Funny that I read this today. I am suffering from that same affliction at the moment! Why do I paint? Who cares what I have to say? Reading what you have said about the inner critic is helping me to overcome " her". It's amazing how reading what other artists are saying can give a person that little boost that he/shes need to get back in the studio, try something new, reflect, learn and grow. If I have any moments of brilliance as to how to silence the inner critic I will certainly let you know! Thanks for sharing.

I usually don't add comments to these articles but this one moved me as well as the persons comment before me. It is hard to put that constant critic to bed. Maybe its a bad phase of the moon because I was in my "dungeon" last night and I was feeling so desperate to feel that inspiration and feeling almost overwhelmed by the amount of art out there. I read a particularly bothersome article elsewhere that was debating the annoyance of artists by the similarities of their work to other artists and accusations that consciously or unconsciously artists steal ideas from each other, so who owns the idea? Who painted the first rose and do they "own" all the other roses? (Because they were first or the best?) I wondered why do I bother? Surely it has all been said, and most likely by someone "better". Well I do it because no matter how agressive my critic voice is it never manages to smother that burning need to create. Just lately I have decided to paint more for my trashcan and for my secret art journal that harbors my deepest and darkest thoughts. I painted about my "spiteful muse" who tells me how awful my art is. As I gave her a face she couldn't stop my paint brush. Score one more for the persistant artists!

I never comment on this kind of thing, but I couldn't resist this. I have one of the strongest, most overbearing inner critics ever! A successful piece is often viewed with amazement - 'How on earth did I manage to do that?' No confidence at all, zilch, zip, zero, despite awards and sales. So two months ago, I began to paint whatever I felt with no regard for what others might think or buy. If I didn't like it, I put it in the pile to be gessoed over or turned into collage elements. If I did like it, I tried to write on the back what it was about it that I liked so that I could pursue that particular path. This has given me a renewed joy in painting and has boosted my creativity significantly. Painting FOR others or LIKE others is deadening for me. It is a lesson worth sharing.

I was just talking about this with a friend of mine who wants me to help him learn how to do some pencil drawings.  I am constantly battling my inner critic, and for many years it kept me from doing anything with my art--it totally silenced me.

I told him the first thing he had to do was silence the part of him that said, "I can't draw"... It's so sad that this inner critic takes hold of us when we are young, preventing most of us from event trying...then sticks around to haunt us even as we have fed our passion to create.

I do not do commission work--what I do I do to feed my soul, and the best advice I was given by an instructor was to do what gives me joy, without thought of what another will think of it. We don't HAVE to show anyone our work if we don't want to, and if we choose to share, it's on our terms.

I am trying to take Mark Twain's advice, only with an additional twist...

Dance like nobody's watching; Love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's heaven on earth.... And create like no one is judging...just express it with all of your heart.

Thank you for sharing, Shen.

Our Critic... Our Censor, or as I call it, the Nag. This is such a universal part of the Artist experience. It is certainly not limited to the visual arts, and it is akin to the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. A humorous image (maybe I should paint it??) But, so very powerful. The idea that we are truely tools... creations whose purpose IS to create... means we cannot create "wrong". Artists learn through duplication. Of other artists, of their own work. But every effort is unique and just as it should be. Every piece a lesson. Our critic should let us see mostly positive, and allow us to choose one aspect that it would be nice to do differently in the future. Whether a work is a "master"piece will always be a matter of opinion. Create to experience joy and a flow of spirituality will led you through the process. These are my personal emories from a course I engaged in throgh the book "The Artist's Way". My favorite terms I still repeat "spiritual chiropractic" and "Discovery " instead of recovery from the critic. As is so wisely encouraged, an artist need only to "Show Up to the Page".

I honestly do believe that we are our own worst critics. My inner voice, like many of you it would seem, is overbearing and harsh. While it is an ever-present annoyance, I think I have to look at it this way if I am ever going to achieve any sanity in my life (at least where art is concerned. My sanity otherwise will always be in question...)

If I lose my inner critic, it means that I don't care about my work any more. And then I might as well call it over! It's just that simple. As for the others, I have learned to live with my high blood pressure from "taking everything with a grain of salt..." You can't please everyone, you just can't.

I absolutely used to die whenever I got a negative comment on my pieces, and since most of them came from my family, it was doubly horrid. Comments like: "why don't you take your work to San Francisco, some crazy person there might buy it..." cut to the core! But then I realized, that I can't squash this need I have to create. So it means developing a tough skin, and an internal noise filter, to block out inner and outer critics, and to CREATE! Good or bad.

If you are out there, taking you heart and putting it out in public for everyone to see, there will be bad as well as good critiques. If someone takes the time to give you a bad critique, think of it as they took the time to look at your work in the first place! They could've passed it by without another thought!!! You caught their eye long enough for them to look. Rock on!!!!

I honestly do believe that we are our own worst critics. My inner voice, like many of you it would seem, is overbearing and harsh. While it is an ever-present annoyance, I think I have to look at it this way if I am ever going to achieve any sanity in my life (at least where art is concerned. My sanity otherwise will always be in question...)

If I lose my inner critic, it means that I don't care about my work any more. And then I might as well call it over! It's just that simple. As for the others, I have learned to live with my high blood pressure from "taking everything with a grain of salt..." You can't please everyone, you just can't.

I absolutely used to die whenever I got a negative comment on my pieces, and since most of them came from my family, it was doubly horrid. Comments like: "why don't you take your work to San Francisco, some crazy person there might buy it..." cut to the core! But then I realized, that I can't squash this need I have to create. So it means developing a tough skin, and an internal noise filter, to block out inner and outer critics, and to CREATE! Good or bad.

If you are out there, taking you heart and putting it out in public for everyone to see, there will be bad as well as good critiques. If someone takes the time to give you a bad critique, think of it as they took the time to look at your work in the first place! They could've passed it by without another thought!!! You caught their eye long enough for them to look. Rock on!!!!

This inner critic for years has kept me from even trying to let the artist in me come out and play. I see others paintings and I know I have the skills (I have a BFA in Computer Art & Design) but picking up that pencil or paint brush is terrifying to me. I have come to realize that the only difference between me and them is that they weren't afraid to try. I am working very hard to overcome that and snub my nose at that inner critic! If my work is bad.....oh well. I read in a drawing book that it might take 5000 mistakes before you are good at art, so you might as well get busy and get those out of the way and get on with it! Paraphrased and I am sorry I can't give you the source at the moment.

I have to confess that I have allowed my inner critic to slow or interrupt my work altogether.  I am now in the process of trying to get my art career up and moving again.  I get overwhelmed quite often, but I am determined not to give up.  Your article is very encouraging!  Thank you!

This article really caught my attention.  Like so many others, I have not responded to many comments before, but here I am adding mine.  I too, have found over the years that I cannot do commission work.  My art is actually in needle and thread, but the media is not of significance.  So many people say to me "Why don't you do your work to sell"?  I have tried many, many times over 40 years of creating, and the result is always the same.  I spend a lot of time creating my artwork, turning it into fabric, sewing it into an article, that I usually do not want to sell it.  It almost becomes "one of my children".  I have found I can produce far more in quantity when I did a project for donation to a charity.  Somehow the inner critic went away when I got passed the fact that it had to be perfect to sell.  When I did it for the love and giving of it, I did my best work, and produced a lot more, and was actually willing to part with it.  I am not saying we should all donate our work. I don't really know the answer.  Unless it is to start with the donation idea, and then put it up for sale when it is done.  I just know the inner critic is so strong that it is something apparently many true artists deal with.  Perhaps after reading all of these comments I will remember this and get over the fear.  Thanks to all of you for sharing.

For me, the more art I create, the smaller the inner critique becomes.  It actually does not bother me much anymore now.  Giving myself the freedom to create what I personally want and feel and am passionate about, versus an idea of what I "should" create has been liberating!

In practical terms, I know not everyone will adore my work, but I create primarily for self expression, my ideas of beauty, form and colour, which have been refined by technique and practice, practice, practice.  

So if others like it, I think that is great, we are on the same page.  However, if they don't like it, I think that is an opportunity to learn about them and how people relate to my work in different ways.  I don't let it devastate me.

One negative comment cannot undo hundreds of positive ones!

Have I overcome my inner art critic? Hell no. It's one of the reasons I can't stop fiddling, striving for perfection and trying to get over my own self doubt. The very best advice I ever accepted was, "Just Do It". Then, hopefully, the rest will follow.

To tell you the truth, I get such a terrified death grip on myself...that it stuns me into "nothing-ness" I have tons of ideas, and I want to see these ideas come to life but mostly I just dream and frankly I'm sick of it. I do get so tired from RA and pain will stop me in my tracts some days but I want so badly to be able to quit comparing myself to other artists. It could be so liberating to be able to stop this and just feel free to create. If you have the solution I'm ready to do it.

Thanks for this article.

Hi Shen. Of course, as a fellow artist, I have struggled with the same "inner critic" demons as you. A short time ago, I was viewing some commisioned work and thought to myself, "Someone was PAID to do this?! I have seen better art from a grade school assignment!"

Of course, as with all art, the response was mixed. People loved it, people hated it. This was the point where I realized that the old axiom is true. All art IS subjective, and who am I to judge my own art? It will never be what I had hoped for, but people respond. Be it positive or negative, isn't a response what art is all about? I have since tried to put my own perceptions behind me and simply create. I'll leave it to the viewer to decide if they think it has merit. I created it, so it has meaning to me, and if it evokes even a minimally visceral response from a few people, then I have done what I intended.

Your art is beautiful, by the way. Any one person who cannot see the soul you have put into these works is most likely envious of your talent. NEVER stop creating, please. You are awesome.

Hi Shen. Of course, as a fellow artist, I have struggled with the same "inner critic" demons as you. A short time ago, I was viewing some commisioned work and thought to myself, "Someone was PAID to do this?! I have seen better art from a grade school assignment!"

Of course, as with all art, the response was mixed. People loved it, people hated it. This was the point where I realized that the old axiom is true. All art IS subjective, and who am I to judge my own art? It will never be what I had hoped for, but people respond. Be it positive or negative, isn't a response what art is all about? I have since tried to put my own perceptions behind me and simply create. I'll leave it to the viewer to decide if they think it has merit. I created it, so it has meaning to me, and if it evokes even a minimally visceral response from a few people, then I have done what I intended.

Your art is beautiful, by the way. Any one person who cannot see the soul you have put into these works is most likely envious of your talent. NEVER stop creating, please. You are awesome.

Hi Shen. Of course, as a fellow artist, I have struggled with the same "inner critic" demons as you. A short time ago, I was viewing some commisioned work and thought to myself, "Someone was PAID to do this?! I have seen better art from a grade school assignment!"

Of course, as with all art, the response was mixed. People loved it, people hated it. This was the point where I realized that the old axiom is true. All art IS subjective, and who am I to judge my own art? It will never be what I had hoped for, but people respond. Be it positive or negative, isn't a response what art is all about? I have since tried to put my own perceptions behind me and simply create. I'll leave it to the viewer to decide if they think it has merit. I created it, so it has meaning to me, and if it evokes even a minimally visceral response from a few people, then I have done what I intended.

Your art is beautiful, by the way. Any one person who cannot see the soul you have put into these works is most likely envious of your talent. NEVER stop creating, please. You are awesome.