Help Should I quit (visual) art indefinitely?

[CuckoosInvisible]

To be blunt, I'm a narcissist when it comes to drawing/painting. There is nothing that makes my deep-rooted envy and suicidal ideation quite as immediately apparent and potent as when I see a artist who is younger and more talented than me (early 20s), or more talented than I was at that age. Somewhere along the way I tied my self-worth to my visual art and it has ruined my drive to throw shit on a canvas for the fun of it. Haven't drawn/painted in months so it's evident I've lost some of my passion.

Should I quit? I really don't want to, but I can't help but feel as though I've ruined this particular means of creative expression for myself. If anyone's been in a similar situation, have you gotten better? How?

 

[CuteHomunculus]

Hello! I relate to what you're saying a lot, especially because I'm going through a similar situation as well. But I don't think you should quit art, especially if you yourself feel uneasy about quitting.

The learning process is different for everyone, some people may need more time to learn and improve. While yes, younger people tend to learn more faster than older people. It's the time spent on practicing and working hard on art that is most crucial. I previously envied many artists who were younger and more skilled than I was. But when I continued to keep practicing, I realized I surpassed those who I previously envied and even noticed flaws in their work. That isn't to say that art should be a competition on who is better or not. But that age doesn't solely determine one's skill level, instead that spending time learning and practicing effectively, experimenting, and many other factors that can show results.
There also have been times when an artist I envied completely changes their style to something that personally isn't for me. And that's completely okay, art is subjective after all! Which is why I encourage you to focus more on your own craft and what makes you happy!

Also, I love your pfp! I love DJ Technorch so much and Yukaman is one of my favorite artists ^_^

 

[Reeds]

I get that. I'm a pretty jealous person, and also an artist, but I'm not very good. I wouldn't say that I'm over it, but I mostly just avoid learning anything about artists - I avoid their age, profiles, and hearing about what their days were like, etc. I pretend that everyone that's better than me must just be older than me, more experienced, stuff like that. It's not really a healthy way of dealing with it, but comparing myself to others just made me angry that I wasn't "that good." Although I can only do this because a lot of the art I like is online; if you're dealing with this with the people around you, that sucks. I'm sorry either way.

I'm not saying don't quit, especially if you think quitting would help you; but it just doesn't sound like you want to. You could always just take a break; people take breaks from hobbies all the time, and sometimes those breaks last forever, sometimes not.

 

[CuckoosInvisible]

Hello! I relate to what you're saying a lot, especially because I'm going through a similar situation as well. But I don't think you should quit art, especially if you yourself feel uneasy about quitting.

The learning process is different for everyone, some people may need more time to learn and improve. While yes, younger people tend to learn more faster than older people. It's the time spent on practicing and working hard on art that is most crucial. I previously envied many artists who were younger and more skilled than I was. But when I continued to keep practicing, I realized I surpassed those who I previously envied and even noticed flaws in their work. That isn't to say that art should be a competition on who is better or not. But that age doesn't solely determine one's skill level, instead that spending time learning and practicing effectively, experimenting, and many other factors that can show results.
There also have been times when an artist I envied completely changes their style to something that personally isn't for me. And that's completely okay, art is subjective after all! Which is why I encourage you to focus more on your own craft and what makes you happy!

Also, I love your pfp! I love DJ Technorch so much and Yukaman is one of my favorite artists ^_^

Thank you for the response. I also love the Urotsuki PFP! I love Yume Nikki & 2kki too!!

I get that. I'm a pretty jealous person, and also an artist, but I'm not very good. I wouldn't say that I'm over it, but I mostly just avoid learning anything about artists - I avoid their age, profiles, and hearing about what their days were like, etc. I pretend that everyone that's better than me must just be older than me, more experienced, stuff like that. It's not really a healthy way of dealing with it, but comparing myself to others just made me angry that I wasn't "that good." Although I can only do this because a lot of the art I like is online; if you're dealing with this with the people around you, that sucks. I'm sorry either way.

I'm not saying don't quit, especially if you think quitting would help you; but it just doesn't sound like you want to. You could always just take a break; people take breaks from hobbies all the time, and sometimes those breaks last forever, sometimes not.

I basically don't use social media at all, so the few times I do go on social media- bsky or what have you- it's basically walking into a minefield thinking "Will I find one artist that I'll be really weird about because they're younger and better than me?" Avoidiance genuinely seems like the best way of handling my feelings, here.

Thankfully I don't get the same way when it comes to older (as in, pre-21st century) art, even though a large number of artists of the past "got good" during their late adolescence. Maybe because I can rationalize it by telling myself that they come from an entirely different culture and time? I'm not sure.

 

[Reeds]

To be fair, a lot of pre-21st century art did come from entirely different cultures and time periods. Some of that art came from artists who devoted their entire lives to art because they were paid by a rich person to do so, or they were born into an artist family (as in one or both of their parents were artists). There were many artists who were even rich themselves, which was why they could afford to attend art academies and travel around to paint different views.

Also, there were many well-known artists who had entire studios of assistants finishing up their work while still having that art piece credited entirely to the artist. I felt pretty cheated when I learned this, because can you imagine doing the same thing today? There would be so much outrage over not properly crediting other people's work.

I've been forced to take a lot of art history classes.

 

[marcelinevampqueen]

i get you, i don't draw as much as i used to at all and struggle to get back into it because of my skills dropping. maybe try approaching drawing differently. don't draw bc you wanna make something that looks nice, but instead because you actually enjoy and find it fun and relaxing and try ur best not to even worry about the end product.

soloartcurriculum.com has a lot of youtube vids and free resources to teach yourself
i think making art is a defining human trait that everyone should do, and your art is not less valuable because it isn't technically masterful or hyper realistic or because other people draw "better" than you

 

[pumpkinboy]

Do you not do it for fun?