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ARTSTUFF: Existential Crisis and Artistry
14 years ago
General
Been seeing around the edges of submissions, journals, and comments some deeply dour sentiments connecting self-worth to being an artist.
Now on the one hand, I figure it's just adolescent insecurities; growing pains that people will emerge from like drawing your characters in trenchcoats, with weapons, in nazi attire, encrusted with rainbows, with impossibly swollen muscles or fucking Pikachu - however nobody actually likes to hear that stuff... the last thing somebody caught up in that situation wants to hear is "Oh, you'll grow out of it." So on the other hand, I'll say this: Don't tie your self-esteem to what you do, especially if what you do is random furry art you show to random people on a random website.
It's very easy to mistake who you are for what you do. And to take positive feedback for Your Art do as positive feedback for You. This can be addictive and distracting. Or the converse: feeling badly about Your Art means feeling badly about You. This can be depressing and destructive. In both cases, the harmful logic is: What you make = Who you are. But this is no more true for your latest artistic masterpiece/failure than it is for the knot you successfully tie in your shoelaces or the knot that happens to come undone.
It's well known that even Hitler was a passable watercolorist. Just because people like what you make, doesn't mean they know you personally, or like you personally. And just because they don't like your art (or even worse, are apathetic!) doesn't mean anything about you either. Lots of duly famous, skilled, visionary artists were/are reprehensible people you wouldn't want to sit next to at a dinner party. And conversely there are plenty of nice folks who just dabble for years to no acclaim or eventual creative development. There's no necessary connection at all, really. It's a hobby, or a profession, or simply an activity - it doesn't have to be your identity.
This is why it's healthy to have a variety of interests, hobbies, preoccupations and so on, and it's even better if you don't feel equally skilled at them all. Because even if you do manage to achieve whatever you're after as an artist and feel good about yourself when you do - because you do - then what happens if you break your hand? Or when you get too old to see clearly? Or for whatever the reason, when you can't pull a line the way you want to anymore. This is inevitable. You work and practice and grow as an artist and acquire some gained experience, but you should know that the flesh is weak and will fail you in the end. Or somewhere along the way, shit happens, y'know? And there's always going to be somebody better at whatever you're trying to create, or some new popular style coming along that just doesn't fit with the way you work.
So don't put your all your self-worth eggs into one furry art basket, and keep some perspective on things.
Follow multiple interests; diversify your portfolio bitches. Do some toony stuff, some naturalistic stuff, some still-lifes from observation, some abstract stuff, work in playdoh and toothpicks, bake a damn cake. And stop being so hard on yourselves, really. Also, learn to recognize and disregard the kind of feedback that confuses the art with the artist - positive or negative - particularly when that feedback comes from yourself(!).
TL;DR - Your current position on the artistic learning curve, or the feedback of others (including yourself, as a viewer), is an unhealthy basis for informing your ego and determining existential worth.
Now on the one hand, I figure it's just adolescent insecurities; growing pains that people will emerge from like drawing your characters in trenchcoats, with weapons, in nazi attire, encrusted with rainbows, with impossibly swollen muscles or fucking Pikachu - however nobody actually likes to hear that stuff... the last thing somebody caught up in that situation wants to hear is "Oh, you'll grow out of it." So on the other hand, I'll say this: Don't tie your self-esteem to what you do, especially if what you do is random furry art you show to random people on a random website.
It's very easy to mistake who you are for what you do. And to take positive feedback for Your Art do as positive feedback for You. This can be addictive and distracting. Or the converse: feeling badly about Your Art means feeling badly about You. This can be depressing and destructive. In both cases, the harmful logic is: What you make = Who you are. But this is no more true for your latest artistic masterpiece/failure than it is for the knot you successfully tie in your shoelaces or the knot that happens to come undone.
It's well known that even Hitler was a passable watercolorist. Just because people like what you make, doesn't mean they know you personally, or like you personally. And just because they don't like your art (or even worse, are apathetic!) doesn't mean anything about you either. Lots of duly famous, skilled, visionary artists were/are reprehensible people you wouldn't want to sit next to at a dinner party. And conversely there are plenty of nice folks who just dabble for years to no acclaim or eventual creative development. There's no necessary connection at all, really. It's a hobby, or a profession, or simply an activity - it doesn't have to be your identity.
This is why it's healthy to have a variety of interests, hobbies, preoccupations and so on, and it's even better if you don't feel equally skilled at them all. Because even if you do manage to achieve whatever you're after as an artist and feel good about yourself when you do - because you do - then what happens if you break your hand? Or when you get too old to see clearly? Or for whatever the reason, when you can't pull a line the way you want to anymore. This is inevitable. You work and practice and grow as an artist and acquire some gained experience, but you should know that the flesh is weak and will fail you in the end. Or somewhere along the way, shit happens, y'know? And there's always going to be somebody better at whatever you're trying to create, or some new popular style coming along that just doesn't fit with the way you work.
So don't put your all your self-worth eggs into one furry art basket, and keep some perspective on things.
Follow multiple interests; diversify your portfolio bitches. Do some toony stuff, some naturalistic stuff, some still-lifes from observation, some abstract stuff, work in playdoh and toothpicks, bake a damn cake. And stop being so hard on yourselves, really. Also, learn to recognize and disregard the kind of feedback that confuses the art with the artist - positive or negative - particularly when that feedback comes from yourself(!).
TL;DR - Your current position on the artistic learning curve, or the feedback of others (including yourself, as a viewer), is an unhealthy basis for informing your ego and determining existential worth.
Ugh Ugh ugh this is one of my biggest fears and sometimes I get panic attacks just thinking about it. I'm trying to find other hobbies and passions but in the end for some reason art is the only thing I can do anything with.
just don't get hung up on how it comes out, not so personally invested, y'know?
it's just art :3 you gotta be zen about this stuff.
SEND ME E-PIES
AN E-COBBLER OR E-SHORTCAKE WITH WARM FRUIT COMPOTE IS FINE TOO
YES, to all of this. I so get sick of the whiners on FA who aren't being watched enough or get enough comments, so not cool, folks.
I think for the "too-long;didn't-read" folks, your summary will be nonsense, since most of the same people who think a few paragraphs is HEAVY reading, are also the same ones who won't know what some of those words even mean.
Now I'm gonna go cook something and post a picture of it later
also, COOKING IS AWESURM
(Man, all of my hobbies/future interests involve my hands, except singing. That's a terrible thought.)
I'm in a big rut.
draw the people and shapes of people you see
even if -we- don't get to see them, you can make a catalog of body types to use for your own character designs :D
So in essence - WW2 can be blamed on an unknown art critic somewhere.
Scary no?
And yeah your right, sometimes i get so hung up on what other people will think of my modeling, mainly because im working on getting it to be my main source of income one day. I have to be good at it to get a job in any industry, and sometimes i forget that it just takes alot of time and practice to get there. I do speed sculpts every day to help me get over worrying about whether the final project is presentable or not, in the end what i show is what i show, and theres no reason to stress over it any more past that point when I should be moving on to the next thing already.
oh and I am a master pie maker ;)
SEND SAMPLES :O <---- put here in mouth.
…But I have reasons for just about everything I do, so I can't quite relate to the idea of not tying what you do to who you are.
"If you depend on others for your happiness, you will be forever disappointed." -- The Tao of Phoenix
Also glad I am not the only one that thinks sunglasses, trench coats, and weapons on your character are truly not the most adult or classy.