refinement, Julie had to show what a “refined” person hides: her stops and starts to find her best work. It’s as if Julie has lost her polish or finesse, and thus her artwork is less worthy.
What are the qualities of a refined artwork?
This is ambiguous and can often be an intuitive experience. While today we will ground refinement in practical strategies for you to apply to your creativity, it’s important to still acknowledge the role intuition plays in our creative process.
Ultimately, I describe a refined or resolved artwork as a creation where no further alterations or changes to the work will enhance the final product. There is a point in every artwork where adding more starts to detract from the finished work. So, how do we know if our creation needs additional refinement?
Here are three strategies to guide your creative process:
- Find peers to conduct group critiques,
- Take time away from your creation, and
- Create situations that allow for new ways to interpret and view your creation.
(1) Find peers to conduct group critiques
Peer feedback is SO important for your work. We can look at something for so long or be so emotionally invested in an artwork that we don’t spot the errors or the missing pieces to our creative puzzle. Find or create a local artist meet-up or, seek out a community via social media to share your art and garner feedback. Listen very carefully to advice that offends or angers you: there is often a truth hidden in that anger that will help you grow as an artist.
Do you recognize when it’s time to put your colored pencils away and take a break from your work?
(2) Take time away from your creation
Give yourself physical and mental space from your artwork. Your mind needs to rest to fully process all of the information and reflection that comes from being creative. Put your artwork away somewhere so you don’t look at it or keep thinking about it for at least two days. In fact, it can be really good to take several weeks or even a month away from your creation but be sure you know yourself: don’t leave it so long that you never return to your artwork. Taking this break gives you fresh eyes when you return to your artwork.
(3) Create situations that allow for new ways to interpret and view your creation
Create a situation, or change your environment to help your artist eyes see things with fresh perspective. For visual artists, this means turning your painting sideways or upside down and even working on them that way. Another way to is take a photograph of your artwork and look at it in the photograph to consider steps for refinement. For all you writers out there, perhaps you should read and refine your draft reading the whole thing backwards to the first page. Different points of view and perspective afford us fresh insight in our art.
Do you recognize the full potential of your creativity?
I still remember when a professor in university told me I murder my paintings. (I’m an over-worker, by the by). I knew I was overworking my paintings, but it wasn’t until she said that to me I fully understood that working “too hard” on something could actually hurt my success. I now understand that part of my creative process involves stopping before it feels finished and following the above steps.
Because each artwork is unique, each creation has it’s own journey through creative process. Because each artist is unique, there are endless variations of what creative process can look like. What is important to note is the details of your process: how can you use it to grow as a creative?
If you make that commitment to yourself, your fears about refinement will begin to fade. It’s not that your work is bad, you realize, it’s that someone can see even MORE potential in your art than you did. How awesome is that?!
When it comes to completing an artwork, are you an under-worker or an over-worker? (Click to Tweet)
BE COURAGEOUSLY CREATIVE: Are you an under-worker or an over-worker? I want to know! Tell me about how you cope with your creative leaning in the comments below.
I’d say I switch between overworking and underworking. If I underwork something, it’s because I got bored with it. If I over-work something, it’s usually because it was a commission, and I want to give them their money’s worth. When I paint just to paint, I don’t usually spend much time thinking about contrast, the golden section or focus points, I just do it. Sometimes it turns out great, others not so great.
Linda you make a fair point, I bet many creatives vacillate between the two depending on the project. It also depends on the goals of the artwork whether refinement is truly important. I would argue work for sale and purchase as well as for for exhibition need a higher level of refinement than artwork for pleasure.
I am an under worker in parts of a painting where I am unsure of how to execute. Then I’m an over worker on areas where it feels familiar. This topic about how to tell when your work is finished struck a chord with me. I have been nursing a painting along, sky, water, sketching,…. and there it sits on the easel. Liked the idea of refining versus: redoing something. Great perspective to adopt. Thank you, Carrie.
Previously, I was guilty of rushing to finish a painting in just one or two sittings. Guess I let the pendulum swing too far the other way. Still finding my balance of the work elements: preparation+time+effort+discernment.
Hi Cynthia,
What you describe makes a lot of sense to me and I’m sure many can relate to the notion of being both an under-worker and over-worker in the same artwork. It’s amazing how a small shift in perspective can really help us grow as artists and I believe the one you speak of is one of them.
Some paintings may only take one or two sittings, it’s knowing which ones are finished and which truly need more time –> that’s the hard part.
Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m like Cynthia – I usually leave the background half-finished because I’m not sure what to do to make it better, and work the focal point to death.
I realized I was skimping on the quality of the work this way, so in the past months I started working on background first, to really get myself to get out of my comfort zone, and then do what I usually do best – paint characters to my heart’s liking 🙂
But after I have given a lot of energy to the rest of the painting, I’m not likely to overwork the character as I used to.
I suppose that’s one way of addressing it!
Nela I love hearing how different artists navigate this issue thank you for sharing about your process. It seems once we know how we work we can figure out ways to improve upon it.
Carrie!! This is going to keep me up at night! 😀
It’s an excellent article, but now it’s in my head.
I think I’m a speedy-worker…? Does that count for something? 90% of my paintings are pre-designed to a large degree, mainly bc I don’t have a lot of time for the guesswork. I’ve streamlined my production process.
However, I think I do a little bit of those things you’ve noted above. Peer/group critiques from my loyal and brilliant social media community. Taking time away bc: family and weekends. But I could get better at the #3 — viewing it different. I’ve found that taking a photo and looking at it on a screen helps. But I don’t that nearly enough!
So my question is: Does the speedy-worker lean towards under-working? Maybe? sometimes? If anything, that’d be the direction my work would lean in.
Mandy, I certainly don’t mean to keep you up at night! But, if it’s because of inspiration, I’ll take it as a compliment 😉 You have a great question. Speedy does NOT mean under-worker, necessarily. Actually, I’m a speedy worker, but I’m an over-worker through and through. I switched from oils to acrylics because it forces me to think quickly and intuitively rather than second guessing or thinking too much while I paint. I just take lots of breaks, follow the listed steps, and keep returning to it to tweak it here and there until I think it’s done. My strategy to cope with being an over-worker is to be speedy.
If someone starts their art career and continues with only a speedy process, I would wonder if they lean towards under-working. The nice thing about speedy is you can always work on other bits and bobs and then return to those works you aren’t sure about later. I would think going back a few more times than feels necessary to review the artwork (with time gaps, new perspectives, etc.) would answer that question for you and anyone wondering about it. Great food for thought!
I can relate with Cynthia .. Over and under applies predominance in over to the point of changing it completely or starting over also lots of paintings feel undone or I know it could use refinement or polishing !
And when it is under I get block flow not knowing what needs to come up next
It is all self taught so I believe I lack with the techniques part….
Silvia, I’m glad you understand it’s truly an issue of mindset, NOT ability. Self-taught or not, everyone is completely capable of learning techniques and using strategies like we discuss today to enhance their artwork. Maybe next time around try to leave parts of the painting exposed that you aren’t sure is finished and sit with it for a while. If you can’t be satisfied with it as it is, can you learn a technique to refine what you do OR re-envision the artwork? Many of my artworks can start out being one thing and change into something quite different because of an “accident” in the painting. The funny thing is I’m happier with them for those little accidents (I want to say HAPPY accidents. Perhaps I’m channeling Bob Ross.)
I just want to emphasize here that art techniques are SKILL based tools that ANYONE can learn! So many people think art is this innate talent, and it’s no more a talent than someone who is naturally better at writing or math. In all subjects, some of us work harder than others to get where we are, but it’s the work that measures us.
I so appreciate you being here Silvia, thank you for helping me share my message and start this dialogue.
I think I initially underwork, hesitate to go further, and then continue into overwork!
As soon as I cross that overwork line I know it…and it seems that depending on my reaction to that overwork, I either abandon or further overwork!
I need to learn to take time away…thank you for this article Carrie! It is perfect timing for me and my learning process…
Janet awareness is half the battle. You will figure it out. Hopefully some breaks will afford you a new perspective 🙂
“Being told an artwork isn’t yet resolved means people see even greater potential in your artwork.”
This is where I get stuck. When I am creating a piece of art, I don’t consider I am ‘resolving a problem’. I’m creating an image to give pleasure. When it is a piece of work for a client, it’s fulfilling a given brief. I can identify with the round-shouldered students from my art school days at crits. If I thought it was finished, then I didn’t know there was a ‘problem’ to be solved. How can you work on something if you don’t realise it’s missing? (Some of our tutors had us in tears.) Asking for feedback from the right people in the right way is a big part of this. Perhaps some uni tutors need to read your article as I think this part of the creative process isn’t given enough attention.
Hi Melanie!
How can you create an artwork that offers the most pleasure to your viewers?
I think part of the problem here is that we sometimes assume we SHOULD somehow know there is a problem… we can’t always know. That’s one reason trusted feedback is important and valuable. My personal philosophy is to ask myself: will adding or refining anything else to the work help it or hurt it? If the answer is hurt, I know it needs to be done.
I find a lot of beginner artists aren’t patient enough to sit with and push themselves to really ponder the work. We need to give ourselves and the artwork space so we can decide it’s finished, and valued feedback is one piece of that puzzle. I also don’t like when artists ask for feedback when an artwork is finished. It seems backward to me – of course we might be hurt or offended if people offer feedback to correct or change a work when we’ve decided it’s done! It’s better to ask for feedback while the work is in progress so we can make informed decisions to make better art.
I totally understand your frustration with uni tutors and the education system. Even as a teacher myself I know I’ve made countless mistakes in how I’ve offered feedback to students. Some of this is hard because each person interprets things slightly differently. The other piece is no one makes this part of any educational training that I know. I learned how to give feedback through trial and error and my own sensitive nature motivated me to find ways to do so that focus on constructive, informative perspective (with a splash of kindness).
I am an underachiever. I don’t spend enough time working on my work. This article shows me that if someone critiques my work I should listen and then make a choice.
Hi Bonnie! I think knowing our tendencies can help us make stronger art. Thank you for sharing and reading 🙂
I am an underachiever, partly because I know overworking will destroy the painting (wet into wet watercolor) and partly because I am not sure which finishing touches will add to the painting rather than detract from it. Leaving it for a short time
sometimes works for me, as well as taking a black and white photo to check the value plan. As to getting critiques from peers,
I feel I am too easily swayed by other opinions and sometimes use the suggestions and destroy the painting, or feel it’s a failure and I just want to scrap it. Any thoughts?
Hi Tania,
Thanks so much for sharing. Critique is super valuable when done the right way. A couple thoughts: go into a critique experience knowing what you want to ask from your peers. Getting random feedback can confuse you and make you second guess your original intentions. Or, go into the conversation open to big changes and deviations from the original concept.
Only ask for feedback from people you truly trust. Not all feedback is equal or offered with good intention.
Lastly, feedback is information that you get to sift through and decide whats best for the work you’re creating. Sometimes it may mean ignoring all the suggestions while other times you may decide to take everything to heart. I encourage you to sit with the feedback for a few days and think on the ideas offered so you can get some emotional distance from the critique experience itself. We tend to be sensitive, vulnerable creatures so anything we can do to honor that emotional space is going to help us see our own art with greater clarity.
Happy making!!
One last idea – sometimes work is meant to explore an idea, not have a finished product. Sometimes it’s okay to scrap a piece. Sometimes a failure can be repurposed into something entirely new! That is what art is all about <3