Perfectionism Vs Production

This post is going to be about my take on trying to perfect my work vs trying to produce a lot of work.

​This is another topic that was touched on in “7 Habits Of Highly Effective Artists”. It was, to be exact, Volume, not perfection. The idea is that we should be aiming to produce as much work as possible rather than trying to make every individual piece perfect.

​I said in my video about getting stuck on projects that I’m always a little afraid to call a piece finished. That’s because I always wonder if I look back on it in a little while will I think, I should’ve made that lighter, or I should’ve put a bit more detail there.

Of course I’m not saying we should rush through our paintings and drawings and not care at all about quality. I care a lot about the quality of my work. I even made a post about.

​But what I am saying is that maybe we, or I, need to not to worry so much about every minute detail of a single piece, because, as was said in the video, the more paintings and drawings we make, the faster we will improve. So those details we might be agonizing over now will become clearer to us over time

I personally think quality is more important than quantity when it comes to my own work. I would rather produce a dozen really good pieces in a year than fifty so-so ones. But buyers and collectors want to see a big body of work when they come to an artist’s website, and to be honest, a big body of work always impresses me when I visit another artist’s website more than just  a few pieces, even if those few pieces are amazing

Do perfectionist tendencies ever get in the way of you producing more work? Please share your experiences in the comments.