How to break this cycle?

I started my art journey around 5 years ago. I wanted to git gud but I haven’t put in enough work and I know I haven’t. I feel like I’ve wasted away these last 5 years and when I see people who started later than me produce really good art, it really fucks with me. I’d rather go back 5 years and start from scratch than be where I’m at now. It feels like shit. I want to be able to put in the work but I get discouraged knowing that I’m not at the skill level compared to most who drew for this amount of time. Any advice?

  1. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    ...just keep drawing and studying, with the intent of fixing your mistakes in your mind? it's not a race you know
    focus on what you want to do with your art and that's it

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      Then start from the scratch.

      There's absolutely nothing you can do to boost your skills in a short amount of time, you either draw from the scratch or become an AI artist

      When i saw that my drawings are not good compared how I imagined, I decided to start from the scratch, putted away all the shit and giggles, and started to do fundamentals, from Peter Han's dynamic sketch/bible, drawabox, Scott Robertson and etc.

      You always will be envy of other artists, so just embrace it. Like what are you gonna do about it?
      Stop comparing yourself to them, you all either way gonna die in a car crash or from Cancer/AIDS
      Lucky those who dies in their 80's on their comfortable bed without pissing and shitting themselves

      Being frustrated from your art is absolutely normal and you should be frustrated, because if everything was perfect, then you would reach your limit.
      And don't be an perfectionist, in my opinion there's no perfection in art, just be better, that's the only thing you can do.

      Maybe you heard these advices in 5 years, but there's a reason why people keep saying them.

      Good advice here, anon.
      This may be projection from me, but you sound lonely. As someone who's mostly done their art in an oubilette, this is a common feeling of mine. Seek out other artists to befriend if you haven't already. They should probably be at or just slightly above your skill level. You'll incentivize each other to get better and eventually you'll have sympathetic ears you can open up to about things only other artists can relate to.

      • 1 month ago
        Anonymous

        >Seek out other artists to befriend if you haven't already. They should probably be at or just slightly above your skill level. You'll incentivize each other to get better and eventually you'll have sympathetic ears you can open up to about things only other artists can relate to
        I did this recently and I regret it. I'd rather have non artist friends because I got burned hard from interacting with them.

        • 1 month ago
          Anonymous

          >got burned hard
          How so anon? Lately I've been trying to work up the nerve to befriend other artists.

  2. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    Then start from the scratch.

    There's absolutely nothing you can do to boost your skills in a short amount of time, you either draw from the scratch or become an AI artist

    When i saw that my drawings are not good compared how I imagined, I decided to start from the scratch, putted away all the shit and giggles, and started to do fundamentals, from Peter Han's dynamic sketch/bible, drawabox, Scott Robertson and etc.

    You always will be envy of other artists, so just embrace it. Like what are you gonna do about it?
    Stop comparing yourself to them, you all either way gonna die in a car crash or from Cancer/AIDS
    Lucky those who dies in their 80's on their comfortable bed without pissing and shitting themselves

    Being frustrated from your art is absolutely normal and you should be frustrated, because if everything was perfect, then you would reach your limit.
    And don't be an perfectionist, in my opinion there's no perfection in art, just be better, that's the only thing you can do.

    Maybe you heard these advices in 5 years, but there's a reason why people keep saying them.

  3. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    Don't fool yourself. Those people who "started later than you", that's not true. You will do the same when the time comes. You will bury all your fuck ups and wasted time, saying that "you just started". Getting good at this takes decades, not "years". When you finally do, you will be a broken soul, you better get ready from the very start to get to terms with failure, pain, frustration, suicidal thoughts, and the acceptance of losing everything you care about. It's a mental illness, if you can't shake this obsession off, then that's what it is, a mental illness. But there are many and much worse mental illnesses out there, gambling, drugs, alcohol, toxic relationships, cult following, criminal and self-destruction behavior, etc.
    You may have "this" one issue, just don't fool yourself, embrace it, don't pretend it doesn't exist, don't let it ruin your life, have a plan around it, get an steady income not related to this obsession, or you will end up in a world of pain and an early lonely death.

  4. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    keep going. Whenever you feel conflict and breakthrough, this is where you make the most art-gains. Take pride in knowing that after 5 years you still haven't quit, doesn't matter if your progress is less than others.
    Others have quit after their first or second year and never looked back, yet you're still standing here. Maybe you're not as good as some people but you're already leagues above the people that have given up.
    Your internal conflict is proof that deep down you know you can achieve the level others have achieved if you kept drawing for more years but your low self-esteem prevents you from embracing this thought.

    You've kept going for 5 years, time to go for another 5.

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      >Take pride in knowing that after 5 years you still haven't quit
      This anon get it. My best friend used to be an artist between 2015 and 2018 and in those 3 years he grinded and improved a lot. In 2019 he gave up on drawing altogether because life happens, fast forward to 2024 and he still like talking about drawing but he doesn't draw anymore. You can see the look of regret on his face whenever I mention how much I improved since I started learning to draw, I started a few months after he gave up. Nowadays I'm a better artist than him but he's still pretty good. It's a shame that he gave up and he knows it.

  5. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    >Any advice?
    Stop giving a shit about it.
    Do what you want.

  6. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    >I get discouraged knowing that I’m not at the skill level compared to most who drew for this amount of time.
    It doesn't matter how much time you draw but how much you improve in that time.
    If you go to FZD school you'll improve more in 1 year than 5 years by yourself.

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      Hi Feng =)
      So you took all that money from the "school" and gave yourself a 2 year vacation time? That's a cool gig right there. Thought you made money working for "big film studios". How silly of me!

      • 1 month ago
        Anonymous

        Lmao you guys called me Proko before.

        Lol FZD is an expensive way to give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome. You'll also probably hate art afterwards, but hey, at least you'll know how to make AI slop by hand. There's other ways to improve your art beyond increasing its capacity for fidelity.

        That's true but if you draw 14 hours daily for a single year there's not many artists with 10+ years of experience better than you.
        OP is talking about years when he should be talking about hours per day.

        • 1 month ago
          Anonymous

          >14 hours a day
          You are a gay retarded gorilla nagger who can't draw for 10 minutes.

          • 1 month ago
            Anonymous

            >NGMI
            Anon you should be drawing for 20 hours daily if you wanna make it. Fuck sleep.

            • 1 month ago
              Anonymous

              source?

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                Here you go:
                >https://www.deviantart.com/alexjjessup/journal/My-FZD-Experience-439439533

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >And the results of hustle and grind grrr I'm so fucking gritty are the most banal AI sloppa-tier shit that looks mostly photobashed anyways

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                https://i.imgur.com/vnezOWD.jpeg

                >Favorite Visual Artists
                >Ting Tomo, Zibbi LaPeep, Jimbo Turnsignal, Fenty Fambré, Lornal McFitch, Durrian Keick
                Concept art is such a precious little thing, it's like the Smurfs of the art world

                >drawing 20 hours a day to end up working at ubislop
                kek

                NGMI crabs seething that he made it big.

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >Made it big
                I've literally never heard of this homosexual until you posted a link to his page. Ubislop probably doesn't even put him in the credits of whatever AAA shit he broke his wrists for. The standards of this board are so fucking lol sometimes.

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >Ubislop probably doesn't even put him in the credits

                He's very lucky if he can even afford food with his "education"

                Go check out FZD Xitter and look up people whose work they post. I couldn't find a SINGLE person who has commercial concepts in their portfolio. It's all "interested in job opportunities/freelance 138 subs on artstation" losers.

                Like, look at this chink https://www.artstation.com/jeongjaeyup

                >Diploma in Industrial Design [Oct 2020 – Sep 2021]FZD School of Design

                >Bachelor of Arts (Illustration and Animation) [July 2019 - Jun 2020]Coventry University

                >Advanced Diploma in Video Games Design [Apr 2017 - Mar 2019]Raffles Design Institute (Singapore)

                7 (SEVEN!) years of art schools/courses/unis/institutes for 20 hours a day

                Meanwhile

                >Employment History:Arete Collaborations (Singapore) [Jan 2019 - Mar 2019]!!!INTERNSHIP!!! (Graphic Design and video editing)

                Meanwhile his concepts: picrel

                Just sad.

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                Wanna reach this level? Sorry kid you don't look like someone who's ready to draw for 20 hours a day under the guidance of a wise Singaporean chink for an entire year

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                https://i.imgur.com/ActDJcs.jpeg

                Wanna reach this level? Sorry kid you don't look like someone who's ready to draw for 20 hours a day under the guidance of a wise Singaporean chink for an entire year

                It's always struck me as bordering on evil what they're doing to people. First, charge exorbitant tuition to overwork and destroy the bodies of dumb kids and young adults. Brainwash them into the belief that suffering in one's work is a noble act, similar to the propaganda surrounding wageslaving (the grind is holy, the grind brings us closer to God).
                Then, eventually, they come out with a limited set of meme skills and no real art - just pure soulless trash that no one's interested in, and too many people are doing.
                You are quite literally better off spending your days gooning than attending FZD. You're better off pissing on anthills than giving them a single second of your time. There is NO provable correlation between going to that school and a successful career in art. Masochist cult.

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                People who waste their time and money on fzd fully deserve everything they get. Feng is a decent artist but great businessman. Imagine producing hundreds of unemployable tards every year and still getting hundreds of new entrants.

                Hats off

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                https://i.imgur.com/ActDJcs.jpeg

                Wanna reach this level? Sorry kid you don't look like someone who's ready to draw for 20 hours a day under the guidance of a wise Singaporean chink for an entire year

                I mean it's not the worst thing I've seen. Some of the concept stuff is nice, and certainly if it makes him happy, then who is anyone to judge.
                But that's usually not the case. The people who preach grindset the loudest are usually the most unhappy with their work and practice.
                It's almost like improvement and quality work are tied behind enjoyment of the process.

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >Favorite Visual Artists
                >Ting Tomo, Zibbi LaPeep, Jimbo Turnsignal, Fenty Fambré, Lornal McFitch, Durrian Keick
                Concept art is such a precious little thing, it's like the Smurfs of the art world

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >drawing 20 hours a day to end up working at ubislop
                kek

              • 1 month ago
                Anonymous

                >If you need 6 hours of sleep each night, you'll notice people slowly but surely pulling ahead. Those people are probably sleeping 3 hours or less a night

                Geez, imagine what you could achieve if you didn't sleep at all

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      Lol FZD is an expensive way to give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome. You'll also probably hate art afterwards, but hey, at least you'll know how to make AI slop by hand. There's other ways to improve your art beyond increasing its capacity for fidelity.

  7. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    I was in the same boat. Took me longer to start bucking up. I picked up art in 2016 and figured I would start off with contours and fill in the rest later. Most of my early art just look like murder crime scenes. Even looking at my things from years ago I can see direct improvements. Made it my goal this year to at least finish 2 art books.

  8. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    >regret
    This is cope every time. "I would have been so amazing if I'd just done it." But you didn't. And you won't, will you? That's what giving you anxiety - you want something that you vaguely apprehend you are unwilling to get. You're perpetually uninterested in just doing the thing in the moment. Blaming it on wasted time is a way of taking responsibility out of your hands today - "I could have been good," instead of "I could be good." Don't you see how you're only perpetuating your problem?
    I'm only saying all this to be brutally honest. If you don't change now, you'll waste the next 5 years again. I wasted more time than you (10 years) and I'm just happy to be back.

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      But what's the solution? I have so many vague things I think I want to do but I can never fully pull the trigger on. I haven't finished a picture in 2 years. Just doodles and random studies. I practice every day and get a little better with time, but nothing so singularly driving to keep me consistent. I just wish something made sense to me from within to have the unbreakable focus I can clearly see behind the art I love.

      • 1 month ago
        Anonymous

        Drawing is really boring and not even worth doing if you aren't expressing something of value to yourself. I don't know what "vague things" or doodles you're referring to, but no one can sustain interest off of the fumes of studies.
        I personally have to be motivated to draw. I straight up don't believe in discipline without incentive. I have to visualize a reward at the end of any task, on the scale of days or a week, and I won't do anything that feels pointless or irrelevant to immediate goals. But if it feels relevant, I'll approach it enthusiastically.
        Artistic motivation = inspiration - a sense of high, electric creative well-being, of huge unstoppable momentum. How do you get this? For me it's as simple as looking at art that inspires me until an idea clicks, and trying to actualize the idea. I've done this constantly with good results, in the aggregate. But things will fail, and you have to rebound to the next idea within a week at least. I think it's important to keep such ideas manageable and to not "bite off more than you can chew."
        I don't know if this will work for you, just describing how I've managed it.

      • 1 month ago
        Anonymous

        Your lack of direction is not a problem of your art but your inability to clarify your thoughts and develop artistic ideas of worth. Expand your world through reading up on literature, psychology, philosophy, religion, history, science so that you can figure out things worth saying through visuals. Great artists of the past did not merely focus on their own medium but were also influenced by everything around them. If you know nothing of worth, you will express little of worth.

  9. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    you're probably in a rut and aren't learning anything new. you're trying to chisel away at what you already know and think "improving upon that" will be enough.
    you gotta find away to over hall how you approach drawing, and if you've done that before do it again.

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      Not OP, but this one really hits me. I think I needed to hear this. Thanks, anon. This thread is full of good advice but this one especially makes me feel called out (in a good way)

  10. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    have sex with gf
    literally it thats the solution

  11. 1 month ago
    Anonymous

    I literally could have written this post.
    Unfortunately I’m 32 so my time is starting to run out. I can’t believe how many years I’ve wasted to still be sub-/beg/.
    I know it’s cliched but it’s true: you can’t change the past, you can only change what happens from today onwards. So just put one foot in front of the other and try to not waste today. And then try not to waste tomorrow, and the next day, one day at a time.

    • 1 month ago
      Anonymous

      >32
      >Out of time

      Unless you've been given a literal terminal diagnosis by a licensed clinician, this just isn't true. Take your latter sentiments to heart and drop the former like a hot iron every time it comes back. Never ruminate, it will only divert energy away from practicing and enjoying drawing.

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