You should.

Do it. Do what you enjoy, and screw everyone and everything else. And maybe things will go in a way you like or not, but only one way to find out!

Definitely do it for yourself 💜

You should draw what you like and I bet you'll improve more than if drawing's a chore.

I placed unneeded pressure on myself to perform, and without that I think it'll work a lot better!

a wise man told me ones that you should NOT care how others do because if you do, it kills your joy for your doing.

listen, i might be not the right person to say it but, i draw now nearly 20 years.
i dont do it for fame - infact i would call myself kinda unknown tbh.
i dont do it for money,
I do it because i love to draw art and create something.
i do it because it helps me relax and if someone else enjoys my stuff im doing as well, i know i cant be that bad, right?

Exactly, i might be not known, not a rich person, nor do i have a name or "branding" in this fandom or in the artfandom in general but i do what i love to do. I draw and create and it feels good.

Am i maybe not the best? Sure, im not but than the people which SAY that they are perfect are the ones which have much more to learn than me because noone can be perfect, even the ones which call themselves better or "higher level" than me.

"You can almost paint with anything, all you have to do is practise." - Bob Ross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA (a srsly nice remix)

hope that helps you to think abit about art . ^^

Absolutely the right idea :D

well hope that lifted your mood a bit ^^

Yes, you should.

I've been in this fandom for what feels like a long time. I've seen a lot of artists give up on their desire to draw purely because they began doing it not for fun or because they wanted to, but because they wanted to be 'as good as all the other well known artists'. I've seen a LOT of them quit entirely and vanish because of this one reason.

The thing is? Most of them had their own style, and were considerably good artists in their own right. They didn't really NEED to be 'as good as', but they let that desire to be in the front, than competitive urge, steal their joy in what they were doing from them. We've lost quite a few good artists who were upset they weren't considered great artists.

If you took joy in your art, and think you can again, then do that. Never give up something you enjoy, or let the world tell you you need to change to fit what it seems to want from you, as long as that thing isn't harming anyone. I'm the last person to tell you to no bother trying to improve; from my experience with various artists, even the best I've ever seen are still trying new things and learning. It does never end. But that's not something you have to push for. Just doing it for pleasure opens new avenues.

That's a very good description of what was going on with me, except I didn't leave. It wasn't a desire to compete to be on top, but rather to rise to what I perceived as a "baseline professional standard" when it came to style and quality so as to not be completely turned down for commission work. I think I'll do a lot better without caring about that, and thus not having that weight on me.

I understand how you can feel.
I am dooiling too but since my art skill are not very good, I started to draw for mysefl mostly.
Same with writing, I started to write story of my charcters, few people have read what I did so far but here again if I write it is first for myself.
If people enjoy what I am doing then it is a bonus.
With drawing it is the same most of my drawings are in my FA scraps or not published at all, the few doodles I did were gifts for friends or lil fanart without pretention.

Someone told me I should do comissions but I dunno if I am good enough for this and I dunno what my price range could be.
Moreover I could be slow to draw or do a commission, so the ratio time/benefit may not be in my advantage. So I never realy thought about doing commission but since this person said me this.
Maybe one day if someone would be interested but in waiting, I am drawing and doing things mostly for myself.

I guess it is also something that no one will ever teach you but in my opinion, I think, in life, it is important to do things for yourself.
I mean not in the selfish way but to learn how to do things and live by yourself not through someone or something.
I see a lot of people living through their work or someone and once they are alone (for whatever reasons), they look at themselve and do the sad constation they invested only their professional career or their partner and now they feel empty and don't know what they could or want to do.
That's why I think it is important to cultivate your own "field" or "inner garden". Like this you do things you enjoy for you and if what you do can become a source of income without bringing you worries and frustration then it is a bonus.

In anyway, I wish and hope you will be back at what you like to do and be able to find joy again in doing art for yourself. =)

I wish you all the best for you and welcome back online and to art. =)

thanks :3

You should draw for you! Also, if you enjoy doing it, you'll want to do it more, and experience will mean you'll naturally advance.

Also I will say, purely as a selfish viewer of the art: there's lots of artist out there who have great technical skill, but they are not always the artist who's work I look forward to the most.

Expressions, character design, humor, setting, plot, exploration of particular themes and subjects, energy, vibe, and many other factors can make a piece really great for me, even if it's not executed in a super technically advanced way.

Heck I follow a couple of artist who draw, and I'll put this as politely as I can, really quite primitive like MS paint type art, but because they explore themes I really enjoy, and because they are putting their own love of the subject matter into the work, I'm really excited by their stuff.

Your work has a good vibe, I've been following you since I think like 08 maybe(?) and although I follow a ton of artists, and it's been a while, looking at your gallery I remember a lot of these pieces. The excitement and pleasure and other emotions you are trying to depict in your characters come through for me and so I enjoy your art. Even if you can't yet depict the intricate play of light filtering through fluttering leaves onto a rippled pond.

I certainly appreciate it. That was probably the mistake I made, thinking what commissioners really valued most was technical proficiency above all else.

In a sense, the advent of generative AI looming overhead has created a daunting atmosphere that has discouraged a lot of people including me... but at the same time it has almost given me free reign and liberty to not care and to do as I please, because technical proficiency alone can no longer be the single defining characteristic separating human generated art from AI art.

That's true too like, technical skill can be simulated that way, a real vibe is a lot harder to simulate

Exactly!

Oopsie, I thought your answer to  Darwen_Fox was for me. XD

Anyway it won't change what I am saying. ^_^

Also  The_Realist may I ask you a question ? I have the feeling your style is familiar to me.
Did you had a gallery on VCL.Art ?

I had like four or five of my older pieces from '08-'09 up there, yes.

Unfortunaly, I understand what you are saying, I see lot of people being discouraged by the AI and that in multiple field and not only art.

In my opinion, I think IA is not good for the creating process. IA can help in a lot of range but it should, in my opinion stay an help and not remplace human.
Allow me to explain my point of view : I can understand there is a hype for the IA as every new trend however IA is not good for creative process as I told before.
Why ? Because when you look how IA work, it take multiples pieces of different things to create an idea suggested by someone.
It can be a good thing for some people but when you look closely to most of the IA art generated, the longer you gaze and you realize there is an issue.
If at first the creation may look beautifull, you will spot the little default of the picture but details are not the biggest problem. The thing is when you look at all the IA art, they look all the same in some way. They are souless !
They all have the same texture, the same shape, the same feeling of too perfect and at the same time incomplete. They are souless.
Moreover since the IA take in already posted art, and human artist post less and less -because they don't want their work being stolen by IA or because of demotivation- the reference datas will not get renewed then IA will use over and over what it already have coming to an infinite loop of the same recomposed creations.

On the other side, there is artist with their medium, digital or traditional, doing art, creating charcters, stories, scenery etc...
All these artists no matter their skill level insuflate life to their creation and put a part of themselve in their chartcers.
Commissioning an artist is the desire to make his creation live.
Then there will be these people complaining about prices and arguing IA will do something better for free or almost nothing.
To these reasoning, I will oppose this argument : commissioning an artist is a volonty for the people who ask for art to have a unique piece of creation from this artist.
Commissionning someone is allowing the artist to give his interpretation with its own style of your charcter.
Commissionning an artist is a way to show them you care for its work, you like what he does and also a manner to show him your support.

That is my visions of things or at least my reasoning when I commision an artist.

Your webcomic was fun.

Thanks. I have ..... A LOT of fully scripted ideas written, but only a handful of partially drawn pages of that at all. I have no idea if I'll ever have time to devote to a project like that again. if I do post them, they'll probably just be basic sketches with no/minimal background and no colour.

If it helps any, I can share a very short version of my story!

The whole reason for my account change, and why I suddenly vanished years ago and reappeared with a new profile, was that I burned out seriously hard on art, the fandom, even life itself. I disabled my profile and gave up on art, too.

Turns out I was massively depressed, had severe anxiety my whole life, and had a LOT of other issues I needed to work through.

The new profile was just me lurking, and kinda didn't want anyone to know I was back. I didn't "feel" back. I think once I get medicated, my issues sorted through, well, heck, here I am!

I'm still trying to get my bearings art-wise, but I've been 100% self-indulgent and just making art because it's genuinely fun. Honestly, it's been a great approach!

I say you should absolutely draw for yourself, Draw because it's fun. It might not be perfect, and that's OK! It doesn't have to be. ❤️

Glad you're back, and I think I'm slowly getting back to art things. Still have a lot going on, but I find myself returning to it in my free time on occasion as opposed to simply not touching any of it at all outside of occasional week-long bursts the way I have for years now.