Thanks for your kind and encouraging words, Tenebrae. I can't speak for any other artist, of course, but I know that in my own case the sticking point is the fact that NONE of my drawings ever truly matches the image I hold in my head. I don't think that's perfectionism per se, rather I started drawing because I wanted (needed?) to get the image/concept out of my head and onto paper. No one else can know what was intended or desired so obviously cannot see how short it must fall. As skills improve it gets closer and, like Bohemianne's comment above, you want to go back and redo them all so you can at least get closer to the original ideal. The artist sees mostly the flaws. I have whole sketchbooks of partially realized ideas and even finished drawings that will ultimately never be seen by anyone, unless the garbage collector is going through my rubbish! I think that's why it's always fun to see another artist or writer take your idea and put their own spin on it. In that incarnation, you cannot see the mistakes or flaws (since they are in the artist's head alone). All that is to say that I think creative people, in whatever medium, continue to strive towards an unreachable goal but it is in the aspiration, not the completion, that any level of satisfaction is achieved.




