well for me, an art piece is never done since like time, it always changes. as for art pieces, i normally set a plan for the whole piece, what to add or what to omit. do i want color? should this thing be here? it's a fun and interesting thing of design.


(and yes we need more dicks thanks)

That's a good way of looking at it. Nothing is perfect, also. Questioning the hell out of it also helps establish its composition, too.

And dicks.

I do art of tribal or runic designs and I follow a similar routine that I do with my musical work which is my main 'art'.

I personally feel I have finished a piece, writing or music, when it evokes a feeling I haven't felt at any step prior in the process.

This can be obviously seen differently by many; for myself when the piece is truly done I might even touch it up later on.

The issue here is obviously an artist may go ''well it felt/looked done for me! so why all this extra work i'm putting myself through?''

That's part of being an artist (of any kind) though; even the most professional musicians later want to remaster their classic works or add something new to the 'original mix'.
It does NOT make your work stale or bad it means you are becoming BETTER as an artist.

Often I realized a lot of my 'stale' periods in music were merely points I had to adjust to my work growing into something bigger I had yet to fully see or actualize;
however after an occasional break I'd come back and go ''wow this is intense...''.

As an artist, you have to be ready to surprise yourself; the fact that you are asking on this topic means you are wanting to improve in some way;
perhaps also it means you are already improving and noticing it feels so different that you are concerned you're losing your touch but that may not be happening at all.

Your personal 'touch' is getting a fine-tuning perhaps; regardless of what the underlying cause of those feelings are.
The fact is you are still a unique artist. Also no artist can improve without flaws; EVERY artist makes mistakes and to act otherwise is a fallacy.

When you make mistakes on work, and toss a 'trash idea', it still served a purpose in showing what does NOT work.
Then you are left with more options that DO work and that is a great process to expect but not be concerned over.

Have artist block? writers block? draw a piece about having art block, boom block cancels itself out; same goes for writing.


Everyone is their own worst critic. Even when I commission artists I sometimes look back and think 'SHIT I forgot to detail this better or they might hate me for all these details I give". I want a piece to both be respectful to the time of the artist and also toward what I have in mind. I have to remind myself each artist has their own 'take' and the best way to show my own vision to them is to ease them into it piece by piece when/where I can.

Ultimately, if you see a character doing something in your head and you feel you've done all you can do with it then leave it; with the exception of commissions where you go hand in hand with someone else. But with your own work? Leave a piece untouched for a bit, whether it meets what you wanted or not, maybe look at it later and THEN you can have something new come to mind.

With my music I have had days where I work for 20 mins to an hour or longer and some songs remain unfinished months. When I do come back I realize the time away is exactly what I needed. Some people need long breaks but others can come back a day or two later and process their work differently; what matters in your own work's completeness is not just communication with your own thoughts or a commissioner but with letting yourself FEEL like your work really is good enough for you if it is for someone else.

Improve where you can, whatever that means to you, but NEVER sell yourself short. There are hundreds of artists out there just as worried as you about how 'good' their work is.

Remember, there won't be another artist (or person) quite like you; that alone is a unique signature to have in the creative world. I hope that helps! :)

Going back to analyze and fix mistakes can show how much you've grown, and it's also a good relationship between the eye and hand, executing what youve learned and being able to look over things. It reminds me of something I've read that shown a chart going up and down between those two factors. Just because you can't make it doesn't mean you're bad at it.

And I do have that period where I look back at things I've left behind months or even years agoand try adding on to it or redoing it since they can always spark inspiration just like anything else. Even things unrelated to art or your interests can have inspiration!

Wanting to change some sort of stagnancy to one's art can show what you've said, that they're progressing. It's probably missing that flare that the person's familiar with.

There's a bit of a saying in the film industry. It goes something along the lines of "a piece is never finished, you just run out of time or money". I'm kind of the same way, I don't like to work on something for too long, and I can sort of tell when I've done all I can and realise it's economically best to move on to something else then to dwell on one piece forever.

I do hear a lot of people say the same thing where working on something for too long can make you lose track of it. I understand that entirely!

I never really see my stuff as finished, I just know when I'm tired of rendering it. Or get bored with it. Either way.

Oh yeahhhh I think "tired of rendering" is a better word for me instead of "finished." Sometimes it just bores into your mind for days on end even when the laptop is closed @_@

Huh, I tend to get tired of ideas easily and move on to other things rapidly. Its kind of why the majority of what I do is never finished.

Most of my "finished" personal work has been poetry--and a poem is done when it feels done. I don't really know how to describe it any other way. My poetry comes from flashes of inspiration, usually, so a poem is done when the inspiration is spent, when I have no more URGE to write it. Sometimes, this means a poem will sit unfinished for days, weeks, months...even years.