Perfectionism is not a badge of honor. It is a fear of failing, wrapped in the disguise of “high standards.” It is the most effective way to ensure you never finish anything worth showing. If you are waiting for the perfect conditions to finish your art, you are simply waiting for an excuse to quit.
The Core Issue: The Ego Problem
When you obsess over minor details, you are not working for the art. You are working for your ego. You want to prove that you are “good.” This turns drawing into a high-stakes, stressful chore, which naturally makes you want to avoid it.
If the cost of starting is a potential blow to your ego, you will procrastinate every single time. You aren’t avoiding the work because the work is hard; you are avoiding the work because you are afraid the result won’t be “perfect.”
The Fact: Quality is a Numbers Game
There is a famous study regarding pottery students: one group was graded on the quality of one piece, and the other on the quantity of pieces produced. The group that focused on volume ended up producing the highest-quality work.
Why? Because they were practicing the mechanics of finishing. They were iterating. They were learning what didn’t work and moving on immediately. Perfectionists get stuck on one piece, polishing it until the life is drained out of it, while the “volume” creators are already on their tenth attempt.
The Shift: The “Ship” Standard
Start practicing “good enough to ship.” This does not mean producing garbage. It means producing a finished thought. Your goal is to move from the blank canvas to the finished product as efficiently as possible so you can clear the stage for the next, better iteration.
Every time you finish a piece, you level up. Every time you leave a piece “in progress” because you are tweaking a single line, you are standing still. See it to completion.
The Action: The Immovable Deadline
For your next project, set an absolute, immovable deadline. If you have two hours, you have two hours. The second that timer goes off, you put the pen down.
No “just one more adjustment.” No “let me fix that highlight.” You finish. You export. You ship. You start the next one.
The goal is not to create a masterpiece on your first try. The goal is to move to your next attempt as fast as possible. That is where real quality comes from. You will also feel proud and motivated in general, in the long run.
The feeling of being “proud and motivated” in the long run does not come from the work you finished six months ago; it comes from the evidence of your own evolution. When you obsess over one masterpiece, you are betting your entire identity on a single result. If it fails, you feel like a failure. But when you switch to the “high-velocity” model, you stop being a gambler and start being a scientist.
And here is why that shift creates deep, long-term motivation, real quick:
Stop Overthinking: The Paradox of Choice paralyzes your brain. Build a creative cage… limit your colors, brushes, and time, to force yourself to start. I wrote more on that here.
Stop Doodling: Passive sketching is just autopilot. Use deliberate practice to isolate one specific sub-skill (like eyes or lines) and drill it until you own it. Which you can check out my post on why ‘Mindless Doodling’ is actually a trap
Kill the Friction: If your digital or physical setup takes more than two taps to get you drawing, you’ve already lost. Design a zero-friction environment so you don’t burn energy on administration. More on friction here.
Trigger Flow: Flow isn’t magic; it’s a biological state. Set the conditions… so, zero distractions, a specific goal, and a timed warm-up, to shut your internal critic up and get to work. Read more on the science of flow right here, as well.
Thanks for reading!