Do you ever, or rather, have you ever felt like your art isnât good enough? Like say you are drawing a character you really like, but you canât seem to be able to draw them. And then that makes you feel like youâre not good at drawing at all, but itâs the only thing that gives you purpose or allows you to express yourself, so you feel stuck and hopeless.
Do you have any tips for how to improve on this? I feel like even though Iâve been drawing for a shy 19 years Iâm still not at the level I should be at drawing, that my art isnât good enough. I know I just need to keep drawing and improve over time, but right now it feels like I canât draw the things I love. And I donât know how to improve.
Youâre an amazing artist, and ever since I came across your art last year Iâve been so impressed and excited to see your art, it seems like you can draw everything you want no matter what it is, Iâm honestly jealous. So do you have any advice?
Sorry to dump this pitying ask on you, I just feel like Iâm loosing the only thing I have and could use some advice maybe⌠artist to artist yk lol.
Thank you, I really admire your art! ( â¸â¸Â´ęł`â¸â¸)
No need to be sorry, youâre ok dw <333
And to answer your question, I did (and still do) in fact, think my art isnât good enough from time to time , especially as a young artist, I almost gave up on art entirely multiple times cause I was too hard on myself and wanted to be good asap
Feeling like your art isnât good enough is a real and genuinely bad feeling that haunts every artist at some point unfortunately, youâre not alone in this
I actually have so many abandoned wips cause I felt like I couldnât draw what I had in mind, that I couldnât really translate things into paper in a good way
I absolutely can give tips on how to deal with that, I genuinely hope they help <333
-Honestly the biggest tip Iâd give on how to deal with this is to try and change your mindset and how you think about things, this is obviously not easy, and it absolutely wonât just happen overnight, but try to change your thought process
For example, if you try drawing something, and you find difficulty in drawing it, and you start feeling like you arenât good enough, try thinking about what makes you feel bad about your art, make a numbered list of one to three things, and then spend the day practicing these very specific things in particular, like, is it the lineart that bothers you? The coloring? The anatomy? Try practicing each thing youâre bothered with on its own without over complicating things by trying to study different art studies at the same time
So instead of thinking negatively and thatâs it, try to tackle these negative feelings in a constructive way, that way, you acknowledge your feelings while still doing something that helps you feel better about it
-try to understand when these feelings manifest, and take action accordingly, for example, if these feelings manifest as youâre looking at the art of others, then you need to take a break from looking at their art, do something completely different, like watching your fave shows or playing your fave games, or reading your fave books to get your mind off of these feelings, you donât need to suffer by feeling them too deeply, distract yourself from them
-plz use references I beg, a lot of artists tend to feel like theyâre âcheatingâ when they draw from references, thereâs no such thing as âcheatingâ in art, youâre not some all knowing creature with photographic memory, there are things that are going to be really difficult to draw, especially if youâre drawing them for the first time
The reason I seem to be able to draw everything I want is because I use references when I feel like I donât know how to draw something specific, latest example is this comic, I donât draw guns often, so I find a bit of difficulty drawing them, instead of torturing myself by trying to draw something I know I canât draw well, I use references of guns to 1- get a good look at how guns actually look like (and stylize them if I wanted to) and 2-to actually make the guns look good instead of relying on my memory that could easily betray me
-Iâm also begging you to step out of your comfort zone, and donât be afraid of the results, comfort is the death of art, if you draw the same thing over and over, youâll only get good at that one thing, getting out of your comfort zone will force you to learn new things and push your art progress forward
If you draw a character standing a lot for example, and this is what youâre comfortable with, try something different by drawing them with different poses from different perspectives
Now spoiler alert, the result will look really bad, especially when you go out your comfort zone for the first time, thatâs completely natural, but donât let that discourage you from going out of your comfort zone, the more you go out and try new things, the more your art will develop, the more progress youâll see, the more youâll feel like youâre good at art and the more youâll feel better about yourself
-speaking of progress, if all else fails and the bad feelings are persistent, then go back to an artwork you made in the last two years, and redraw it again, actually seeing your progress in a tangible way will absolutely make you feel better, bonus points if you try something new by going out of your comfort zone in said redraw, like a new background or a new design for the character for example
-if youâre the kinda artist that compares your art with other artists, plz always keep in mind that your life, circumstances, personalities, and many other factors are detrimental to how art on both sides improves
What Iâm saying is that you donât know this other artistâs life, maybe they progress quicker because they draw everyday while you only draw once a week, maybe you both draw every day but they have a better life in general and that makes it easier for them to progress faster
Circumstances differ and so will your art from theirs, thatâs why comparing your art with others isnât really fair to you, try to only compare your own old artworks to your new ones
-while wanting to get good at art is really every artistâs dream (a very valid one) focusing too much on wanting to be good without giving yourself the leniency to make mistakes or draw things badly (whether intentionally or not) will only make you feel bad about yourself all the time
You donât need to make a masterpiece each time you draw, let yourself have the room to draw badly, drawing something thatâs bad is better than not drawing at all because you pushed yourself away from art by pressuring yourself with the idea that you have to be good
Art is your friend, not your enemy, the more you treat it like your best friend, the more itâll treat you like its best friend too, loving your art and its flaws is part of loving yourself, so love your art like itâs your best friend, you wouldnât be too harsh and judgmental towards your best friend even if they have flaws of their own no?
-I think a lot of artists are always advised to practice (which is a valid advice) but are not told HOW to practice, so they assume that only drawing everyday will help them improve
While to some extent, thereâs truth that the more you draw the more youâll improve, only drawing will not get you the tangible improvement you want to see
Thatâs why I say going out of your comfort zone is good for you, you have to practice new things that youâre not used to draw to get better at art in general
Bonus points if itâs something you already wanna improve on
And the thing about practice, is that it doesnât need to be boring, take it from me, Iâm someone whoâs easily bored by traditional art practice methods, they bore me to death and I just canât concentrate on actually practicing something if I donât enjoy it
So what do I do? I practice by drawing things I love, the characters Iâm already hyperfixated on? I draw them in different designs to practice character design for example, or I draw them in weird perspectives or wild poses to practice them
Doing that, youâre basically tricking your mind into doing something thatâs boring by actually associating it with something you enjoy >;)
-donât be afraid to redraw something if you donât like it the first time, you might draw something badly the first time, but when you draw it again (now that you have a better idea about what you want) your art will look much better the second or third time, feel free to move things around or resize things or recolor things till you feel satisfied with them
-study artists you love! I think this is a really important thing that will help improve your art a lot, take an artwork you really adore from different artists you love and study them by observing them deeply, ask yourself, what is it exactly and that you love about these specific artworks? Is it the colors, the way they draw perspectives or backgrounds? And then actually attempt to incorporate these things that you love into your own art, itâll help improve your art massively
Honestly thatâs all I can think of rn shdhhzhzh
I really hope you feel better about yourself and your art soon, itâs honestly a bad feeling I wouldnât wish on anybody, be gentle with yourself, you got this! I believe in you :D
If you need help with anything specific in art, lemme know, Iâd be happy to help <3333
dededos
kianamaiart
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
izzy806
ellievsbear
