Whenever I post art on reddit, for some reason there’s always someone who downvotes, and it lowkey annoys me because so many people share their art and they get all the fans and recognition, and I’m here in the trash not getting recognised maybe I have to work harder you can see how trash I am at art I guess I don’t know anymore
Draw box. Draw person. Ask for critique. Get told to go back to basics. Draw more boxes. Attempt to draw a person again. Get told to go back to basics. Draw more boxes. Try to draw a person again. Still not good enough, need to go back to basics. When am I gonna be good enough to draw something other than box in white void? Why do I never fucking improve even when I try to do all the correct art things everyone says to do?
Good lord, in this day and age I can't post one of my fashion sketches without getting an annoying ass old person commenting. “This isn't real art “ or “it's too revealing.” Hoe does it look like care? God if I want to design a bikini let me do it. Why are you wasting your energy on me? God, then we have those bitches who say “I wasn't born in the right generation.” Then they bring up a figure like Carolyn Bessette, Christina Hagg, Kate Moss, or some ultra skinny model that I don't know about. If you want to make this then make it yourself. Why are you complaining to me about my art how I want to express myself? Then when I post my editorial or a couple of photos. We have old men and old women sexualizing my models and slut shaming them. Do you have anything else to do? These people have to come to my DMs talking about my fashion sense and how I don't produce “real fashion.” What is real fashion that doesn’t make you uncomfortable, fashion that is not your personal style, fashion that isn’t trendy, or you just don’t understand art. You really up here playing in my face about fashion saying you know more about fashion than me because you’re old. But you don’t even take it seriously and you’re not constantly up to date about what's happening in the fashion world. You don't even understand it. Just because you're older doesn't mean you know everything.
(repost because it got removed from artistslounge)
not gonna explain the whole thung becayse ive tried to write this post 4 times and it still comes out too long. anyways, its been like 3 days and the only thing i can think about is drawing even though ive always SUCKED at it, i even managed fo get low grades in art class when i was in middle school. never bothered me bcs i had other hobbies wven though ive always believed being able to draw was cool as fuck. aside from lots of low effort doodling and very occasional attempts at decent drawings ive never bothered to actually try.
in the last 3 days ive randomly become OBSESSED with this. i keep drawing random body parts and this night ive spent i dontbknow how many hours copying a drawing i saw on piterest. its not "good", but I look at it and I'm in disbelief, what do you mean I MADE THIS??? it was my first attempt at shading and I've used a grid because I suck at proportions, which makes me feel slightly less proud but it took so fucking long that I don't care. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. it's like 4 am where I live and I've been at my desk for maybe 5 hours or slightly less.jesus christ. I have responsibilities and exams coming up but this same cycle has repeated for 3 days straight. k just get sucked into it and there's no way for me to do anything but just obey my hands. I'm not even good at it but I don't care and im produ of myself. at the same time I really need to stop because it's affecting my overall ability to function + physical health (my sleep schedule is fucked uppp plusI have back problems and this isn't helping but I genuinely can't stop.) has anyone experienced this??? im so lost
also my head hurts do much. ive spent maybe three hours just shading this shit because i kept making random mistakes and i felt dissatisfied with everything, probably because i couldnt tear my eyes awya from it.im tring to sleep but i CANT an d i think ive spurt a few blood vessels in my eyes because i forget to blonk
Fellow Arcane enjoyers I'm making a small contribution as a new artist! First time handling lighting and these types of tools/techniques but it turned out unexpectedly good imo.
I was thinking of doing Vi or maybe Jayce next but idk
Can somebody tell my why the FUCK do ignorant people ONLY consider people being an artist if they draw realistic portraits?
Because last week, my mom told me if she can draw me an A4 charcoal drawing of my sibling and she will pay. I told her it's going to be expensive considering the canvas size. I searched for a few creators who have the exact reasonable price so that she'll be convinced. Then she goes like—"oh, but that's because they are artists" EXCUSE ME??? (my mom only knows I draw anime figures btw) CUZ WHAT THE FUCK DO U MEAN? AM I NOT AN ARTIST TO U JUST BECAUSE I DRAW ANIME STYLE? AND Y'ALL CONSIDER IT AS CARTOON? DRAWING CARTOONS AND ANIME IS ALSO AN ART. I DON'T KNOW WHY REALISTS STILL EXIST IN THIS MODERN ERA.
I am certainly not overreacting because this is not the first time I've ever been told by my parents to stop drawing cartoon stuff because it's childish and it pollutes my brain, making me a weirdo.
I wanna hear y'all thoughts about this.
I had this FB friend of mine. She's an artist; cartoonist. But recently I asked her a question about what she thinks about generative AI in the art field. Said it's great—asked the AI to generate her some ideas and pictures u can't find online. Honestly why does she even call herself an artist? Even thought about how AI is "original", told her that wasn't the case. Then began comparing things like "if you're using another artists' brush, is that still original?". Honestly it would've been much more acceptable if she could just use an actual artist's ideas, make her own, and credit the inspiration. AI steals, but she said "AI doesn't steal anything" that's when she's wrong. Shame for calling herself an artist and a disrespect for people in the photography field. What are your takeaways from these?
Growing up I drew A LOT, like it was rare I didn’t draw for a day. For… honestly the past couple years I’ve been struggling to draw even semi regularly. I never know what to draw and I never really feel inspired.
As a result nowadays I might draw like once a week which is not enough to keep my skills sharp so I’m slowly regressing which is making me not want to draw even more.
Today I felt somewhat inspired after watching the gameoverse pilot and decided to draw kit in the toga (think that’s the name of it) from the end credits of the pilot as i thought her outfit was cute. After a bit of trial and error I got really frustrated and deleted the File for the artwork I was working on.
When I was younger I thought I could become an artist, i looked up to artists and animators like jazza, Jaidenanimations, oddonesout, Sam yang, loish, feefal, marc brunet the kind of forerunners of the art community on the internet. And now I look at myself and think I’m nowhere near their skill level.
I can’t produce art consistently and I can’t produce a consistent quality of art, it’s making me wonder if this is something I should continue pursuing. It makes me wonder if this was some kind of years long phase that just wasn’t meant to be.
I can’t find that spark of creativity I had when I was younger it feels like it died during Covid, I never feel inspired I just sit and stare at the page with frustration except for short bursts of like a week every so often I can draw a bit.
I’m also wondering if my antidepressants are affecting my lack of inspiration / creativity. I think this problem got worse once I started fluoxetine but I can’t function properly without them so if they are the cause I’ve gotta choose between being somewhat happy and functional or between being able to create kind of like I used to.
I don’t know where I’m going with this rant, I just need it off my chest and to anyone who read through this mess. Thank you, and to those who may be able to offer me some advice, even more so thank you.
I’m 18, recently diagnosed with autism, and am in the middle of making my portfolio for art school. I guess this and the stress of the school year nearly being over (I’m a junior since I was held back in first grade since my English was behind) made me realize that I’m really not that good at art despite having dedicated my entire life to it.
I’m not exceedingly terrible at it, sure, but I’m lacking in fundamentals like color and perspective, and it’s not nearly good enough to make up for my shortcomings as a person. I never had and still don’t have any irl friends, my grades are terrible so even if I did have a chance of going to art school my grades would probably hold me back. I have terrible work ethic because my mom never gave me any chores to do around the house because to her the internet was enough of a babysitter, so if I did get in I would probably instantly burn out and fail.
I go to a specialized arts high school so everyday I have to pass through hallways filled with professional level art made by people my age, who somehow still have time for friends, grades, and other hobbies. Other artists who will be more likely to get commissions and jobs in the industry than me.
I don’t know what I’m gonna do and I’m afraid I’ll be dependent on my mom forever.
A good amount of people from the graduating class get picked to have their animated film sent to film festivals. I am not one of those people.
I thought my film was pretty good. Not the best, but pretty good. I finished all five minutes of it. A lot of people in my class submitted unfinished films.
But so what? No one will ever see mine now. What the hell did I spend twelve months working on it for? What the hell did I pull those all-nighters for? Clearly my school thinks it's crap.
I've been roleplaying with someone on Literotica and I made character art because the women we were in the roleplay were compelling, so I wanted to bring them to life. This fellow writer then, all of the sudden, comments on a post I made with the art "she's the best AI artist I know!" WHAT. Where did she get that idea? WTF? Then moderators came after me (understandably) and I had to plead my case so my work wouldn't get taken down.
WHY WOULD someone just say that without a private convo first? I had to report them and reassure the mods that I hand draw everything. Nightmare! An artist my whole life and have to defend myself against someone so ignorant!
Art has been a rollercoaster of stress for the past 8 Months of me doing it,this level of envy is something I never really felt to anything other than art,
I don't care about the largest guy in the gym, I might get a bit jealous but shrug it off,
I don't really care that someone in my favorite video game climbed with a 10 win streak or first tried a Boss I was struggling to beat
But with art?.. it's like something turn's on inside my brain that just brings me intense envy, to the point of almost having a panic attack, and a thousands different thought begin spinning around my head,
It ha a become so bad to the point of me having to put a hand over my screen when scrolling through Instagram just so I Don't remember their name (I have blocked 1556 Artist on Instagram)
This feeling worsens when an even Younger artist just comes in with a masterpiece and has more success than me , and it genuinely makes me hate them,
I can't look at tutorials anymore without getting stressed, I can't look at references without felling worse,
No matter how many "comparison is the thief of joy" I hear, the feeling of inferiority and disgust will never go away, Like is the artist with better skill immediately a more valuable person and more better, which gives them the right of pitying the inferior
Everything is a competition and I Lost every single one, until the moment I found art, and people started recognizing me.. even if it's a little, I can't quit it, I am a nobody without it,
How do you even feel joy in art anymore.
i hate it so much. everything i make is something i end up hating. i cant draw anything ti save my life i absolutely hate everything that i draw. ive tried and tried to learn anatomy and i can never figure it out right. I HATE my style. im not original. i feel so stupid and worthless because ive taken art classes before and i’ve made absolutely no progress from since i was in middle school. im so sick of having ideas that i cant even execute properly. ‘practice makes perfect’ I KNOW but i dont know what the hell ive been doing wrong if ive been practicing for years. im 18 and thought i could at least write a worthwhile comic but my drawings are so ugly and boring and plain i dont even want to continue. i really just want to give up. i know i shouldnt and i should try even harder but seeing how ugly every piece of work i make it discourages me even more. i dont want to keep creating things i hate. i dont want to do anything. i have no motivation anymore. i want to give up art SO. BADLY.
I painted a portrait of my sibling and I for their birthday. She had it for a little over a month before her boyfriend lost the $3K painting I gifted her during their move. I worked really hard on the painting. She asked if I could remake it, said she’d pay, and ghosted me a little after I explained that I can’t make it exactly as before + it would be $3K. We talked and she ghosted cause she felt shame and cried about losing the work to begin with. I don’t want money to get between our relationship, so I said I would try again if my schedule allows.
It makes me not want to give any artwork I create to my family. My family is weird about my art. I’m great at what I do, yet if I illustrate them it’s usually constant criticism about how I made them look or how much it costs. I felt deeply hurt that my work was lost while in their care. I looked up that art is often lost in transition and on the business end of things I can get insurance to support my work moving forward. What boundaries do you guys have for creating anything for family and friends?
At this point, I feel my loved ones aren’t worth the hassle of gifting or commissioning work unless we have a loving reciprocal relationship to begin with. Is that overreacting?
After two years of running around cons, spending money and resources, ruining my mental health trying to guess what I’m doing wrong, feeling as a fruit vendor for literal pennies, had ruined any love I had for cons!
I feel such a failure. I don’t have the will to continue watching all the booths decorated so flashy and full of bajillion products, selling and earning so easily when I was lucky to sell one print.
I met and talked with the artists there! They were the nicest of people!! They were so kind and sweet and helpful yet my experience has caused me to loath all cons. And to see those artists in social media with their amazing successful booths only making that self-hate worse.
Was there room for improvement? Definitely. Maybe make more art? Make more fan art? Make online shop? Make keychains/pins and decorations? Sure…. But I don’t have the money to waste or the mental health to keep trying and failing until I get it right.
I feel such a fool.
I’m glad for the few fans I got to meet, and of course for the opportunity to make friends with these amazing artists… but I just can’t.
I better focus my energy on something else
Rendering is when you use complex lighting to make an object or figure appear 3D.
Cell shading is when you use a flat color on a flat color to give the cartoon effect of implying something has depth.
It's so frustrating the amount of people I see just tossing around the term "rendering" right now. Everything is "rendering". I've seen people with flat color images with slightly different colored line art calling it "rendering".
I get that this might seem like a petty or stupid thing to complain about, but if people were in a working environment (which a lot of the people I'm seeing are trying to get into), and they were told to render something and they came back with cell shaded or flat colored images, it would not get met well. You're expected to know these kinds of basic terms when you get into the field.
And a quick google search shows me what happened. It looks like one moderately sized youtuber started spreading bad information and then a bunch of smaller ones started spreading it around on TikTok. But bad information is still bad information.
Please. Please. If you have any intention of getting into work professionally, know that "rendering" is not cell shading...
I don't totally mind practicing usually. I don't *like* it per se, but whatever, such is life. However, whenever I'm genuinely enjoying the process of making something, completely in my element, and suddenly hit a wall that I can't break past by brute forcing, I get SO frustrated that it makes me lose sight of the fact that I DO like making art.
Right now, I'm struggling with learning head construction, and I swear to god if I hear "You have to learn the rules in order to break them" one more time, I'm going to lose it.
The worst part is that I COMPLETELY AGREE with that sentiment. My BRAIN doesn't and fights against me at every turn when all I need to do is lock in for like a month and draw things I don't want to draw to get the basics down, and then go back to whatever it is I actually DO want to do.
I love art. I really do. But sometimes, I really wish I didn't love it as much as I did. It is somehow both the most intoxicating and most painful hobby I've ever could have picked up
Hi there,
I'm struggling to show more of my art.
I'm busy with school
I just don't feel like its good enough to show, so I started posting more infrequently and stopped promoting it :(
Also the reason why I don't sell it is because I have no pieces that are worth selling.
Anyway, no critique here just needed to get it off my chest. Thanks 😊
This is more of a rant to the art community as a whole about how commissions are priced than something im personally struggling with
It irritates me when unpopular artists complain about not getting commissions when they price their artworks the same as professionals when the work they make have 5x times less quality. Sometimes, people try to be supportive by saying "youre underpricing your artwork!", "price it at minimum wage", and when the artists do that, they dont get any commissions, and they wonder why. And if someone tries to say something "negative" or "harsh" like "nobody is buying an artwork with that quality for that price", "you have to practice more and lower your prices", people respond with "well art isnt a need! its a privilege to be able to afford commissions!" yet they come crying when nobody buys their commissions, because not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on things like art every month. And guess what? Its also a privilege to be able to live as a freelance artist without worrying about rent and being able to afford daily necessities for months.
What also makes me mad is that, some artists, especially beginner, when they make 1 good artwork, they get too confident and immediately price it at a similar rate as a professional who can make consistently good artworks, and then comes the issue of not being able to produce the same quality artworks as the example they showed. And because of that, they immediately become demotivated and stop making art. Look, its not wrong for artists to try, and vent to others about their issues too, but the problem is, some of these artists reject valid criticism, keep making the same mistakes and then they end up in the same place, wondering why barely anyone wants to buy their commissions.
The "charge your commission price based on how long it takes for you to make the drawing" rule also doesnt make sense, beginners naturally spend more time trying to make something a professional can make in less time. Have you seen those professional manga artists who can sketch their own characters in insane details under a minute? Yet its common to see beginners try and make a decent drawing in 5-6 hours. Yet you wanna charge based on how long it takes for you to make the drawing. Based on that logic, its better for me to just get a commission from a professional because I guarantee you they can make a good doodle in less than 30 minutes and youd only have to pay for about 5 dollars, rather than beginners where itd take them hours and chances are the drawings will look decent at best, yet because they spent hours, youd have to pay the cost of a whole meal, typically 30-40 dollars, which is just insane. Just look at how artists in the industry get payed, their expected to draw quick (especially storyboard artists). Yet you dont see them earning less than a dime every month, despite drawing so quick.
Like, it just doesnt make sense to be telling a beginner who still has a shaky foundation that they should price their commissions at minimum wage when it doesnt work like that in other fields of work. Why would you pay 10 dollars to eat bad food made by an amateur chef when you can buy good food made by a professional chef for the same price? Okay, some people might pick the former, maybe they like the bad taste, maybe they want to support the amateur chef, but for the majority, itd be the latter. Its unstable. Youd have a much better chance at earning more if you had priced the commissions lower, especially if nobody wants to buy your art. I think this rule would only make sense if you were getting payed on a monthly basis by an employer, otherwise, if youre freelance it wouldnt work and would likely make your monthly income unstable.
Of course there are exceptions, if you have the demands and people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars just to get a doodle from you, then I mean, take the opportunity! But Im talking about the majority of artists, who are unknown, who are still developing artstyles, who has only a few fans. Its unfair to want the same benefits as those professional artists whove worked their ass off for years, even decades, to get to where they are now, especially when you are just starting out.
Hope this is the right flair. I'm pretty active in a bunch of art subreddits from 2d to 3d, and one post about a bunch of 2000s teen shows felt a little off to me
The characters were cut off just 'perfectly', and if you layer the so called 'digital drawing' onto the reference, you can TELL its traced.
So when I (my mistake, I must admit) commented that I was glad to see a bunch of characters mentioned, I added 'I hope this isn't traced', because thats VERY much the feel I was getting
Instead of trying to outright deny it or say 'noooo I've got the speedpaint to prove it', apparently this little comment triggered them so bad as if I had dug up their grandma and personally insulted them
Since I can't attach an image, I copy pasted the comments
Me: Musa, Raven and Blackfireee mentioned 💖I hope these arent traced
OP: You need to get a life
Me: um hello?? I just said I hope these arent traced 😭they look just like the show's artstyle and thats an impressive thing
OP: Do you what you said looks like a compliment i really hate people who say things without thinking offcource they look like show style because i used the reference do you think I'm a wizard and would have remembered each character
And guess what OP, I really hate people who VEHEMENTLY defend their art isn't traced.
Im pretty deadass tired and should really be getting some rest, uni is tiring.
Thank you for reading this rant,
I hope you're having a wonderful day