Making art can be fun. Sometimes the words just fly out on to the page. Sometimes you code that mechanic in first try, you test it, and find out it's funner than you imagined. Sometimes a sketch becomes something more as you carve each detail effortlessly and joyously into something you can't believe you were able to do.
You can't expect art to be like that, even if it is sometimes like that. You will write yourself into a corner. You won't be able to fix that bug. Every stroke of the pen makes it worse. Everything you do is either bad, gets you nowhere, or a combination of the two.
That is also art sometimes, and you can't avoid it.
You should have your boundaries with art of course. If it's creating hell for your relationships, mental health, or physical health, find a better balance or ditch it. But sometimes not making art is hell. Sometimes you imagine something so beautiful, grotesque, and life changing that you cannot keep it all to yourself. You must make and build to bring even a glimmer of that to others or it will haunt you beyond the grave.
It will require pain and long hours of feeling like you're doing nothing. I've said before there's no avoiding this but there are ways of dealing with it. Here's my advice if you want to keep moving with your art. I hope it helps but it may hurt. Take it with a grain of salt.
- If you're doing something tedious for your art, find ways to make it easier. Put music on or something, but be wary it doesn't distract you. And said distractions may take away the joy in doing other things as well.
- If said tedious thing requires your full attention, look for the horizon. It will soon be over and once you have it done, you will be able to say with pride you have done it. You are making steps towards a goal in the distance and each step is bringing you closer, and thus each step matters.
- If you can't find a good way to do something, remind yourself you will be better at it after you have done it. That sometimes a slapdash job is necessary. It's better to exist as a fragment of its true imagined glory than as nothing at all.
- If you can't make any significant progress, find significance in the time you spent working on it. That wasn't time wasted, that was time spent learning. Remember you learn from your mistakes and struggles. You got better by doing this.
- If you haven't done art in awhile and felt like you got worse, remember that the time you previously will mean you will be able to get back to the level you were much quicker. Those mental pathways are still there, they just need a good dusting.
- Sometimes you must find pleasure in the pain. It begins with telling yourself that you actually like it. It is a challenge and you love challenges. When you prevail it will feel so good because of the struggle now.
- If its too easy make it challenging. Record your time and do it as fast as you can. Optimize the code this time around. Make rules and restrictions. Use that weird technique you haven't mastered but want to try.
- You will fail. That is fine. So what if you didn't meet your personal challenges? If others made those goals for you, do they really care? What matters is you tried, and by doing that, you got better.
There are cases I haven't covered but as with everything I make, I hope this helped you.
