I'm impressed at least that you don't require full commission payment up front; that's a problem many artists have these days. I do hope things get better for you though, regardless of how little it probably means for you to hear that from Yet Another Internet Person.

Well, no one's ripped me off yet.

And you just have, hun! I was enthralled, even though I should be in bed!

D: I unscrapped a bunch of my drawings just so my main page didn't have submissions that were really old... but there's still two on there that says "7 months ago."

But luckily I'm getting my groove back. Starting on several at a time while I still have mojo is a good solution, because its easier to work on something that I've already started.

I think we all reach a point where we're comfortable where we are and we find ourselves afraid to venture out and try something different because we want to protect what we have.......because we're afraid to loose it.

Truth is though if we don't try somethin' new then what we protected so dearly fades even faster.

And dontchoo worry a bit.......I have trades of my own that have been settin' around fer quite some time......it sucks.......but they get done when they get done.... I hate sayin' it but school n' life come first.....then I like to work on my payed stuff....and then trades and leisurely drawrins........such is life bud but I definitely understand yah!

I"m in the same boat. I use to love my poetry and music. Every day I tried to work on, if nothing else, edit rewrite and memorize my past work. I would fill my book and give it to my friend. We'd fixed it up and make music. I hit a road bump where I was kept from doing better in a contest for the liking guys thing. I let that discourage me and honestly I haven't written in a long time but a few scratchings at a story series I was working on. I think one of the main issues is how synergistic the whole process is. You go so long without doing art you second guess your ability to do it putting it off further. What I'm doing is starting small. If nothing else I'm going to write small little bits daily. Just for me. Even a small poetic paragraph will help I think. Maybe you should do the same, no real effort just a fun or expressive little sketch. I will stand with the mases that came sniffing around for the shitting herms, I can't deny that. But I noticed some truly amazing skills. I know this sounds ridiculous but the pallet jack had me floored, The attention to detail, the damn thing looked real. Your skill is quite undeniable, you simply need the drive.

You would be surprised what little things can help. Waking up to see a perfect ray of sunlight. A silly contest, even if it's with yourself. Hell even reading a journal by an artist you like. This is the first time I've put real thought to written words in quite a while Also one of the few times recently I haven't tried to get the point across in as few words as possible. But I guess I have gone on quite long enough without really saying anything of any substance so here we go to simmer the pot and see that consume i can create. Motivation isn't a far off difficult prospect to be shrived for, but it's the only substance in the worlorld in more excess than Carbon

I dunno how helpfull this could be but whenever I feel like that...what it means for me is that I need to take a quick trip. Usually 2-3 days is enough so that it doens't cause issues with work or classes or whatever I might be doing at that point...but just go elsewhere...somewhere that isn't where you are everyday. I like hotels or camping for that its just something entirely different where I can just do whatever and not having to think about what I usually do. that really really helps me.

Y'know, actually, I think you're onto something. My last spike of activity occurred right after I rearranged my room. Maybe I just need a change of scenery, even if it just involves the same furniture in a different configuration.

Its a little corny but I like to consider it introducing chaos into my life, but because I plan it its chaos I can watch effect me rather than just sorta cower and wait. Glad I could help a lil bit :)

The worst thing for productivity is to slouch over a drawing board.

I feel like a million bucks after coming back from the gym. That feeling quickly disappears when I sit at the computer, which probably explains why my digital requests take months to get done, but I've been keeping up with my comic strips pretty well (except for last week, of course).

Take a quick jog or something, even just once, and see what happens. :)

I can understand your predicament. I'm currently running on fumes myself. I'm trying to force myself to go in different directions.

I really don't have much to offer except that maybe you could try drawing stuff you don't normally draw. Get out of the "box".

Just keep plugging away.

dude i dont think you should be hard on yourself life can keep you busy and just keep in mind you still love doing what your doing dont you ? well thenif so then you should be happy :D i know i love your work and well hell if you want a few requests to keep you busy i know me and every one else here would love to help you out with that one

WTB FA quality checks.
at least that's the answer I came to when I thought about my lack of productivity. FA doesn't give any reason to try very hard so I just post crap that I hardly spent any thought on.
there's never (or rather, hardly ever) any serious input about images, no questions about any weak areas in pics. Nothing but "fapfap, that's hot, fap". It's amusing for an ego stroke, but get's tiresome quick. Yeah, I'm blaming FA for my lack of productivity >.>

I dunno, could try what Doc said or maybe changing your room up will work for you.
The next time you find yourself sitting bored staring at the comp or into space, just draw something. Don't even think about it, just do it.

Y'know, that's exactly what I told myself at first, and maybe that DOES play a part, but I can't ignore the fact that my motivation has been in a gradual nosedive for the past decade.

I think that if you are blaming FA for your art slump... and honestly, no offense at ALL... you should leave FA. Completely. At least until you get past that feeling, and find the REAL cause.

Not because you suck or you don't 'appreciate the comments' or whatever, but because you're giving this place too much damn credit. The ONLY way you are going to get serious art critique here is to:

A. Draw really exceptional art, then ASK people to give you critiques on it; drawing the same smut as everyone else, then expecting the general crowd to suddenly turn critical is pointless. I mean, come on. There are people here with no avatar image and no submissions and no comments on any page who come here ONLY for the porn they download, and I would be willing to bet they number second only to the artists themselves... if not MORE than the artists.

B. The best critic for art is another artist. Note a bunch of people and ask them to crit your page. Be bold about it, and ask people of high, medium and low skill if they would take the time to look at your art and tell you where they think you could improve with lineart, perspective, color, etc. Not only is this likely to get you a few honest, open critiques, but you might learn something from someone you think is better than you and improve. And making friends never hurt anything either.

C. DRAW SOMETHING ELSE. I see this over and over again with certain artists. They draw one kind of thing, and expect that, no matter how many times they draw the SAME THING, they're going to have people comment with high clarity and detail, rather than 'OMG, HAWT!' If you draw porn all the time, draw something else. If you draw beefcake or cheesecake images all the time, draw something else. If you draw landscapes or skyscapes all the time... DRAW SOMETHING ELSE. Certain art draws certain viewers. If you draw the kind of art that attracts intelligent critique and intelligent viewers, you'll get more of that without asking. Test yourself, rather than laying in a rut and blaming other people for your being there. Use different mediums, or different paper, or anything besides what you've been doing. Expand your horizons and options, and you will become a better artist.

I want to say this again; I'm not trying to criticize. I'm not looking to insult anyone or say 'This is what you do, so now do what I say.' These are all concepts and ideas of why you might feel like FA is holding you down. FA is air. It's not a part of your life you can't do without, or a place that, if you don't get what you need from it, you can't go elsewhere. Example: Fchan. That place has people who will happily pick your art to pieces. TINY pieces. If you ask them to. I've seen pictures that get no real response here get literally half page length crits on there... and I'm sure there are even more legit places you can post your art to and have it dissected, if that's what you want. FA is a lot of things, but a limitation? That, I think, is only you *letting* it hold you back.

a. tried, lasted 2 weeks.
b. gave up on asking people to do shit because they never do it. this is a universal problem for me, has been since I was young. so I'm psychologically unlikely to ask for anything at this point, I just shrug the thought off now a days, especially for online matters, since it harbors more flakes than the norm.
c.I do try drawing other things, ALL THE TIME but since there's no quality check and lack of motivation to try I don't spend more time on them than I do. Even when I ask some other artists about the other things I draw they don't tell me shit. I'm not just centering this point around FA, this happens at school with peers and some art teachers. Unless I'm doing something they would do, how they like it they don't tell me shit but "it's cool" or "it's alright" very rarely will I get an anatomical question about the pic or "is there anything behind this, like a back story?"
So you see, as an artist I'm totally frustrated. NOBODY EVER GIVES ME ANY REASON TO TRY HARDER ANYWHERE I GO, I'm sick of asking online, because no one but the people I talk to on a regular basis actually listens to me. =p
For productivity, I need motivation, some kind of push that makes me want to try harder. Stroking my ego worked when I was younger and more naive than I am now, but I've matured a bit, if even it's just a little bit, over the years. yeah, but Fchan users sometimes ask the impossible, they nitpick at things, yeah sometimes they DO have interesting things to say, but a lot of the time some are doing it just to be annoying and other times they say shit and give no hint or suggestion on what you could do to fix it, then you have some that are like some users on WTF pages, can hardly draw a circle and still think they know exactly what they're talking about.

summary--
Overall my blame on FA is only half hearted at best. I more geared it to "the lack of posting here" rather than the lack of drawing at all, I still draw, I still sketch. Any time I think I'm not doing something fun or productive, I try to draw. I just have no real need to post the stuff since there's no external quality checking. After a bunch of posts, I figured out that my personal thoughts/concepts don't mean shit to anyone but me so why bother post about them. and since no one really questioned the things they did like that I drew, it just got slowly degraded since there was no real need for the upkeep in presentation.

Yeah, asking someone point-blank for critiques is problematic. I see that sometimes, artist A commenting on artist B's picture, or shouting on artist B's userpage, linking to a picture and asking them what they think. It makes them sound so DESPERATE, and maybe a little pathetic. If someone I don't know asked me to critique some random picture, I'd probably end up ignoring them. I don't know them, I don't know what their level of skill is, I don't immediately know how the picture they're referring to compares with their past works ...

Congratulations, you admitted you have a problem and that the first step to fixing it. Now you need to find a way to fix it. My best guess is to just find something and sketch the hell out of it, and do this at least once a day. hopefully it will knock you out of your art slump.

I relate to a bunch of this.

10 year ago? I went through sketchbooks like potato chips. Really off-the-wall, creative stuff. Then in high school I slowed down a lot. When I actually started learning about art technique in college I got really self-conscious about my work, and saw all these flaws I never noticed before. A lot of the fun drained out of it, along with my motivation. And now that I have a "real job," I mainly only draw on the rare occasions when I do life drawing.

If there's anything I can say in the way of encouragement, it's that several older folks have told me that they went through a phase like this at my age (the same as your age, if your user page is accurate) and simply got over it with time, without really discerning any particular cause. That's second-hand, of course, but I find it makes me feel a little better anyway.

I should also say that much as I love your scatsations, I always enjoy your regular clean humor too!

Ah, I bet that's a big part of it. Now that you mention it, I remember hating how "hard" drawing became once I started improving. Learning new techniques and improving my anatomical skills, even really early on, meant that even simple sketching became a lot more time consuming.

Draw. Tanks.

Damn you.

Tanks cure all the worlds ills with brute force.

I like brute force, if it doesn't work, it just means you aren't using enough.

Hmm. Maybe you should do like my  robocoon does. S/he aims to draw one Scary Mario per day. You should find some goofy theme to follow whenever you can, and whenever you get the inspiration.

Not that I haven't enjoyed your herms, they're always well done.

Funny, I get the urge to draw whenever I see a crazy movie, cartoon or even Anime but my own skills kinda scare me away from even trying.

You should try something else for once. Like how I realized recently how fun I have with Valve Hammer editor for Source-based games...

Nothing wrong with herms, but yeah.

I don't even get rewarded for hermage anymore.

Mostly when i draw a non-lulzy herm I get the same furs who leave minimalistic compliments instead of telling me what they liked about the piece, and maybe what they didn't like. I mean crack a joke about the situation the character is in or something, Christ.

Maybe I am just too freakish for my own good.

Srsly though, it seems like now all I get are "WTF" and "OMG WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT" and stuff.

I just ignore it and draw more of it.

That sounds like you don't really care, and so *really*...? There shouldn't be any trouble with it one way or the other. You have to break out of the pattern you've stuck yourself in, or you're never going to get any reaction other than the lame one liners.

You see herms everywhere on FA now, from every type of artist, in every imaginable situation... if you go out into the Sahara and make a pile of sand, do you really expect people to notice?

Sorry if it sounds like I'm criticizing or something; I'm just making a point. If you don't even *try* to stand out, it shouldn't be much of a surprise if you don't stand out. And if you don't stand out at all... no one notices you.

Empathy.

I've been asking myself this same question for a while now. The answer, for me is RL distractions. I've had a lot of things going on that still need resolution; writing as I used to (30+ page stories in 3 hours) is just too hard to focus on when I need to worry about where I'm going to live or what I'm going to eat.

For you, just from reading your post, I see something else as well. You sound as if you're not really doing anything that stands out as interesting, especially fun (this means more than hanging out like you always do or playing games you always play, etc), or exciting in any way. It sounds as if you're not doing anything new... and as a result, your ideas are being smothered under a layer of mediocrity and the familiar.

Some suggestions to help you kinda get back that energy? Look at your last picture. Whatever it was, think on it for a bit (if you need to, make some time to actually do this). Don't bother writing anything or drawing anything; what you need to do is try to pry the floodgates open again. Think of what the character in the picture is doing, why they look the way they do, what their history and present situation is. Think about, for example, how being a hyper herm would affect their life as far as those same things you do every day; going to work/school, hanging out with friends, laying around doing nothing... whatever you do. And yes, if it's a scat picture (if I remember right, either your characters can't or just don't control that sort of thing) do the same for that. Build a mental world for the character, and then reach further.

In that world, is this condition normal, unique, or does it only effect certain people? Are there places that treat/accept this sort of thing? Is there a place that CAUSES it? Why? Is it accidental or on purpose? If accidental, how did this person come in contact with that place/thing/person... if they did at all? If on purpose, why did they do it to this person? Why? Did they do it at all?

Questions and World Construction can help a LOT when it comes to doing anything creative... And yes, I just basically said 'In order to create, you have to create.' ^^ The trick of it is that it requires the use of your imagination. You sound as if though you have some images in your mind, they are all running to basically the same concepts, with neither continuity or purpose. You draw herms because either people like herms or you like herms... and that's it. If you build on the concept some, you can work out some ideas on what you can draw from there.

If it's time you're lacking, I would suggest just setting aside some time... if only a half an hour a day... where you set yourself in a comfortable drawing place, and focus on putting your pen to paper, scribbling if you have nothing in mind. Using the skills you have should keep some interest, and if nothing else, doing it regularly will fix it in the daily pattern you have, and hopefully make it something you look forward to.

If you're feeling lazy about it all... go out and take a walk for a while before you do. I'm not the fat, lazy type, but I do get stuck in a rut sometimes where I don't do anything overtly physical from time to time. Getting my blood pumping a bit harder and working my body usually puts a bit more energy in my body and mind, and wakes me up fully mentally; something I would think would be useful for drawing.

These are all just ideas and suggestions; I have no idea what is actually going on in your life as a whole. I hope one or two of them will help spark some kind of interest or ideas for you so you can get back to drawing again. I LOVED the way you drew Uryl and the rest of Aubrin's characters, and I think I told you as much once before... maybe even a stint of drawing other people's characters for inspiration is in order, to introduce something new to your thoughts?

I agree completey, world construction is one of the best sources of new ideas.

The funny thing is that when I go out walking some place to clear my head, I feel much more inspired than when I've actually got the sketchpad out and/or drawing using the computer.

I don't mean nor like to nitpick, but I noticed a lot of your submissions were adult artwork. Don't get me wrong, you draw it quite well but my big dislike of that is that it's all same old same old. You know what to expect. I'm not saying you should stop mature artwork, but with cleaner art of a different and maybe even completely unrelated subject matter on a regular basis it might breathe a new life into your productivity. Think about why you started drawing in the first place ;)

That's actually one of my personal pet peeves, the fact that I only seem to draw adult-rated things. I look back on my old work, and realize that my favorite pictures were the clean ones, where I just pursued some random idea and put it onto paper.

That's one of the reasons I started watching you, actually. Your stuff reminds me of the wild ideas I used to have.

draw an electrified poop ferris wheel run by a macro on a bicycle.

I'm flattered ^^; Draw what you want to draw, and not necessarily what other people want.

I did dabble with mature themes but have kind of put that to the side for the time being because I feel I've explored it as much as I can just now. I've always been one of those guys with varied subject matter since I get bored easily and want to keep myself entertained drawing different themes. ^^

If the reality-dream confusion stuff doesn't go away. you'll probably get used to it. I've gotten used to it. I regularly think of something and then go "Oh wait...did I do that, or just think about it...or maybe it was a dream...or on TV? Or maybe somebody told me about it..." It used to bother me, and now I just shrug and let it go, because otherwise I'll just worry about it.

This may be a stupid idea.. but how about finding a 'learn to draw' course..t he kind that start with straight lines and balls and stuff, and do all the exercises.. see where it leads, maybe go into something advanced from there, like drawing something technical/mechanical.

Or maybe draw something you see every day but have never really focused on, from memory, and then compare it to the object in question. :D

Remember, I'm not an artist, so my advice is worth about 60 cents less per pound, even if I charge more for it. c:

Most important rule of inspiration: Do not use force, let the ideas fall into your mind, when they are put on paper they will pull more ideas with them.

I agree with DracosBlackwing that character and world construction is a very good source of ideas and inspiration.

You do not need to oly use your own characters for that, you also yust can tale a picture you like and construct a background for that character (the second step is giving your creation a look that differs enough from the character it was inspired by but still fits completely to the background)

or you take parts (not the whole thing, yust some aspects and combinations of one or more character background, it can be yust the history or any aspect including the outer appearance, described habits, skills etc and complete them with what comes to your brain while wiriting)

Any aspect and combination you find anywhere and it interests you (herms for example) becomes part of your mental toolkit, the only other tools are what you copletely created on your own and each mix and combination of these both. Do not force yourself to built up something with these tools and forges, yust let your mind play free with them like with Lego pieces and be realxed enough that the result can rise to the surface, then use and modify it for anything you want or have an idea where it fits into.

 docwolph s work has directly inspired me to 23 Characters (plus the characters that resulted of their background and stories as far as things went by now) this way.

Write down your dreams and if any idea falls into your mind, how to contiune the journey or to fill the parts of the dream you do not remeber or that got lost by interruptions like waking up, write it down alike.

Writing and drawing are the best ways to get new ideas as the ideas put on paper are a flow making way for new ideas, and then they come when you are ready, in the best case it is a flow of creating whole stories from one image.

Tabletop gamed or pc games are sometimes very inspiring, Ihave filled dozens of pages with ideas for customizing or redesigning or creating newminiatures, units, heroes and armies.

See what comes to your mind or pictures you like as the beginnig of a parth, each time you look at it can be a new parth or a new ride on an old one, yust explore them, not force into, yust look around curious.

I understand the reasons why you blame FA, and as far as I can see many are right, and all are curable by spending more time somewhere else where you can get new ideas. Architecture can be very inspiring, or going to the museum (also a very fine place to relax and to put things onto paper)

Fine online art you find here:
http://www.conceptart.org/
http://www.cgsociety.org/
http://www.deviantart.com (can send you a note with my favourite artists from there if you want)

Too much Dwarf Fortress. It eats all your time.

well ur doing more than me
too much school and work and xbox is my case