Do you like what you do?

[robotboy]

Hi!

I dont know if Im the only one, but i always feel like my work is not good enough. Everytime I finish an illustration I simply get the feeling it is not good even if everybody says it is very good.

Do you feel like that?
If you feel lioke that, how do you deal with this feeling?

[onyefrankie]

I'm not an illustrator but a writer but I do feel like this about my work, constantly. Every day even. I've been told by people that they like my writing and such, that I write good shit, but I end up feeling like that's not true at all.

I deal with it by just carrying on, believing that I'm gonna learn more. We're our own worst critics to be honest, but I battle this by looking at a piece I was so excited about and think that I'm not half bad. There are really bad days, yeah, but they pass.

[DiegoPalacios]

Personally, i love my comic. But to make sure i get good results with which i get satisfied, before drawing my page i write a quick script with the dialogue, general events and panels from the page. And fix the details until i get satisfied. Then i draw the page.

The important thing is to make it good, but don`t be obsessed with making it perfect.

Hope this helps!

[sarrowsmith10]

While I know that I have plenty to work on and I have many artistic goals, overall I feel good in my work. I know what kind of love and time I put into all the artistic things I do, so I can mostly avoid some of those negative feelings.

When I do feel inadequate, the best thing to make me feel better is attacking those areas. When I was feeling like I sucked at drawing backgrounds, I spent a lot of quality time purposely working on that area, getting feedback and not shying away from projects that required me to focus on that area.

I tend to more often feel tired or demotivated. That is a much more common feeling for me. Like I'm so overwhelmed I just can't start on anything. My cure is typically to play loud music and drink hot chocolate to kick me into gear.

[phen]

Oh man, this feeling is something that creeps in during even the most inspired moments. The notion that any praise is simply a courtesy given, some kind of banal etiquette extended by others. But yo! It's not.

A motto I fall back on (and have fallen back on for the past decade) is "this too shall pass". The story's associated to a king, at least the story I learned. During times of great sadness and loneliness, he'd remember that phrase. Surely enough, in time, things got better and he'd be totally partying, having an amazing time, surrounded by love and comfort and wine and all the finery. But... "this too shall pass". He also remembered in good times, they are temporary, that time shifts and moves everything.

Alternatively, your dissatisfaction with an illustration is your growth and doesn't necessarily mean you don't like what you do. It's just your inner potential is speaking really loudly over how cool your work is (and how well it's received), so you have a bit of dissonance with yourself. Keep going, keep illustrating. You'll build a proud body of work in no time.

[storytimebiondi]

This is something that I still think of every time I look at my art:

I feel like this hits the nail on the head. The curse of the artist is exactly this: It's never good enough.
However, despite the curse, it's also what drives us to be better, to grow, and become something great. So long as you have this feeling of inadequacy, remember that it's driving you to perfect your already great work!

[ericsalinas149]

I like what I do, I just wish I could work faster. I am satisfied with the final product, but I wish I wasn't so painfully slow.

[ISNEKO]

Everything I create is trash, but people read it.

So, I'll keep the garbage flowing.

[Kann]

I see a lot of room for improvement in everything I do. It's not the best but I'm satisfied, I guess.

Seeing flaws in your work is at least better than thinking you're the best and not being able to handle critique because of that.

[dawgofdawgness]

Yes and no. Sometimes I’ll be sitting on the bus when I think “when I get home, I can work on my comic!” And feel all warm inside.
But when I’m actually doing the lineart and polishing everything, it’s terrible most of the time.

[punkarsenic]

Yes and no. Sometimes I’ll be sitting on the bus when I think “when I get home, I can work on my comic!” And feel all warm inside.But when I’m actually doing the lineart and polishing everything, it’s terrible most of the time.

this is the biggest mood

[IdiotWithPencil]

all the time, and for everything I ever do
I just ignore it like most of my problems =D

[BABYbluez]

Happens a lot
What I find helps with moving pass this is to ask the person why they believe your stuff is just that awesome? Like if they can elaborate on their opinion and give you a better perspective on what they're seeing, you know? The boost of optimism can help and you'll gradually come to think it's ok not to be 100% perfect. Plus, there could be other things being overlooked while we're too focused on the flaws and how to improve it.

[TheThoughtfulBoxful]

@dawgofdawgness thank you for describing my struggle for the past 8 months. thank you so much.

---

I think when an artist reaches a place where they're not fond of their craft, there are two things they can do, depending on their situation: take a break (for those who can) or keep trucking because you have a rent to pay. either way you'll get your inspiration back. or learn to work through those low moments, as in the case of someone doing art of a living.

for me, I love what I do; what I don't like is how long it takes to get what I imagine onto paper. that's usually where my confidence/self worth stumbles. but I keep going, because failing sucks. (though taking a break doesn't = failure!!)

[jpnakashima]

As many have said, we are our most demanding critics.

Most of the time I'll be at least a little bummed by my scripts or letters. Sometimes though I do something and think it's pretty cool. Those are the times.
Many have also said that we make the stuff we'd like to have. We make the stories we'd like to read. I feel that if you're honest with yourself, you'll get better and your relationship with this feeling will improve with time. We're always getting better!

@ericsalinas149 hey, with practice you will get faster! All will be well!

@dawgofdawgness @punkarsenic I super relate to this feeling. Don't know about you folks, but I also have two extra stages, in which when I finish it I'm relieved and feeling ''hey, I did okay, yeah'' but 15 minutes latter I'm freaking out about how much it sucks.

[ryoko]

Well, the way I look at pretty much everything in life is that there will always be someone (or many people) 'better' than me at whatever I do, but what I've learned to do over the years is embrace that fact and use it as motivation to do the best that I can do. This isn't to say I'm trying to become better than those who's skills surpass my own, instead I see those artists as sort of 'teachers'. I try to understand how their work is 'better' than mine. Sometimes it's a lack of practice drawing a particular thing on my part or lack of understanding how, for example, a type of perspective can be used more effectively.

How you deal with feelings of being inferior depends on why you're feeling that way in the first place. I love to draw and I know that I have trouble drawing certain poses and quite a few other things, but at the same time I'm compelled to keep on drawing, practicing and sharing what I do knowing I might or might not get better at things I'm weak at and I'm okay with that. Drawing makes me happy and I hope that what I share makes people reading my comic happy, too, and maybe even inspired to share something they've been working on.

We really do judge our own work much more harshly than any critic could. Every day is a different day and our ability to see the 'good' in our work changes all the time. If I'm starting to feel negative about what I've drawn, I try to catch myself and focus on what I've done well. Or I just go snuggle my cat That works too.

[auroradordan]

Ohmigosh, I know right? I'll be daydreaming about drawing all day, but when it finally comes time to sit down and draw the thing, the process takes FOREVER

[auroradordan]

Well said - sometimes we're so close to our own work that its so much easier to nitpick at the wonky parts than take a step back and appreciate the hard work that goes into making comics. ^-^

[Heliox14]

Honestly, you could never truly like what you do. You'd experience the pros, then you'd experience the cons, or some other way. Feelings change like that.
But what matters is that you stick to it.

I like what I do. I mean, I write.
I used to think about it as some kind of meaningless exercise (I failed penmanship XD), but after reading and writing a whole lot of stuff made me feel good about writing.
There's something about writing worlds that you could fall into that soothes me. There's solace in finding that people want to escape into your worlds, you know?

What I don't like about writing, though, is it's limitations.
You could only use so much words to make the fake feel real. And it's tiring to figure out the right balance of words to make things real.
Dialogue is much worse for me.
Characters are okay, but I feel they're shallow caricatures of human beings.

But despite this...I probably like this. It's a challenge of sorts for me.

[Emevsa]

Some days it's really hard to motivate myself to do work. I'm a perfectionist and it has taken a long time and a lot of practice to let some things go and enjoy the energy of the work. Yes some of my proportions aren't correct at times. Yes I forget details of a uniform. Yes I make mistakes and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't painfully aware that I do.

But raking myself over the coals about each one left me in a cycle of anxiety where I was never good enough and that only caused more.

So yes for a time I did not like my work. But I feel better about it now because I'm making progress, it's looking way better and I'm not feeling as anxious about it.