Venting the hobby that gave me most comfort drives me insane; my incompetence motivates me to ctb

[annoyed]

for the past couple of years, ive felt trapped in a cycle of constantly comparing myself to others, always feeling like i fall short in my work. its as though im not good enough to deserve the people or opportunities in my life. my confidence in my abilities feels so fragile, and its been draining my motivation to even try to improve. at times, it seems like no matter what i do, i cant enhance my skills or see progress in the things i love which leaves me feeling small and worthless.

ive even caught myself wondering if my art would only be appreciated if i werent here anymore, though i know those thoughts are selfish and painful to consider. deep down, i just want to make someone proud. i want to feel like my efforts matter. but right now, it feels like im walking this path entirely alone without guidance nor support and the emptiness is becoming overwhelming.

i wish i could have picked up a different pastime, or maybe i wish i was significantly better at doing the thing i chose to do. i dont know what is wrong with me. i dont know anything anymore.

 

[sos]

assuming that you mean artwork by art? drawings or whatever? if not, lol sry im dumb

if yes,

there are plenty of places on the interwebs where you can drop your artwork to get feedback on them; thats a way to start, followed by eventually creating an instagram profile for example to drop all of your artwork

you can find feedback and respect from the ones that are not around you

i truly hope that you find comfort in what youll receive there, if you decide to drop them somewhere

im always willing to see some of it!

 

[lionetta12]

for the past couple of years, ive felt trapped in a cycle of constantly comparing myself to others, always feeling like i fall short in my work. its as though im not good enough to deserve the people or opportunities in my life. my confidence in my abilities feels so fragile, and its been draining my motivation to even try to improve. at times, it seems like no matter what i do, i cant enhance my skills or see progress in the things i love which leaves me feeling small and worthless.

ive even caught myself wondering if my art would only be appreciated if i werent here anymore, though i know those thoughts are selfish and painful to consider. deep down, i just want to make someone proud. i want to feel like my efforts matter. but right now, it feels like im walking this path entirely alone without guidance nor support and the emptiness is becoming overwhelming.

i wish i could have picked up a different pastime, or maybe i wish i was significantly better at doing the thing i chose to do. i dont know what is wrong with me. i dont know anything anymore.

I don't relate to this personally, but I do know a lot of artsy people and people who also work with and make art for a living. The ones who work with art and make money from their creations, have never said this to me, nor have they given me the impression that they feel this way. But the people I know who do artistic things as a hobby, will say this to me quite often, on almost a weekly basis. The main difference between the 2 that I've noticed is that the people who do it for work always enhance their skills, continue to learn something new, always improve their quality very easily, etc. Where as I see the people who use it as a hobby are stagnating and feel frustrated because of the sudden stop in making progress and they start struggling with creating something new. Don't know what causes this in particular, but always found it odd that so many people I know feel this exact way and I get sad when I hear about it. I feel like a hobby should be fun and give you some feeling of accomplishment. Makes me upset that their hobby and passion is making them feel depressed and that it also makes them feel insecure.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I don't relate to this personally, but I do know a lot of artsy people and people who also work with and make art for a living. The ones who work with art and make money from their creations, have never said this to me, nor have they given me the impression that they feel this way. But the people I know who do artistic things as a hobby, will say this to me quite often, on almost a weekly basis. The main difference between the 2 that I've noticed is that the people who do it for work always enhance their skills, continue to learn something new, always improve their quality very easily, etc. Where as I see the people who use it as a hobby are stagnating and feel frustrated because of the sudden stop in making progress and they start struggling with creating something new. Don't know what causes this in particular, but always found it odd that so many people I know feel this exact way and I get sad when I hear about it. I feel like a hobby should be fun and give you some feeling of accomplishment. Makes me upset that their hobby and passion is making them feel depressed and that it also makes them feel insecure.

Yeah, I feel like your observation is incorrect. I've seen plenty of people who do art as a living who have issues with feeling satisfied with their skills and who always feel like they aren't good enough, meanwhile, I've seen people who do it as a hobby who are satisfied with their skills. Most people people who do art as a hobby or as a job also usually tend to work towards improving their skills and it's common for many to start getting to a point where they feel stagnant and like they aren't improving. This goes into an interesting phenomenon that a lot of people who do some form of visual arts sometimes talk about, where people notice big improvements in their artistic abilities when first starting out but then start to feel stagnant after a certain point. Either way, not feeling like your skills are good enough is a common thing seen amongst those who like to partake in visual arts, or really any of the arts in general. I draw as a hobby and I honestly rarely find myself feeling satisfied with my work. My sketchbook is filled with drawings I abandoned and I feel like I haven't improved much in years. The thing is, while art is a hobby that can leave you feeling unsatisfied and insecure, it's also fun. It's nice getting into a state of flow and spending hours focusing on an art piece instead of worrying or ruminating. It's also a good outlet to allow one to express oneself.

 

[lionetta12]

Yeah, I feel like your observation is incorrect. I've seen plenty of people who do art as a living who have issues with feeling satisfied with their skills and who always feel like they aren't good enough, meanwhile, I've seen people who do it as a hobby who are satisfied with their skills. Most people people who do art as a hobby or as a job also usually tend to work towards improving their skills and it's common for many to start getting to a point where they feel stagnant and like they aren't improving. This goes into an interesting phenomenon that a lot of people who do some form of visual arts sometimes talk about, where people notice big improvements in their artistic abilities when first starting out but then start to feel stagnant after a certain point. Either way, not feeling like your skills are good enough is a common thing seen amongst those who like to partake in visual arts, or really any of the arts in general. I draw as a hobby and I honestly rarely find myself feeling satisfied with my work. My sketchbook is filled with drawings I abandoned and I feel like I haven't improved much in years. The thing is, while art is a hobby that can leave you feeling unsatisfied and insecure, it's also fun. It's nice getting into a state of flow and spending hours focusing on an art piece instead of worrying or ruminating. It's also a good outlet to allow one to express oneself.

Not really my observation or assumption, it's my experience hearing it from the people I know, I'm not artistic and so I don't really spend any time on observing artistic people, but I take my time to listen to what they say to me because I care about them and how they are doing. I don't know how people that I don't know feel obviously so I'm not saying that I assume that everyone in the world in either group feel this way. Can only go off of what people I know tell me about their personal feelings weekly. Either way, my main point was that I feel sad whenever anyone, regardless of who they are, feel this way and all I can really do is offer them support when they feel these particular ways.

 

[CatLvr]

As an artsy-fartsy person I can tell you we are always our worst critics. Nearly every artist I have ever known has ALWAYS been trying to improve their craft. It's the nature of "art". And that is true of artists who have their work hanging in The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. I know the artist who developed the Native American statue that now sits on top of the Oklahoma State Capitol and he will tell you the same. You ALWAYS find something you would do different when a piece of art is finished. That's how you become really good.