Everywhere we look there is something for us to watch, listen, or play. Whenever we feel a slight tinge of boredom we can pick up our smartphone and consume a near infinite amount of content.
As a creator I have found this exhausting. Whenever I get the itch to make something, like a painting, poem, or a 3D model in Blender, I inevitably look to sites like YouTube or Reddit for tutorials or lessons. I want to continue to grow and get better after all. The all-mighty algorithm quickly picks up on my interest in whatever medium I’m leaning towards at that moment, say drawing, and bombards my feed with everything I could ever want to know about it. How to draw expressions EASY; My accepted portfolio to art school; Why art school SUCKS; Here’s why you should draw; I HATE drawing… the list goes on.
And instead of actually drawing, my brain gets tricked into watching these endless videos that I think will make me better, but ultimately mean nothing to me in the end. I couldn’t even tell you the lesson of the last one I watched.
They don’t improve my drawing. Sure, there are actual tutorials out there I could follow along with and there are constructive creators out there making really interesting content. But as a creative person I have to remember at the end of the day it is just entertainment. Content designed to keep my attention and never let it go. And it’s really good at it.
One of these recommended videos was a clip from a longer interview of comic book writer Alan Moore. He was giving his top three tips for writers in general. Two of them were never be satisfied with your work and never beat yourself up about you work. Both really good pieces of advice. But the third one is the best in my opinion, and makes the other two all the more powerful.
Finish your work.
I often don’t finish my work. Not because I’m lazy or I don’t enjoy it, but because I’m attempting to do something impossible: I’m trying to optimize on the fly. I’m trying to improve myself to make my project perfect, because I’m very rarely satisfied with what I’m doing and I beat myself up over it (two of Mr. Moore’s no-nos).
So Alan Moore’s advice to finish what I’m doing, no matter what I think of it, really helped me. It seems simple doesn’t it? But I was locked into the wrong mindset because of the internet’s endless stream of helpful content at my fingertips. I would watch these drawing videos but never actually draw.
Is it better to finish something that’s just okay, or do something perfectly but never be able to finish?
That question reminds me of a very skilled Russian animator, Yuri Norstein, who began work on a film in 1981, a feature-length adaptation of Gogol’s The Overcoat. In 1985, Norstein was fired from the animation studio sponsoring the project for taking too long, and so he carried on the film’s development on his own with help from two other people he trusted.
By 2004, about 25 minutes of the film were complete. It is expected to be 65 minutes long. Its 43 year production time holds the record for the longest of any animated motion picture.
It’s hard to imagine Norstein, age 82, finishing The Overcoat at this pace. But it remains inspiring. And the few scenes released to the public are amazing. Near perfect. But perfect is always fleeting.
Is it better to finish something that’s just okay, or do something perfectly but never be able to finish?
If you’re trying to learn and grow, I believe the former is the answer. And that is something I had to relearn.
To learn we must create. So create.
Finish your work.
Jon Rudnicki 