Ugh, envy and frustrations...

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...

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zerogeass 2010-03-24 23:26:29

Good luck with your art, i'm in process of learning to draw, i can't even make a straight line. i've got like 4 different friends of mine trying to teach me how and i just suck at it.

EchoRun 2010-03-24 23:26:29

Thanks for the encouragement. :)

I saw someone recommended GIMP as an art program in one of your art reviews and I would too - it is free and while it doesn't have all the features of photoshop, it is similar. Just google 'GIMP 2' and it should be the first on the list with "The GNU Image Manipulation Program, for X Windows systems." at the start of the description. People are allowed to look at and alter the code for the program so you will see a lot of computer jargon on their site, but just ignore that, go to downloads and get yourself the latest copy. The other thing you will need to go with that is a graphics tablet if you don't have one already - a MUST for computer art. Go to Amazon, search graphics tablet and you can find some for less then $50.

Aside from the computer stuff, all you can do is keep practising, over and over as often as you can. Tutorials help. A good tip is when you make a mistake, don't erase the mistake till after you put your new line in, that way you wont repeat the mistake.

Good luck. :)

zerogeass 2010-03-25 19:20:47

thanks alot, i'll look for it.

TheWisestMagi 2010-04-08 01:54:56

Goodluck! I like to think most of the arts (music, art, drama) as about 20% skill and 80% imagination/inspiration. I know that this may not be the case, but it still makes sense to me. A lot of the time those who have a lot of the latter get fixated on lacking some of the former. I think that you have enough creativity to push you into keep gaining skills. I also think that you could be a fantastic artist.

That said, out of all of the fantastic artists out there, I honestly believe it takes a good bit of luck to make an occupation out of it. Not to say that you can't work at getting to "know people who know people" or whatnot...but still..

That said, I really hope that you find a future in art. :)

Also, I know that this is a tall order, but learning flash could create leaps for you. (Because less people are artists AND know how to use flash well). And when someone or something needs both of the skills at once, you would be qualified, and would need less luck ^.^

Once again, good luck!

7swords 2010-08-20 03:39:45

Yes that would help...
I will take your story as a warning to never stray from art and never get distracted.