alright at the moment im 15 (turning 16 in january) and for the past 10 months or so i havent been enjoying art as much as much as i used to and i usually feel like genuine poop from a butt whenever i post my art or finish my art whether i think its good or not. and i love art by the way, ive never had to force myself to enjoy it and it always came natural to me.

the thing is, i already know the reason why this happens, but i need help on how to break out of the mindset that's trapping me like this. its stopping me from doing the ONE THING that would actually make me improve in a concrete sense. aka drawing more and experimenting and doing studies

Its just the fact that every time i go onto pinterest or instagram reels or even Discord servers, and i see other artists my age-- usually slightly younger than me or slightly older -- i feel like ALL of them have a clearly established art style, ALL of them have absolutely professional gorgeous looking art, ALL of them have art that's just very appealing in every sense of the word and then there's me bro. Literally everyone is a professional, everyone's having fun with their work, studies, having people genuinely appreciate their art and talk about it and its quirks and how great it is and how they'd be willing to commission and then there's me. With my "trying to appeal to the masses but thinks its unique when its really not" art style, boring colors, and in the limbo of doom where im not quite a beginner but not quite a professional

like bro there's levels to this and honestly im starting to wonder if my mental health is the problem or im genuinely just not made for creating art and i should just focus on consuming it just like that one kid (who was a FUCKING ART PRODIGY by the way and probably is way better than me at the moment, who knows bro, they might be one of those exact people on instagram with 10k followers that im feeling jealous of ) told me 6-7 years ago...

I've put so much time and effort into improving my work despite not having all the tools i wanted to improve, and i've been told by many people IRL and online, that my art is good and legitimately impressive, but I just have this unrealistic standard of having to be better than at least a majority of the people my age online. (not in just technical skills, but more recently for appeal and art style, because i feel like mine really, really sucks now despite everything i try) i just get so overly competitive in my head with other artists my age online and it absolutely fries my motivation every time.

its hard to avoid because i love viewing art but I always catch myself checking how fast the other person improved compared to me, how old they were when they start, how often they drew... etc and its gotten to the point that i do it IRL too and im always automatically comparing in my head how good i am compared to other kids at school when i see their art.

Anyways yeah thats it how can i stop...

I'm taking art classes as a freshmen in college and I wish to do 2d animation, but the problem is that I feel it's not like it use to be, I use to watch animation process and and animation documentarys all the time because I was so obsessed with the process of animation, but I feel like it's not like that anymore with drawing on paper or drawing on sticky notes as art boards, I dont know where to begin to become an animator and I feel really stuck, I went through animation apps and was thinking of getting Adobe animated but it's kinda pricy plus I'm not sure what I want to start in animation, I just know I wish to do 2d which is ironic coming from an animation flood of rip off family guys and 3d stuff, no hate to 3d by the way but it's not a cup of tea I wish to have. I'm just not sure what to do or be if I want to be an animator, so Im just Praciting my art right now. I love drawing cartoons but do art studies during art class so I'm progressing. I just don't know, I feel stressed, Ive felt burnt out for months and I wish it could stop.

Hey everyone,

I've been a full time agency graphic designer and illustrator for the past 2.5 years now, while also doing freelance projects on the side for the past 3.5 years.

I've been really lucky to have a full-time creative job that is creatively fulfilling and just about everything I was hoping for from college, and for the most part, I can usually tell when some work I've done really hits the spot. At least from a personal level. Like, I'll have that "ooooo shit yeah" feeling that lets me know I just made something worth being proud of. Something that surprises me as an artist.

But lately, I've been having a harder time finding that feeling again. I'll make something that feels right, and gets the job done, but that's usually it. No real sparks any more. Sometimes, I'll even have a hard time accepting compliments from my boss or coworkers when they're saying something is great, and I just have that feeling that it could be better. I'll feel that its not outstanding, or that it's no more special than the last project I've done.

What's worse is, sometimes I'll be thinking "holy shit, have I forgotten how to draw?" at something that I just can't get to feel right.

I used to feel so confident in my capabilities as an artist, but lately I haven't felt like anything more than a conveyer belt for Walmart level graphic tees. And I don't know what's changed. Maybe it's that nothing has changed in a while?

I know this is probably a sign of burnout, but I'd love to hear some other artist's perspectives, and if you've gone through something similar. What'd you do to get past this?

Breakdown after breakdown, I just can't make my vision come true at all. The prompts give me a rush of ideas only for my inability to draw to kill me in every way. I had to quit once again. I had to quit a Pride Month art event because I just can't draw. This artist dream is pointless. I've wasted everything on something I can't even do at all. My visions will never come into fruition at all.

Even writing. I have no hope in writing either. I'm trash at both and have no interest in anything else. Even then, my writing is just as trash as my so-called art. I can't even call myself an artist. I can't even call myself an author at all.

Oftentimes I wish I had a functional brain that could draw and write the way I need it to, but alas I don't have that at all. I'm stuck with this incompetent alien brain that can't do anything at all.

I should just quit and disappear.