Why Consuming Less Art Made My Work Better

The Pattern I Was Stuck In

When I started learning to paint on my own 15 years ago, I wanted to learn as much as I could about painting. I was constantly looking at old art from the masters of the past and some contemporary artists too.

I'd go to museum exhibitions, look through art books, watch YouTube videos, and scroll Instagram profiles. I pretty much looked everywhere.

If you've been following me for more than 10 years now, you know I had a ton of art books back then. I made videos about them all the time and talked about what I was learning and what I was seeing in the work.

I spent a large amount of my time meticulously studying and analyzing paintings from artists I admired. I had a list of about 10 artists from the past that I always looked to when I needed inspiration or to see how they would paint something. Not only that, but I also tried to figure out what was it about their work that made it nice to look at.

I studied their color choices, composition, brushwork, and everything else that makes a great painting. I even studied their materials and read books trying to understand their process and how they created certain effects in their work.

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing to do. It's great when you're just starting out and learning, especially on your own as I was. But at some point I knew I shouldn't do this forever.

But the whole point for me studying these things so intensely is because I wanted my work to look like theirs. I wanted what I thought was professional-looking art. High quality art.

The problem though was that I wasn't just learning at this point, I was outsourcing my own taste and confidence.

The more I consumed art, the harder it became to hear my own voice in my work.

What This Was Quietly Costing Me

All of this supposed studying of other art put me in a state of constant comparison. I would always compare my work to my favorite artists and see if mine was similar. I'll be honest, this isn't a bad thing to do necessarily but it can easily become one if you do it too much or too often.

For me personally, I realized it helped me to some extent but eventually became more detrimental than beneficial.

This caused me to second guess my own decisions with my art and hesitate with my brushwork. Because in my mind, I'm trying to paint the way my hero's do. I want my art to look like theirs. So I ended up with someone else's voice in my head when creating my art.

This only added more pressure to making paintings. And if I ended up making what I thought was a bad painting, I'd start looking at more art again for inspiration. I thought "maybe I'm just not seeing enough good art to have it drilled into my head yet".

But the reality was that I was actually drowning in input, I just didn't know it.

The Turning Point

What made me start to question all of this was when I would scroll through Instagram and see artwork from contemporary artists whose work obviously had the style of master from the past.

It was so obvious that the comments were flooded with things like "wow, this looks just like Sargent's paintings". They weren't bad comments, they were equating the quality and style of his work to Sargent's work. Not that he was stealing Sargent's work.

And I saw similar things from a couple other artists as well. All mimicking the style of Sargent or Richard Schmid or whoever else they admired.

I realized those artists are only known because their art looks like someone else's. You can probably think of artist's right now that you currently follow who have a style that mimics other famous artists.

This made me question the work I was creating and all the studying I was doing.

I asked myself: "When other people see my art, do I want them to automatically think of someone else's work"? Is this what I want for my art?

That's when I realized I didn't want to just be a clone or an echo of someone else. I didn't want my work to live in the shadow of another artist.

I wanted to be my own artist. With my own voice. And my own way of doing things.

A Delicate Balance

I do want to say this though: studying art is necessary early on. It helps you learn all the fundamentals you need to create good and better art. I don't think this idea of consuming art is either all or nothing. It's not black and white.

But I do believe that eventually it becomes more beneficial to lessen the amount you consume and focus on creating for a while. I initially did it for 3 months but it soon became almost permanent for me after that. I didn't really feel much need for it anymore.

There is a need for both, it's just a matter of when. If you're just starting out then it can definitely be helpful for training technique and skill. Then after a few years, when you're more focused on creating, this is helpful for revealing your voice as an artist.

I've just come to realize for me that consuming vs. creating is a delicate balance and at some point, consumption stopped helping and instead was muting me.

What I Do Differently Now

Here's what I've been doing now for the past year and a half.

I rarely look at other art. Occasionally, my Instagram feed shows me a couple pieces here and there, but that's about it. I don't obsess over them or analyze them anymore. I look for a second or two, admire it, and move on.

I no longer feel this need to compare my art to other artists. I've done my best to detach myself from what other artists are doing and creating. We all have our own journey and are at different stages in learning.

I can't compare myself to someone who's been doing it for 50 years and has different goals than I do. Just like someone who started yesterday shouldn't compare what they're making to me or my work either.

I'm no longer trying to make my art look like the artists I admire. I simply paint the way that I naturally paint and go with the flow.

I stopped asking “How would they paint this”?

I don't care about how someone else paints rocks or trees or whatever. I figure out how I will paint them. It's a process of trial and error but that's the fun part about it. Discovering how I like my trees or rocks or people to look.

I no longer stopped myself from painting a certain way, just because my favorite artists didn't paint that way. My work has improved because I stopped resisting who I am and the way that I paint. I create art without fight my own nature.

I still use other artists as inspiration but instead of using their art style, I adopt their mindset. I don't want to paint or create art that looks like theirs. I want to understand how they approach their art and their practice. Use what makes sense to me and throw out the rest.

Adopt mindsets, not styles.

Since I'm not comparing anymore, I strive for high quality art in my own way. Whatever I think looks good to me. That helps me to develop my own taste and my own judgement for my work. Not based on what other artists are doing or have created in the past.

The great thing about not comparing is that it reduces the pressure of creating art. I don't need to feel a sense of competition. I don't need my art to look the most detailed or most realistic or fill in the blank. There will always be someone better and more skilled than me. And it's great to finally not care about it.

What I noticed after making close to 300 paintings in the span of 4 months when I stopped consuming other art (back in late 2024), is that my own voice started to show through more strongly. And I think having the mindset of no comparisons and no pressure helped me to create more art. And creating more art helped to reveal my style to me more.

And overall I just feel better about the work I'm creating now because it's truly mine. It's who I am and what I want to say. Of course, there's probably still influences from all the past art I've studied and looked at for years. It's not that I am creating art completely without influences anymore. It's just that I no longer care about those influences so much, as I used to.

I feel more free in my art process.

And I try my best to create more than I consume (if I consume other art at all).

The Language Learning Parallel

Something interesting about all of this is that I've noticed the same thing with learning a new language.

I've been learning the Malay language on my own now for almost 5 years. And when you start out learning a language, there's a lot of different tools you can use to help with learning like flashcard apps, beginner videos, and other things.

And these are super useful in the beginning, even for a few years.

But at some point, you have to start speaking and actually use the language.

And if you keep drilling flashcards only to learn super obscure words that you'll only come across once every 7 years in reality, then flashcards are becoming a hindrance. It's better if you study and use the words you'll actually use on a daily basis.

And at some point, you have to stop using the flashcards and immerse yourself in the language. Speak often, make mistakes, and learn from your own process.

I feel art is kind of the same way.

You can consume art forever but if you don't spend more time making it, then you're not really practicing.

A Simple Invitation

So here's a couple ideas I'll leave you with:

• Create more than you consume
  If you do consume art or still want to, try creating longer than you consume. Set some time limitations on how much you scroll art each day or week.

• Try an inspiration fast for a month
  Don't intentionally consume other art. Just focus on creating art.

• Instead of scrolling, do a sketch
  Replace one hour of scrolling with one hour of sketching. You'll probably feel better for doing this anyway.
  Your voice doesn’t come from more input. It comes from use.
  Focus on enjoying the process and be patient.