Project fatigue?

I've only worked on a handful of things over the last few years, trying different things/styles/tools to learn. Each project seems to take me quite a while to finish since I go slow at it since it seems like I don't really know what I'm doing for each different project. I'll come up with the plan, sketch it out, start chipping away, make progress, take a look at it and decide to go deeper here, change that over there, etc. Then it gets to the point of trying to detail it, sand it and finish it and hopefully make it pop. But nearing the end of all that I seem to get a sense of 'uh, I'm done with this thing and just want to be done'.

So, does anyone else run into project fatigue? What do you do? Work on different things at the same time? Just plow through and get it finished? I suspect that if I worked on more projects, became more familiar with the process and was able to do them quicker and not spend sooo many hours on one thing that it wouldn't be the same issue. Not that it is a big deal, just curious if anyone else has similar thoughts.

Its no wonder I have 12 unfinished carves laying around. I just keep plugging away at new stuff until I am stoked enough to finish one.

I even took a 2 year break.....now I am back at it at an even higher intensity.

Mahalo

McTiki

Enough excuses! I want to see some Tikis.
Back to work boys. :lol:

sometimes I start a tiki and it sits for a year before I go back to it...

I work at one thing to completion.
If I stop working on something & go to another,
I'm done with it. I probably won't finish it.

That's what all artists go thru ..... Like most, I have 3 tikis in progress most of the time ... I look at them every day and something just 'sparks' in my mind that tells me to do this or do that and the next thing I know, I'm full chisels into something that's been sitting for weeks or months...

It's no different than any intellectual craft... sometimes the creative is there, sometimes it's not .... In addition to carving, I also write novels. I have various stages of 4 books going right now and can't remember when I last typed a word on any of them .... if it ain't there, it just ain't there! Of course, I blame my obsession with tiki carving as my excuse for not writing, but what the hell ....

..... so keep an open mind when you look at your work ..... you'll see the spark and maybe you won't ... if you do then you'll plow into it like nobody's business! I've seen and admired your work, you are a great artist ..... you can't force creative ... either it's there or it isn't .... Yours is there, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it's there ... and you will find it again and you'll be choppin your ass off when it 'sparks'!

.... we will wait anxiously to see your latest masterpiece!

Have a Great Tiki Day!

You should come to my place, or get inside my head, and see all the crap i start, or think about that never comes to fruition.

I can never focus on just one project. And in my mind no project is ever "done" - just different stages of completeness. Thats why I like doing the small stuff - it doesn't take as much time to get to a point where you have to stop. Plus - I hate sanding!

Thanks for the feedback and info about what you all do. Cap. Jack, thanks for the info and kind words.