I give up

[Christwriter]

Frustraition is a good thing.

I didn't concentrate on drawing until I was about sixteen-seventeen. Most of that was because I got incredibly frustraited drawing. My mother is a freelance illustraitor/professional graphic designer with INCREDIBLE artsitic talent (compared to her I still suck) and for a peroid of about five years I was stuck on a stick-figure level. It was very dissapointing to spend three hours on a drawing of a person, look up and see Mom's religious paintings (One in particular, of a man in a garden with a lion and lamb at his feet, always ended up being hung where I did most of my drawings) or her pencil drawing (Freaking thing is about two foot-by-three-foot) of ballerinas reading a newspaper and realize how bad my drawing talents were. I abandoned drawing entirely when I was thirteen. It wasn't worth the effort to me because I still sucked so badly.

I started concentraiting on drawing again for two reasons: I discovered webcomics (corny but true) and I found a book by Christopher Hart on drawing comic figures about one week later. It was the first book on drawing I could actually understand (I honestly did not understand how to use a professional artist's anatomy refference for about another year, and even now I find them incredibly frustrating because they rarely put the skin on top of the anatomy so that I can KNOW how it's supposed to look)

I literally spent hours on that book. It's missing the first ten or so pages now because I used them so much. And I'm still working at it. I'm nowhere near as good as I want to be. And I still spend hours working on a page, feel pretty proud of it...and then I go to FAUB or Longest Sojourn, or Malakim, and realize that my work still has a generous vacuum factor. It's humbling and it motivates me to work harder.

Frustration can be a good thing. Use it. And even better, go find something from when you were younger and look at it, then compare it to the stuff you're doing now. All I have to do is look at my first five or so strips to make myself feel better about my work.

CW

[Alaina]

More corny advice

When you feel that the way you draw just isn't enough, doesn't satisfy you, that's when you know you're still "growing as an artist." You're pushing your boundaries, aware that there's more possible. So just keep drawing and looking at other people's art. I've been stuck for 2 years, but I haven't given up...yet

[Jesusabdullah]

Phalanx, I love those old comics you scanned! Now if only they were big enough so that I could actually READ them. That'd be a fun thread to start all on its own.

It kinda reminds me of my own art (actually, more of a friend of mine's art) when I was in middle school (Five years ago then? I'm graduating tomorrow), except my art still looks pretty much the same. Yeah, the characters are more proportionally correct, my female characters actually look (sorta) like female characters (of course, I drew dudes pretty much exclusively at that age), and I've started inking things, but... yeah, still the same round faces and what-not. I think it's just that I'm too lazy to think harder about it.

I think my writing's better now, though. In middle school my characters were all over the place, with tons of cliches and big ol' holes in the plot all over the place. They still are, but it usually isn't as bad.

Anyhow, good luck with yourself. Oh, and I've been liking your stuff so far Squeaky (by the way).

(Oh, and I'm sorry for my overuse of parentheses.)

[Christwriter]

(overuses parentheses)

(Oh, and I've been in South Texas WAYYYYYY too long. Saw "jesusabdullah" as "hey-suseabdullah")

CW

[Jesusabdullah]

Cool. That's how I meant it.... not that it actually means anything.

[Fadri]

I remember once when I was roughly six, I got out of bed in a strange mood.
I looked at my drawings, then I thought they were a mess, and suddenly I threw all they away, saying to myself that I wouldn't never draw again. O__o

One hour later, I rescued the drawings from the trash can... Fortunately, it was empty aside from the drawings. xD

[Subhuman]

Yeah, that's another thing - don't ever throw stuff out, even if you think it's crap. If nothing else, it'll give you a sense of how far you've come years down the road. I still have my original Pals comics from when I was 12 years old, and they're god-awful, but I'm glad I kept them.

[Mercury Hat]

I've got an entire shelf on my bookcase full of old drawings and doodles and stories from a couple years ago and they are just godawful. I need to <strike>burn it all</strike> prune through it.

[Ida]

It's funny, I've always been pretty satisfied with my drawings. Not with my comic, mind you, but drawings... I think this is the only field in life where I'm overly optimistic. I remember drawing a picture at thirteen and being overjoyed that FINALLY, I could but my mental iamges onto paper. When I look at it now, it sucks. In fact, everthing I haven't done within the last three months suck, but at the point where I do a drawing, I actually like it. It's been a pretty good strategy so far, at least until I get a critical art teacher. It probably doesn't hurt that I'm the only one in my family to put pencil to paper since my mom chose music over art in the 70ies - nothing to live up to.

That being said, I do understand that you're feeling depressed about your work currently. I have had periods like that (the thing is, when I had a period like that I didn't draw at all), and it's hella frustrating. My best advice is to take a break, either from drawing or just form being so critical to yourself. This isn't to say that you shouldn't criticize your own work, not at all, but right now, just try to remember something good about your work. Think about how you're better now than you were earlier (and you definately are). Pick up an old drawing that you really like, preferably one that marks some sort of progress for you, and try to remember how you felt when you finished it. and, slightly cruel, you might compare yourself to others your age who are worse at drawing than you are, and see that you're already ahead. (Damn, I feel like an evil bitch now) and then, when you've regained some confidence in your abilities, you can start being critical again.

Or maybe I'm just full of bullshit. Damn, I'm tired.

[Keffria]

You know, I'm not really sure what would've prompted a topic like this. I mean, if you want to quit, just quit. Seriously. If you need a break, pushing yourself to keep drawing is just going to make you hate what you're doing even more. Sometimes, it pays to throw down all the pencils and let the dust collect for a while.

I'll echo everyone else when I say you're really good for a sixteen-year-old; I started my first webcomicking effort at that age, and let me tell you, it was not pretty. My work is still rough and in need of improvement in virtually every department, and there are times when I, too, feel like a good long hiatus (and I do take them periodically).

All that being said, not being able to achieve perfection is a really stupid reason to quit drawing. (However, if you're genuinely tired of striving for it, there are a billion other webcomics out there that will be happy with one less competitor.)

[That guy]

Not every picture is going to ROCK (unless you're Kadoma, apparently, who incidentally IS full of herself... jeez, way to rub it in, ya jerk).

1) EVERY artist is intensely self-critical, learn to see the good, too.
2) You WILL improve, inevitably, but that doesn't mean you suck now.
3) NEVER look back and say "Wow, I used to suck," instead say: "I've gotten so much better."
4)Learn to PLAY with your art.

If you have fun, it will come across in your pictures, even if they're not what you wanted them to be. Beautiful art is still so often BORING. Give you characters souls and even if they're not pristine, they will be WAY better than some elegant shiny pictures of plastic people with plastic expressions. You will throw things away, but not because they're failures, because that's part of the game. Love every step of the way and stop wishing you were five steps forward, you'll miss all the fun.

[Phalanx]

Phalanx, I love those old comics you scanned! Now if only they were big enough so that I could actually READ them. That'd be a fun thread to start all on its own.

...


You want to read those things? That's a first. I generally keep those old Sector 7 comics around for the nostalgia and the hilarity of the logic (or lack of it) in the comics. They make me laugh so hard... for the wrong reasons now.

Well that, and they're great for morale. I mean it's nice to know that even if you start off with stick-figures you can still get somewhere.

Hmm... Maybe I'll scan them sometime and see if they're still legible.

[Subhuman]

I mean it's nice to know that even if you start off with stick-figures you can still get somewhere.

I resent that.

[Phalanx]

I mean it's nice to know that even if you start off with stick-figures you can still get somewhere.

I resent that.

Don't... because it's true Muahahaha!

Heh I did stick figure comics for what... four.. five years?
And to be honest I enjoyed it, but after a while it gets to the point where they get too restrictive in what they can do and you'll want to move on to something else.

[RPin]

Phalanx, I love those old comics you scanned! Now if only they were big enough so that I could actually READ them. That'd be a fun thread to start all on its own.

...


You want to read those things? That's a first.

<< Make it a second

[Anywherebuthere]

You're 16, give it time...

[Nutcracker]

My pictures come with expiration dates. After a month they suck . But I`m glad that I develop so quickly and just redraw them.

[Zuri]

This.. really feels like attention whoring to me, honestly.

If you really REALLY wanted to quit, I don't think you would have posted this. You would have simply stopped and faded away like so many before you. It just seems to me you need/want some kind of positive affirmations regarding your work, which, admittedly you got in spades, to keep going as it were.

I'm just going to add a little balance to the force here. Darkside, here I come with a reality check.

The art world, particularly on the internet, is a highly subjective, competitive, and frankly a great danger to young artists. Why? Because as artists we tend to do this nasty thing called 'comparison'. We compare our work with that of our favorite artists and those we admire. Before the internet, this was mostly limited to friends, family, classmates, and books. But the artists in the books we knew were our betters. We could arguably match our classmates and there was always that kid in art class who was better than we were, and we accepted that and worked to improve. Now, with the access of huge art archives we run into people who are young and so talented is a bleeding crime, and as such, the young artist is discouraged. Your post implies to me you are trying to 'match' some level of art in something you've seen that you feel is vastly better than yours.

The reality is if you quit, you'll never reach that level because you never tried. And no, you may not be able to reach it next year, or maybe the year after that, but if you quit now, you'll never get there ever. Isn't that worse? I'd say better late than not at all.

You should probably also examine your reasons for doing art. Is it fun? are you trying to say something? Do you want to be famous? Do you want to make money? All these things have different implications in the artworld. There are some harsh realities you have to face and make a decision if you really want to throw all the work you've done to this point down the toilet or not. Because, quitting basically means you flush all the talent and skill you've developed down the can. Given this post, I'd probably venture that is a no.

Seems to me you are frusterated, and you can tell me if I'm off base here, but thats what it seems like to me. My advice to you is this:

1) Hiatus yourself from the net and go draw.
2) Go to the library or bookstore and get reference books for the kinds of things you want to draw.
3) Spend the time you would otherwise spend doing websurfing and draw.
4) Draw, Draw, and Draw some more. Expect to make mistakes, use crappy paper so you don't feel bad about throwing it out. It may take years to perfect, so be patient with yourself.
5) try to improve one aspect at a time. Work on hands for a month, maybe feet for the next, a month on eyes, or however long it takes.
6) Try different styles. Don't get hung up on the 'popular' or get yourself stuck in a medium.
7) forget color. Seriously. Work in black and white first, get your line art up there and THEN worry about color. Color is a very complicated, double edged sword that can either help or destroy a peice. Young artists tend to try and use it as a crutch to save a picture, or be lazy, figuring the color will fix bad line art. Doesn't work that way unfortunately.
8) Keep your old drawings in a book. That way you can go back in a year and see how far you've come.

Anyway, thats my two bits. Take it as you will.

[Alaina]

This.. really feels like attention whoring to me, honestly.

If you really REALLY wanted to quit, I don't think you would have posted this. You would have simply stopped and faded away like so many before you. It just seems to me you need/want some kind of positive affirmations regarding your work, which, admittedly you got in spades, to keep going as it were.

I was going to say that, but I thought it would have been just me being mean

[Chibiartstudios]

8) Keep your old drawings in a book. That way you can go back in a year and see how far you've come.

Oh yes! This one will make you feel SOOOO GOOOOD! I really regrett loosing some of the pieces I did when I first started to draw. My stuff back then was soooooooooooooooo bad >_<'. Unlike most people I only recently (about 2 years ago) took a liking to drawing. I'd doodled here and there and was a fan of art for some time but I never thought I could do it. After I took an art class I decided to start a webcomic and kept on taking classes. The first thing I learned is that learning to draw is... Slow... And it only gets slower. Once you learn some of the basics you hit a plateou where your improvement is so slow it's infuriating.

What do you do? Simple! New things. When I felt I couldn't improve on figgures (lord knows I can though) I started to draw architecture. Get a copy of Architectural digest and try to draw one of those ungodly complicated rooms (who lives in those things!?) and then go back to figgures a few weeks later. The more challenging the project the better. The harder the assignment is the more seriously you will take it and the more you will improve. Just don't go expecting perfection tomarrow.

Or ever for that matter. The worst artists are those that think they are great because they stop trying to improve. Embrace your suctacity! Realise that ALL artists suck. RPin? Sucks! But less so than most web artists. Salvadore dali? Crap! But it's fun to look at. Leonardo Davinchi? Utter poo! Though less so than myself which is why I use his stuff as reference materials. Your goal is not to be "good" but to keep the level of suck as low as possible. And as long as you are doing this for fun then you won't mind the suck factor. You'll find a "fun" piece pleases you more than the piece you stressed over for a week. It's why I keep doing those damn Jam sessions. Yeah. They look much more rushed than my other stuff. But gosh darnit they're fun!

As for the life falling apart thing. Just hold on for another 2 years. You'll find that life after high school is FAR more tollerable. You know those idiots your trapped with all day? Yeah, you don't have to deal with them anymore if you don't want to. Once I went to college they sort of up and dissapeared. Some of them are actually decent to hang around these days. Time is odd that way...