How to Work with Negative Voices

You’re painting along, everything is going great… and then you hear it. That itching at the edge of your mind. “You’re going to mess it up!”

You push it away but it comes back louder, “You’re going to mess this up. You always do.”

Again, you push it back, but even with that work, you can still feel it there lingering.

Dealing with negative voices is as much a part of learning to paint as learning to, well paint.

Artists learn to deal with those voices.

In fact, Dianna Shyne’s (Ep.82) whole process is based on keeping the negative voices at bay. Even after 40 years painting, she still hasn't gotten rid of them completely.

But that doesn’t keep her from painting. Here’s how she’s learned to work with them.

Shyne manages her negative voices through one simple tool: A plan.

Why?

Because a plan let’s her work very quickly in her beginning stages. That speed helps her push past the negative voices.

After she’s built up a bunch of paint on her surface, she can slow down and invite the critical voices back.

But she doesn’t let them run free reign. That plan means she can give them specific jobs to do. She can get their help looking at the painting and figuring out what it needs specifically to be better to meet her goals.

Put it to Practice:

There are two ways to push past negative voices.

The first is to outrun them. If you can stay busy enough slinging paint, you might not hear them… until you slow down. But at some point you’ll have to slow down. Painting requires thinking time. And if you painted without a plan, you might work yourself into impossible corners. This might give negativity more fodder.

When you create a plan BEFORE you start working fast, you know the goal of your work.

Maybe your goal is to build up specific values. Great! Once you know that you can get to work.

Or maybe it’s just to get a bunch of bright wonderful color in. Great! You can do that knowing and trusting it will hlep you to do something on top of it later.

A plan helps you work fast in service of later layers.

The second way to handle negativity is, like Shyne, is to give it a job.

But what job? Well, a plan helps you know.

Negativity when used as a tool can be criticism. But not mean criticism. Focused, analytical criticism. The kind that can (gently) let you know that you didn’t follow your value plan or that your colors lead your eye out the painting or that your shapes don’t quite read as the subject you're trying to convey.

The key is knowing what you’re asking it to do and then working to hear those comments in a kind and productive way.

Negative self talk may not be something that never goes away. But there are ways to learn to both quiet it and work with it. And you can help both by starting with a painting plan.