Lilla's expert advice on managing creative overwhelm and building your confidence

Lilla often gets great questions from MATS students creating artwork that sells, and some of the common challenges they face in building their creative careers. One question she is often asked is about confidence, so we decided to share her useful insights with our readers in the hopes that others might find her advice useful as well.

A MATS student writes: Lilla, I often have times when I feel confident about my art, and totally believe that I can do this. No doubt about it. I was a graphic designer before I had my children (trained in the days when I had to do it all by hand!) but my love of drawing pushed me to want to do more. I had no training in actual art as I went straight from school to graphics, but have drawn f o r e v e r! When I start on these courses though, I am seriously overwhelmed by everyone else’s talent and abilities. I do them, because I know they push me further, yet it can make me want to give up too. I’m not going to, but the rollercoaster of emotions for these weeks seems to be so intensified! I have ideas for so many picture books (my children are 12, 10, 7 and 4 so lots of inspiration!) but when I look around the ‘class’ I worry that I’ll never make them happen :'( So I guess my question is, do you have any advice on how to manage this?!

Lilla writes: I totally get that, and you are not alone! I want to assure you that everyone feels those feelings in the beginning. In a way, it’s intensified now because you are digging into this course and making yourself vulnerable. And that’s good! Be proud of your bravery!

My advice is this: Set a journal beside you at your artmaking spot. Jot down in the journal the times when you are feeling confident, and jot down when you are feeling unpleasant feelings. You might write down what is going on when you feel those feelings.

One way to try this is: try not to label the unpleasant feelings as a criticism of you own abilities, like, “I’m not a good artist. I’ll never be good”, because of course those are not true facts. Let yourself feel the feelings with love, not hate, if that make sense. So like, you could say to yourself, “Oh! I’m feeling an unpleasant feeling. Huh. That’s worth noting.” And note it. I promise you that over time you will have those feelings less and less.

Another way to try this is to, yes, actually write those thoughts like, “Look how much better that artist is! I’ll never be that good!” and then answer what you’d say to a friend, like “Hey, how do you know that? They started at the beginning too! They probably spend a ton of time on their art and so they got better! Lilla says that you absolutely get better when you do more art!”

Now, make a note of all the things in the other parts of your life you DID learn, that you DID get better at, such as your graphic design. One does get better at everything with time and practice. It’s that simple!

You know, I was so scared of doing Facebook Lives and videos for MATS! Like really scared! I had always been a non-public artist and agent, a behind-the-scenes type. Not used to being “seen”, certainly not on camera. Would people like what I had to say? Would I forget my point? Would I ramble? Would my hair be weird? Yes, yes, and yes, but it didn’t actually matter! Basically, I wanted to get good at videos/Facebook Lives because I love teaching so much and I love connecting to my students. And now after doing a zillion of them, I feel much more confident to the point where I can honestly say that I fully enjoy doing them! My point is, let your passion for making art lead the way. Let your love of working with art supplies lead the way. Let your happiness in the art-making be your guide. The rest will fall into place. I truly hope that’s helpful.