Why Overconsumption Dulls Your Ability to See

In the past, it's always been important to look at other art and learn from other artists to create great work. This is how it's been for the last couple hundreds of years.

But things are a bit different today.

Now there are more artists than ever before. And we are able to see more art than anyone before us could have ever imagined.

In some ways, this is a wonderful thing. We have artists communities online. We can all share ideas and grow together, in a way. Learn from one another. Be inspired by the art and artists we see.

Consuming other art actually feels useful for inspiration.

When you're not sure what to make or if you need some ideas, you can just look at what other artists have done. There's nothing wrong with doing this at all. I do it and almost every artist does it too.

Some of your best ideas could come from seeing something else which sparks an idea for a piece that you want to create. Or it could help you understand how to solve a problem you've been struggling with. It's useful to share ideas and build upon each other. All of these are positive things to do.

The problem comes when looking at other art becomes an everyday practice.
It shifts from something beneficial to a draining experience. It sometimes happens without you even realizing it. Before you know it, you haven't made any art in the past week or two but you've been looking at other art for hours on end, every day.

It Happens Without Intention

It's rare that somebody consciously chooses to overconsume.

It usually happens gradually and without our full awareness. Because it feels good to look at art. As artists, we like seeing what others have made. We want to see more beautiful things or more creative things. We also believe that this will help our art become more creative in the long run.

The obvious problem though is that social media platforms are designed so we'll continuously consume, even if we have the opposite intention. I've seen it in myself, and I consider myself to be quite disciplined for the most part.

I'll tell myself, "I need to go on Instagram to post a quick story, or find something I saved yesterday, etc..". I open the app with the specific intention of doing a particular action. Ten minutes later, when I realize I've been scrolling, I close the app immediately and snap back to reality.

Then I remember, "Oh yeah, I was going to post a story or find that one post". I got sucked into the posts and scrolling and didn't even do the original thing I opened the app for. It's so annoying sometimes. I'm sure you can relate to that one.

And that's why it's so easy to overconsume in today's world of the internet. Especially if you follow a bunch of artists or like a bunch of art posts. The algorithm will just keep showing you more and more of what you like.
That's how it works.

The Illusion of Learning

I used to think that by looking at other art I was learning and putting in effort. To some extent, I was learning of course. I researched about composition, design, and color. I learned about materials, brushwork, and creating the illusion of depth.

I was trying to learn from the best. I didn't feel lazy. I wanted to improve fast and reach a higher level of quality with my art. I wanted my art to be taken seriously and to be seen as a professional. Just like the artists I looked up to.

Anytime I scrolled online on Pinterest or Instagram, I'd save all the art that resonated with me. The more I looked at art and analyzed styles, the more beneficial it felt.

The problem with this is:

All of this effort is indirect. It's passive.

It's not forcing any decisions from me. I'm not risking failure or exposing any of my weaknesses. It's an easy, safe, and productive thing to do. It made me feel like I was doing the work and not avoiding it.

I'd probably learn much more from picking up my brushes every day and putting in the actual work of creating something.

I do want to point out: looking at other art and analyzing it is not useless or a waste of time. That's not exactly what I'm trying to say here. It's more nuanced than that.

The issue is when it becomes a substitute for making art.
Nowadays, it's more likely that we're all looking at too much art and not creating enough, rather than the opposite.

How Overconsumption Affected Me

One of the biggest issues with overconsumption is that you look outward instead of inward.

For me, I became focused on what others were doing and what was popular instead of creating what I wanted. I would go through periods where I made what I wanted. And other times, I felt defeated and would look outward and switch to something else.

I stopped asking myself what I wanted to paint. Instead I was focused on what would be more successful to make.

And at some point: I wasn’t choosing anymore. I was reacting.

Looking back, I can see there were so many times where I'd lost my internal compass.

For example, I used to want to paint cityscapes or portraits because the artists I admired painted those. And that’s what popular contemporary artists paint too.

It made me feel like if I want to be popular or be known as an artist, then I need to paint those subjects too. Or even paint how they paint. Maybe I need a particular style. I need my art to look like theirs because it seems to be working for them. And what I'm doing isn't working.

They're able to make a full-time living from painting and doing what they love, while I'm over here struggling.

And this something I battled with all the time. I always felt unsure about what direction I wanted to take or what I should be doing.

• Should I just make what people want to see?

• Should I just follow what I want?

• Should I just do what makes money?

I went back and forth all the time. Wanting to be popular or make money but I also didn't want to lose who I was. I didn't want to just make art for everyone else.
That kind of defeats the whole point of making art for me.

How Overconsumption Dulls Your Ability to See

I believe that consuming too much art all the time can cause more harm than good for your art practice.

I know for me, I'm someone who can easily overthink things. I'm more sensitive in certain situations, especially when it comes to myself or my abilities.

I imagine artists who share these sorts of traits like me will probably be more affected by overconsuming art too.

When you overconsume other art it:

Replaces Curiosity with Comparison

It can cause you to compare yourself and your art to others. And usually this is a negative experience rather than a positive one. It's quite easy to be too hard on yourself or put yourself down.

No one is going to feel like making more art after that.

And if you're trying to make a living from your art or make it into a business, it's even easier to spiral out when you see other successful artists online everywhere. These kinds of comparisons can be detrimental to your art and your motivation.

I've been through this myself many times over the last 10 years or so. And it's not fun.

Makes Your Attention Restless

Another thing that happens when you overconsume is that you're training yourself to look towards the next thing. Your attention becomes restless.

There's always another piece of art to look at or another new style you've never seen before.

It will always be this way.

It's easier than ever to fall down the rabbit hole of all the artists out there.

It becomes a cycle of consumption and scrolling that lessens our attention span and makes us always crave to see something new. And all of this restless attention hurts your art process in the long run.

Trains Recognition Instead of Observation

So as your scrolling and looking through a bunch of other art, you'll start to realize you can recognize styles pretty quick. Just by looking at a painting, you know who painted it, most likely.

It's really just something that naturally happens over time.

The problem is when we look at so much art that we just start to recognize these kinds of things without actually observing. Our observation skills of truly looking at something don't get used as much and weaken.

Unless you have the intention of analyzing and truly observing other art, you're only seeing what is being portrayed, not what makes the art great.

This is where it's easy to get caught up in styles and subject matter rather than using our observation skills to learn and grow.

Weakens Trust in Your Own Noticing

Over time, I noticed in myself that even when I saw something interesting, I didn't trust it. I'd notice a subtle color shift, a simple arrangement, or a subject I liked, and I'd immediately doubt whether it was interesting enough.

When you constantly consume finished work from other artists, you slowly absorb what they create and what they're prioritizing.

What stands out online starts to feel more valid than what's in your own mind or work.

You stop treating your own seeing as authoritative.

It makes you second guess your choices and your own true taste. And part of the problem is that you can shut down your own ideas in your mind before you even try them out in your art.

I've fallen victim to this many times in the past, when I think back on it.

I second-guessed my instincts before they ever had a chance to develop. It didn't always happen but it happened a lot.

Overconsumption didn’t stop me from noticing things. It stopped me from trusting that what I noticed was worth following.

Taste vs. Skill

I believe this is a huge misconception happening nowadays with artists, especially those just starting.

It's very easy to get discouraged when you're a beginner and the reason is because your taste grows faster than your skill. Let me break down what that actually means:

There exists a gap between the art you consume (your understanding or input) and the art you're able to create (your skill or output).

Everyone goes through this and it exists for us all. But the more art you look at and the less you create, this gap increases. And this is what feeds discouragement and negative feelings about not being good enough or not having talent, whatever you want to call it.

Most likely, you just have an imbalance between your input and your output. Here's a great example of this concept, even if a little different:

I can currently fully understand a second language I'm learning, but can't speak it too well yet. I've had almost 1,100 hours of listening and consumption but only around 50-60 hours of speaking practice.

This is a huge difference in my input (understanding) and output (creation). Art works the same way. When consumption massively outweighs creation, taste grows faster than skill.

When that gap gets too wide, it doesn't motivate you. It paralyzes you.
And I'll add: I think with art, you probably need many, many more hours of output than input.

Overeating

Think about when you eat too much food. It usually tastes delicious in the moment but once it settles in, you feel terrible. Sometimes for the entire night or next day.

You probably regret eating so much and do your best not to do it again. Nobody wants to feel terrible from eating good food.

But if we want to feel good, we have to eat in moderation.

Overconsumption of art works the same way. Except with art, I think it can be more dangerous in a way because we don't have that bloated, terrible feeling which signals we've seen too much.

We keep consuming more and in reality, we're losing sensitivity, not gaining it.

A Deeper Return to Observation as a Skill

There was no overnight change for me. It was a slower and longer process. And in some ways it happened naturally and in other ways, I made an conscious effort to change.

I say this because I don't want you to feel as if you need to make a drastic change overnight. It's really more about setting an intention and moving towards that intention more often.

So the first change I made was:

Consuming Less Art on Purpose

It was difficult at first because I was so used to looking at my favorite artists and see how they did things. If I was struggling with my art, I could look at their work and emulate it a bit or find some sort of answer to a problem I was having.

But after a while, just creating and trusting myself more became easy. I didn't even have the desire or need to look at a bunch of art anymore.

Creating felt more free to me now.

I Work from Life More

Nature is the best teacher when it comes to creating art. This is one of the best things you can do to improve your observation and your art.

The interesting thing I noticed when I started painting outdoors all the time was that the success rate for my paintings was way higher. I'm not really sure why that is to be honest, but it is true.

When I worked in the studio from photos exclusively, it was much harder to get a good painting. Sometimes I've had to paint the same scene 2-3 times before I got it right. Nothing wrong with that by the way either, it's just practice.

But when I painted from life outdoors, it was much easier to get a better result. Also, just being outside and observing your scene from life beats a photo every single time. It gives you the ability to truly see and capture the light, shadows, and colors that are really out there.

Once I stopped this overconsumption and focused more on creating my own art, I actually feel better. I feel more clarity for my art than I ever have. I have no desire to compare my art or my abilities to other artists anymore.

I'm not concerned with what's going on online or trying to keep up with any trends.

What I learned is that my ability to see didn’t improve by adding more input. It returned when I removed the noise.

I removed all of this mental clutter so I can learn more about who I am as an artist and what I want to create. Without the direct influence of others.

It's a freeing feeling.

Thanks for reading.

Brandon Schaefer