Don't be perfect be prolific

A few weeks ago I was standing in an art studio trying to figure out how to make my first mark.

It was the last day of a 3-day portrait painting class.
and up until this point, I had been excitedly doing all of the steps and lessons.

But today was the day we were putting all we learned into action.
And I was terrified. 😬

Even after all the elaborate prep I did, I just couldn't put the paint on the canvas.

When I did add a bit of pigment... you could barely see it.
To me, the paint felt very permanent, and unforgiving.

I didn't want to make a mistake, and so there I stood staring at a blank canvas while everyone else in the class was progressing.

As the time wound down...I finally thought enough is enough. I grabbed a glob of paint and smeared it on the canvas. Then did it again and again.

It wasn't looking too good. lol

I was following the instructions but my confidence was at 0.

Then as the teacher was talking to another participant, I caught a revelation...

Just Map it out.
Fill in the large shapes then you can adjust and go from there.

Aha... just like that, I had a plan. So with some very thin paint, I sketched in my marks very lightly.

I could now see something other than the white canvas and the blobs... I could faintly see where I was going.

My confidence grew.
and now my picture ain't looking half bad. woop 🙌🏾

👉 Question: Where in life can you use a lightly drawn road map?

PS: If you've read this far... here are a few more lessons I learned that day.

• Don't expect to get it right on your first try. (Eric was talking about our sketch.. but I can see how this applies to life too)
• Sometimes you need to take a step back and look at the big picture to see what to do next. (Eric invited us to pause and step back as we painted)

What do you think?
(Let me know via email or in the comments)

Here are some pics from the class.