“Judging your own work can be harder than judging someone else’s,” says professional artist Francesco Fontana.

You know the words. The ones telling you “You made a mistake.” “You did that wrong.” “What were you thinking of?”

That’s your Censor. We all have one inside our heads judging every stroke. But to learn scribal arts – or any craft for that matter – you have to find a way around your Censor. You want it to be helpful. To critique your works without judging them.

Critiquing yourself is different than being judged in an SCA A&S competition like at the coming Calontir A&S Championship and Tri-levels Event. And it’s not about whether you like your finished work or not.

When you critique yourself turn off your inner comments. Things like “Oh, No! I painted outside the design”. Instead turn each into “I can scratch that mark off later. No, biggie.” Or “Oh, well, that’s not much. I can fix that little detail.” Remember flubs were period too.

Self-criticism isn’t meant to be negative personal talk. That steals your energy and dead-ends creative paths. You want self-critique to turn nay-saying thoughts into helpful cues. To turn your inner voice into a learning guide that knows higher skill levels are challenging.

As a scribe when I’m involved in a project I’m picky. But there are times I like my work too well. Whatever your ability anyone can learn and improve. The important thing is knowing what your next scribal step or craft challenge should be.

So, celebrate your scribal fears and explore outside your comfort zone. But be kind to yourself. Artistic skills are a continuing work-in-progress. And higher ones for any craft take more time and are harder to achieve.

So you choose. You can believe your inner critic’s spoiler alerts or rephrase them to be encouraging. Remember every scroll is an experiment. Some just work out better than others.

Related prior posts: Crafty–Kingdom Arts and Sciences Competitions 2018 and one from my earlier blog title Kingdom of Calontir’s Arts and Sciences Competitions 2017