[Talk] Does it feel bad when you cannot draw at all?

[BronzeHeart92]

Well, this would describe me perfectly. I just have no clue why though. Too little patience? Genuine incompetence? It honestly does no favours to my self-esteem at all... Since drawn artworks more often than not rules the roost, it can be a little hard to gain visibility for someone like me who prefers lit and photos instead.

 

[QuietDragon]

I thought the title meant a different kind of question entirely—for most of my life until halfway through medical school, I could NOT go a full day without drawing or even just scribbling something, I would have thought I would stop living if I did!

As for your actual question, hmm, art is definitely more immediately engaging, but so is photography! Both visual and immediate. You could do toy photography or food photography if you want to make it fandom-related? There are some amazing folks in fandom who do that. ^^

Writing is more difficult to gain an audience, but can also strongly impact people.

You can't force things, but tutorials help a lot with art, watching other artists draw too.

 

[Hyzenthlay]

There are so many things I struggle with in art, really important aspects such as anatomy, dynamics, shading etc., and sometimes that does cut into my self-esteem. It can even make me give up for months on end. Not a healthy attitude, I know!

And while I fully realise that artists put considerable time, effort and patience into improving their skills, at some point I just short-cut all of that and fell into the bad habits, rather than discover my own style and build up from there. Such mistakes impact me even now, so things like drawing anatomy frustrates me to no end!

I do recommend watching artists (including photographers!) because it can really help improve your mindset towards your own skills and motivate you to keep challenging yourself. I'm always inspired by watching YouTubers!

 

[Kitty]

This is more an introspective question so I'm going to be sharing my own experiences as such.

While I *can* draw, I'd often have feelings resembling that when I look at other artists improving, even friends. "Man I wish I can draw like that", "Why can't I color like her??", "Its only been a few months and this guy has 1000 followers and makes extremely aesthetic art jeez" you get the drill

But art isnt a race or even a competition of any kind- if you cant draw, but can take pictures and dabble in photography (I think thats what you mentioned), thats still art, and youre doing great.

In the thing i mentioned above, id just try what theyre doing. Sometimes it works out for me like the Pokemon ones, oftentimes they dont hahaha; ive had phases where my art is wildly different from trying things ive seen people do (people have noticed this about me) but that's just life, really.

If you're ever bummed out about not being able to do things and stuff like that, imo just do it. You can surprise yourself with the results sometimes, and even if you feel like you could do better, its still a learning experience that you could use on your art journey. Everyone gets negative sometimes and thats fine, but we should always remember to give ourselves credit too.

 

[Fairy]

Feel bad? It feels so much worse than that. I hit a stall at about the two hour (maybe two and a half, depending) point when I draw. And after that, no matter how much a force myself to draw lightly and mindfully, nothing comes out looking the way I want it to. Every line just seems forced and misplaced and even going back to fundamentals doesn't feel right. I have to physically get up and walk away from my sketchbook / computer and do something else because after those two hours I just can't draw. No matter how many times I flip the image, everything I do seems to reverse my progress, in my eyes.

It's horribly frustrating and I feel so fucking inadequate. Like my brain and my hand are no longer in homeostasis. It's.. hard to explain - it's like art block hits me every time I draw past two hours without fail but instead of not knowing what to draw, I can't even finish what I started! It's also a big reason you don't see me color much because I have an even lower tolerance for that.

But, then I give myself some time to chill, and after like an hour and a cup of tea I'm usually recharged and ready to draw again. So remember, no matter how talented you are, there's nothing wrong with giving yourself and your piece some space. It'll do more than just give you a different perspective once you get back to it, it resets your artistic control panel, if that makes any sense, haha.

Be patient, don't compare yourself to others, and don't be so hard on yourself. It's a lesson all artists can stand to be reminded of.

 

[Megan]

Struggle on? Like, imagine you really like drawing stuff but you're no good. But you've liked doing it for decades. And even though you never make much progress there are just some few times where you can go at it. Until you find someone who not only is better than you but also only spend a single year picking it up and eclipsing you.

Then imagine your motivation being very fickle. You just find yourself not in the right environment. No people encouraging you to continue, no friends, no contacts; you being afflicted with a disease people these days call "adult life"; people spouting around how artists need to be a certain way and not everyone being able to be an artist no matter how much they may want to, in the process. As well as a lot of other things.

So what's left to do? Struggle on and hope you reach some sort of "height" before you die. But at least you can be sure that others might be in the same boat. Just gotta live with the fear to be the last one on it as everybody jumps off of it when they're ready. ^^"

Wait, was that even an answer to the question? xD

 

[Roni]

I was coming into this thread thinking that the OP broke their hands or something, so they physically couldn't draw.

Social media's made it incredibly easy to see all the artists who are better than you and me, and thus it's made it incredibly easy to be envious and lose self-esteem. Couple that with capitalism making people think that their art is shit if it isn't deemed good enough to sell.

I say screw all that and just draw whatever, however you want. I don't follow line guides for facial structures. I can't color for shit, and I certainly don't know how to proportion my drawings to conform to normal body standards. But I continue to draw because it's fun for me. Art should be fun, not a contest.