- Do you become self-conscious of your ideas?
In a short answer, yes. If something isn’t working out in my head or if it isn’t pleasing in some way (visually, aesthetically, etc), then I’m going to get self-conscious. What this leads to usually is a driven effort to improve the idea or piece, and in the end it makes the piece something that actually works. There’s nothing wrong with being self-conscious in my mind, because the only way that you can move forward to make something “better” is to realize that it could be.
2. What do you think of the nothing-to-lose attitude? What are it’s pros and cons?
I think when one works with a nothing-to-lose attitude it can create something much different from normal pieces, whether it’s art or design. This goes against what I just said in reference to being self-conscious about your ideas, but there are some real positives to working this way. The biggest one that I can think of is that it can give your pieces a very “raw” feeling. All of the things that work will be evident, but sometimes the things that don’t work will be seen too. If you feel like you have nothing-to-lose though, negative criticism isn’t going to affect you as much as when you’re self-conscious of your ideas.
As an afterthought, I think that these two different ways of approaching art/design can work by themselves. Perhaps if one could use the positive aspects of both then they could create a portfolio that is something quite unique.