Sounds like you just need to take a little break and get out and enjoy life away from the computer. *^^* I get into these situations too, and the best way I know how to handle these things is sit outside in the sun with a good book, some iced tea, and just immerse myself in the world around me.

You're definitely right. I just can't seem to get away and enjoy myself without stressing about the work I should be doing. So any allotted time I have for relaxation isn't even relaxing. x___x

Make time. That's the only advice I can offer. ^^ Just make the time. If I can do it with my hectic schedule, anyone can. *^^*

have you ever considered drawing human versions of furred characters with just keeping there tail and ears or horns or without them?

probly help you to draw humans again maybe that would help re leave the stress

That's actually a super cool idea, thanks! :) I'll try that.

You could draw some Neko... ;)

I can understand the stress part for sure! Why not open human slots for commissions for a while whenever you are open again? Offer specials on them so you can draw more of them and don't get burnt out on furries like this. :)

Definitely going to try that, thanks :)

Glad to know I'm not crazy x___x hopefully it ends soon!

I feel this way A LOT.
I draw furries all day long, which I really like to do, but somewhere along the line I really lost what my GOAL was for my own art growth, if that makes any sense?
I wanna draw work that people other than furries want to see, but I can't really afford to work on personal art, it's almost damning in a way.

I AM SO GRATEFUL that I have an amazing job and this community has been so good to me, but I'd eventually like to be able to branch out and do something other than furries. It's all about time for me. Time literally KILLS me, man.

But, yeah, I totally understand. It's really a love/hate relationship sometimes!

ugh yes ^^^^ never enough time in a day, let alone energy x___x I really enjoy drawing furries and love how fantastic and supportive this community is, but it's like I'm living some kind of separate life lmao i'm so reluctant to show my art to anyone not involved in the furry community

-curls up around you-

It'll be alrite. D:

;-; awww *huggles*

you can always shoot me notes , if you like ^^

I know this feeling all too well.

It's all about balance. It maybe tough but if you want something bad enough you gotta tip the scales a little bit from time to time.

And as they say, if things get harder it just means your getting closer to leveling up. Boss fight that shizz
But I think if your burnt out on something you should take a break.
I understand the financial situation tho. I have to deal in the same sense from time to time. Hope it all works out for you. <3

haha exactly! this is definitely a big boss ~__~
I'll figure something out. Thank you!

I'm sorry you're struggling with all of this right now. It sure doesn't feel good when it seems art is no longer personal to you. I felt very similarly when I was taking NSFW commissions. I liked it and it made me money, but it wasn't what I wanted to do and I completely lost all motivation. I wanted to draw my own characters and write a comic, but art just wasn't the same to me anymore. I had to take a long break from after I stopped taking commissions all together. I had to work a couple of odd jobs for sake of income, but that way I started drawing what I liked again. And now I'm working on personal art and taking SFW commissions. It was really rough for a long time and I didn't think I'd ever draw again, but things are better now than they've ever been. I think if doing furry commissions is causing you to feel like you're in a rut, then just don't do it anymore. (easier said than done, I understand) You might have to do something else for work, but that way you can make the time to do personal works. Or you could change your prices or stop offering to draw furries. You could also try opening your own Patreon. That way you can still make money while working more on artwork you enjoy. There's a lot of options, please don't feel like you're trapped! It's horrible to feel so stressed and unmotivated when it comes to drawing; I really want to see you continue to improve and succeed with your artwork. Just try taking it one day at a time and forgive yourself for taking breaks. Your health comes first!

Thanks for sharing your story! I'll have to do some thinking for sure.
I really appreciate your support!

I was like that too but it wasn't for furry art. I drew humans ALL THE TIME. To the point where I wanted to make something new for myself instead of drawing the same old stuff. That is one reason I decided to start doing furry art because I needed a change. Finding inspiration for creating something original is tough because soooooo many ideas are already taken but all it takes is one rough creation and imagination takes over. I managed to create a handful of new characters balanced between human and furry (even though it took years).

I guess the best thing to do is take a break for personal art. You could try to open up commission for human art because I know there are people on this site that have human characters (even though they are hard to find). I know my advice may not be much help, but I hope it helps.

Yeah I'll see how many people would be interested in human commissions. That would be perfect. Thanks!

I can now really understand what you meant when you were talking about doing personal studies. My feelings are not that far off, I've become a bit irritated with how deep I am into furry stuff even though its no longer nearly as appealing to me as it was in the past.
My advice... was already mentioned by Mr. Trent and Mikaila... offer human only commissions, human versions of furry characters. I think that might help out a bit.

yeah if I could get more human commissions I would be v happy. although when I do get them I get super intimidated so x__x I know that'll go away if I do more though.

well in the future if im able to get a com from you i have a few characters i would like to get a human version of. some with and without the furred ears and tails.

if you think you would be up for doing any of them.

fantastic!! :) Would love to

Yeah, I know where you're coming from. If I want to make a living I'll probably have to continue to do furry art because frankly it's way harder to branch into the human art industry from what I can tell. It's a hard decision. Do I make furry art for a living, working my own hours and enjoying my work and sacrifice my artistic voice and goals? Or do I take another job that I (probably) would dislike and work on their hours, but use my free time to draw what I want? Ahh life.

This is an unpopular opinion, but in my own life I keep doing art - even if it does not make me enough money to not be struggling - simply because every hour I spend on it is gaining me skills that will make my future work better and more valuable. An identical hour spent flipping burgers or doing tech support or whatever is not gaining me skills that I can use for anything that I will actually enjoy doing, ever. It's like grinding at a skill in an RPG that's completely irrelevant to my goals. Time is the one thing you can simply never get more of, and it is extremely undervalued in our society IMO. When you do art, even if it's art that you don't like, you are investing in yourself, and as the sole proprietor of your business, any benefits this yields will go to you rather than lining a corporate CEO's pockets.

To avoid stagnation and burnout, take "experimental" or "artistic liberty" commissions and play around with styles, media, theme. As others have said, offer a discount for things you'd like to move towards. You might consider trying to broaden your reach on places like DA and Tumblr that tend to have a more human-oriented audience. You are not an art factory.

This is not to say that you can't or shouldn't leverage a *part time* job to act as a financial buffer and give you a bit more breathing room, especially if that job had other benefits, such as lowering your living costs (employee discounts, free food, whatev) or gaining you non-art skills that you would find useful. Treat jobs like a tool you use instead of a slave driver that whips you around and it will be less oppressive, but don't hesitate for a second to sever that tie if you find it restricting you.

If you find yourself worrying about work during designated relaxation time, you need to inspect those thoughts and tell yourself "This can wait until afterwards". Write your thought down on a piece of paper, turn the paper over and set it aside. If the circular thoughts persist, you should consider practicing a form of meditation that involves thought stopping. I like vipassana - simply close your eyes and focus on the sensation of breath coming in and out of your nose, trying to observe even the smallest differences between breaths. When you find yourself drifting, simply gently and without judgement re-focus on the breath. It has helped me out a lot.

Good luck, I hope you can work your way through this rough spot and carve out some time for drawing humans from your busy schedule!

This was really fantastic advice, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time you took to write all this. I'm definitely going to try and offer different commissions more in-line with my personal goals, and hopefully that way I can make a gradual transition rather than the cut and dry one I was thinking was necessary before. Meditation is something I've tried in the past but I struggle finding that kind of focus, but I'm sure that's a lack of experience so I'll continue to give it a shot. Thanks again! :)

No prob! I'm glad you found some of it helpful!

If you'd like some more info on Vipassana meditation, http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe1-4.html Mindfulness in Plain English was good for me. I've dabbled in other meditation styles, usually guided visualization types, but none work so well for me at thought stopping as simply focusing on my breath whenever I find myself having intrusive thoughts. The breath is something that is always there no matter where you are, it provides a clear physical process to focus on (important to grounding yourself in the here and now), and doesn't require more thoughts to stop thinking.

It does take some practice, at the beginning if you're like me you will likely have to steer yourself back to the breath multiple times a minute, but if you stick with it and try it every day for a few minutes, it's like training a puppy, it will settle down eventually. I've still got a ways to go myself but I am getting there. Good luck!

Familiar. You're not the only artist I know, including myself, who wants to branch out into a bunch of other fields that will require a lot of time and investment, but can't stop doing the things they've established to support their lives, financially.

Hope things de-stress.

It's a predicament for sure, but there are definitely worse things we could be stuck doing. I appreciate it!

Sometimes when I feel overloaded, I have to force myself to line up my projects in a row and only focus on one thing to completion, before moving on to the next. At least then, when my day is done, I feel a sense of satisfaction at finishing something, rather than "making some progress" in a whole bunch of other things. Eventually, it all gets done. :3

You're welcome!

I know how you feel. Doing so much commission work, (especially furry stuff) Ive lost track of doing human artwork and im losing my own creativity since im so use to being told what to draw now. Makes me sad. But im super happy getting to do my work for people for a living so I just keep doing it anyhow. lol

Just be careful not to stay too narrow! The longer you stay on the path the harder it is to veer off of it. x__x That being said hopefully you continue to enjoy it!

Oh i know. Ive been doing freelance art since i was 19 (im gonna be 29 in march lol). Each year my customers tend to change so im doing different work. Year or so ago it was portraits mostly. xD
Though, i AM worried about my own creativity to be able to create something I want to when i have the time. Thats getting harder to do, but ive been trying to take time off of commission work to do that on occasion. Did a really pretty watercolor piece recently so im happy about that. xD

Oh my goodness! I've only been doing it for like 2 years haha. Glad to hear you were able to branch out a little bit at least, hopefully you get more opportunities! :)

Yeah, its been fun and yes im hoping so too.
Ill be making a big switch to digital work soon since the furry community seems to prefer it. Hopefully thatll give me a chance to charge a bit more and do less commission work so i can do a personal piece once in a while. =P

-gives emergency hugs!-
I've got a big paycheck coming up, so maybe I'll brainstorm something special and human-themed so you can work out some of this funk. I'm so sorry you're feeling down Kaity :c

*hug* That would be fantastic! I'm actually feeling much better now. Venting on FA is always so worth it haha. :3

This is the main reason I was always afraid to make my ability to write into some sort of a job... I was afraid that EXACTLY what is happening to you would happen to me. I realized that could be the case writing for College where I started to hit blocks because I had to write it for work, essentially...

In that sense I feel for you and honestly understand painfully well what you are going through. I wish that meant I had good advice but you are in a bit of a sticky situation that is not that easy to break from. Though I usually can get reinspired by a good show. Maybe you should try to find something particularly mentally stimulating to watch and binge on it a little and see if that helps?

Wish I could offer something more because I really DREAD being where you are stuck atm. *Hugs!*

Yeah I was always inspired when I used to watch anime, maybe I should force myself back into it. Thanks, hopefully it works out for you!

I understand fully. Although it's great that I have improved so much in the fandom, and I can earn money from it, I now have little time to actually branch out into other areas (like humans, sci-fi, fantasy etc). I don't have the time to write my own stories or to spend hours every day upskilling.

Add that to my poor health and it really makes it hard to find anything else to do xD I need to draw for money, but then when I am done with drawing, I have nothing left, no inspiration. At the moment I am in this rut of, "what is the point of drawing this if it isn't for someone? if it isn't furry then no one on FA will like it. so there's no point in me drawing this. i'm not going to get any gratitude for it or any acknowledgement. in this time i could go and spend time with other people or draw stuff for others." The fun of actually just drawing something for myself seems to have been crushed sadly in me, and I can't afford to take time off to get it back T__T

I think just trying to open up experimental slots or YCHs of the ideas you like is one way to still earn money whilst doing art. Some artists I've seen draw human versions of people's sonas, that could be a fun task. Then you'd get to have a bunch of examples of how you draw humans in your gallery~

oh man I know exactly what you mean, I feel like that too. It really sucks. Hopefully you can overcome it!

I'm here with an open heart and ear and time.

I think a small break is required. Whether its you taking a break from art for a few days, or even having a few hours to yourself each day to read/watch tv/ do nothing at all. Trying to make yourself work or make yourself have a positive attitude when your heart's not in it won't be of much use. So chill, take some time and hopefully things will be better in a few days =)

I appreciate it <3 I'll try my best

You know, it's funny, I am the exact same spot art wise right now... I really want to take this further; I started drawing because of this fandom, I love my characters, as they are, I don't think I'll ever stop drawing them... But I really want to broaden my horizons, I have been trying to make myself work harder and experiment when it comes to art, I need to learn how to draw other things, like humans, I want to stop being scared of color, and overall I just want to get better... Drawing is one of the few things I truly enjoy and I'm tired of feeling like it's not worth anyone's time, and I'm tired of it feeling stagnant... I've been improving, but I want more.

I hate they you're feeling like this too, but I think you should know that you are already, in fact, way ahead out there, honestly, the more I read what you know and see the things you draw I realize, man, she's good... What can I say though, just keep on practicing, draw whatever you want, it may sound weird considering you're already super good, but ip guess I could tell you to do what I do, experiment, get out of your comfort zone...even taking a break is valid, That may help! Regardless, you know that if you hit a small bump along the way I can try to help whenever you need; I know you're gonna go even further in your endeavors, you're super talented, so don't worry, it just takes time.

As a completely ransomed side note, yes, I would love to commission a human version of Kerrah from you :)

Why not draw more humans? I see tons of artists here who draw humans almost exclusively. Or you can draw anthros and humans together in different situations? It sounds like you need a reset, which may include taking too much time off [or so it may seem...] and collecting yourself. Also you may want to watch the kind of art you produce, as a writer I can say some of the more explicit things I've written were exciting to write but ultimately left me empty and cold inside. It can have an overall effect on us perhaps more than were able to admit some times.

I hope that you find rest for your heart and soul, and moreso, with God.