hii wish !! I wanted to ask how you deal with burnout / art block ? I've been really badly burnt out for about a year or more and I always get upset and give up mid drawing because it feels like I'm not at the skill " level " I feel like I should be at by now ( I've been drawing for roughly three years now ) ,, I've tried pushing through it and also waiting it out but nothing seems to work for me </3
Hi! I have so much to say about burnout/ art block so buckle up!! (Or more like, how being an artist can create a negative mindset and make you doubt yourself and how internet sucks)
Also, I will now make sure I get to stream art soon and I hope you join and draw along with me! Will explain more later
Yes, sometimes you can't help it and just can't draw. In these situations, instead of kicking yourself for not being able to, look at your current situation. How is your health? How are your relationships? How about your finances?
If you have these kind of stressors in your life, well, no shit you can't sit down to draw and actually enjoy it. You are in survival mode. It will eat up all your mental energy. And it sucks. You'd hope you could escape by losing yourself in drawing but so many times it just makes drawing impossible.
So, in this situation, mourn your inability to draw but don't give up. Give it time. Be kind to yourself. Poke at other creative hobbies as a rebound option.
Three years is nothing. You are a baby artist. I have drawn almost 30 years now....and I am still not as good as many people on the internet. I admit, there are many talented people here who make me sad about my own skills. I look at them go "dammit I'm well over 30 and still can't do this A or B or D!!". I often look at my sketches/linearts and kick myself for "giving up" on them and letting them be "messy".
Most artists do this. Thanks to the internet, the opportunity to compare ourselves has skyrocketed and we create these milestones we have to hit at specific age or we are "behind" with our skills.
Currently there is also a lot of ""content"" and shorts where people will go "do THIS to FIX your art!!!" and it will silently affect you without realizing. You will internalize that there is a "right way" when there isn't. It has always been like this and now its in your face more.
You are right were you should be with your art. I get the desire to want to get better and be as the people you admire, but please don't be mean to your current art because of that. Once the paper/canvas was empty and you put a piece of your heart on it, even if it didn't get finished. That is fucking awesome.
Your art is yours. It's for you to love how it feels to move the pen across the paper and or screen. It is for you to browse colors and shapes you love to mix and match. It's for you to draw what you can't put into words. It's for you to tell everyone what you love and hope the same kind of people see it and go "me too!"
The only competition that happens in art happens within capitalism and we hate capitalism here. Behind your own closed doors, there is nobody to tell you what it should be.
Now, for anyone who posts art and struggles to get the attention they want:
We are living a time of mindless consumption. We all do this. I do this, you do this. People scroll past fast, might not even think twice interacting with a post even if they like it.
Why mention this? If you post your art and it doesn't get attention, well, it's not as simple as "low number mean bad".
Also, OC art is always gonna get less attention. With fanart, there is a established emotional bond with the characters/source material so of course fanart is what brings people together. Low numbers on OC art doesn't mean it's bad.
(Also, the current purity culture and many other things ((overcorrection on many tropes for example)) have made fandoms scary. People say they like something and suddenly they are being accused of being "problematic". Revealing your likes (( reblogging stuff for other to see)), even if they are as tame as can be, has become actually scary to many people)
DRAW WITH PEOPLE! I often draw while on a call with friends. Sometimes I share my art, sometimes not. Sometimes me drawing makes my friends want to draw.
Drawing together is really magical. For many it can be stressful yes BUT that is why drawing while someone streams art got you is a nice middle ground. Nobody sees what you're doing!
(this is why I wanna art stream now hah)
You may look at my art and my "popularity" and go "oh that is what I should aim at" but not really. You should aim at loving MAKING the art, not what it looks like in the end.
I love the feeling of drawing. Making certain shapes just itches my brain so good. Adding little gradients and textures is like candy to me. I could hatch drawing for forever.
It's those moments why I wanna draw all the time. It's the stress of actually finishing the piece that makes me stop drawing.
Unfinished piece can be finished. You can leave something half sketched and go "well, that's done". That is what the art was for in that moment.
Then, maybe later, you remember it again and go "huh, maybe I'll give it a another go". Maybe you don't. Who cares. I don't. Nobody else should either.
Finishing something is a plus in my books. I don't color shit, my friend! Most of my art is unfinished!! Look at the backgrounds in that "Spy goes shopping" art!!! But I didn't want to finish it, I wanted to show you how I think it would be funny and cute for Spy to struggle with his love towards Sniper. And for that, it did its job.
You are doing great. You are not behind anything or anyone. There is always gonna be someone better than you in your eyes.
Three years of art is nothing. Go draw, get to year four. Then to five. Hell, I challenge you to draw for 30 years! Took me a long time to be this in peace with my own art but here I am. You can be, too. '
Those unfinished drawings? They count. Now go make more of them.
(I reread this like kinda twice, I can't do it any more times. If it doesn't make sense...oopsie)
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