Embracing "good enough"

For the past month I have been taking a break to catch up on life. Between appointments, exams, social events and trying to catch up on the washing I’ve left about the apartment I have been mulling over something a psyche recently mentioned to me.

He said that I had a “perfectionistic streak in my personality.” which may sound admirable at first. Who doesn’t want to do the best job they possibly can? That’s what we’re supposed to want right? To aim for that one, shimmering moment where we do a thing and it is undoubtedly, inarguably, almost impossibly, perfect.

My mind had already began to whirring over his words the moment he had begun speaking before coming to a grinding halt as he added quickly, “Which, I think causes you a great deal of anxiety,”

I stared at him.

This wasn’t news to me. I knew this.

I just didn’t think he’d notice.

A few days later a comic friend of mine off-handedly mentioned that their ability to whip together pages upon pages of updates was, in large part, because they had embraced a “good enough” attitude. Since then I have been pondering this obsession with “perfectionism”. It is pervasive throughout the industry that constitutes my day job. You’d be hard pressed to find a job listing that didn’t have, “a high attention to detail,” near the top of the list. When paired with the expectation of near inhumanely speed at which work is required to be churned over, there leaves little time to be truly creative.

Given the rising and contentious commodification of webcomics, creators on bigger platforms such as Tapas and Webtoons are feeling the pressure to perform to the whims of an algorithm that is barely understood by those that run the site, the most impactful of all of these whimsies being time.

In a recent video by Kaz Rowe on JC Leyendecker, an American commercial illustrator who’s art went on to define a decades of America’s culture and style, she highlights a quote from the man himself which touches upon the need for stillness when cultivating creativity. This was in reference to his studies in Paris.

He is quoted as saying, “no lesson to be learned there is, it seems to me, of greater value and importance to the young American artist than the necessity of taking the time to dream over the work in hand. The American tendency is to rush at everything. Over here one learns to let artistic plans ripen and mature easily with much deliberation. This brings the freedom which comes only with a sense of leisure - a feeling which is very necessary to good art.”

This sense of leisure, of play, of flow, can become mired by perfection, particularly under the pressure of time. It can lead to procrastination, of putting off that comic idea you’ve been wanting to explore, or being afraid to pursue this hobby to begin with. This is further reinforced by platforms like Webtoon, where professional artists and now comic studios pump out title after title. This sets up the expectation that solo comic creators are not only expected to have a high standard of art but they also have to produce this quality under exhausting time constraints.

It’s any wonder why this model is ultimately shaking with fatigue.

So where does that leave us smaller creators? Where do we draw the line between perfection and good enough? And how much time should it take us?

Leyendecker says it best.

”Over here one learns to let artistic plans ripen and mature easily with much deliberation. This brings the freedom which comes only with a sense of leisure - a feeling which is very necessary to good art.”

Explore, play, be curious. There is no perfection. There is no time.

Enjoy the craft. Enjoy the connections this community can bring. Enjoy your characters, your story and the evolution of your art.

Find freedom in embracing “good enough”.

Do you struggle with perfectionism when it comes to creating comics or do you find it to be an escape? Let us know in the comment section below! And join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST)!

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