In your journey to becoming a textile artist, the most important thing you can learn is to trust your artistic instinct. Have belief in the inherent quality of your work, and celebrate where you are now. Recognising where you fit in the Four Stages of Textile Art Mastery can help you on your way.
When I started out, I was full of confidence, but quickly reached the opinion that everyone else was ‘better than me‘.
I regularly hear this same refrain from people new to thread sketching, thread painting, or any other artistic pursuit. You only have to look at posts on social media to see the somewhat apologetic words of someone revealing their first creation which, in my opinion, is generally a work of art both intriguing and imaginative.
Often, these ‘inexperienced’ works are utterly delightful!
The truth is, there is nothing to apologise for. Being a beginner is exciting!
We are all at different stages of the journey and there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’, no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in art.
As you create more and more new thread paintings, quilts, or thread sketches, you will discover how you like to work, your (perceived) strengths and weaknesses. (a.k.a. things that could benefit from more practice), and your style preferences.
Accept your work for what it is – a representation of your ideas. The longer you spend thread sketching, thread painting, and making textile art, the more comfortable and confident you will become with the techniques and your ability.
Like everyone, I started from the beginning. Persistence got me to where I am now. It’s a fact that if you don’t give up, you will master the art of working with thread, in whatever way you choose to do it – for there are so many possibilities and variations to explore.
Can I do better? Of course! There are always improvements and refinements to work towards, and I, too, am not immune from feeling that other people are ‘better than me’.
Creating art is like life’s journey – we are continuously learning and growing and changing. And people we perceive to be ‘better than us’ are simply a little further along the road.
Become your own best teacher
I’ve always liked to do things my own way!
If I haven’t known how to do something I’ve figured it out through trial and error (often a lot of error!).
As a child (and even now!) asking for help was usually way down my list of things I could do.
Instead, I learned by reading books, researching, and exploring what other people were doing. I’d buy patterns – and change them. If I was told to paint a tree green, I’d paint it red. Whatever I perceived to be a ‘trend’, I would do the opposite (little has changed!).
And yes, there were times when these particular personality traits slowed me down. I can be stubborn, for sure!
But this stubbornness has led to me becoming my own teacher.
This is not to suggest that I don’t learn from others, for certainly I do, and will continue doing so.
Learning from others expands our horizons and generates new ideas. Exposure to the work of other artists enriches our own creativity and self-expression.
Like so many creative people, I’ve enrolled in classes and, without fail, have learned something new with every class taken. There is always a new or different way to look at something, a new technique to try, or a new product I haven’t seen before.
Everything you learn from others helps you learn to teach yourself.
Along the way, I’ve learned how to figure things out for myself. I’ve discovered how to use inspiration from other artists to get to the bottom of a problem.
And through observation, rather than theory, I’ve learned about balance and composition in art. I also learned how to really ‘see’ colours and instinctively understand how they work with each other. Understanding how colours ‘react’ when placed alongside each other teaches us about blending to create further shades.
Through experimentation and practice I’ve discovered the things I really love to do.
Another discovery that emerged involves an interesting theory that made me look at my ability as a textile artist differently:
The Four Stages of Textile Art Mastery
This discovery has helped me realise that becoming an artist is a journey – a journey that will take unexpected twists and turns along the way.
Recognising the Four Stages of Textile Art Mastery
Regardless of your level of textile art experience, there are (broadly speaking) two types of people:
- Those who confidently dive into something new, not worrying about what might or might not go wrong. They’re happy to push the boundaries from Day 1.
- And then there are those people who hesitate and get overwhelmed at the mere thought of trying anything new or different.
I received an email a few days ago from someone who said she’d tried so many courses but just wasn’t able to get anything right. She was disheartened.
And it got me thinking.
What she actually needs is someone to gently propel her beyond her boundaries (the comfort zone) – not unsympathetically, but in a way that supports and encourages.
Now, I have a solution to this, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Doubts in our ability can crop up at any time.
As soon as you see someone else’s work that you perceive to be ‘better’ than yours, the shift away from thinking your work is ‘great’, to ‘maybe not so good’ can happen swiftly! Even when people are telling you quite the opposite.
Unfortunately, it is too easy to lose confidence in our inherent ability, simply by comparing ourselves to others. Please don’t do that!
Recognising your feelings, regardless of where you are, helps you move forward and improve.
Discovering where you are on the trajectory of knowledge and experience better positions you to cope with any hurdles along the way.
Develop an awareness of which stage you’re at.
[Note: This is not a formal exploration of the Stages of Competence, rather than my interpretation of how these stages affect our development as creative artists.]
Stage 1: The ‘Blissfully Ignorant’ stage.
The ‘Unconsciously unskilled’ stage.
This is an exciting stage! At this time, you are totally unaware of your complete lack of knowledge and skills, or you’re aware but don’t care! You’re having fun!
Sometimes, the most creative work is done by people who just dive in, without any skills or training.
Of course, in the field of textile arts, this strategy is rarely dangerous. However, I wouldn’t recommend it for say, skydiving, perhaps!
Stage 2: The ‘Everyone is better than me’ stage.
The ‘Consciously unskilled’ stage.
Suddenly the realisation hits that you don’t actually know what you’re doing! And you realise how far there is to go. Oh no!!
So you naturally think everyone else is a ‘better’ artist than you. They all seem so competent while you struggle with simple techniques.
Things start to go wrong:
- Your thread or needle breaks.
- Unsightly puckers appear all around your picture.
- You decide you don’t like your design.
- You stitch over your finger. Ouch!
- You spill coffee on your work.
- Your back hurts.
- You consign your work to the bin, or the UFO pile.
- You sigh and walk away.
Yes, we all have days like this!
How you choose to look at this stage is essential to your progress.
Some people quickly become demoralised, lose confidence, and may even give up. While others take the bit between their teeth and gallop onwards, determined to master the techniques.
Always keep in mind that this stage is usually short-lived if you recognise what you need to learn, keep practising, and don’t give up.
Along the way, ‘happy accidents’ will occur – those delightful situations where you doggedly stick at what you were doing, thinking, perhaps, that it is going nowhere, and suddenly you realise it is ‘working’.
You realise that something special has just occurred.
Stage 3: The ‘I’m getting the hang of this’ stage.
The ‘Consciously skilled’ stage.
Things are looking great now! It dawns on you that you do have the ability to do free-motion stitching, or thread painting, for example. Now you put your skills to use with confidence.
You are becoming confident with the techniques that, perhaps, have been irritating or frustrating you. What you once thought difficult has suddenly become easy.
Stage 3 is a ‘feel-good’ stage because you are proud of what you’re making. And you know that as you practice more, your confidence will continue to grow, and everything will get easier.
Stage 4: The ‘I’ve nailed it’ stage.
The ‘Unconsciously skilled’ stage.
This is a ‘fun’ stage! You are in the ‘zone’. Your innate creativity is rising to the surface (again, as this was also the case in Stage 1) and you find you can focus less on technique and more on self-expression.
You realise that your work is now a true representation of your style, and not that of someone else.
Now you discover that people are turning to you for advice. Perhaps your work is selling, or you win ‘Best in Show’ at a competition. Congratulations! A red-letter day!
Stage 4 is when you can implement techniques almost unconsciously; a bit like being on auto-pilot.
Confidence is high, and you’re feeling great! You have become your own expert, your own favourite teacher!
Then what?
The problem with this sequence of competence for people like you and me is that learning new skills and becoming proficient at them doesn’t always occur in such a linear and predictable sequence.
But it’s useful to look at these stages and recognise where you are in the sequence.
As an artist, you are continually learning. Every day you discover something new.
Being an artist is exciting as you never know when you’ll have that ‘happy accident’. Just when you think something disastrous has happened, you find a way through the problem and end up taking a new and exciting path.
But we all know that unexpected scenarios or problems crop up all the time, causing you to back-track or doubt yourself.
I am very familiar with this scenario!
You see, the stages of competency are helpful in theory, but in reality, nothing ever stays the same.
Curveballs and Competencies
Learning is a constant, life-long pursuit. It doesn’t matter what field or line of business you work in, there is always something – just around the corner – to throw out a new challenge.
Life is not predictable. We get thrown curveballs all the time.
And when we’re thrown a curveball, the competency model starts to disintegrate.
So what can we do about it?
Perhaps you thought you’d reached the ‘comfort’ of Zone 3 (‘I’m getting the hang of this’) or 4 (‘I’ve nailed it!’). You’re feeling great. You’re on Cloud 9.
But then you realise that perhaps you’ve back-tracked to Stage 2 (‘Everyone is better than me’.)?
What happened?
Excelling at something involves setbacks. There will be times when you feel great, times when you’re stuck, and times where you simply don’t know which way to turn.
But please don’t throw in the towel now! No, no, no!
When you find yourself stuck, you need to alter your ideas, perceptions and perhaps even goals.
By focusing on doing one thing at a time, you’ll find that:
- Your practice will be more rewarding.
- You will progress more rapidly.
- Ideas will burst from your creative little brain – so many ideas you may not know which to try first!
- You will be more pleased with your results.
- Your mood will improve.
- You will feel better.
- And you will create beautiful art that you are keen to share with others!
Now go and unlock your creativity! (and don’t forget to have fun along the way).
Nancy says
Deborah, you are so right about these four stages. I flip flop from these stages and appreciate your identification of them. Thank you for your endless support.
Deborah says
Thank you, Nancy. I, too, seem to move effortlessly (!) back and forth between the different states. I suspect we are not alone! I have found that identifying them helps me move forward when I’m in a period of self-doubt.