Always Celebrate Your Progress
An essential part of a journey
Hello everyone!
I hope you’ve had a good week! I’ll be honest, my week has been difficult due to some personal family matters. I almost decided not to write my weekly Substack article today. I didn’t think I would have the time or the energy but I’m here! The topic I want to write about today is a happy one and it was a nice distraction from what’s going on in my life at the moment.
I’m still new here but in case you are new to my Substack, let me introduce myself! My name is Christine. I am a gouache artist, middle school art teacher, and parent to two little kids. I joined Substack to share my journey of becoming an artist again after having my kids and the ways it has impacted my life! I’m a newbie to writing so I hope you’ll forgive any typos or rudimentary skills on display here. If you are on a creative journey too, I hope you will find my Substack enjoyable!
Today, I want to talk about one of my most rewarding parts of any personal journey and why it’s so important: noticing and celebrating your progress.
As I shared above, I am on a journey to improve my painting skills and cultivate a creative practice in my daily life. I hope when you read this, you can apply this topic to anything you are trying to work on for yourself. Maybe you just started cooking again, maybe you’re on a journey to improve your writing skills so that you can sell a book someday, maybe you just started gardening and have no idea what to plant!
Whenever you start something new, it may be tempting to look around and compare yourself to others on a similar journey. At the start, it may feel overwhelming and you may feel like you’ll never be as good as someone else. It’s natural. It’s human.
When I first started reviving my interest in painting again, I began to follow a number of artists on social media who were doing what I wanted to be doing. Their artwork blew me away (and continues to). At first, it was inspiring. Very quickly though, I began to doubt that I could ever get my skills to their level. I tried to change my mindset from envy to curiosity. I decided to try to learn from them rather than judge myself against them.
I’ll be honest and say that my painting skills did not start at a Level 0 when I picked up a paintbrush again in 2023. I have a degree in art education which involved numerous art classes in college, as you might imagine, and I spent most of my childhood drawing and painting for fun. Despite some past training, it had been a long time since I had taken painting seriously for myself. I was definitely rusty. Looking back, I can see how rusty I was. That’s exactly what I want you to do too.
It’s been two years since I started incorporating a painting practice into my weekly schedule. I know that my painting skills have improved. I can see that by looking back at my work from 2023. I can’t recommend that you compare yourself to others, but I do think there is value in comparing yourself to… yourself.
I prefer the saying “practice makes progress” over the version that says “practice makes perfect”. I don’t think anyone should ever aspire to perfection. (Fellow recovering perfectionists, raise your hand!) I believe it’s important to look back every once in a while to see how far you’ve come!
Here’s how I do it! I take a painting from early on in my journey and attempt to recreate it. For example, I will use the same reference photo again or utilize the same subject matter. I have done this about three times over the course of the last 2 years. It is so rewarding to have evidence of my progress. It reminds me that even if I don’t feel like I’m at the peak of my skills yet, I have come so far! It motivates me to continue to practice and grow! I’d like to share those paintings side by side with you below.
If you are on a journey to learn a new skill, embark on a new hobby, or you have a goal to improve on something, I strongly encourage you to stop every once in a while, look back, and see how far you’ve come! I know you’ll be proud of all you’ve achieved. Then, you can keep going forward!
Tell me about your journey in the comments!
Here are some of the paintings I have recreated since starting my journey in 2023:
The top image may literally be the first thing I ever painted in gouache when I bought my first set in 2023. The bottom image is a similar themed scene that I painted one year later in the summer of 2024.
This painting was inspired by a photo I took on a Halloween trip up to visit Sleepy Hollow almost ten years ago! It was such a fun day. I painted the top version in the autumn of 2023 and then recreated it in 2024.
Finally, my most recent version of this progress exercise was painting this swing from a tree. I’m sure it’s fairly obvious, but the left image is from July 2023 and the painting on the right is from May 2025.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane and hope you’ll celebrate your progress with me!
Have a creative week,
Christine
You can find me on:
And on Instagram: @christinesartshop
You are so right! Compare yourself (in all ways) to yourself, and not to others! I am very guilty of this, and I will remember to try not to! Very inspiring! Thank you.
Looking back at earlier work really helps to remind us about how we grow and change as artists. Keep doing what you are doing and congratulations for making art important again in your life!