When we stop fighting with our mistakes and choose to live with them, a new attitude appears that relates the illustrator with his own imperfect work, with new, much healthier and, above all, much lighter ties. When we deny and try to harshly correct our mistakes, a self-demandingness can appear that if we let it grow too much, it can pull us, first a little and then a lot, until we deviate and leave us in a place where it becomes more and more difficult to feel the enjoyment of doing something as noble as drawing. Fighting so much with the mistakes can become an obstacle for creation, also supposing an extra load of stress that we are already pulling and bringing a fog for a mind that, now more worried about achieving something, almost forgets to experience something. To stop fighting with our own mistakes allows us to open a kinder space so that the next time we “make a mistake” we can take the time to consider the possibility of living with them and also consider the possibility of including them as part of our work. Accepting that these mistakes are in themselves the flip side of every success and that, because of this, successes and mistakes make us the creative that we are, creates the possibility of trying to create a dialogue (and perhaps a style) using both sides of the coin, knowing that mistakes more often reveal the most honest aspects of each person. Does this mean to stop looking for constant improvement? Never, but it does mean a change in the attitude with which we choose to improve. We can lighten our quest for improvement by changing the conflict as a starting point and move to a much calmer place of acceptance where there is the peace of mind that comes from ceasing to pursue so demandingly. Drawing without the possibility of erasing, is a practice that can help us to relate back to our work. To see undeniably the things we would like to improve, to see the things we would like to throw away, to see without the possibility of hiding the things we would like to change and, also, to see the things we would like to keep. Living with mistakes in this way allows us to find ourselves again in our work. Because to stop fighting with mistakes is also to stop fighting with oneself. And to close, a practical invitation: Join my Domestika course Professional Illustration Techniques: From Sketches to Vectors where you will learn the necessary techniques, both analog and digital, to turn a draft into an editorial illustration with a professional finish, with which you feel identified. See you there! El Profe.
List by Joerg Koehler
A course by Ilan Brenman
