Mental health issues and art seem to go hand in hand. Some of the brightest and most creative minds of all sorts from musicians, actors, artists all have the same trade off, it seems. I’ve been open about my own mental health in the past, because it took a very huge dump in 2015 and it took a few years to recover before I could even pick up my tablet pen again.
So I was thinking...
It’s really easy for people doing commission stuff to get burned out on drawing other people’s characters. That was probably one of my biggest problems in 2015, is that I got burned out after doing solid work for 3 years straight. My biggest issue was that I never took time for myself when it came to drawing.
When you’re doing a lot of artwork for clientele, you need to make sure you take care of yourself too. It becomes all too easy to just jump from one project right into the next one. That was my problem too. I just wanted to get as much done as possible, and as quickly as possible before taking on another huge load. I never stopped for 15 minutes or an hour to just sketch for myself.
And doing personal art is incredibly important. Even doing venting art, like I used to do when I’d get upset about something going on in life. I’d stopped doing that, and so I had no outlet. I started pulling away from my friends, and I started bottling everything while trying to do full time college and work at the same time.
I can’t stress this enough. You need to do art for yourself too. Fuck the deadline. Take an hour- maybe 15 minutes- anything. Draw something for you. Don’t fall into the rut, because you’ll hate yourself more later.
Personal art is important.
I’m not good at taking time for myself either, but I started forcing myself to do it. It doesn't have to be anything great- can be a quick sketch. If you want to refine it later that works too. Hell, even if you keep coming back to it and making improvements, that’s great too.
