Practice Your Craft: Imperfectly Perfect

Practice makes perfect. — Unknown

Do you hear that phrase in the back of your head whenever you know you need to practice something? That sing-songy voice that says "practice makes perfect!" I don't know about you, but for me that voice is nagging. As a perfectionist and procrastinator, it keeps me from starting many projects and from finishing others. But as I wrote last week, forcing myself to practice my craft proves to give me more confidence and greater flexibility when I actually NEED the skills I'm building.

I love the following quote from football great, Vince Lombardi. 

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

You see, it's not perfection that I'm after when I'm practicing my craft. It's just practice. It's building skills. It's experiencing the movement of the pencil around a curve. It's playing with paragraph spacing and rhythm in my writing. Practice may not make perfect, but practice makes better.

I may not always share my practice. But there's no reason not to. Some of it is terrible in my opinion. Like this. 

Version 1: I really wanted to make sign with a southern twist that featured a banner that said "First Rodeo."

And I try methods that don't always work out.

Version 2: I also love the details in this leather-stamp font and could see that being interesting.
They remind me of a rodeo belt I can imagine my dad wearing when he was younger.
 The curly letters didn't flow here at all. And I still haven't mastered this banner thing. 

But in the end, I usually come up with a design that I love and will probably use in a future project.

And those designs that didn't work? I'll probably revisit parts of them later and try something with them again. 

I'd love to see pictures of your imperfectly perfect work!

Liz