Why is failure actually a positive thing? You might change your mind after reading.

This is an important topic if you are struggling with paintings or any creative medium. I can only talk about my personal experience, so I always tell people to take things with a  grain of salt from any artist they follow. The reason failure can be a good thing is that it is easy to be happy when you have a great painting. But, when I fail with a painting, I have to dig deep and figure out why it failed. It is a challenge to look into a failed painting vs. being happy about a successful one. Generally, there is a reason why a painting has failed. It did not fail on its own. It could be your values, drawing, or color that was off. These are the big ones, or it could be a mixture of all of them.

Your mental state also has a huge involvement in your paintings. If things are happening around you that are keeping you from concentrating, that can affect your painting too. Most of the time it is an emotional, not physical, thing we are doing when we paint. When you assess it and get to the bottom of it, you will be prepared for the next time around. You may have to step away from the painting, go back to your design, or check your values.

“Most of the time it is an emotional, not physical, thing we are doing when we paint.”

Failure is a good thing because it makes you think about why it didn’t work and prevents you from making similar mistakes again (or prepares you). Usually, these bad ones are the ones we struggle with, more than successful paintings. I really like to investigate to see why it didn’t work, and you should too!

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