Hello, first, I just wanted to say that I'm a massive fan of your work and you're a big inspiration. You were the first Patreon I ever subscribed to! Secondly, I wanted to know how you deal with burnout as a professional artist. I've started making a visual novel with my friends, and I'm responsible for every piece of art in the game. And I've noticed a very obvious (to me) difference between my art when I began vs now. After constantly doing art daily for around six months, I find it challenging to find inspiration and creativity when creating new pieces. Both sfw and nsfw pieces I draw have no 'soul' (if that makes sense) and are honestly boring to look at. However, despite how often you post, I've always found everything you create to be very interesting and pleasing to look at. Are there any tips you have? The only art practices I currently follow are a soft daily art schedule and giving myself harsh deadlines to finish stuff.
I'm so sorry for the long ask, and please don't feel any obligation to answer! Also, I'm sorry if my English is bad. I am from Taiwan, and I wrote this with Grammarly and a dream. Thank you again!~~~
Hey! First of all it's really cool that you and your friends are working on a project together - assuming you aren't ripping each other's heads off yet, keep at it!!! Making art is the biggest exercise in delayed gratification but boy, does it feel good to reach the finish line when you have something big like that on the cooker.
I would feel like a prick saying that I don't experience burnout, at least not in the way I often see it defined - but either way, that's probably not entirely true. Yes, I draw pretty much every single day and generally complete at least 1 thing a week, but there are absolutely times when I like my art less, or days where I simply don't want to draw, or don't want to draw anything big. In fact! I am experiencing some of that right now - ever since finishing the SlayerxAstarion comic I definitely want to lay back for a little bit before diving into the next one, and I'm allowing myself that.
I think what happens after you've drawn for a long time is that you learn to trust theory more than you trust your own eyes. There are a lot of times where a piece seems to completely blend together and look like a boring, soulless thing in my eyes as I'm working on it - even though only a few hours ago I was so excited about it. What happens then is that I might taken a little break to refresh my perspective, and that can help - but, even if it doesn't, I can always rely on one thing: theory.
I know what elements have to come together to result in a picture that I find cool to look at. What textures and colors go well together that I want to achieve, what "interesting" perspective and shapes look like - sometimes you exhaust the passion but you still have technique, and 99% of the time I can trust that technique to give me a piece of art that I WILL like - maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but I have lost the count of how many times pieces have looked totally different 2, 3, 4, days after I've completed them - and they ALWAYS look better! Because now I can look at them as a fully realized work of art rather than dissected pieces of a puzzle that I had to painstakingly put together. I would ask if you've ever had an experience like that about the art you're creating for you and your friend's game.
It's the "seeing how the sausage is made" problem. You lose some of the magic in the moment, but that doesn't stop other people from enjoying the sausage.
All that being said, I want to estate very clearly that it's fine to take breaks, and sometimes that's exactly what you need! Despite everything I just said, I still absolutely take little 1-3 day long breaks here and there when i absolutely need to, and that definitely helps refresh my passion for what I'm working on - what I would advise against to anyone who wants to get into art part/full time is constantly dropping off for weeks at a time because of burnout. Think of it kind of like exercise - to see results you need to form a habit, and that means occasionally doing it even if you don't feel like it - and you will often be glad that you did.
I would still like to offer you some practical advice that you can apply right now, though - so here it goes.
Change styles. You don't need to have a specific style in mind nor do you need to immediately meet whatever you set out to change - but do something a little differently and give yourself something to be excited about.
On a similar note, discuss with your team if you could change something more drastic that might allow you to change your workflow - maybe have all the art of one scene be in black & white/greyscale so you can focus more on dramatic light and shadow instead of colorwork, maybe discuss stylizing a sequence in a way that still suits the plot, anything that allows you to change your workflow and refresh your usual style.
Got something that you REALLY dread drawing? Like backgrounds or a type of pose? Trace it. You heard me. Friggin' trace is. Find open source 3d models (there are many of those on the CSP asset store if you have access to that) or go out and snap some pictures of your own and just trace that garbage. That is standard practice ESPECIALLY when working on projects like comics, animation, and visual novels where you need to save time and keep things like environments consistent throughout different angles and shots.
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