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I am a painter with a goal to make money. I\u2019m not as much of what I would consider a \u201ctrue artist\u201d who is in love with the craft and history of it all. For a long time, I was slightly ashamed to admit that.


I thought wanting to make money made me sound greedy or less than other artists. But after a while, I just said, \u201check with it\u201d and leaned into my business-minded artistic side. I\u2019m really good at making money with a paintbrush, and I make a lot of it in not very many hours. I teach it because that\u2019s what I\u2019m passionate about, so if you\u2019re at all interested in making money with a paintbrush and not just doing it for fun, then I have a big tip for you.

See, I don\u2019t mind painting something random if someone pays me enough and I don\u2019t mind stopping a project and walking away when it\u2019s at the good enough stage. If a customer doesn\u2019t have an amazing budget, then I don\u2019t make an amazingly realistic best-of-my-ability painting. I\u2019m okay with doing a good job, but not an amazing one if the situation calls for it. And I take that theory into the rest of my work life\u2026

If I spent just a couple more months on my book it would be that much better. I could\u2019ve added more humor, less rambling, and more whimsical words to help paint a picture of every story I told within the pages. But I didn\u2019t. I called it done and moved on.

Every single time I record a solo podcast episode, I seriously consider lighting it on fire and starting over. I\u2019m tempted to spend another hour going back over the subject I just talked about, but this time make it so much smoother.

Almost every mural design I create, at one point or another, I look at it and think why didn\u2019t I stretch my creativity a little further to make it look just a bit better?

In the middle of painting, I\u2019ll often want to add a small detail or change a small part, but I make myself move on and come back to it in the end. \u201cIf it still bothers me when everything is complete then I\u2019ll add/change that part.\u201d

But 90% of the time nothing gets changed, because the overall look of the mural isn\u2019t reliant on a small detail.

My art business won\u2019t crumble if a small detail is incorrect or out of place. I\u2019ll get to it eventually, or not.

Currently, everything runs comfortably. Not perfect, but comfortable.

So, when can you call it good enough?

If the customer is happy, then it\u2019s good enough.

If I can say that I gave at least an 80% effort, then that\u2019s good enough for me. Because I know adding that extra 20% often takes waaaaay longer than necessary.

Let\u2019s chat about the idea of leaving perfectionism behind and putting things out there that are good enough on this week's episode of the Artist Academy Podcast.


Andrea
www.ArtistAcademy.co