Because of social media, artists have more opportunities than ever. It’s like leveling the playing field for everyone. Before if you want to be a fine artist, you need to work with a gallery, get yourself out there to be featured in magazines and shows. But now with social media, anyone can put work out there for the public to see. But this can also be a trap for us artists.
This past week I did a painting of my cousin, a very lovely girl. I painted the first one and I was eager to share it on social media. Despite many people praise the painting, I wasn’t happy. Because if I was honest with myself, I knew that wasn’t the best I could do. I was rushing to finish it, so I can make a video about it, and share it on Instagram. And then I realized that I fall into the trap of social media. We are living in this day of age that people are addicted to speed and information. This affects both consumers and creators. We are able to access information real-time right at our fingertips. And there’s no shortage of them either. If you want you can easily spend your whole day watching YouTube, Netflix, looking at Instagram, and Facebook posts. So that inevitably affects us, artists and creators. See, in order for us to compete in this culture of social media. We want to grab people’s attention as much as we can. With both the quality and quantity of our output. The dilemma of it is that quality and quantity can’t always co-exist, especially in art. Doesn’t mean some masters can’t whip out a good quality artwork in a short amount of time. But typically, good quality artwork takes time to develop. I say develop because it doesn’t mean you spend days working on a single piece. But sometimes you do need to take your time to think about it, study it, and do research.
Most of the social media experts will tell you that it is essential to post consistently. Every day if you can. And while I understand where that’s coming from and I do agree that what it takes for many people to establish a strong social media presence. This to me feels like a reaction to the market we are in right now. Because we are trying to cater to the addiction of this fast information consumption market. So I started to find myself rushing through paintings trying to get it done so I can make my next YouTube video or upload it to my Instagram. In hoping to get more followers, or to make sure my followers won’t forget about me. I realized that I am doing artworks to cater to my social media presence, not just simply trying to do the best I can and create art. I find that a wrong motivation to paint. So I decided to paint the same painting again, this time really take my time and do the best I can. And if that means I need to miss a week of YouTube or miss a few days on Instagram. So be it! I just don’t want that feeling of regret. Knowing that I could’ve done better but I didn’t. I want to have the satisfaction of knowing that I did the best I could. Of course, there is always room for improvement. So that doesn’t mean I can put out a perfect painting. But that satisfied feeling of did the best I could is simply irreplaceable with getting more followers and likes from social media.
So I hope you like today’s video. While I’ll still try to put up a weekly video for you. There might be times that I need to skip a week so that I can do better paintings with the time I got. If you are new here please consider subscribing to my channel. You can also visit my website at cafewatercolor.com, signup to get my FastTrack watercolor PDF guide and some bonus videos. This is Eric from Cafe Watercolor. See you next time.