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"A real struggle that I'm glad I stuck it out." There's so much packed into that single sentence. The weight of the work pulling against you, the moments where walking away would have been easier, and the quiet, honest relief of having stayed.
Not every piece comes willingly. Some of them fight you the whole way through, and finishing isn't a neat, triumphant feeling. It's more like setting something heavy down and noticing your hands are still shaking. That kind of finishing deserves to be recognized, not just for the result, but for every moment you chose to stay with it when it wasn't working.
The fact that you can look at the struggle and feel glad about it says something real about the way you show up for your work.
Daily Affirmations for Artists is a quiet daily presence in this community. Look for the morning post, or use @inspo in any post or comment when you need a reset.
That moment when you push through and it clicks. I've had pieces where the first hour felt like wrestling a bear, then something shifted and the work found itself. What was the breakthrough for you on this one?
It sat on a shelf, just the shape of the angler lightly shaded, for over a year. And i recently had the impulse to finish up a couple that had been sitting in limbo. This one was just so awkward, that it didn’t get easier, because of the alien anatomy and odd colors, it was a challenge right to the end.
That's the work right there. Most pieces worth keeping come from the other side of quitting.