/loomis/ - Art Gains

Here's some things I've observed over time but tend to forget to make an attempt fixing, which I'm hoping this thread will remind me about :

The hurdle of starting

Sometimes it's just really hard to get started, perhaps because of the other reasons below. But once you get started, it's not that difficult to keep going. So sometimes it actually helps to just force yourself to get started drawing something, even if it feels wrong and stupid to force yourself you might end up having fun drawing after you've gotten over the initial hurdle of starting.

Analysis paralysis

Also known as decision paralysis. The hesitation to do things due to a (perhaps subconscious) fear or feeling that it will cause inconvenience, waste your time, cause a sub-optimal result, require you to revert work you've done, cause the work you've done so far to be ruined, or result in shame or embarrassment or failure. As a result you either hesitate and avoid doing things or end up doing nothing at all. Even things that don't seem to be related may be rooted in analysis paralysis, the hesitation and uncertainty to move forward causes you to feel uncomfortable and escape.

An indirectly related issue is when something just doesn't work out, it looks bad and it's as if your skills have gone away and it gives you distress. The problem might be that what you have so far is just not good and you're too afraid to touch it since you've spend a lot of time on it. You've already jumped over some hurdles and made minor accomplishments here and there, so of course you don't want to backtrack or make significant changes, let alone start over and try a different way. But sometimes that might be just what you needed.

While I don't have good fixes for this yet, the first step is of course realizing that it's happening. It could also be good to get into the habit of taking snapshots of your work; duplicate and hide the layers you're working on, or make a duplicate of the whole file. Then approach it from the mindset that you're just trying some rough shit out without going back and you're going to revert back to the previous soon, basically trick yourself into thinking that what you're doing is of no consequence to you. If you get the feeling that something might be better if done in a different way, duplicate the file and just try it even if it means scribbling over all your shading and polished lineart and shit.

It's better to draw and fail many times than to not draw at all, the latter is an endless cycle where you end up never doing anything and never moving forward from that point.

Feeling like what you're doing matters

It might be hard to find motivation or direction if you don't feel like what you're doing has meaning. Frankly I have no idea how to solve this except working on something that other people care about, or something that means something to you personally. Some future promise of "getting better" probably doesn't work, since it's not really a tangible goal. Taking art requests sometimes helps because there's demand for the drawing.

Opinion alert: I don't fully agree with certain ideas of "practice". I don't think you should spend time drawing spooky skeletons and shit unless you want to actually improve your understanding of that skeleton, which will probably happen somewhere down the line, and you should study it when that happens. In my opinion you should draw whatever you want to draw, and learn as you draw it and study the parts that you need for it. Personally I find it very demotivating to draw something other than what I actually want to draw or learn about. That's just the way I see things though so take it with a grain of salt.

>>12763

Feeling that you're accomplishing things, and closely related, being overwhelmed by the work to do

Mostly related to longer projects. If you work on something for a long time without seeing results (task is too big, todo list is too long, etc), it'll increase the chance of burnout by a lot. I've mostly experienced this with programming so I'm not sure how it applies to art. The solution is usually to split the work into smaller manageable parts, each one should give you some kind of meaningful result that you could think of a mini product and feel good about. Treat each part as it's own "project", for example if you're making a comic, you could approach each page as a separate small project rather than thinking of them as part of the whole story or chapter.

It also helps to polish the individual part you've finished. Again sorry with a programming parallel, but if I added an enemy to a game, I'd polish it's graphics even if there's nowhere to put the enemy yet and most of it's functionality is missing. That helps feeling accomplished, like you've taken a meaningful step forward in the project instead of adding another piece of "to-do" into it.

A note about a tricky aspect of this: when you finish something, it may cause you to feel demotivated as you need to put the accomplishment aside and get to working on something else. I'm not sure what to do about it, but it's sometimes very effective to simply take a break. When you've done with a given part, detach yourself from the project for a moment. That kind of prevents the feeling of accomplishment from being swallowed by the project right away.

Understanding what you're doing

This can VERY easily become a similar problem as analysis paralysis, or maybe they're the same thing. It's hard to get started or move forward at any given point if you don't have a very clear idea of what to do. Even if you know you need to do X, it's hard to approach it if you don't know the exact steps to take there. In this case you usually need to do some self reflecting and figure out what exactly you lack understanding about, and then study or practice it until you do.

This problem also surfaces when you try to draw a character without having a character design. It can cause problems with posing and expressing and body language and composition and all kinds of things if you don't have a proper character design in mind while going into it. It also becomes complicated when you want to add details since you suddenly have to turn from drawing mode into design and ideaguy mode, it helps to be aware of this problem and be able to consciously switch into thinking of the design though.

Sometimes it's hard because someone else came up with the "what" in "what to do", e.g. if you get a request or a commission. I've mostly experienced this at work but it applies to requests and such as well; I don't want to do anything I'm not sure about, and I don't want to deviate from the client's wishes even if what they wanted doesn't seem to work at all. The best solution I've found is to treat it as if YOU own the project, make decisions that YOU think are best even if they might not necessarily be what the other person wanted. If the other person wants something dumb then go "fuck that shit" and do something that you think is better. There's a very good chance you'll end up doing better that way than trying to read the other person's mind, there's a good chance the other person wasn't even sure what they wanted or didn't realize that something they wanted wouldn't work well, or just wasn't able to imagine the better vision that you came up with. Even my boss at work sometimes makes stupid requests, but then ends up picking a completely different version that I came up with when I "freed" myself from the exact details of the request and treated it as my own project where I can decide whatever I think is best. That said you should be careful about using this if someone paid you.

>>12764

Feeling lonely

Sometimes happens when you leave the internet and enter the lonely plains of the art canvas. Note that this might be analysis paralysis in disguise, or made worse by it. Unfortunately I have no clue what to do about this. If you're willing to touch the spyware that is discord then consider lurking art related group chats. Sometimes it helps to have a livestream in another window at the side, twitch even has a category for art streams. Pixiv and Picarto.tv also have art streams. For me it doesn't need to be an art stream, usually anything where someone is talking works.

Lacking energy

Don't wanna do anything, getting tired as soon as you try to draw something. I'm affected by this greatly so I shouldn't try to give advice, but if I'm tired when I get back home then taking a hour long nap sometimes helps. "Exercise" seems useful as well, just running around a bit may get me out of the mental slog where I don't want to do anything, I'll experiment more when the ground outside stops being made of ice. Consider seeing a doctor as well if you're always tired, there might be an actual health problem.

Lacking ideas

Self explanatory. It's hard to draw if you don't know what to draw. Note that this too may be related to analysis paralysis, e.g. you're trying too hard to think of something "worth drawing". Possible solutions:

- take requests

- try to look for opportunities in random threads, when there's a discussion about something see if there's something about it that could be "illustrated" or made a comic out of or responded to with an image. For example if you're into anime, then the threads /a/ and /animu/ have about currently running anime could be good candidates

- go to a website that generates random words, and then draw something related to what it generates. There's also websites that generate art/story prompts

- browse the newest submissions in pixiv or deviantart, and then draw characters from them or redraw images or try to fix them or something

- roll for a tower girl

- make a small project, something completely random just for the heck of it, like a comic that's completely winged into random directions as you go. That idea you've had in notepad for 62 years? shitpost a low effort comic out of it that has no effort put in.

- look at art that inspires you and try to mimic it, maybe you'll absorb some of the style or knowledge from it

You are a hero.

T.Hanks dude

Take amphetamines.

>>12784

Take cyanide, degenerate.

>>12785

I'm serious. I used to be able to draw for 9 hours a day. Would recommend if you can handle the consequences.

Something that absolutely destroys my motivation is the fear of failure.

I'm in school right, and I have developed a bad habit of lying in bed rather then doing assignments because I feel that what I make will never be good enough. In this traditional drawing class, a project I tried my absolute fucking hardest on only received a fifty percent, even though I was scored pretty decently on half of the rubric. A series of this exact scenario happening time and time again has made me feel like I will never be good enough, causing me to procrastinate and become apathetic towards my failings. It doesn't help that the only friends I can truly relate to are online, so there really isn't anyone that can give me the right push to keep moving foward.

>>13221

The answer is simple. Learn to love failure. It is the greatest teacher on Earth. It is better to fail than to never try at all. Because if you fail, you can figure out what went wrong and improve it. Failure is your friend. It won’t lie to you or tell you what you want to hear, but rather what you need to hear.

>>12796

Can confirm; Adderall XR 30mg daily here, feels great to be alive tbh.

I just don't feel like doing anything.

Just like read loomis

>>13232

Where do I get this wonder dr*g lad

>>12787

What are the consequences?

>>13354

THEY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

>>13354

Becoming addicted

Crashing hard if you're ever cut off suddenly

Potentially neurotoxic with longterm use.

>>13309

Get diagnosed with ADD/ADHD; see your doc. Get insurance to cover it, costs me $10 for a month's supply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM39qhXle4g

Has some good tips apart from the money bit. Losing money doesn't motivate me to do shit.