Wobblegong

@wobblegong

Thinkin' about animals....

🐟/🐠/they/them

deviantArt: jWobblegong

*tiny furry cheeps*

Wobblegong @wobblegong11/14/2023, 4:33 AM

Tabby @lenientsy

Tabby @lenientsy11/14/2023, 3:48 AM

To my fellow visual artists (and all creators!): how do I stop being so invested in constant improvement and self-betterment to the point of not accepting work that's not better than previous work? It's eating me alive, especially when I've got ideas I want done! I just want to doodle - or just draw for fun - but it's like I'm trying to break a habit no part of me sees as an issue. I've gone my entire art career trying not to make bad work, and now I'm trying to do it on purpose so I can just chill out! It's almost impossible! Anyone got some tips?

#art #visual art #i just wanna draw for god's sake #it's marginally easier to doodle in a sketchbook #but even then it's still pretty difficult to make any work that isn't a straight up study #like i can accept bad work in a sketchbook but it has to be because i was trying to make good work

Wobblegong @wobblegong11/14/2023, 4:33 AM

My solution is pretty me-specific and won't work for lots of people (and caused me different problems) but to some degree that's what I joined ARTPGs for.

Because ARTPGs, while not perfect, have two features that work on me:

They have objective minimums/requirements for a pic to earn this or that, which doesn't give a shit about how nice it looks or how much I like it, etc.
Rewards are only for finished stuff, so even if it's not going well I'm extremely motivated to push on and complete it anyways (see #1, too). Making Sunk Cost Fallacy work for me!

Again, this is far from a miracle cure (I am still a glacial perfectionist) but it really has done wonders to make me chill out about "bad" results. Even if that face looks weird or the composition is bleargh or I hate how the grass turned out, too bad! What am I going to do, scrap six hours of work and not get loot for all my suffering and toil? No way, I'm a loot gremlin. So I keep going and finish the pics and turn them in (on the public internet where anyone can see!) even if I grumble.

In the process this has convinced my lizardbrain that "this pic sucks" is survivable, and in fact is often less bad than it seems once I'm done. Plenty of imperfections mellow in my perception once I'm no longer hunched over the canvas. And the rare times I still hate it, A playful fake certificate that reads: this certifies that the bearer has permission to make as much really terrible bad art as they need to make and it'll be okay. Ursula Vernon's wombatsona in the corner says, I have a Hugo Award and make a living drawing stuff, and I say it's cool! Sometimes the quickest way to improve is to do every-fucking-thing wrong and go "well, aint doing that next time" so I try to appreciate the pics which don't work out as highly effective roadmaps.

#erudite cheeping

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in reply to @lenientsy's post:

0li0s @0li0s11/14/2023, 6:37 AM

So, this happened to me big time when I was doing an inktober challenge in 2020, and I basically had to just stop drawing for like, a solid two months to break the cycle of frustration/burnout. I still get frustrated when I make something wonky but now I feel okay about not posting it and just starting something new.

Tabby @lenientsy11/14/2023, 2:02 PM

That's my problem, though - I want to post bad work! I'm tired of holding myself up to a standard if it's not professional work or serious paintings. But for some reason, my brain won't let me do anything under the par of my serious stuff.

Also, Inktober has been total junk for me every time I've tried it. I envy people who can get all the way through it.

0li0s @0li0s11/17/2023, 8:27 AM

Dang, I uh, I just don't post work I hate so idk 😅
I do make work I don't like but I just have to set it aside and make something else to post.

This might help tho; I personally didn't jive with it but maybe you might: one of my friends once said that posting even your bad work makes you more relatable to followers--"even pros have bad days, see?"--and that's why she always posted everything even stuff that she hated. So maybe that's something that resonates with you?

I tend to see my social media profiles as like my portfolios though, not my journal. Hence why I was like "eh, different strokes" when she told me that.

in reply to @wobblegong's post:

Phosphor [&]@bazelgeuse-apologist11/14/2023, 4:43 AM

This is making me wish even more intensely for like, a FFXIV Chosties ARTPG-lite or something

Wobblegong @wobblegong11/14/2023, 6:15 AM

I mean, one-off art games or art events do exist, and are widely considered easier to run (because there's an END POINT)
...
That might not be bad as fun things to do go, really...

Tabby @lenientsy11/14/2023, 4:52 AM

Thanks for the long reply -- appreciate it heaps!

Maybe I'll try that type of draw-one deal where you get one chance at an outcome, and if you don't like it you can try again but you can't go back to the previous outcome and you have to stick with your retry? That sounds like a slog, actually. I probably won't do that.

In any case, with most art, it's the thing you're trying to get across that matters rather than the art itself -- especially one or two-off four-panel comics, like I'm trying to do. I could probably live with some imperfections. I just wanna get something done! I've never, ever gotten a multi-issue project done! Never! I'm sick of it, I say!

Wobblegong @wobblegong11/14/2023, 5:51 AM

That actually reminds me less of art struggles and more of a second, valuable, even more invisible skill: project management.

It's not my speciality but the tidbits tumblr user prokopetz has posted specifically include how-tos and nitty-gritty recommendations for getting projects like comics done. Might be useful? Or not, but there's another free shot in the dark.

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