I've always lacked confidence in the things that I do. I tend to spend more time researching, purchasing the stash, organizing, and all that stuff before I actually get into the project itself. More and more I'm beginning to feel that all this prep time isn't helping the end result. Am I being to hard on myself, am I expecting more with the end result??? I just don't know. I want to be able to step back and say WOW that's AWESOME. I have a lot of the bells and whistles, I do a lot of reading, looking, more reading, but yet if I was just browsing and came across my work, I would just keep going. There's nothing there to catch my eye. I'm beginning to wonder, will there ever be, am I just stuck in a rut, what more can I do??? I play everything out in my head and it's all of the things that I want it to be, but then when the LO or card is done o whatever I'm working on it's exactly as I had it played out to be but there's no zip in my do da. Just gives me things to think about and how to improve. Hope this makes sense to someone other than me. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings and have a wonderful day.
2 comments:
You know, you just need to pick one of those "wow" projects from the mags and determine yourself to copy every square inch of it. That's the best way to learn a new style/technique/concept, just try it out. It's only paper, and we'll forgive you if you toss it when you're done.
June, I know exactly how you feel! I had felt like a "professional student" all my life -- I gobbled up every bit of learning I could, surfed the net for hours and hours, bookmarked every great idea ... and then at this milestone birthday I came to the conclusion that I was simply afraid to make a mistake. It wasn't until September that I finally decided to just jump in. I broke out of my boring CM-style layouts and started lifting other people's ideas, looking for how I could copy it with the supplies I had. I also started trying out some totally new-to-me techniques following tutorials I found online using colored pencils and paints. I think it was the painting that loosened me up and gave me the courage and confidence to just try anything now. Being "a kid" again, having fun just playing with paint and goo and tape and stuff...it was so out of my comfort zone, but I NEEDED it!
I'm going to post a funny story and layout for you over at AMR tonight!
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