Why art is frustrating
I was asked this by a friend. Why is art so frustrating? Good question.
It didn’t take me long to find an answer however. I have been over this question several times with myself already. I am the sort of personal perfectionist that given any task, I can master it very quickly. That is, if I put my full mind to it. However this only applies to left brain tasks, or logical step by step tasks. Perhaps being able to add or remove steps here and there, but all point a, to b, to c, to d.
Art, isn’t a simple step by step process. However much one wishes it could be. In fact it does not really have ‘steps’ at all except for the levels of build up (skeleton -> sketch -> re-sketch -> ink -> color). But this helps little with the actual process of doing each of those steps. Logical thinking is all step to step thinking. Sort of like a computer. You do this, then this, and then this. Creative thinking is more of a big picture, creating connections, and the like. Needless, we would be lost without either side. However the right (creative) brain rarely gets exercised as much as the left.
Because of this we are usually left with childlike ability in drawing, since that is usually when we ‘stop’ to goto school. Not to say schools don’t have art classes. But they do little to actually develop the creative right brain, instead focusing on much less frustrating left brain ‘artistic tasks’. Such as paper-mache, or other crafts.
The only way to get around this is to exercise the right brain. Drawing aimlessly and losing track of time in the process usually involves this. Its hard work, and you need to do it daily to ‘catch’ up. Even if it is non-sensual drawings. Other types usually involve visualizing objects in 3D and drawing them. Drawing what you see. Coming up with creative designs for whatever your interest is (cars, bikes, planes, birds, clothing, computers, etc).
P.S. There are other things that are also frustrating to learn, but not because of creativity requirements, but due to the scope of knowledge required. Such as language learning, and other areas you know little in (this is also another reason for art, studying anatomy helps, but isn’t as beneficial as observation).