Why do some paintings hold your attention with such irresistible power? It's because the artist had enough self-confidence and technical skill to express her or his true emotions with a paintbrush. Can a person strengthen his self-confidence to create better art work? The answer is, yes! To help prove it, we'll take a quick look at winning athletes.
Throughout this school year, we're discovering seven key elements of successful paintings and showing you how to use them. This month and next, we're exploring a very special ingredient—self-confidence. So welcome aboard! As our voyage unfolds, you'll begin to see big improvements in your own paintings.

HOW IT WORKS Each month, read about the paintings featured on this Web page. Next, print out the "Quiz Me!" sheet, write in your answers to three short questions, and hand in the sheet to your art teacher. (The correct answers will be shared with you online on the next month's Student Page.)

Do you ever get nervous or scared about painting? Most artists do. But why? A simple answer often given is, "Because I'm afraid I'll mess up." But if you probe a little deeper, you're apt to find an underlying reason: the fear of failure, caused by a lack of self-confidence. Here are three common, confidence-related worries of artists:

• "I worry if I mess up a painting, it'll prove I really don't have much talent."

• "I'm afraid of disappointing my family and friends, who always say I'm such a talented painter."

• "I get nervous people will make fun of my artwork and think less of me."

Lack of self-confidence can inhibit the blossoming of your true artistic ability, and that ability is something extraordinarily valuable inside each one of us. When allowed to blossom, that ability can provide you with a lifetime of immense enjoyment, creativity and satisfaction. Self-confidence is the key. Fortunately, there are several specific steps you can take to boost your self-confidence and help you paint the way you really want to paint.

To find some answers, let's look for a moment to top athletes in most any sport. Many studies have been conducted to figure out how winning athletes consistently achieve victory over other excellent athletes. Time and again, studies conclude superior self-confidence helps raise winning athletes above the rest.

According to the famous sports-performance expert Tim Gallwey, "Self-confidence is the basic but elusive ingredient for all top performances." Australian tennis great, Rod Laver, put it this way: "Confidence is the thing [that] separates athletes of similar ability."

Here's the point: What various sports-performance experts have observed about athletes and self-confidence is also true for artists. As the great French painter Eugene Delacroix once wrote: "Nothing is so rare as the confidence which alone can beget great masterpieces." Undoubtedly, self-confidence enables one to paint better pictures.

Can a person really strengthen her/his self-confidence? Absolutely! This month and next, we're following our compass to discover five very specific confidence-building techniques used by top athletes that can also be used successfully by any painter—from beginners on up.

Here are the first three of five confidence-boosting steps you can take. Next month, we'll review two more.