Got told my sketches looked too clean and it bugged me for weeks

An old senior drafter at my last shop pulled me aside and said my drawings looked like a robot made them, no character or room for interpretation. He told me to stop erasing every tiny mistake and leave some construction lines visible so people could see my process. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you rethink how much polish is actually needed?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora_perez8d ago

Did you read that book "Art and Fear" by any chance? It talks about how striving for perfection actually kills the creative process. I came across it a while back and it changed how I look at my own work. The idea is that those little mistakes and rough lines aren't failures, they're proof that a human made the thing. Once you stop trying to polish everything into nothing, the work actually starts to breathe.

zara_perez628d ago

Is that why we airbrush every photo until we look like plastic dolls?

thea6929d ago

Got a similar thing from my professor in art school years ago. She said my ink work was too sterile like I was trying to hide every mistake until it had no life left in it. Took me a while to realize that little imperfections actually give the drawing personality and make it feel human. Now I leave some of my guide lines and rough marks in on purpose. Feels wrong at first but people actually commented they liked seeing the movement in the piece. Funny how we spend so much time trying to be perfect when messy is often way more interesting.

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