Will I Feel Embarrassed as a Beginner?

Probably, a bit. And that's fine. Let me tell you what that actually looks like in my art groups, and why it never stops anyone from having a go.

What Embarrassment As A Beginner Actually Sounds Like When You Walk In

It's rarely silent. People announce it. "I'm rubbish." "I can't draw." "I haven't done this since school, I've forgotten everything."

What's really happening there is someone wanting the room to know, before anyone's even picked up a pencil, that they're aware they don't know what they're doing. It's a kind of pre-apology. Get your excuse in early, just in case.

I hear some version of this most weeks. It's completely normal, and it tells me nothing about how someone's actually going to do.

The interesting thing is, the people who say it loudest are often not the ones who struggle most. Sometimes it's the opposite. Someone announces they're rubbish and then produces a lovely, careful piece of work within the hour. The announcement isn't a review of their actual ability. It's just what comes out of your mouth when you're nervous and you'd rather say it about yourself before anyone else gets the chance.

Nobody Skips It, They Just Push Through It

Here's the bit that matters most. Every single person who says these things still turns up, sits down, and picks up the pencil anyway.

They might keep saying "it's rubbish" or "don't look at mine" halfway through the session. That doesn't mean they've stopped trying. It means they want to try and feel exposed at the same time, and both of those things are true at once. You don't need to get rid of the embarrassment before you start. You just need to keep going with it sitting next to you.

I've never once had someone book onto a group, say all of this, and then quietly leave. They've been brave enough to book, brave enough to turn up, and that's most of the hard part already done before they've drawn a single line.

What I Actually Do When You Say "Don't Look at Mine"

I look anyway, gently, and I say it's not rubbish. Because it isn't.

Then I point to something specific. A line that's confident. The shape of an object, caught well. A bit of shading that's doing exactly what it should. Something true and small, not a generic "well done."

And here's what I love watching happen next. Other people in the group start doing the same thing for each other, if they feel confident enough to. Someone points out a shape their neighbour got right. That's not me managing the room anymore. That's the group doing it for itself.

Art Groups vs Working Alone Through Create

Working online through Create: the art community is different. There's a screen between you and everyone else, and that screen is a barrier you can hide behind if you want to.

I always ask if people want to share their work. Nobody has to. But as members get more confident, they start asking questions and showing what they've done. They'll point out the bit they found tricky, or the bit they actually liked. When someone shares like that, I can give them proper next steps, specific to what they've made.

And this is the part I really want you to hear. The less confident members are watching all of this happen. They see the questions being asked. They see the work go up. They see that nobody gets laughed at. That does more to loosen someone up than anything I could say directly to them.

I've watched someone go from never posting a single piece of work, for months, to sharing every week and asking for feedback on purpose. Nothing dramatic caused that shift. They just watched enough other people do it safely first, and decided their turn had come.

Go In Expecting to Mess Up

Here's the honest bit. You will mess up. You will make mistakes. Every single beginner does, in every single skill, always.

As adults, we've usually got used to feeling competent at things. We drive the car, run the meeting, manage the house. Then we sit down to draw and suddenly we're back at the start, and that's uncomfortable in a way it wasn't when we were seven.

That's really what this question is about underneath. It's not really "will I feel embarrassed." It's "will I be bad at something in front of other people, as a grown adult, and will that be alright." The answer is yes, and yes.

There's actually a good reason embarrassment hits this hard. Psychologists who study the fear of judgment point out that our brains treat the possibility of being judged by a group as a genuine threat, left over from a time when being cast out of your tribe really was dangerous. Your nervous system isn't overreacting for no reason. It's just reacting to the wrong kind of danger.

So go into it the way you'd go into learning a new language, or picking up any other new skill from scratch. You wouldn't expect to speak fluently in week one. Don't expect your drawing to look accomplished in week one either.

There's a kinder way to hold your own mistakes too. Being gentle with yourself when something doesn't work, rather than telling yourself off for it, isn't letting yourself off the hook. It's actually what keeps people coming back and improving, because shame makes people quit and curiosity makes people practise.

Come and Feel Embarrassed With Us Anyway

If you'd rather ease in gently, my art groups are full of people who are all "embarrassed beginners" on their first day, and my online community, Create, gives you a bit more distance while you find your feet. Either way, you're not going to be the only one who feels this. Come and be brilliantly average with the rest of us for a while. That's how everyone starts.

You can also find Cygnini Creative on Google here.

Debbie x