Giving Up

I post artwork on Tumblr and dA but it all seems a waste because no one favorites it. I never get notes on Tumblr. I want to give up because everything feels like a wasted effort after all this time.

Show me your stuff.

Do you mean give up posting art on tumblr and DA or give up art in general?

Being an artist should be mostly something you do for yourself, not for people to favorite… I mean, I don’t know but I think if I were an artist, I’d be trying to make myself proud, other people liking my work would be a bonus. Also just because people don’t click “favorite” or whatever doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy it.

@Nosfrat  

 
This^ I feel the same way about the matter. I write a lot of music but almost no one has ever heard it. And really i dont care if anyone ever does because im not making music for anyone but me. If you like making art then make it but make it for yourself and have fun with it.

b op

If you’re thinking about quitting because you’re not getting attention, you probably don’t have what it takes to put the time in to get better. Art has to consume you.

Advice:  
1.Practice, get better.  
2.Stop caring about favorites and likes. These may matter more if you want to get a fan-base and make money off of commissions or patreon or something.  
In which case, repeat step 1 in addition to promoting yourself on several websites.

@tigerfestivals  
Can I get some help on somethin like this?
 
I don’t want to make another thread for this so just posting in here.
 
I know i have the ability, I know what to draw, how to practice, but…lately with stress from college, life stuff, and good ol’ depression, I find it hard to ever actually draw. And I want to draw but a few things, I have shit sleep which is not easily fixed due to an alcoholic who decides to stay up to 6 AM, and I just figured out I have Atelophobia, I’m just afraid of not being good enough. I don’t manage my time well either, and since I’m a very slow artist, not much can be done for the time I AM alloted.
 
So I must ask, should I just stop drawing until school is out, or should I get some help? I’ve been thinking maybe find people to draw with (no takers, obviously) so the practice is more fun and im less lonely when I do so. Because I do want to art but I don’t have the mind for it right now but I REALLY want to fix that. Else, I’ll probably just hang up my artist wings and just commission folks and admit I’m just not cut out for the hobby I love. Which would hurt.

@Sono  
It’s important to view art as a form of exercise - if you go too long without it, your skills are going to start atrophy in and you’ll need to make up for it later. I’ve had some symptoms in common with atelophobia that make sitting down to draw an insurmountable burden and the only thing that helped was medication. Getting help is usually the best option.
 
If the idea of giving up hurts, that’s the best sign that you shouldn’t give up. In the meantime, maybe focus on producing a large quantity of unfinished sketches rather than making sure each thing you draw gets finished. Set goals like deconstructing and redrawing poses from the show with a quick time limit like five minutes in order to get your speed up (flex those muscles!). The key is to make the most of your time while you have it, which is something I’ve had to deal with a LOT lately.

@1TrickPone  
*atrophying

@Sono  
Well if drawing would cut into your school time a whole lot, then probably it’s best to wait. I mean you could just figure out when you have free time and draw then, even if it’s not that much. I mean, you don’t have to turn every drawing into a finished thing, so you could probably fit in a few sketches/coloring practice (though I don’t know what your schedule looks like).

Alright. So today i realized, I literally have no time for drawing anymore until my classes are over.
 
 
Needless to say I’m pissed, disappointed and distraught i cannot enjoy my hobby anymore, or enjoy it with others. I feel so fucking cut off from everyone.
 
So, when I get back to drawing, I’ll probably have to restart how I do things. Should I practice first or try to draw what I want? How should I relearn everything? >.< Im gonna be honest I might just give up if its too much work for me to do that. I hate feeling so inadequate all the fucking time. Its like i made a fatal mistake thinking I could ever draw.

@Sono  
I have a suggestion: flip a coin to decide whether or not you should continue with art. Do it, then read this:
 
Which face of the coin showing is meaningless, but the moment you flip it up, you should know what you want it to be. Ignore the real coin, follow the face of the coin you want in your head.
 
From what I’ve seen, your art ability is not a problem. The problem is your depression. I’m no psychology expert, but I’d say learning a difficult skill (which likely comes with some frustration) while having depression is not a good idea. Art is something that takes a long time to learn, and progress is something that you will never see until you go back to look at your stuff from 6 months earlier. All those great artists out there? They are not more talented than you, they just have failed more times than you have.
 
You still have the rest of your life to learn art, so no rush. Just take care of yourself first, and once you’re feeling better (and can have fun with sucking at art for a year or two), come back.

That makes sense…I’ll just drop the hobby until this semester is done with then. For sure.
 
But my qualm is, I’ve been sucking for 4 years already. That just tells me to quit but I don’t want to. Some say “Oh some people take longer than others” but that just tells me I’m not good enough to ever participate in art stuff with anyone, that I’m cut off from everyone else. And that’s really fucking depressing.
 
It’s just a cycle, really. And no sign of being able to break it.

@Sono  
Could be how you practice. You said you know how to practice, so what do you do?

@Grieffon  
No I’m just not frequent enough is the issue. Each time I try I get whooped and exhausted so I can’t draw much. That or i get depressed or can’t draw for a long time.
 
Problem is most practice methods looks far too hard for me to even consider. All I can do is gesture drawing and feeling out poses via tracing. That’s what I see most people do. I just don’t do it enough and won’t have the ability until next month. Life studies and full figure drawing require realism and I can’t do that.

It took me 17 years to get to the point where I felt like I was living up to what I was going for, so four years is nothing. It just sounds like you’re making excuses. If this is important to you, what else can you cut out of your day to make time for it? What could you have drawn if you weren’t here whining that’ll you don’t have time? If you watch loads of tv or surf aimlessly, stop.
 
How easy will it be to push this back when you get into the next semester, or when you get a job, or get into a relationship or have kids?
 
Shit or get off the pot, dude.

@1TrickPone  
I might have managed a little bit, but if i feel like crap nothing would have came of it anyway. I’m slow so it’s not like I could do much really. All I’ve really been doing lately is just coloring stuff and lining things….Im just really ill confidant on the actual sketch bit, as that takes way more time for me than the other 2 things, one sketch usually takes the entire day for me if i’m shooting for quality/not doodling.
 
I guess I am making excuses, but fact is I just can’t draw while I feel so bent out of shape about this. I’m a happy mood drawer, I can’t do it if I’m busy, in a bad mood or my mind is on something like school.
 
Maybe my management skills are just really poor. And you know what, they are. I cannot multitask. What should I do to fix that?

@Sono  
You shouldn’t. Multitask is bad for something that need serious commitment. Good time managing is to assign time proportional to the importance of a task, not cramming as many tasks as possible into your life. You can never do everything, so get rid of the things that are not important.
 
I’m afraid you have to sort this out yourself, or seek some real life help. Us internet folks don’t know your life well enough to give specific advice. As I said, your art skill is not the problem. Your state of mind is. If you really can’t draw, fight off your depression first.

@Sono  
Time constraints are always an issue, so if you don’t have a dearth of time on your hands, I suggest forcing yourself to limit the amount of time you spend on each sketch. The only way to improve is to draw a LOT, so there’s no point spending a ton of time on sketches when you first start out. Spend ten to thirty minutes just drawing heads or eyes or just the body/limbs and give yourself a time limit per sketch to maximize the amount of sketching you’re doing. I would not focus on trying to finish anything right now, and if you love a sketch, you can always come back to finish it later!
 
If you must trace, do it to break down the basic shapes and give yourself a reference on the proportions. You’re also wrong about life/figure drawing. The main focus on both of those is attention to proportion and movement, which is vital to cartooning.

@Sono  
Also, having gone through it myself, sometimes the only way to draw is to fight the depression or anxiety by doing it anyway. Some days are worse than others, but at least making a sincere effort in spite of how you feel at the moment keeps the momentum going. I’ve had some days where I thought every sketch was garbage, but the next day or week I’d figure out that everything just needed a few minor tweaks to work.
 
We don’t always see that at the time.

Ultimately, it’s about realistic expectation. If you work on art an hour a day, 5 days a week, but hold the expectation of an artist who hone their craft 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, of course you will feel horrible about yourself.

The truth is watchers and faves don’t mean shit. DA is a shit website. Everything Tom Preston uploads ends up on DA’s front page and is he a good artist? No. Pewdiepie is always on Youtubes front page and his fucking awful videos get millions of views. Just because something’s popular doesn’t mean that it’s good.
 
There’s people on DA with 400 watchers who draw like crap and do they get 400 faves on everything they upload? No. Look at this >>367829. It got 12 faves on DA, it deserves a lot more. There are some amazing drawings out there that get about 4 faves when they should get 400. If you do have 10 watchers you won’t get 10 faves on everything you upload, just because someone doesn’t fave it, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t good. If you’re drawing ponies (which obviously you are since you’re posting this on a pony image board) then it’s going to be difficult to get noticed because of all the “horse famous” artists on DA and the tumblrverse. People will tend to flock to them and not bother to explore undiscovered artists, people are sheep. I draw ponies because I keep getting ideas for pictures that I want to see and I have fun drawing them and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

@Background Pony #06CF  
I think the reason that image got more of a reception here is because everyone that goes here already likes mlp, so the image pertains to more peoples interests than at dA, which is a melting pot.  
And Tom Preston isn’t a good artist…but I can’t say he’s bad either. At least, not nearly in proportion to the amount of hate he gets.  
@Sono  
Some people do take longer than others, both because of learning ability and amount of time they have to practice, and it seems like time is your biggest problem at this point. Also, I’ve gotta agree with the comic that griffon linked to. I swear for every one decent thing I draw there are about 10 abominations lying around (on this very site, for example…oh, why did I upload these things…). I guess what motivates me is that the decent things get marginally better every time I’m able to make one, and my ability to do so (success rate, i guess) gets better, too. I’d assume that there are at least some similarities with other people’s learning curves.Also, it sounds like art is primarily a hobby for you, so there’s really no stress to improve at a rapid pace. Take it easy, draw when you have time, and try to have fun.