I love my art. it has been one of the constants in my life.

Yet at one point for various reasons I let it go, for about 2 and a half years. Now I am back to the pace of working almost every day again, I really regret that gap. No progress, nothing learned.

Now I look at other artists my age, or even younger, and wonder if I would be that good if I had kept at it through those years when my art got put aside. There is some AMAZING stuff out there, done by people so very close to my age. Now I feel like my work is not up to standard, that I am lagging behind and it is frustrating me no end. I am envious, frustrated and sometimes I have to force myself to keep at it, keep working and learning because things don't seem to progressing fast enough which frustrates me more.

I suppose, in my own defence, it does not help that I am self taught. I have no higher education in art, the only support has been through a couple of online tutorials. I am in no position to go into further education at this point, not unless it led to immediate employment after - no such luck with art. Perhaps hunting down a few more online tutorials will help? Yes, I think that will be my next step...