r/ArtistLounge

Hey everyone,

I’m a student and artist, and lately, I’ve been feeling like my brain is rotting. We’re drowning in machine-generated "slop," but that’s not even the worst part.

As artists, we’re being forced into a losing war with social media algorithms. We spend 90% of our energy trying to "beat the system" just to be seen, and only 10% on the actual craft. Most of our best, most creative work never even reaches "normal" people because it doesn't fit the high-frequency, infinite-scroll format the algorithm demands.

We’re at a crossroads: Do we focus on our art, or do we keep fighting a machine for attention?

My motivation is simple: "We are creators; if all we do is consume, we ought to fall."

I’m working on a project that is the total anti to this "efficiency" era. It’s not another social media site; it’s a Sanctuary for the Human Mind.

MVP:

Zero Algorithm: No objective metrics. No infinite scroll. Just human artifacts, like a museum.

Proof of Process: To post, you have to show the "Friction Log" the messy sketches, the failed code, the human effort. This isn't about the "perfect output," it's about the spark, basically sharing the process instead of just the results.

Marketplace: A place where people don't buy "content," they buy human creativity,the time people have put into, so that the value for creativity increases.

The Pause: A literal feature that forces a break from the digital noise to encourage the "daydreaming" state that science proves is necessary for creativity.

I want to know: If there was a place where you didn't have to "game the system" to be valued, would you still create?

Or has the algorithm already won?

I’m not looking to "disrupt" anything, I just want to reclaim the headspace we’ve lost.

Let’s talk about this.

So I am confused between 3 machines
- Cricut explore 4
- Cricut Maker 3/4
- Silhoutte cameo 5

If someone can guide me to choose a machine, i want it to use on variety of papers like glossy, ivory cardstocks starting from 70 gsm to 300 gsm papers

Also are there any limitations to the machine? Do tell me any knowledge/experience you have with these machines

Lets say you stumble across a sketchbook that could make whatever you put in there to life and you wanted to put something in there but since there was like, practically zero limitations, you had nothing to work with. So, you forgot about it. Kept it with your old sketchbooks.

Then after you (somehow) finished your current sketchbook, you stumbled across the magical sketchbook and thought it looked aesthetically pleasing. You forgot about its capabilities and drew on it as normal. Whatever you made will appear somewhere random in he world.

The things you put in there can be:

An OC
Fanart
Short story

A Background

And if you make the same thing over and over again, it doesn't make multiple of that thing. It just works as a continuation of the original.

Based on this and a look on your current sketchbook, how cooked are we?

"Maybe art isn't for you" - I hear this all the time said to people who are more nihilistic frustrated, Burned out or any type of less positive feeling Genuinely in my opinion. I think even for these people there should be a chance of hope Even for someone who's purely goal focused, or result based I just genuinely want to lay out the idea that if you've ever been told maybe art isn't for you you aren't broken and you deserve to keep going even if you may be the most Unhealthy mindset as long as you're not in it for money go do art even if you don't love it because I know deep down you can get to where you want to be anyone can.

When I'm stuck on a piece, we’re mostly taught we need critique.. Someone to tell me what's wrong with it or give an intellectual take. But now i see that what mostly unsticks me is not critique, because critique evaluates. It sorts things into working/not working,

however that is something that is actually opinion and perception based. And so when I’m really stuck, what what i actually need is someone who can actually see what is already here, just noticing and sharing what they see.

things like ‘’this feels heavier than the rest’’, or ‘’you keep coming back into this corner’’, so it bring me back to the things are are already happening, and bring my own attention back to perceiving what is happening right now, so i don’t focus my attention on the idea that something is not working or stuck. which is almost always not true. the only thing that happens in these moments is that i get lost in thinking.

so it’s really bringing ourselves back to attention in the present moment is what it’s mostly about. that kind of looking has moved my work more that any formal feedback crit.

anyone else finds this?

This is a genuine question. Is it because they are more of guidelines of how reality works basically so that you can confidently distort it as you like? Please be kind in your answers.

(wait a little bit because reddit is suddenly not working to me so i might not be able to answer everyone right now wait until i figured what happened)- Never mind this actually

Much more comments than i expected. I appreciate your time and attention. Please be patient. I plan to answer everyone at least once.

Also to make something clear. A lot of comments seem to have the idea that the so-called fundamentals are basis for stylization. So i will say as a blanket response to these comments that i thought of it before making the post, as i wrote it on the first paragraph. I am not being rude. I appreciate your contribution. I am impressed at how many people are interested in my reflection. I just want to state this to not have to be repetitive in the answers. But i might focus in particular points in each comment. Thank you.

People often talk about being talented or gifted, vs hard work. How much can we attribute to each? And I'm not referring to physical ability, like having a steady hand or dexterity, because I don't think that's quite as relevant for artistic ability. I'm referring to the ability to capture and recreate what you see from observation or imagination onto an artistic medium.

I know this is asked often but i couldnt find a straight answer, do i NEED to do figure drawing with live nude models or is there an alternative option,thing is im aware of artistic nudity but im not ucomfortable cause of anything sexual or religious,its more of an personal thing but im REALLY uncomfortable with that idea,so do i need it to get better/pass or can i ask for an alternative

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not a mechanical one, just one of those small hand rectangular sanders

Its a lifesaver for dirty erasers

Im just sharing bcs it made my life 1000x easier so wondering if anyone else does it. Surely i cant be the only one.

Lets say someone puts the vanishing points waaaay far apart from the canvas, does that indicate that the drawing is zoomed out? I use clip studio paint and I would love to utilize the perspective rulers but I cant find alot of resources for intermediate level artists.

I'm at that point in my life.

So I am primarily a recording artist, photographer, and stylist, but I have keen interest in painting and other medias as well. Was wondering since most of y'all are painters or drawers it seems like if you guys have interest in singing or rapping, or photography?

I just have so much respect for Artists who practice multiple mediums of Art and want this so much for my own career!!! I can't wait to make a (MILLIONAIRE) living off of my Art!!!

Post who y'all know who practice multiple forms of Art because I'd love to know more artists who practice multiple forms.

G-Dragon -- KPop Legend who mostly records music and makes fits. I have seen him paint before but never seen any of his artwork related to that.

Kanye West - Dropped out of Art College, records music and designs clothes. Also seen some of his paintings and drawings in a documentary but I believe they weren't super high quality.

I know one more who I respected greatly but I will not name him because of some bad public news about him. He painted, records music and makes fits tho.

Around a hundred years ago, Kandinsky was actively writing and painting, the Bauhaus school was thriving, Picasso and Braque were shaping a new formal universe, the futuristic artists were responding to the fast pace of technological developments, and the Dadaists were shaking formal aesthetics off the art world to change it forever. These movements were a direct response to changes in the world, technologically, such as the invention of photography, politically, such as world war and major revolutions, socially, such as radical changes in the structure and systems in which we organise ourselves, philosophically, such as the emergence of the ideas of Nietzsche, Marx, or Darwin, and so on, and so on.
My open question to you is: How do you see the ongoing or upcoming revolution in art? What is it going to rid art of? What is it going to adopt? And what is it responding to?

For the summer my mother is going to buy me some art supplies thought why not get the 120 ARTTX paint marker set. Later on my FYP I saw this brand called ENMY and looking at it the paint in those markers looked so juicy and now I cannot think of which brand to pick so I need your ideas

It would be awesome for you guys to write your idea for what brands to buy

Thank you!

Hey, everyone! I should specify that for me, this is about mediums that either take up a lot of space or are made with materials that are not easy to find -- but how do you overcome feeling like creating bad art is wasteful? I've recently tried to get into making clothes and there has been a lot of failure/waste, and a big part of why I am trying it is to REDUCE environmental waste. So how do you cope with it going in a landfill?

I use acrylics, and I need a paint brush that keeps a sharp edge. I have a lot of mid-price flat brushes, but I'm pretty hard on them and the edges are... wider? Thicker? I have more filberts and oval wash brushes, because I prefer them to a brush line showing, but I'm going to try some painting that needs a chisel-type tip. Would a cheaper nylon brush hold an edge longer than gold Taklon (or white Taklon, for that matter)? What would be a good brand? And should it be a bright, flat, or chisel blender? (I plan to take better care of this one.)

I honestly have so many amazing concepts I want to draw, but I dont know how to approach it. I lack background/perspective skills but I still want to draw my idea. How do you approach yours?

I turned 17 2 weeks ago and I realised then that I’m not really where I want to be with my drawings. I study a lot, clothes and anatomy specifically to draw my fav characters, and I focused purely on line art because that’s what I want to improve at the most.

But I feel like I haven’t improved or improved very slowly the past few months and it’s annoying me a lot. I have a couple friends who are amazing at drawing, and they told me to try and draw other things instead of just people, I’m gonna do that but they also said that at the point I’m at improvement is more seen in years then months, so I thought I’d ask if any of you have more tips or just some motivation or whatever to give. Thanks!

Hey all!

I've been getting back into the swing of things. Kind of. I still need to work on putting pen on paper (or... finger on screen?) and just drawing instead of staring at the canvas and giving up before I even do anything.

How can I force myself to draw every day and enjoy it? I've been drawing for fourish years but I've seen little progress personally.

saw a mutual get their entire gallery scraped and reposted by automated bot accounts over the weekend. it just got me thinking about the whole concept of digital authorship and where we even go from here as creators

Watermarks don't really do anything against automated scripts anymore. tbh I was reading up on how some platforms are floating the idea of physical verification just to hold an account. like how that world project uses a physical Orb hardware setup to prove users are actually living, breathing humans

it sounds super sci-fi, but as someone who is exhausted by art thieves and spam networks, I kind of wonder if moving towards strict "verified biological human" networks is the only way we'll be able to safely share portfolios in a few years without having our identities cloned

curious how you guys are handling proof of authorship lately? are we just supposed to post endless messy WIP videos to prove we exist behind the canvas now?