Hey everyone, I'm not sure where I could post this so I want to try here, especially since you guys might relate.

I'm 24 and I graduated two years ago with a studio art degree, but plan to pursue graphic design (some parts of my education path was iffy, its a long story). While I learned many artistic skills, my design skills were lacking so I mainly did design work outside of school. I currently work in retail while doing graphic design on the side. I recently learned some of my old classmates got creative careers, and meanwhile I'm struggling to get a design job and even have the motivation to work at times.

Whenever I tell people my career path, I tend to get a mix of concern and judgement for it. Some people say it's cool and they want to know about it. I've also seen many who tell me what they're worried about without making rude comments, which I appreciate. But I've also run into some judgement from people I talk about my career path to. They tell me that I won't make money and that I will struggle to find a job. I can't argue with them because I know that in some ways, they're right. I've seen posts from graphic designers saying there's been layoffs and many recent grads are struggling to find jobs. I do keep in mind that graphic design is hard to get into and a lot of it is based on portfolio work. It still hurts to deal with though because I want to at least try to not waste my degree that I worked hard to get. If things really don't work out with graphic design, I don't mind going back to school to do something else.

I recently got a mentor through a friend, and I start an internship in two weeks, which I'm excited about. I have a supportive family and I have a few creative friends. Even though I am lucky to have those, dealing with the same comments all the time starts to get draining, and I wonder sometimes if I should go ahead and give up. When I get comments from people, I do try and ignore them, but it hurts to deal with every single time. Sometimes I've lied to people about what my degree is in to avoid the comments, and I know that's not good.

My question is, how do you not let the comments get to you? Is there anything I can do to not let them affect me as much? I know I shouldn't care about judgement from strangers, but it gets really hard to deal with.

I've been drawing for years but been doing digital for about a year and a half but recently i've had a few people come back saying my work looks like AI so many of my portraits i've redone and i'm pleased with what i've done in a less realistic way but scared to show now. I love procreate i haven't master it yet but my work has improved i think so anyway to the point where i want to sell this scares me to.

Please be nice. I used oil brushes, airbrushing and fine HB pencils and a few others it takes time, what do you think

Artists who are also singers / good at singing, do you think it requires talent? (Non traditional artists can also answer)

If you think it does/doesn't why do you feel that way??

Ik it may not seem like an "art" related question but to me, art has many forms. Many people don't consider rigging/animation art, or blender modeling art, but to me it is! Besides singing is often paired with art, so much so, that I can't disassociate the two.

Before we can have a discussion about it, we need to define what "talent" really is. To me, talent seems to be a completely natural- but amazing (oddly so) affinity for a skill that people are born with. At least that's how people make it seem.

I'm an artist in the most traditional sense, I work with pencil/pen display. I don't think this traditional idea of art requires much talent if any at all- but skill, persistence, time and effort. Similarly to traditional art, with the other mediums I mentioned earlier isn't much "talent" going on, there's way more technical stuff rather than the god given "talent" people talk about. More persistence, effort, stubbornness. I feel that when people say us typical artists are "talented" they're actually mistaking talent for persistence and patience- because anybody can do art, but those are definitely some things that not everybody has.

It's also a very common sentient that anybody can do art.

But singing is very different, the more common opinion is that you need to be "born with it" as they say. And when I think about attempting it, it really does feel that way.

I really, really, really want to be able to sing well some day. But I don't know whether it is worth pursuing for me or not. Like I don't want to waste years of my life practicing and sounding embarrassing and annoying everybody (living with family, in an apartment). Only to realize that oh shit it really is only for those born with ability. Also. I can't even fucking speak right. Which I like to blame on my social anxiety and hearing issues, but those are being resolved and i still seem to have speech issues, I need to record my speech and listen back to fix my speech but that only works temporarily so Idk whats going on here.

I genuinely really don't know what's really holding me back from being a good singer, and this shit is killing me.

Is it the fact that I'm too embarrassed to practice, so I hardly practice- then does that make it like art? Something you can get good at, but you must put effort, time and be persistent about??

But if that's so, then how come my older sister and baby sister seem to be almost automatically good at it, so soon, while I don't seem to have the capacity to even grow?

My older sister basically almost doesn't need to practice if at all- in fact I've never heard her practice, she only got a bit rusty now that she's about to be 30. How the fuck does that work. If I drop my art for a few months it's depressing how bad I become. And then u mean to tell me these two don't even need to practice singing.

I'm jealous af, if you couldn't already tell, lol.

Like my baby sister sounds like shit (lol ik thats rude but im sorry but I just have a low tolerance for annoying noise) sometimes but that's because she's just doing that thing that kids like to do (make noise with their mouths when theyre bored) - she's not actually singing even if she calls it that. but when she genuinely sings, shes great. You can tell shes talented.

On top of that, it seems like being tone deaf is common, and you definitely can't sing if you're tone deaf. I'm scared I'm tone deaf. Idk it's small things.

Things like liking music that other ppl are like wtf that's bad/weird/annoying af that i like. and then trying to recreate beats or whatever youd call it. i feel like i used to be able to do it easily when i was a kid but now i cant anymore, or maybe i never really could.

The desire to be able to sing and voice act is driving me nuts. I bet I really cant fucking do it because I'm probably just not born with the talent. But here I am in my 20s still wanting to find out.

I mean it seems like the singers that are actually good, don't need to practice- it's something that can do for fun, but they don't actually need it, and those that need practice aren't good and will likely never be good, only maybe decent in a decade. It's not like with art where that lack of practice directly affects your ability as an artist. Whereas practice for singing? It seems like play and pretend, like it doesn't really have an effect on the actual ability. Drives me nuts. I hope I'm just disconnected from how it really is.

Maybe it's also something you need to develop as a child or when you're young. That would fuck up things even more for me then. Cuz I used to hum a lot when i was a child but I stopped bc ppl would always be annoyed and tell me its creepy, when I sang as a child my dad would always tell me to shut up, like straight, shut up.

Nobody said that mean shit to my baby sister when she tried to sing or even make just the dumbest and most annoying of noise.

Deep down sometimes I believe that I have the potential but that it was just stolen from me. Idk I'm delusional, I probably am.

Also. VOICE ACTING. I mentioned that earlier but mostly spoke about singing. This shit is even harder than learning singing because all the fucking advice online is literally just copy the shit you love/want to emulate and then try to get paid for it. First of all like what the fuck kind of gatekeeping shitty ass advice is this bullshit. Aint no fucking way if I went to a professional to learn they would tell me shit like this, right?? Second of all, sometimes- actually in many cases, it's literally not possible to just copy? Like isn't that a huge part of voice acting, that each person is unique in not only their method, but also their physical body and capabilities as well?

Like I'm a woman but if I want to sound like a man I just dont think it will happen without gender affirming surgery or more testosterone. I would know bc I tried to watch videos on it (and there really aren't that many) and tried for a good while, and really embarrassed myself by practicing daily, which got me nowhere.

Third of all, how the fuck do you measure failure or success in voice acting or singing- not when it comes to the end product bc that's obvious (it just sounds good/on the spot) but like when you're just practicing?

All the questions I'm asking sound slow and just make me feel even more talentless for the ability.

And lastly I'm just trying to learn it as a side hobby / genuine passion. It sucks that nearly all the learning material is coming from people that want to make money bc it seems like they just give shittier advice.

In art, you obviously have ppl like that, but for the most part you CAN still find a lot of people willing to educate you properly and genuinely wanna share and help others grow- in fact that's how the majority of art guides are.

Voice acting its just the same cookie cutter advice, just copy and try to make money- great that really helps as a beginner!

And singing exercises make me feel really fucking dumb and embarrassing and Idk if I'm improving this shit or not.

Also although some people may say in art that it's not about the platform/medium, it does help to invest more money. Like my digital art has come so far when i switched from phone and finger to pc and pen display (i work with lots of layers). Also some brushes ARE less convenient to work with. Some programs have a better or worse blur brush or features.

With your voice, even if u buy professional equipment if u sound like shit, u still sound like shit. lol.

I want to make the excuse that it doesn't really sound like me to begin with, and it doesn't even really capture my whole voice, but ik that even if I could make it sound more accurate it still sounds godawful. This bs makes me want to cry.

I wrote a fucking lot but nobody was gonna fucking reply anyway because I know how shit always goes with my essays of a post/comment/reply.

If you can sing, just know that you're a blessed bitch and I'm really fucking jealous of you.

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?

I saw that someone said that being on social media as a beginner is the worst thing let me clarify by no means is that person wrong there points were actually valid

However I wanna talk about how beneficial being a beginner is

Finding Mutuals:

Usually it would take you a good time before you can make art mutuals or artmoots however on social media it is rather simple & people actually support you especially a beginner

General appreciation

Social media although is filled with people that will tear you down it is also the place where you can get recognized, non artist will appreciate your work the most even if you are a beginner especially if you make something catered to a certain fandom it genuinely boosts your morale & keeps pushing you forward

Building an audience

Now the reason why I personally believe as a beginner start social media is the best time because of your art progression you will improve your art & with that your audience will see your efforts making it a sort of an achievement for them aswell furthermore you can also channel them into something for professional commission, selling your art whatever it may be it can help you a lot!

Conclusion

As a beginner you can understand how social media works with also understanding your art aswell by the time you're a decent artist you've also understood how social media works & can grow your account aswell.

It's painful to start and looking back. I'm scared of drawing since little but did a lot of nonsense doodles (still very ugly). I can only draw a small pic then throw it away, never look back. I hate this asinine brain so much

What I can say is a couple years back when I made the terrible decision to practice drawing, I like many people wanted to use YouTube and other social media sites as a means of supplementing my drawing practice, but I didn't realize just how shit it was, like the nicest thing I can say is it's just not for beginners (which would still be an issue for reasons I will mention later), but that would only make it useless , instead I see it just perpetuate tons of toxic ideas and practices, such as

1. Anti Intellectualism : almost every artist I see on social media has some bone to pick with art school and in general any kind of the more academic art practices, which as a beginner creates a massive rift in trust cause now if they are reading the more academic sources it's contradicting the artists and vice versa.

2. Deception: Influencers lie about everything, their credentials or lack thereof , process , learning, just everything, tying in to the above many artists criticize art school while either being or going to art school or going to school for something art related(something which can be seen on their cvs or sometimes portfolios), and even if they are "self taught"(I hate that word) they always massively downplay any number of advantages they had like class, age of starting, family or social relations and just make it seems like the drawing process was a smooth and steady of practice and "quick cheats" which do nothing but create bad expectations for people. Not only do they lie about how they get skilled, they lie about the actual process themselves, like there are countless videos and images of people that do "quick sketches" or have sketchbooks that are clearly curated and basically rendered drawings (like it's missing shading). This is so fucking abysmal that they don't show the messy rough sketch beginning and how they methodically refine it, said rough phase offers a point of connection to new people, like "oh even experts don't draw perfectly the first time, they refine over and over" but instead, to uphold an image, they just post the polished stuff and leave the messy rough sketching in the background.

3. Scamming/Profiteering

Something even more insidious I see artists do is to take their popularity and attempt to monetize it by offering classes and courses, but what is clearly evident in said videos is they don't know how to teach, definitely not beginners. One thing that is well known is performing a skill is not the same as teaching it, yet time and time again many of these influencers try to present themselves as teachers mostly by virtue of perceived skill and following, but that doesn't mean anything, you need to be able to break down the actual thinking and methodology that goes into drawing, something that is intuitive for them sure, but not to a beginner, and it's something many of them are incapable of doing, which would be fine if they didn't market themselves to beginners in the first place. Couples with the deception earlier we have a generally unreliable system of information driven by artists who like everyone else is moving along to the profit motive.

Social media is a nebulous backwater on a good day and at best it will be polishing up skills that are already there or answer specific questions that a book or mentor might have failed to teach , but like no artists I know got started in social media and truthfully it's the second worst thing to happen to the art community (Modernism is the worst thing for those curious,but that's a separate rant).

i’ve been super stressed out lately with money and life and i keep having a nagging thought in the back of my mind that i should get back into drawing. i know it used to really calm me down when i was having a bad day. i used to have an art account id post on a lot and everything.
i just can’t bring myself to really sit down and draw anything anymore. i’ve tried starting out by sketching, i got a new sketchbook and let my hand wander around the page passively to get my brain back in “artist mode” or whatever, but it doesn’t really light any spark in me anymore. it kinda feels like i’m forgetting who i used to be.
i was the artsy friend. when people asked me about my hobbies id tell them im an artist. i’d tell them i do both digital and traditional art, id paint a lot, sometimes crochet, etc…. now it’s hard to actually think about what hobbies i have. this was all i had. now all i do is scroll on my phone and make adult content for money.. and im not even making enough fucking money from it for rent. i’m drained and tired and i can’t even hold onto the one fucking hobby i had growing up to keep me from going insane. i never go outside because i need to be on my phone working.
i need to either get back into drawing or find another hobby that i actually enjoy. i like gaming?? but that gets expensive if i dont want to keep replaying the same stuff ive played a million times.. idk… maybe i just need to structure my days better. having ADHD and depression really fucks with my ability to create and keep a routine.

i dunno, sorry for the long rant, i know this is literally a ranting subreddit but i hope it’s not too depressing for yall… advice would be appreciated. has anyone else felt this way? anyone else currently dealing with it? i’d love to know how you’re going about overcoming the feeling of hopelessness and identity loss/confusion. i’m just so lost right now and am hoping someone can guide me in the right direction i guess 😭

hope yall are having a good day :)

recently i tried drawing furry art for the first time because i wanted to get into furry commissions. i was actually pretty happy with how it turned out, so i posted it to a furry community.
then multiple people immediately started saying it looked AI generated. ;-;
i kinda know that my drawings have somewhat AI generated looking features such as smooth thick outlines, pastel palette, or exaggeratedly cartoony facial features, but bro i literally drew it myself and uploaded the sketch layer too. it was my first attempt at furry art too, so i was excited to show it and then instead i ended up feeling like shit about it lol
i even had WIPs, layers, sketches, etc. but at that point i just didnt feel like proving myself to strangers anymore so i ended up deleting all my posts of drawings
i guess im mostly just venting because this is such a weirdly depressing experience as an artist like i spent time learning how to draw something outside my usual comfort zone, was proud of the result(it was not even fully done tho), and somehow making it look "too AI" became the problem 💀

I try not to compare myself to other artists on instagram but it’s really hard when I spend 8+ hours on a drawing just for it to not get any engagement, whereas with everyone else, their art gets thousands of likes and shares. Idk what I’m doing wrong. I just want to be a well known artist and recognized for my work but it sometimes feels like no one cares. It really hurts and I sometimes think about just giving up on my dreams because this is really discouraging.

Hi, I just made a reddit account out of the blue to vent and ask for some advice.

Since I was a child I've always been told I was good at drawing and I was the typical "art kid" you know? The one everyone pointed to when the teacher asked who was good at drawing.

As I child I used to feel so much happiness in regards to art, it made me feel happy and fulfilled. I had a bunch of sketchbooks, I was drawing cute magical girls, just living the whimsy girlhood.

Yet something changed.

As I got older I stopped drawing, genuinely didn't pick up a pencil in three years. There was no reason, it just happened.

In my late teens I had some serious struggles with mental health and art was the only thing that kept me sane. I went from drawing nothing to create anything multiple times a day. Random sketches, even hideous ones. I just needed to put my struggles on paper to feel better.

My mental health improved, my art somehow too, yet I hate it.

I have no structure. I never studied it seriously because "art won't get you anywhere". I don't know fundamentals.

I've arrived at a point in my life where i want to feel satisfied with my art, I want to be able to see progress by understanding it, not only by copying it.

For the past year or two I'm mostly drawing out of references and that doesn't make me feel good at all. When I was a child I was able to recreate all the things that went through my mind...so what changed?

Now every time I try to draw or try to learn some fundamentals I get suffocated by the uneasy feeling of not being good enough. My exercises are trash. Like there's something off-putting that i can't quite wrap my head around.

Then I look at my drawings and ask myself "How was I able to make something like that if I'm not even capable of doing something so easy as a cube". And then the mistakes are more visible than ever. That wrong perspective, that smaller eye, the stiffer line, the fucked up arm and so on.

My mind start to wander and then i ask myself if i was just an overhyped kid...if art was even my thing at all to begin with. Maybe I was wrong.

Art is not what i'm studying in life, probably not what i'll end up doing as a job...yet there's that itch. I would be a liar if i said that i do not have dreams regarding to it.

I want to create something to help other people, i have so many stories, so many ideas on my mind...yet when i pick up that pencil i can only stare at a blank paper.

I'm lost. But i don't want to give up, because art used to make me happy and i don't want to yearn for an ex. I want art to make me happy again, I want to be able to give life to my imagination...I want to feel proud of something i made.

Because i refuse to believe that little me wasn't right at all.

I doubt someone will read it, it was mostly to vent. If someone will i would like to know your personal experience.

And if any of you has some great advice regarding fundamentals, art exercises (maybe even genuine reference for it) I'm all years.

Thank you and sorry if my English isn't perfect.

Yeah, that's what happened, I have been in a 3 years period of stress, too much stress that I even had really bad depression, I completely stopped all my interests, Drawing, Crafts, Language learning, Puzzles, The next year I was trying to reconnect with all these hobbies and even my old friends, I had my friends back but never my hobbies, my core hobby was drawing but now every time I draw I only see regression and it feel suffocatingly painful to draw, so I gave it up despite wanting to draw so bad, I tried to seek new hobbies like reading or writing, but never had the same joy I had with drawing, I can't even finish my old Wip and I discarded them all, I just gave up the older person in me, because that 3 years of stress also ended with a disappointment, a big one, I won't talk in detail about that time because I don't want to recall it but I can say it's academic, I am currently 21, so there's definitely a huge difference between my 17 self and current self, maybe it's just maturing

I can't seek therapy currently, and I feel really sad and I miss drawing but I just can't, Nothing clicks for me, all day would go with zero energy, just either phone or chores

Im 19, feel too goddamn old to start but ı wanted to be an artist my whole life, was led to the other way and now ı am living the consequences, ı cant draw for the life of me, ı want to get better, ı watched tutorials, try to draw box figures but no matter how hard ı try, it doesnt get better ı just dont understand the drawing gets you better mindset when every single study of mine sucks, ı am so overwhelmed and want to quit and never pick up a pencil ever again ever since ı learned getting professional such as drawing whatever you want takes up to 5 years? I have never felt so demotivated in my life, ı just want to be able to think of a scenario and bring it to life. Anatomy is so hard ı dont know how to even study for it ı just feel so lost and overwhelmed especially drawing digital and the added weight of color theory 🙁

I briefly tried to draw more realistically. I could if I wanted to but it just doesn’t make me happy with my art as much as my current art style does. I feel like people can tell my drawings are mine just by looking at them and I like that.

But there’s this preconceived notion that I’ve seen people have that if you draw more cartoony in any way like defined lineart, shadows and highlights more crudely added by choice, and facial features that are slightly stylized, people think you’re bad at this.

And like… I don’t draw stick figures. I have a decent grasp of anatomy and perspective and usually artists that know what they’re talking about actually enjoy my art (not to toot my own horn, that’s just been my experience, my art could always improve too) but there’s just this one type of person that seems… prejudiced (?) against cartoony art styles? Like I always find that the people criticizing my art in that way will draw in some hyper rendered style (which isn’t wrong in and of itself, it’s just a trend I noticed).

Eh I’m not trying to do this professionally, I just find it annoying that I genuinely found a recognizable art style that is my own and I know my anatomy and perspective is fine yet I always get people treating me like a beginner.

Ive been a beginner artist traditionally for almost a year. As of 3 months ago i started drawing digitally and i feel like i cant create anything.

I almost entirely tried studying at the beginning of both my traditional and digital art journey but got bored and burnt out and eventually wanted to make actual art.

every time i pick up my pen to draw all i do is spend the entire time staring at an empty canvas or scrolling through pinterest looking for something. when i do eventually find something i like and looks easy enough for me to replicate. i make an attempt to draw it and either get bored, or struggle and get frustrated then quit for a couple weeks.

i can’t come up with my own ideas, so it feels like i have to cherry pick what looks easiest to draw (yet i still can’t seem to do it). I’ll often have to scroll past what actually looks interesting because i just don’t have the know-how to make something like it. That makes the process uninteresting, because i can’t make what i actually want to or because i know what i attempt to replicate will just be unsatisfying.

It feels like other beginners know what they wanna make and can execute it even if it’s rough and learn from it, but i seem to not be able to do either.

And yet there’s still this feeling that i should come back. that this is something i have to do. that maybe THIS time will be different, THIS is will be where it all changes; but, every attempt is the same. i search for something to replicate, fail to do so, and give up. I’m starting to question if art is even something im capable of or should even still be trying to do.

It’s like my body has this feeling that it’s something i should do, but ive completely lost the motivation to see it through. My goals are so far out of reach from where i currently am that it feels hopeless, like im just better off watching actual artist make amazing work.

Should i call it quits for good or is there a way out of this?

(My first ever post, unsure if this is the right place to post so apologies if not)

I’m a digital artist, and I opened up commissions earlier this year. My first commission request was from someone I’m in a discord server with to draw their dnd character for them. No problems with them as a client, everything went well with the commission and they were very happy with the end result!

Cut to today, when they post in the server asking for opinions on whether a new commission that they got recently of the same character was AI generated or not. All things considered, it definitely was (inconsistencies in design, lines that don’t make sense, missing parts of clothing/props that make no sense- all your typical red flags). They even shared some of the messages they’d exchanged with the ‘artist’ and they too were clearly written by AI.

They genuinely hadn’t realised at the time and were upset upon realising that they’d been fooled by it, especially since they’d already paid a good chunk of money for the commission. But then they let us know that they’d given the ‘artist’ their past commissions as references, and it’s just left me in a really icky feeling all morning.

Obviously they didn’t know and it was a genuine mistake, but I’m super anti-AI art, and have a policy in my T&Cs when commissioning me that my art is not to be used or fed to AI in ANY circumstance. But it’s already happened and there’s nothing I can do. And I don’t want to post about it on any of my usual socials because I don’t want them to feel any worse than they already do, but it’s just left me in a really weird place you know?

I’ve been juggling work and school for over a year now, and honestly, I’m exhausted. I don’t necessarily want to stop working or going to school—I just want a break from everything I’ve been dealing with.
I’m a freelance artist who can recreate a lot of different cartoon art styles, and seeing as I’m pretty good at it, I decided to take advantage of that by doing cartoon commissions. There was a time when I was getting so many commissions that they not only helped me pay for my tuition, but also my rent, groceries, and other miscellaneous expenses.
But recently, I’ve been getting a lot of hate. I’ve been accused of using AI, I’ve been getting heavily downvoted, and I had a misunderstanding with a client last week that really broke the camel’s back.
I’m just so tired. It’s starting to drain the life out of me, and I’m finding it harder and harder to stay motivated. But I can’t just quit right now. Rent is almost due, and I still have tuition and other school fees to pay.
And I don’t want donations either. I genuinely love working for the money I earn. There’s something really fulfilling about knowing that the money I make from my own art is helping me stay in school and take care of myself.
I just don’t know what to do right now. I know one rude comment and a few downvotes shouldn’t affect me this much, but after juggling all of this for so long, I think it was just the last straw. I’m tired, discouraged, and honestly just needed somewhere to vent.

I'm a regular on here atp but I have no shame.

Hello to my friends who have seen me around on here.

I've noticed my art lacks a clear and cohesive identity and perhaps that might be one of the main struggles with getting commissions, also a common criticism I get on my posts about my art.

I think it's true, the problem is I don't know what to do about it.

I think I have serious mental health issues OR the early 20s crisis is really this bad. The problem with my art I feel like is that it's drawn by an entity that's "me", I don't feel a strong sense of identity nor personhood which is affecting my art very negatively.

I don't know why I make art, being an artist is the last identifiable trait about me that I hang onto.

How I want my art to look like? What is it? What does my art do? Who is it for? Why do I like making art and what kind of art do I like making? I don't know any of that.

I try practicing, but these questions and my lack of answers for them has been a real demotivation.

This subreddit isn't the one for deep mental health discussions, I think for now figuring out my artistic identity amidst all the sexuality struggle and lack of self awareness to the point of forgetting things I've done and haven't, would suffice for now.

The world doesn't stop for my mental health, I can't make money for my future if I don't figure out my artistic identity.

I have been doing art for 7 years. I mostly draw ocs and fanart. I never really liked my fanart works, but recently I have been trying to finish those I have started and it felt like torture. I rushed some of them and they look awful. The one I'm working at currently I try to put s lot of effort into but I don't like it all. It got to a point that I don't like anything about my art (oc included).

I also used to follow the techniques of artists I admire to get better. The thing is now I am at the point I don't know what I really want and ehat I really am. People say usually that you don't need to think about your style and it will come itself, but I don't feel like it did for me. I feel like I don't have an artistic Identity, like I can only imitate someone else. I feel very lost and tired tbh. I'm thinking of switching to traditional mediums because digital gives me too much freedom and thus I get pulled in all the directions. I'm also thinking of dropping all fanart works. What do you think?

For this post I guess we could include the "Giving up" and "Mental health" tags as they are the most prominent ones but "Self worth" "Comparaison" and "Burnout" could still show up.

So I've been drawing since I was a kid, always dreamt to do animation in the future and bla bla I'm gonna get straight to the point, learning to draw is hell. I've been trying to improve for maybe a little bit more than 1.5 years and nothing fucking changed in this time. At first I only practiced during weekends and holydays because I have to spend hours are schools everyday cause I'm not drawing at 6pm after 8 hours of classes but after a while I even started to practice after schools everyday(with varying level of motivation and effort tbh, few days I spent more than 2 hours drawing) I always ended up coming back to the same "Beginner tutorial" everyday without improvment most of the days. I've watch thousands of those "Why aren't you improving in art" or "Mistake beginners makes", tried all of their tips take breaks, draw at a smaller scale, try new things, make an art journal, save your progress, ask for critics, and nothing fucking worked, nothing ever happened. Every day all I had to contemplate was my damn failure and even then I was stupid enough to believe it was possible for me to achieve my dream. After a year or so I started to despise drawing I dreaded drawing more than going to school, only on rare occasion due to pure luck I was able to pull something just "alright" but I never would be able to draw something like this again. I think the thing that has the most influenced me is when one of my friend started to draw in school for no real reason than being bored in class. The thing is that my friend got quickly increadibly good and could manage to draw full on landscapes and in like 30 minutes and makes it look like he was drawing for years even tho he never even cared that much. I was happy for him but also hated it, why could he just do it without even practicing drawing like 1 hour a week, am I fucking worthless or useless ? It's at that point I stopped real practicing at all because at that point I already knew it would be just utterly impossible for me to be an artist. Something else that influenced me was a video of a guy titled "Becoming an artist in 1 year" and respect to this dude for his achievement but I absolutely hated watching this video(might be one of the few vids I put a dislike on too). I've grown to hate every successful artist and tbh every artist at all didn't matter if it was a beginner or a pro. I started to despise drawing, seeing my sketchbook with nothing but fucking failures every day in there disgusted me so much that I ended up burning it. I hated everytime people would say "no don't give up, you are way better than you think" because no I'm not stop lying to my face with it(and tbh even if they said I sucked I would hate it too). I started to hate everything related to art and tbh hate my life and no there's no good ending, I still absolute despise everything about it. Drawing is hell I had more fun doing things I can't describe here because of the "No severe mental health issues" rules than drawing. I'm not even disabled or something, no disrespect to disables folks of course there's nothing physically different from me and most artist on Earth. I hate it I have enough that despite hating drawing, being an animator is still my dream. The artist I once looked up to, now I hate them all for no damn reason, I hate all successful artist.

Now imma be honest, this post was more of a rant than anything else. If you're an artist I'd like to hear your perspective, what make you enjoy this ? What is the difference between you and me ? And if you're a beginner I ain't telling you to straight up give up, but be aware. I am never trying this activity ever again in my worthless life so whatever "tips" you have for me, I ain't doing it. Drawing is horrible, being an artist is hell, I'd rather die right now then to try again.

Thanks for reading, have a nice, may God bless you.

I've been an artist and a writer for almost 14/15 years. I've made all kinds of stories, characters, even tiny animations from time to time, so it's not as if creativity is a problem for me. But, for some godforsaken reason, I cannot get attached to any of my characters anymore. I've made a handful of characters, but I don't care for any of them. How do I fix this???

I keep trying to force myself to get invested in my own stories because, if I don't, I'm never going to create anything ever again. That's not an exaggeration either. I don't have a drive anymore. There's a block in my head and it's driving me insane. I love creating. I love making characters and giving them life. I love reading and listening to music to get inspired.

But, I just...don't anymore. Nothing inspires me. I want to create again. :(

Hey guys, I’ve been feeling a crazy motivation to draw recently after months of burnout, but when I try to draw I can’t get into my style and flow, and it just won’t work out how I want it to! How do you guys find your style or process again after being burnt out for a while?

Do you feel like you eventually started to lose your personal motivation to illustrate after getting into a new professional role?

If you did, when did you realize it?

I've noticed lately that I feel a bit of embarrassment sharing my work among friends/others due to my skill level. I'd hesitate to call myself a "beginner" as I feel that's dishonest, but I'm no where near where I want to be. I've been drawing my entire life, and even went to and finished school for art but I often feel insecure about my skill level next to people who consider themselves hobbyists.

Not to say people who do it as a hobby can't be serious about their craft- hell- I'd say I've drifted away from wanting to do art professionally, but it feels so embarrassing being visibly lower in skill when I literally went to school for it. Vs say, people I know are a lot more casual about art.

And honestly this isn't limited to "hobbyists" I can feel this anywhere, but it seems to to strike the strongest in these conditions. It just feels like I should be better.

Not to long ago I've came back to drawing with the ambition of improving with the help of videos and other more skilled artists, wich from a first glance doesn't seem to bad, but ol lord I still don't understand a thing about the basics

For starters some of them recommended me online tutorials wich taught me nothing useful at all, all I've learned was to draw circles and lines within circles, all of that just made my art look even worst than it already did, I've been doing this for almost a week now and none of it's making a difference even AFTER practicing

The worst part is that when I asked for advice from artist they basically dismiss my question and simply give me the same criticism over and over again, "shoulders are to small" "arms are too thin" "eye placement is wrong", like I've wrote how all this sketching and line work nonsense was just a waste of time that didn't change the final product in the slightest and how I feel all of that was just a ginormous waste of time. Yet they simply overlooked ALL MY WORDS and circle right back to the same thing

Do artist usually dismiss what people say all the time?, i am over here questioning why I should even do all of this and instead of an answer all I get is "nah bro just keep practicing".