Although I have my own small studio space, there are other studio spaces next to me that are separated only by movable walls. This makes it possible for me to walk around the room and peek into other studio spaces, and see what others are up to. While it’s fun and interesting to see other student’s work once and awhile, it’s easy to fall into the pattern of comparing my work to other student’s work. This is a very, very bad habit to form.

Once you start comparing your work to other people’s work, your focus is not on how your work can improve, but how your work can be better than someone else’s. I have found that this way of working makes more use of the competitive part of your brain, and less use of the creative part of your brain. Working this way is tiring and extremely stressful, and won’t make you any better of an artist.

Although art is an extremely competitive field, hard work is the only thing that really helps you improve your work-not trying to be better than a certain artist.