My Mentoring Failures, or How to Learn from Your Mistakes.
How did it all start?
It all started with another meet-up with our team where I shared my experience of creating illustrations for different kinds of projects. And it turned out that many of my colleagues were interested in getting their skills up in the area. So we started an illustration mentorship program with individual sessions for anyone who was interested. It wasn’t a super-intensive course — usually, we spent an hour or two a week.
The workflow was pretty simple as well: first, we usually had a 30-minute meeting where we discussed what to draw and how to draw, and then during the week the designer created some illustrations, spending no more than an hour and a half on it. Next week we got together, discussed the results, and it went on like that for about six months. We didn’t set rigid limits on how much time should be spent on each illustration, as the process of learning and improving skills was more important than the final product, though it doesn’t mean that we couldn’t manage to complete any job.
Two hours a week for six months is not that much to become an expert in mentoring, but I’ve learned a lot about my colleagues and myself during that time. And of course I made a lot of mistakes, but now I consider them as a useful experience that I would like to share with others not to let them fall into the same trap.
Mistake №1. No clear goal.
At the beginning I lacked an understanding of what exactly we were doing, except for drawing. But the truth is that the goal “to improve illustration skills” doesn’t work if the time is limited, as it is too vague. It is more efficient to set a smaller goal and achieve it at a time than just drawing whatever you want for six months.
That is why now I tend to set a specific goal for each. For some, it would be learning the basics of composition, while others need to push the limits and take some courage. Some people pay too much attention to details and they need to learn to see the big picture, while others just need to overcome their fear of drawing and find some motivation to continue learning. As soon as you gain one goal, you can go on to the next, and you can see and track your progress.
Mistake №2. Thinking you’ve got it all figured out.
When you’ve been doing something for a long time, you get the false impression that you understand enough and can give accurate and correct advice on the fly, but it doesn’t always work. If you’re a novice mentor (and like me, not the most proficient graphic artist), every piece of advice you give needs to be double-checked, because you may unwittingly not recognize your own mistake, or it may turn out that your advice is only good in theory or not clear at all, and after a round of edits you see nothing at all as you expected. So now I don’t advise any edits until I make a quick sketch for myself and check if it works well. First of all, it’s fair — you can’t motivate anyone if you don’t create anything yourself. Secondly, it’s good for your own professional development, and not only because you constantly improve your skills , but also because you learn to see the essence.
Mistake №3. Lack of praise.
Each round of edits is usually accompanied by not-always-positive feedback, and it’s not a bad thing. On the contrary, some criticism is always good. But the problem is that due to lack of time we often forget to highlight accomplishments. So the beginners might have the feeling that their work is full of flaws, because all they hear from their mentor is “fix this, fix that”. But how do you understand whether your solution is good or not if you don’t receive any praise? Talking about what worked well is as important as fixing flaws, as it not only gives some confidence, but also helps to assess your level much more objectively. To say nothing of the effect of praise on motivation.
Mistake №4. Not doing research.
Since 2009 Italian designer Gianluca Jimini has been conducting an interesting experiment, asking his friends to draw a bicycle from memory. It turns out that many of them cannot remember how exactly its mechanism is built. For most people, it is impossible to truly represent even the most ordinary object from memory. Though you can see it as a great opportunity to unleash your creativity. When the idea of what exactly we are going to draw begins to form, it is very important not to forget to learn more about the subject, look closely at it, immerse yourself in the subject.
We tried to choose topics based on my coworkers’ hobbies and interests. I wanted them to draw what they are interested in. But even in this case, it is easy to fall into the “I’ve seen it a million times before” trap. And it may turn out that another bicycle you’ve drawn is not rideable at all. There is no good way to draw something you don’t understand.
Moreover, exploring a subject gives you motivation. Even an ordinary task can turn into a pile of interesting ideas if you take a closer look at it, read about it, watch a good movie on the subject, and discuss it with the others.
Mistake №5. Pursuing originality and style too desperately.
Society values innovators and extraordinary thinkers, but the truth is that most discoveries and innovative solutions do not happen in a wink second, — they are the result of a number of factors and hours of work. And when it seems that the idea was born instantly, take a second and ask yourself: How much work have you done before that moment? And what is your life experience? You need to understand that to impress others you have to develop your own style first.
However, concentrating exclusively on finding your unique style is a bad idea for beginners, as it may paralyze them. Whether you want it or not, your own style forms of its own accord. And it is going to develop along with your skills and views. Even the exercises with copying someone else’s style will not turn you into a complete copycat if you don’t forget to experiment and practice. So in mentoring, it’s important to take the focus away from finding a style and trying to be unique.
Mistake №6. Ignoring individuality.
However, there is another mistake, that is quite opposite to what we have discussed earlier. I would call it an attempt to copy popular trends and styles, without analyzing your own preferences. As a rule, when a designer comes to the profession, their goal usually sounds like “I want to make everything around me more beautiful and comfortable”, but we should not forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s not a secret that if you want to create a commercially successful product, it has to match the common idea of “beautiful”. But there is a paradox I have noticed. Without a personal touch, “beautiful” becomes ordinary and boring. Only after I started mentoring I did notice how different ideas of beauty can be, and how great it is when you allow those unique ideas to emerge, properly balancing them with the general human notion of beauty.
However, It turns out that it is much easier to give a commercial appearance to a freakish illustration with too much individuality than to nurture this individuality and personal style in a plain, “just-like-everyone-else” product. So my next goal after overcoming their fear of drawing and learning the basics is trying to figure out theirmy preferences, instead of conforming to current trends.
Mistake №7. Too much information
Research is an essential part of every project making. We not only try to understand how the things we are going to draw work, but also look for interesting ideas and styles and take note of the techniques that we can use. And all of a sudden I faced another problem: looking for inspiration is an endless process that may not be over until the final stages of the project. You may ask me what is bad about it? The thing is that we just couldn’t stop, we bounced from one idea to another, and every newly found image added complexity, while the endless stream of new information led to a loss of integrity and motivation. Then it became clear to me that the research process should be limited to the earliest stages of the project before we make any drafts. Moreover, all you need is 3 or 4 best examples. If you did profound research at the beginning, there is no need to look for more information.
And a little more revelations
For me, optimism and motivation come from working with people, and thanks to my mentoring experience I could feel it much more clearly. Receiving positive feedback from a client is nice, but seeing myself help a designer to become better gives me a much bigger charge of motivation. I believe that the thing is that we’ve been on this together, and I see their success as my own. Mentoring is also about constantly overcoming your own insecurities and rediscovering familiar ideas, as well as it’s a great opportunity to look at your job and career from a different angle and see the big picture. Six months later I do not feel any burnout or boredom — mentoring gives me only positive emotions, and I believe you should consider trying it as well.
