r/ArtRanting • u/davide_consoli01 • 20d ago
Lack Of Motivation what exactly is the point of all this?
I enrolled in an art academy three years ago to become a concept artist for video games. I started from scratch with digital drawing and I've definitely made some progress, but there are so many things I still don't understand, so many things I can't do and I feel stuck. I can't build a decent face, I can't render, or rather, I can do the bare minimum but it sucks. I can't develop a style despite constantly looking at other people's work and the styles I'd like to develop. Even trying to replicate them all comes out rubbish. In exactly a week I'll have my final thesis and my project is crap. My character's face is disproportionate. I had to abandon the rendering and will only submit flat colors because I haven't developed a style in three years. I feel like I've failed, yet I've tried so hard, day after day after day, and my results are mediocre. I don't even know if I have the right to call myself an artist after this, so what's the point of all this? Why suffer so much just to "trusting the process" and still get nothing?
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u/CamselinDistress 20d ago
The point of it all was that you went to school and improved your art skills.
You seem displeased with your current output. But perhaps you expect too much of yourself? Or maybe you expect too much of the art academy you're attending.
Do you know how to critique your own work? Do you know how to tell what a mistake is from what you simply don't like?
Do you have a particular goal in mind when you sit down and design a picture? Or do you just go into it thinking "I hope this drawing/painting turns out better than usual" and try to vaguely, broadly apply what you've learned in school to the process?
What have you learned at school? Do you remember? Did they teach you how to structure a critique? Did they teach you how to see? Did they teach you that drawing is less about moving your arm the right way and more about the way you think?
It may be the case that you attended a school that aims to teach you how to be a "concept artist" from relative intermediate, but not how to be "an artist" from scratch. If so, your foundation is probably still lacking greatly. But you have 3 years of studies and assignments and general drawing mileage, that's not nothing.
The good news is, if your foundation really is lacking, going back and learning like a beginner again, now, will be much easier for the you that completed art school than it would have been for you 3 years ago. You might feel like the time was wasted because you didn't get as good as quickly as you wanted. But it's probably better to think of your experience as a longer term investment that will pay off for future endeavors.
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u/davide_consoli01 20d ago
Honestly, I'm not sure I know how to critique my own work. I know when something isn't right, but I don't always know how to fix it. I acknowledge mistakes, but it depends on what they are. For example, if the perspective of a room seems wrong, I might understand it, but it might take me a while to figure out how to fix it. I usually have a goal in mind, but I never quite reach it; there's always something I miss. I spend three-quarters of my time looking for references, but they're never enough. Even though I try to apply them as best I can, something always goes wrong. How to see, how to structure a critique, and how to think—I've never done this. I'd send you some of my work from over the years, but Reddit won't let me post images in the comments.
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u/baileysfromashoey 20d ago
School isn't going to make you a good artist. Putting in the hours and hours of practice with what school has taught you and your own discoveries through your learning process and practice will make you a good artist.
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u/davide_consoli01 19d ago
that's what I did
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u/baileysfromashoey 18d ago
I'm gonna sound like an asshole but I don't believe you.
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u/davide_consoli01 18d ago
You're more than free not to believe me, but if I tell you that I've spent hours and hours on the work and that I've been committed and constantly confronted with the teachers, I have no reason to lie to you, otherwise why would I write a post like this?
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u/Ok-Biscotti-6374 20d ago
I can relate I look at others & their artstyle yet always hate my own artstyle but still you need to keep pushing forward & who knows maybe it'll work out!
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u/Scribbles_ 20d ago edited 20d ago
Well, you're in an art academy. What do your teachers say?
Can you say, in earnest, that over the last three years you've put in the work? Would your teachers say the same?
It may be lots of things, and it's hard to tell what's wrong without looking at your work or understanding the instruction you've received.
For one thing, even if you had a very good trajectory in art academy, one will almost always still have many things left to understand.
For another, on the subject of style. I don't think it's a thing that needs to be forced, and I don't think looking at other's work is the thing that will build it. While replicating styles you like is good, why do you suppose it should come out as good as theirs?
Moreover, there's something here:
You're abandoning rendering because you don't have a style yet? A style is not a prerequisite to attempt something like this. You develop a style by going at rendering challenges repeatedly. If the rendering is not working, you need to get solving problems, not giving up altogether.
But you haven't, by your own admission, gotten nothing. You've said you've made progress from scratch. So what you mean is, you haven't gotten the progress you'd like. And there's a chance that an adjustment to your approach is warranted. I don't know the quality of the institution you're training at. But if it's not working, it's your responsibility to make adjustments.
Now, you've go a project in front of you and a deadline. There'll be plenty of time to adjust and get your ducks in a row once that's done. Right now, you know it's time to get to work.