
I enjoy process pictures that other artists post. I see a lot of other people like that sort of thing too. But I do have a suspicion that in this age of immediate connectivity and instant sharing, we sometimes make ourselves too transparent.
“Never let things be seen half finished. They can only be enjoyed when complete. All beginnings are misshapen, and this deformity sticks in the imagination…Till a thing is everything, it is nothing, and while it is in process of being it is still nothing.
Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Sometimes the thing we are making should be seen publicly when it’s complete. After it’s received and finds it’s home in the public square, has some appreciation (or not), then it’s safer to pull back the curtain and show how the trick was performed.
I don’t think this is necessarily a hill to die on. And previews of work do help drum up interest. But showing things in the roughest form, before we’ve made final decisions on a project might not be the wisest thing. Especially since the final decisions would, in theory, be the best ideas.
Another pitfall to sharing things too soon is that we get into the mindset of promotion when we should be in the laser-focused mindset of production. It’s hard to make stuff when your mental space is occupied by the sense of followers and anonymous usernames looking over your shoulder. It’s easy to fall into the trap of viewing the work in progress stage as something that needs to be public worthy. When instead it only needs to be sawdust on the floor of the workshop.
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