Art Advice I’ve Picked Up
This is mostly aimed at myself, someone who’s been doing art a long time, and someone who made their hobby into their job and how it fucking sucks. This isn’t advice for art as a career, more for those who got burned from trying to make it their career, and now want to turn it back into a passion or hobby.
Don’t draw through the pain, don’t try to power through the pain, it doesn’t work. It’s never worth it and you will fuck up your hands, arms and shoulders.
Take a break, take the damn break, rest your arms, hands whatever and do the stretches! They do work!
Taking a break obviously helps if you’re hitting a brick wall with drawing, you might feel like everything you make is shit and a ton of other awful thoughts. Take a break, get a drink, some food or walk around and come back later
If the shitty feelings persist, move on to something else and tell yourself that the bad feelings don’t last forever, you won’t feel like a shitty artist forever. That feeling could go away in a day, or even an hour.
Imposter syndrome is awful and will try to ruin your day, be aware of it, I still struggle a lot with it too. But just by realising it exists can you make you more self aware about it in future.
Just because you’re good at art doesn’t mean you should make it your job. Turning any hobby into a job will make you lose the love for it.
You will burnout if you try to keep art a job and a hobby, you will not have time to draw for yourself, you will not be able work on all those passion projects and ideas. You will burn out, you will start to hate art.
This happened to me, and I’m still trying to unlearn the unhealthy habits I formed when it was my job, it’s very hard making art fun, and indulgent for myself. But I’m trying.
If you do make art your job, make sure you have hobbies that are not related to art. It’s really good if one of these hobbies can be outdoorsy too, I like biking a lot. But do what you can with what you have.
There will never be a perfect time to start drawing, or any other creative project. You can clear a whole month to work on something and you will waste that time, because your trying to make a perfect moment to be creative you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.
The only perfect moment is now.
The perfect materials are what you have with you.
The only skills you have are the ones you have now.
No waiting until you can draw or write better, or saving a project till you’re more skilled, the only time to do it is now, even if you’re writing in between bus journeys or doodling on a scrap of paper, make that new Renpy file while waiting for the microwave to ding.
Learning to make that first step is also the most important, and learning that the first stroke doesn’t have to be so precious.
Learning when to give up on something that isn’t working is also a good skill. Sometimes a project doesn’t work out and we don’t finish it or we need to quit, it can be painful but there’s still a lot to learn from unfinished works.
You can recycle old ideas, nothing is wasted even if you don’t finish.
Trim your dreams, TRIM THE DAMN DREAMS.
Don’t let s project outgrow your skills, or what you’re actually capable of, there’s a lot of things to take into consideration like, money, time, energy.
You can start a big, huge projects and realise it wasn’t what your actually wanted to make in the first place.
Making a game? Why are you making a 20 plus hour, 3D platform shooter with puzzle and farming mechanics as a solo dev? Trim those damn dreams. Dreaming is good and I know it’s fun but it’s easy to let an idea grow into an oak tree, it becomes all consuming and a burden to carry round.
So trim back, oak trees are beautiful but never underestimate a daisy
And eventually you could have a whole field of flowers and shrubs, instead of one oak tree.
Trying to find an audience online is bullshit, trying to create art that’s got mass appeal is bullshit, social media is a horrible place for creative pursuits, but it’s the best we have at the minute.
Make the things you want to see, I know that’s in a lot of art advice but that’s because it’s true. You can fall into a trap of thinking only in numbers and engagement, of chasing praise and approval and in the end it will feel hollow, because you only ever made things to appeal to others.
And so you your only gain approval and engagement from a place that isn’t authentic.
So yes, make that self insert OC, or “Cringey” dating Sim
Also, trying to find an audience can trap you into doing one thing, aka a one trick pony, because you’re are rewarded for making repetitive “content” with engagement and likes, and punished when you try something new, because it doesn’t do as well.
Never fucking call your art/creations “content.” You are not a machine making things to be consumed.
You have limited resources when it comes to art, both in time, money and even your own body.
Yes, you do have to treat your own body as a limited resource, like the very first tips, its so easy to destroy your own body in the pursuit of creating something, your eyes, hands, arms, shoulders even your brain.
So take every shortcut you can, trace 3d models, use photographs for backgrounds whatever you think of that can make the creation process easier and less time-consuming, you’ll thank yourself later, when you can still pick up a pen without vice like pain.
That’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll update it if I think of something else, I’m sorry for spelling errors and if it sounds a little bitter, I started this when I was suffering a spell of tendinitis in my wrist. I mostly wrote this as a reminder to myself, but I hope maybe it can help someone else out. 💜
Also I know large blocks of text can be overwhelming, so I tried to break it up with some little snippets of my own art, hopefully it makes it a little easier to read.
gracieabrams
pixelskylines
gamechangershow
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
