Endurance, failing and working on landscape painting

Sometimes I take a step back and look at my skill-set trying to figure out where I feel I lack the most and where I want to improve. Painting environments and landscape is something I've been wanting to get into for a while but never got around to it, mostly out of fear of all the inevitable failure I'll have to endure in the beginning.

What I've learnt through my years and years of painting is that failure is unavoidable if you wish to evolve with your art, and how silly as it may sound, bravery is a big part of getting better. What I mean is daring to try new techniques even if you might destroy whatever it is you've been working hard on.

I often find myself in situations where I might have spent hours on a piece, then I suddenly decide to try a new thing, it might be a colour or medium combination (or just using washi-tape instead of painters tape which ends up destroying the paper as above) which results in me ruin the painting all together. It feels very disheartening at first, might even make me angry at myself, sometimes I even stop painting for a while.

This is something we as artist will have to go through over and over and over again. Because if we don't try and fail we can not develop. Endurance is a big part of becoming great at painting. It's not about who's got the most talent, it's about who can endure failure for the longest.

So get out there, try new techniques and don't expect greatness in the beginning, expect to fail. This way you might dare to try some new things and have some fun while doing it.