I’m tired of taking two hours to draw things that should’ve taken ten minutes. It makes the prospect of doing anything that might take actual effort flat-out demoralizing
I’m tired of wanting to draw until the moment I plug in my tablet and remember that anything beyond “single character standing on blank background” isn’t worth how much frustration it would put me through
I’m tired as heck of my lack of skill getting in the way of actually enjoying my art process. I’m tired of not actually having a process at all because I don’t know how I want my art to look
I’m tired of agonizing over efficiency, looking for shortcuts that don’t exist, and wondering whether or not trying to simplify things just makes me lazy
I’m tired as heck in general. I should just sleep, but attempting to draw and then failing to get even a single thing done would only affirm my shitty mood
I don’t wanna come off as the older guy trying to drop wisdom or anything like that, but hoo MAN do I remember this feeling. But eventually there are answers to those conundrums, as I found out, if you care to listen!
1. That skill thing never really goes away, but it does get more… manageable? Like specifically what you’re feeling is the result of focusing your artistic efforts in concentrated direction, loving how that one aspect looks, and then being really displeased that the other stuff doesn’t look that good when you try it. Right? I mean, it’s super understandable. But you know, the good news is it won’t take you however long it took to get good at this one thing, to improve the other things, because you’ve already developed a ton of coordination and thought processes.
2. Shortcuts are love, shortcuts are life. Never feel bad for wanting to make your workflow more efficient- grab every single thing you can that makes life easier. It’s not like you’ll run out of difficult things to do.
3. I can’t look inside your brain, but a couple things that really helped me when I was getting sick and tired of my stuff was learning about Gesture and the Coil Technique. The first is a great philosophy on filling your drawings with more life, and the second is an incredible resource on foreshortening that makes drawing characters alone an adventure.
And 4. Sometimes if you’re craving a simple art fix, the best thing to do is switch mediums. I used to buy soap markers from Michael’s and draw on the walls in the shower. It was both really fun because you can’t do anything detailed, you can only make big simple shapes- but also because the water eventually washes everything away, helping you come to grips with not needing every piece of art to be perfect.
Anyway, sorry for the preumptuous and unsolicited advice, I just see a lot of younger artists fall into this a lot and I wanted to share that I totally know what you mean and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Disappointment in your own art. It’s just Science!