artist-confessions

I have never been. I have zero art education. My pictures have never had any deep meaning behind them. No symbolism. None of my artworks are all that personal in meaning. I see or think of something nice, I paint it, and I paint it fast, just to get the picture out of my head. I do not actively seek to improve. So while I do appreciate the criticism and your effort, I do, meticulously tearing apart mere sketches and doodles by pointing out off details that would even make an experienced artist pull their hair is not what I seek. I just want to paint and showcase them in case they make someone happy. I’m not denying that improvement happens, it’s inevitable, but most of the time I’m painfully aware of the flaws anyway, and their presence really comes down to my insufficient skills. So please. Stop treating me as if I wanted to pursue the profession or actually considered myself an artist. I just want to paint. Unless I specifically ask for critique, don’t give me any. I want to revel in my carefree crappiness. There are thousands of other budding artists who’d kill for that critique and who take their work seriously.

Ravenholm at Deviantart.

-ferroconcrete


art (c) Sonicrocksmysocks So when I was an aspiring artist, around 13, my idol was SRMS. I tried to replicate her style and I loved her animations—she just seemed so great and she was the artist I wanted to be. Even now I still believe she’s a great artist and she’s overcome a lot to be where she is today… but looking at her art and looking at mine, I feel like I’m surpassing her. This is not bragging, I just feel like her progress has become more stagnant and I understand when that happens, I just don’t really have an idol anymore; I don’t have someone I aspire to be and it’s making me feel less inspired as of late submitted by -Anonymous

art (c) Sonicrocksmysocks

So when I was an aspiring artist, around 13, my idol was SRMS. I tried to replicate her style and I loved her animations—she just seemed so great and she was the artist I wanted to be. Even now I still believe she’s a great artist and she’s overcome a lot to be where she is today…

but looking at her art and looking at mine, I feel like I’m surpassing her. This is not bragging, I just feel like her progress has become more stagnant and I understand when that happens, I just don’t really have an idol anymore; I don’t have someone I aspire to be and it’s making me feel less inspired as of late

submitted by -Anonymous


WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE CONCEPT OF ART IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?

-Anonymous


Whenever I draw, I make a pillow/blanket fort and sit under it. It’s one of the ways I relax and can loosen up when sketching out new ideas, doodling, or experimenting with color palletes. For some reason it helps my thought process! Art is mine~! submitted by sutexii

Whenever I draw, I make a pillow/blanket fort and sit under it.

It’s one of the ways I relax and can loosen up when sketching out new ideas, doodling, or experimenting with color palletes. For some reason it helps my thought process!

Art is mine~!

submitted by sutexii


I love art and always will.  But after school picked up, life got busy, needing to grow up fast, I could never draw again.  After I lost my girlfriend, fell into steep depression and a jumble of other crisis… you’d think art would be what pulled me to my feet.  But it wasn’t and now I have no love for my work or myself.  Wasting time making pretty pictures that will not help me get into grad school, pay bills or change me as a person? I used to love making beautiful stories, but now it just seems so silly to be making up lives instead of actually living my own.  I have no regrets, but just wanted to say: Art, though we can’t be together, I miss you. Thanks for the memories.  

-relearner


I know I should suck it up and practice, but it just frustrates me to the point where I really just don’t want to.  (“drawing” by me) -submitted by Anonymous

I know I should suck it up and practice, but it just frustrates me to the point where I really just don’t want to. 

(“drawing” by me)

-submitted by Anonymous


I find it very frustrating that compliments on art are so freely given out, and expected… if I see art that I don’t think is very good, I am not going to say “I love it!!” just for the sake of posting a comment and getting other people to like me back.  When I give out compliments, I really mean them, and I try to say exactly what it is I like about your art.  (And if I don’t like it, I don’t say anything, unless you ask people for constructive criticism.)  Too many people give out cheap compliments because they’re trying to socialize.

-Anonymous


I’m not terribly popular on any kind of website and I don’t consider myself a wonderful artist by any means… but here are a few a confessions for those of you who get so down on yourselves about your art: I make my living doing art. I pay my mortgage and two car payments by doing art… And it’s not fun. When you do what you love for a living, when you HAVE TO do it, there are days where it becomes a job, and you just want to go home, or go to sleep, or work on your own projects. When you do nothing but commissions for other people, you get tired of drawing their dumb ideas, or trying to be telepathic because they can’t describe what’s in their head. You get tired of redrawing things as customers change their minds and you get tired of dealing with flaky people. You will have very late nights trying to finish projects that you hate… (unless you’re just THAT damn good that you can pick and choose which commissions you’ll do).  But anyway…. sometimes I have to step back and say, “Hey, wait a minute. This is what I wanted. This is still better than all those other jobs I worked.”  And here’s another confession: And I am only ever satisfied with anything I draw for about a half an hour. Then I start picking out a hundred mistakes. It makes me uncomfortable when people praise my art because I can only think of how it could have been better. Even on my “play around” projects that are for fun, I give myself very harsh critiques. I used to get myself pretty down about it, but after meeting several of my favorite artists in the past few years, I’ve started to look at every single piece as a learning experience. Some of the artists I’ve met were completely egotistical assholes and some of them were incredibly humble and inspired me more than ever. I’ve learned that if you can say “I’m the best,” then it’s time to try a new medium, because you’re no longer growing as an artist. I’ve learned that I will probably never be “where I want to be” as an artist because I’ll always be raising my own standards, even as I improve. And that’s a good thing, believe me.  Also… it’s going to take work. A hell of a LOT of work and practice, practice, practice. If you think you suck, you don’t have to show anyone what you sketch. I still throw away twice as many sketches as I keep, and I’ll do sometimes 3 or 4 sketches before I start a finished piece. You have to go into it knowing you WILL fail sometimes, and not every piece will be awesome. It’s ok. Keep trying.  And yes, we all like to get feedback on our art, we all like to know what people think, for better or for worse, but the bottom line is if you’re going to do it, do it because you love it. The good and the bad, the frustrations and the “successful” pieces. If you have to erase the hand and redraw it 20 or 30 times to get it right… do it. You’ll be glad you did.  You don’t need any kind of schooling to become a good artist. Just practice. That’s all it is. Draw your ass off. Experiment, play around, don’t be afraid. Draw what you want to draw. Draw what you’re afraid to draw. Try new mediums. Did you ever get a piece of bad advice from a teacher? I sure did. I had a teacher that told me I didn’t use enough water in my watercolors and I was doing it wrong. I had another teacher that once told me, “Real artists never erase.” That stuck with me.  Well… F**k that. Now maybe I erase too much, just to spite her. There is no right or wrong way to do anything, there are no rules, that’s why it’s art.  Aaaaaand if I’ve still got you’re attention this far, you’re doing good. Thanks for reading. So, that erasing habit of mine? Try sketching on tracing paper. I do ALL of my sketches on tracing paper because I can erase to my little heart’s content and it erases cleanly and doesn’t leave gouges in the paper. Also, it’s great for flipping the page over and checking for anatomical mistakes and things that look funny. It’s great for switching handedness too… I often refer to my left hand when drawing hands, sometimes I have to flip the page over if it happens to be the character’s right hand that I’m drawing. This is also handy for when you’ve already drawn a body, a pretty face, whatever…. then you need to add hair, clothes, that sort of thing? Flip it over and draw the clothes and hair on the other side, if you screw it up, you can erase without disturbing the lines of the face and body you drew.  Also, try doing colored pencils on tracing paper… the colors seem to float! Try putting different colored paper behind the tracing paper when you display the finished piece. Colored pencils look pretty wicked on a paper bag too, the colors are super vibrant.  (Above art done by me. Find me on that crummy ass DeviantArt: http://spikejones67.deviantart.com) -submitted by thespikemonster

I’m not terribly popular on any kind of website and I don’t consider myself a wonderful artist by any means… but here are a few a confessions for those of you who get so down on yourselves about your art: I make my living doing art. I pay my mortgage and two car payments by doing art…

And it’s not fun. When you do what you love for a living, when you HAVE TO do it, there are days where it becomes a job, and you just want to go home, or go to sleep, or work on your own projects. When you do nothing but commissions for other people, you get tired of drawing their dumb ideas, or trying to be telepathic because they can’t describe what’s in their head. You get tired of redrawing things as customers change their minds and you get tired of dealing with flaky people. You will have very late nights trying to finish projects that you hate… (unless you’re just THAT damn good that you can pick and choose which commissions you’ll do). 

But anyway…. sometimes I have to step back and say, “Hey, wait a minute. This is what I wanted. This is still better than all those other jobs I worked.” 

And here’s another confession: And I am only ever satisfied with anything I draw for about a half an hour. Then I start picking out a hundred mistakes. It makes me uncomfortable when people praise my art because I can only think of how it could have been better. Even on my “play around” projects that are for fun, I give myself very harsh critiques. I used to get myself pretty down about it, but after meeting several of my favorite artists in the past few years, I’ve started to look at every single piece as a learning experience. Some of the artists I’ve met were completely egotistical assholes and some of them were incredibly humble and inspired me more than ever. I’ve learned that if you can say “I’m the best,” then it’s time to try a new medium, because you’re no longer growing as an artist. I’ve learned that I will probably never be “where I want to be” as an artist because I’ll always be raising my own standards, even as I improve. And that’s a good thing, believe me. 

Also… it’s going to take work. A hell of a LOT of work and practice, practice, practice. If you think you suck, you don’t have to show anyone what you sketch. I still throw away twice as many sketches as I keep, and I’ll do sometimes 3 or 4 sketches before I start a finished piece. You have to go into it knowing you WILL fail sometimes, and not every piece will be awesome. It’s ok. Keep trying. 

And yes, we all like to get feedback on our art, we all like to know what people think, for better or for worse, but the bottom line is if you’re going to do it, do it because you love it. The good and the bad, the frustrations and the “successful” pieces. If you have to erase the hand and redraw it 20 or 30 times to get it right… do it. You’ll be glad you did. 

You don’t need any kind of schooling to become a good artist. Just practice. That’s all it is. Draw your ass off. Experiment, play around, don’t be afraid. Draw what you want to draw. Draw what you’re afraid to draw. Try new mediums. Did you ever get a piece of bad advice from a teacher? I sure did. I had a teacher that told me I didn’t use enough water in my watercolors and I was doing it wrong. I had another teacher that once told me, “Real artists never erase.” That stuck with me. 

Well… F**k that. Now maybe I erase too much, just to spite her. There is no right or wrong way to do anything, there are no rules, that’s why it’s art. 

Aaaaaand if I’ve still got you’re attention this far, you’re doing good. Thanks for reading. So, that erasing habit of mine? Try sketching on tracing paper. I do ALL of my sketches on tracing paper because I can erase to my little heart’s content and it erases cleanly and doesn’t leave gouges in the paper. Also, it’s great for flipping the page over and checking for anatomical mistakes and things that look funny. It’s great for switching handedness too… I often refer to my left hand when drawing hands, sometimes I have to flip the page over if it happens to be the character’s right hand that I’m drawing. This is also handy for when you’ve already drawn a body, a pretty face, whatever…. then you need to add hair, clothes, that sort of thing? Flip it over and draw the clothes and hair on the other side, if you screw it up, you can erase without disturbing the lines of the face and body you drew. 

Also, try doing colored pencils on tracing paper… the colors seem to float! Try putting different colored paper behind the tracing paper when you display the finished piece. Colored pencils look pretty wicked on a paper bag too, the colors are super vibrant. 

(Above art done by me. Find me on that crummy ass DeviantArt: http://spikejones67.deviantart.com)

-submitted by thespikemonster


I was praised for improving so much using ebony pencils and getting into a high ranking art magnet school after my only 4 months of art school in my life. Though my problem is that I can’t draw people or proper anatomy, and it frustrates me to no end.

I’m only okay with a pencil (when I’m doing things like still life drawings), but I’m horrible with a tablet. I’m thirteen, and I keep telling myself that the more I draw, the more I’ll improve, but I get so frustrated when I look at my work. I just force myself to practice and mix and match styles and try new things.

All I can do is hope it’ll go somewhere.

-Anonymous


I know I shouldn’t rely heavily on other people’s opinions to validate my work, but I can’t help but feel happy about it sometimes. The background is a screenshot from someone’s favorite list. Just submitting this on anon because I worry it might look like I’m bragging or trying to promote myself otherwise. -submitted by Anonymous

I know I shouldn’t rely heavily on other people’s opinions to validate my work, but I can’t help but feel happy about it sometimes. The background is a screenshot from someone’s favorite list.


Just submitting this on anon because I worry it might look like I’m bragging or trying to promote myself otherwise.

-submitted by Anonymous




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