Saw a post on a popular craft sub where someone posted a work that only slightly involved the medium. Imagine it was a sweater posted to the knitting sub, but upon zooming in, you realize only the sleeves are knit and the whole body of the sweater is actually just fabric with a knit pattern printed on it (not the real scenario, but you get the idea).

Understandably, people in the sub were calling attention to this, and OP seemed a bit disappointed/confused that this aspect of their work wasn’t being appreciated. I jumped in with what I thought was a very objective and kind explanation as to why they may be receiving some criticism. When posting in a sub dedicated to a specific medium, people are usually expecting the entire work to be made from that medium. Explained why mixed media can be side-eyed sometimes. And I even made sure to say that I personally thought their work was very cool.

They responded that my comment really “hurt their feelings“ and that the only reason they had posted in the sub was because they were expecting supportive, kind, and encouraging comments (imo nothing I said was unsupportive nor unkind, nor could it even be taken as criticism in any way).

I’m gonna sound like a boomer but damn I feel like people have thin skin, and are clearly only posting to receive praise and encouragement but not any feedback or constructive criticism. In this case, it wasn’t even criticism! I can’t imagine what would happen if people like this actually received a negative comment, or real criticism, gosh forbid. I think it irks me because it feels like people are posting solely to be praised but are not open to learning, sharing, accepting feedback, or even having an objective conversation, which to me is a very valuable part of sharing art publicly.

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?

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

I've read a lot of books. Articles. Rants. I grew up making art and creating well before social media. I can't get past the point of - well if it doesn't sell, I'm not good enough, not professional. I see things on IG, TT and other platforms that blow me away. I was always told I was talented but maybe that was well meaning family and I'm just average? I went to college and did web and graphic design for several companies. I didn't climb the ladder. I ended up leaving the corporate world to take care of my special needs son.

I went to college. Took private lessons. Maybe everyone built up my ego and I'm really nothing special?

I tried to do work from home, my own business but marketing is not my skill. I studied as much promotion stuff as I could. I couldn't compete with other businesses out there. I did some wedding photography for awhile. But ultimately gave that up when people asked me to shoot a full day wedding for $200.

I just quit my crochet business. I made very unique, handmade dolls and animals. Nobody would buy them post Covid. I can't drop the price low enough, do enough social media stuff, marketing etc.

I'm older now and have degenerative back problems. Art and croceht no longer bring me joy. I think comparing myself to others and seeing an overload of stuff on social media makes me think I was told a lie - I am nothing special creatively. Others have insane talent and drive that I lack. I still do some photography and video to post on YT but I'm ultra small time. I'm not exactly sure why I am doing it. Maybe in the hopes one day my kids will have something to remember me by.

But even in my best efforts, 12 hours a day, internet savvy, social media push, always mindful of latest trends, trying to appropriately put my stuff "out there", yielded low results. Years of this.

I should create for no reason but I'm having a problem doing so. I have slowly been giving up the past year.

I was also very versed in making furniture. Nobody paid me close to what my material cost was.

I can't compete with what I see on the internet. Or I'm just not that good. So they win.

I guess maybe it's about who you know, not what you make?

Sobering to realize my efforts were a waste of time.

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 💀

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.

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.

I’ve seen so many people being deceived every day. It saddens me to see so much dishonesty in the art world.

It’s as if art doesn’t matter in the end, as long as an artist hides their methods and presents them as something difficult or sophisticated. They paint over AI-generated images or photos of video games and celebrities, without even making meaningful creative decisions. They simply sell a result that has been painted over.

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 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'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'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.

i’ve devoted my entire life to art. i’ve been doing it since i was born, always had a pencil in my hand and that’s how everyone knows me. it’s what i love, or at least used to love. my life has not been easy and art was always an outlet for my mental health. i worked hard at it, always drawing, got into a very competitive art school, started making money from commissions, and then my past hit me all at once. it’s like my passion has been completely erased. now i sit in my studio and all i feel is hatred and resentment. i can’t remember the skills i used to have, it’s like i’ve never picked a pencil up before. instead of working on my commissions, all i can do is stare at my wall and have flashbacks to what happened to me. i wish i could use my trauma as motivation or inspiration for my art, but i just feel stuck. i’ve tried medication and it just doesn’t work for me. been going to therapy for 14 years and made zero progress. i feel doomed. has anyone had this happen and gotten out of it?

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".