The 1 million reasons to feel bad as an artist
First, let me just say that I will talk about the opposite subject, and talk about the reasons to feel good. But I thought of this side first and I think it’s very important to talk about these negative feelings because they can be very damaging to our self esteem. I also thought that sometimes they can be fun to talk about. I’m sure every artist or creator in a larger sense has once felt these things or similar ones, and that we could talk about it together. So, I’m starting a sort of series of articles called “The 1 million reasons” to explore all this. And if you want to share some ideas with me along the way, just tell me.
So … Why do we feel bad as artists. Why ? How do you dare feeling bad when your life is all colors and so chill with your little drawings and … ? hahaha yes ! WE DARE ! A lot, and very regularly.
And if you want to start as a professionnal artist, there will litterally be 1 million reasons to feel bad. The begininngs feel like shooting yourself in the foot every 5 minutes. It feels ridiculous and painful, and nobody understands what or why you’re doing things, and they take a second gun, and shoot at your other foot to try to help. And then when you are not a beginner anymore, they still don’t understand, they keep shooting. But logically you bought bullet proof shoes along the way, so that’s kind of ok. But I’m sure I can make it some fun articles, and maybe you can relate to some of these things !
Here is a list of the firsts of the 1 million reasons I brought together. I will add the new ideas you’ll suggest to me, and the ones I’ll think of along the way.
- I’m not a “real artist”
- Comparing yourself to other artists
- Qestions non artists people ask you sometimes
- The fact that it takes so much longer than you imagined to master something
- When you are out of black or white pencils or anything you precisely need
- The lack of support
- You are using traditional art material, make a mistake … and search for ctrl+Z
- The bbeginnings when you work so hard, don’t sell anything, don’t gain followers and don’t really grow on social media
- That moment when you see the most incredible art you’ve ever seen on IG and the profile says “Madi, 15 yo” and you’re about 17 times that age
- When someone asks you what kind of art you do, and you are ashamed of not doing the trending art style (or what you have convinced yourself is trending)
- The work you put in a piece, and you’re very happy with it, and if you show it to your family and they feel like they have to make “contructive” criticism on you finished piece
- False assumptions people make on your schedule, your work, your earnings …
- The lack of inspiration, better known as artist block
- Not being able to create what you had in mind
- When you have zero motivation to actually draw or paint
- …
As you see, there are some topics that we already know because they’e regularly adressed. But I think they’re still really interesting ! Some are very serious things, and some much more lighter ones. But the real question is WHY ?? Why do wo do that to ouserselves ? Art is already complicated and can be so punishing in itself sometimes, so why adding all those negative thoughts and self comments ? Why adding all this pressure, and why listening to other ? Well I guess it’s because we pour a lot of ourselves in what we create. Hence it makes us very vulnerable. I don’t have a definite solution to avoid all this negativity (which can even turn into self sabotage), but while I talk about these subjects more in detail in future articles, I’ll try to propose some ideas to feel better about each of these things.
