As a teenager I was in a long phase of "I'm not good enough" for art. Surely, I'm not the only one, no matter when that phase hit others. Speanding more time being jealous for people that art better than you, than artting yourself. It's sort of why I feel out of art sites. When I got over my jealousy, I got over that, too. It's still a good way for artist to commute, in any case, but I guess I'm the anti-social type. The one question for any "upper level" artist gets asked is "How do you draw so well?" and I've seen them all say the SAME THING: Keep drawing. It's a simple fact, the more you do something, the better you'll get at it.

I'm not sure about the whole jealosy thing- I guess I was lucky to grow up without internet in this case. I never got the chance to discover just how jealous I could get if I could at all. I was already happy with my art before I joined the internet, and I certainly didn't get to visit the internet enough to get wound up about popularity untill about 5 years ago when I got broadband at home finally. Till then- dial up glory *u* Ah- the fond memories of that ear piercing sound.

I've found that when ever I see art of someone that I'm envious of, I find that I more likely use it as inspiration if I don't compare myself with them. Frankly, if I keep my art up, I'll get as good as them someday, but my art will look nothing like theirs so why stress?

I find alot of 'professional' artists nowdays have boring art dispite their talent anyway. You can see that they draw all day, and that this is one of a hundred pictures they have worked on that week and it's no more special to them than the rest were. I prefer to watch talented artists that don't do art as a job. They're not as good, but they still love art cause it's not tagged with the 'work' vibe. Some pro artists I love though! It's the ones that have a strong personality in their art. Those I watch :)

I guess I'm at a point with art now that pro artists faze me less than with new artists so envy has less of an impact on me. I appreciate their art all the same, but it's more of a 'I will be there some day' rather than an 'I wish I was now'. 

Perhaps I'm too un-competitive thoguh? ^^; I'm not a competitive person at all ^^;

I have known a few people who are jealous about people who draw better than they do. It's a natural feeling though; I have feelings like that too, but it just motivates me to do better.

I wouldn't say that simply drawing would make you better. You kind of have to pay attention to what you're drawing and care about why or how you're going to improve. At least if it's about something technical like realism, you'll eventually end up having to know why it works. I don't think brainlessly drawing the same few things over and over again necessarily helps; you might draw it differently, but it won't be any better and on a consistent basis unless you can figure out what's going on.

On Jul 11, 2011 4:29 pm, Angelus-Mortis said:
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I wouldn't say that simply drawing would make you better. You kind of have to pay attention to what you're drawing and care about why or how you're going to improve. At least if it's about something technical like realism, you'll eventually end up having to know why it works. I don't think brainlessly drawing the same few things over and over again necessarily helps; you might draw it differently, but it won't be any better and on a consistent basis unless you can figure out what's going on.

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Getting faster counts  as getting better, and there's always an element of aesthetic that the mind adopts unless it really IS a scribble. The person has to actually not care if they're not goign to improve somehow. Those people don't tend to stick around long enough to see progress in.

When I say progress, you may improve only a LITTLE bit over 3 years, but you'll get good at what you do. To get better faster you need to learn how to do things properly. The mind has a natural sense of proportion and that will eventually start trying to shape things in to something aesthetic to the artist even if it's caveman art to the rest of the world. 

I agree with Angelus-Mortis.

You have to truly study to get better. When I was in college, I spent an entire winter break (6 weeks break from school) practicing anatomy and figure drawing. I saw more improvement in my drawing ability in that 6 weeks than I had seen in an entire semester of figure drawing class. I improved because I was studying things that were hard for me, rather than drawing things I was comfortable drawing.

You guys are right yes, but that wasn't my point. IT's ok though. I'm not going to fight it out. My point was for begineer artists only. What you guys are saying is totally true for any artist that has plateaued out after they learnt all they could on their own. My point also assumes that the person is trying to draw something properly and not just for fun so I think we're on the same page in a way anyways. 

Well, that applies to just about anything, really. You do art because you enjoy it. You learn it because you want to get better at it. It's the same with sports. You may like it, and you might do it for fun, but it helps to care about learning it if you want to get better at it. Learning doesn't mean it doesn't have to be fun either though; if you already like it, learning it isn't really considered a chore in the first place.

I am well aware that there are people who draw just for fun. I don't object if they don't ever want to learn or improve. But on the other hand, I think there are people who genuinely care about getting better, and I think they should be aware that learning for the sake of improving art does mean you have to care.

Yeah- I must admit, that if you love something, you want to get better. Some people seem to enjoy not getting better and complaining that others are better :/ That upsets me. I want to give them pointers, but learning the correct way is too hard. I have a policy now that if people want advice, I'll give it, but they MUST ask first. I can't handle complainers anymore.

All very Valid Points. If that jealousy turn into "I'll never be that good, so I'll give up" Thats bad. A friend that was a decent artist, but maybe in quality on the bottom of our pack of friends, went to the Gulf War. He was a MP and said it was day in and day out of nothing to do. He drew 6-8 hours a day. Hell there was no TV and he watch prisoners that were happy to be there. So he came back as probably one of the best artist in our group. Thing is with artist for the most part everytime you paint or draw ther is improvement. Trick is keep your art, compar what you drew a year ago to what you drew today, You will see improvement. And yes you need to study. My art teacher said it best "You Can't Draw what you don't know!" Sure you can copy but thats not really drawing is it.

As for the jealousy use it in a positive way.

I forgot what comic book artist told me this. He said find an artist that you don't like that is published. Buy his/her work. Put that art up on your wall, so you see it everyday. And you will say to yourself,"That art is crap, I can do better than that!" "If they can get published so can I"

Personally, I like to become friends with Artist. To see their work even sketches inspires me. I stopped drawing Years ago, But I still hope one day I'll find my muse and get back into it.

D:

Why did you lose interest hon? This happened a while back. I miss you posting. Did it lose fun? Or stuff didn't interest you? ack of interest in the medium? Fears of rejection?