The idea of finding the artist within has its limitations. While there is nothing wrong with free expression there are some aspects of art that require concentration and care. There will be lots of opportunity to make it look easy later. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. This is as much a function of what the artist has to offer the subject as what the subject has to offer the artist.
Great artists transcend surface appearances.
I want to make portraits and images. I don't know how. Out of despair, I just use paint anyway. Suddenly the things you make coagulate and take on just the shape you intend. Totally accurate marks, which are outside representational marks.