I wouldn't say that's a spiteful artist lol, I'd say that's a.. negative artist.
As someone who's been treated negatively by others, sometimes I use my spite to kinda... mentally think I'm getting better than old peers who talked down towards me and my career choice.
I've been in the place where my negative feelings take the best of me, so I learned to avoid everyone when I do since no one really deserves to be exploded at unless they treated me badly / tried to act two faced towards me.
This! I was going to say something along these lines too, and having dealt with a few people like this in my lifetime, trust me, no amount of effort on your end will help them.
I’ve known people like this and it can be such a huge drain of mental energy when its such a long, ongoing issue.
I’ve had to sit someone down once and tell them that I couldn’t continue handling all of the negative input. But it seems like they have other friends they can dump on so hopefully if it comes to it they’re not losing their only source of venting.
I think maybe you being direct with your feelings could help them see an outside perspective that may help get them to ease up a little in the future.
Geez, situations like that chap my tail feathers (or something like that. Do I have tail feathers? I dunno, I'm a cryptid).
I mean, we've all been there -- been jealous and even demoralized because someone else is better than us and/or where we want to be as an artist, and the path between your skills and theirs seems unknowable and impossible to travel. I've definitely looked at other artists and despaired of my skills before. That's natural, it happens.
But taking it out on someone else? Unacceptable. In general, it isn't okay to take your problems out on other people, unless those people did something out of either negligence or malice to cause those problems. (Being a better artist than you isn't something they 'did to you', no matter how much it may feel like that.) It's like the people who have a crappy day at the office, and then yell at the cashier at the grocery store because they're mad. Like... don't do that. That's never okay.
If it were a one-time occurrence, that'd be one thing. They unload on you, you talk them down, they apologize, and don't do it again... sure. That's fine. Everyone screws up, and lets their emotions get the better of them now and then. You forgive, do better, and move on.
But someone who won't do better (and I don't mean drawing), even after you've explained how their 'I suck and your skillz make me feel bad, wah!' pity party affects you? Nah. They're not sorry. They're in their own head. You can't help them, you can't fix them. They have to crawl out of their own hole before any real change will happen. At that point, you have to do exactly what you did -- pull back to protect yourself.
We all only have so much mental energy right now. You don't owe them any of yours. I'm glad you took care of yourself.
Your friend sounds extremely childish. That's the kind of behaviour I could understand coming from a ten-year-old. But to still be behaving in such a way well into your teens and beyond... that's a personal failing.
Something which is important to remember is that, while it's totally normal to be jealous, it's up to each individual not to act on that jealousy. I'm not terribly prone to jealousy, but it does hit me at times. When I find myself feeling that way, I'll detach myself from what I'm doing, and I'll go for a walk, or brew a tea, or whatever else. And I'll verbally remind myself that, in the grand scheme of things, I have very little to be jealous about.
It's okay to feel things, we're not in control of how we feel most of the time. But we are - most of us - in control of how we act.
Your friend seeks art not for the sake of art, but because of its fulfillment to the ego. From what I get from your post is that your friend sees art as some sort of a stepping stone to achieve a sense of pride and accomplishment. It's something he jots down on his ego resumè. A jealous artist will desperately try to reach the level of art of another individual without necessarily lashing out to the said individual, but a jealous egomaniac will lash out to the individual instead of focusing better on his art.
When I first started drawing it came at the realization that “wow other humans can do this why can’t I?” And that realization was both the best and worst thing I could have ever learned. On the one hand it inspired me to learn how to draw, on the other that’s where comparing myself to other people has come from. I think that that’s something that’s true for every artist out there. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that behavior.
@ZakuraTheFungi Isn't it? At first you try to be a true friend/lover/bro/whatever and stay at your negative friend's side no matter what because you think that's what a true friend is. But then, you get destroyed along that person little by little to the point where your misfortune becomes your friend's happiness so the burden of your relationship becomes shady as hell.
Well, that's the scenario where you are too stubborn/lost with yourself to leave 
@KennethLopezJr921 There's nothing to regret, you did your best to stay friends and it didn't work out. And then, life is full of other interesting people to know about.
That's what we should all tell ourselves after such experiments ^^
there's such a horrible plague of COMPARISON between artists. especially younger people. This is exemplified by some art styles being considered "trendy," with everyone trying to replicate it.
I used to have a group of friends a couple years ago, extremely toxic, a lot of stuff went down. but they were all artists, and even though that was fun sometimes, i still never want to have close artist friends after that. This one girl (the main offender, and main artist one), was a good artist. Maybe a little bit stiff in poses and stuff, still good art. But she had that cute, trendy, semi-anime style. And she would FLAUNT THAT. constantly comparing her style to me, saying her art was more ""aesthetic"" or something. I draw because it's fun. I don't think my art is particularly great or anything, and my style is a little weird, definitely not conventionally cute. and i don't care about it being cute. i just like drawing.
but that friend ingrained the idea of comparison in me. i still have this subconscious idea that my art style is ugly and unappealing, and that it's just the way it is. i should probably unfollow her on instagram (i got out of that friendship a long time ago), because whenever i see her post on her main account, showing her drawing with some nice music and filters and with everything matching that soft, pastel, cherry blossom aesthetic that everyone loves right now, i find myself getting jealous. and i don't wanna be like her, i don't wanna start comparing my art. but still, i'm not gonna post my art anywhere (except for some tapas comic promotions.....) on my main account. i wish i didn't feel like that, but that experience did some damage to me.
i know this experience is different than your encounters, but it's something I think about a lot, how her need for her art to fit in and be trendy, and how she took it out on me, in turn made me insecure in my art, often not happy with the outcome because it doesn't fit a trending aesthetic.
moral/tldr: don't compare your art. draw because it's fun. don't be mean to your friends
I am so sorry this happened to you... Reading your story brought back memories of the spiteful creeps I had. One I didn't see coming, but got she is such a horror. She cannot for the life of her stand others be "better" or more succesful than her and I was apalled at seeing it...
This!
The breakup was liberating. I feel bad with ending that friendship - I was literally their only friend at that point, so the burden was even bigger, but it had to be done. It gave me severe anxiety just seeing their username pop up with a message. I literally felt like throwing up when I had to interact with them.
That was the tipping point.
Lesson learned.
I dealt with someone similar on a different site. They made a post talking about how good their ideas were but that they couldn't draw, blah blah. I gave them a response that I thought was somewhat blunt but honest (basically that they should put in the effort to produce artwork that they are satisfied with) but nooo. Just went on about their busy schedule and other unrelated bs. So I ignored it and stopped responding. They also replied to a ton of other helpful comments with negative attitude, and got a ton of dislikes. lol
yeah I know a few who will take the chance to talk friends' art levels down a few notches in private... They haven't said anything good about friends behind their backs, so it's not a good sign of potential growth.
I will admit, his toxicity was really effecting me on a mental level. Late 2020 to early 2021 was where I was at my lowest and the correlation between that and me and my friend's friendship breaking down because him of is no coincidence. And I'm ashamed to admit that I began emulating some of his behavior whenever he would give me the cold shoulder and gain something I didnt get
I wish I could but him and I haven't spoken in 4 months and I just want to put this bullshit behind me. Also he's blocked me on everything so the chances of me speaking to him again are pretty rare.
But I'm sure he will get that talk at some point. Maybe not from his friend group, because he literally unfollowed one of his friends on insta because they had more followers then him and surprisingly, she wasn't too angry about it. And in my opinion, their heads are far too up their own ass to really challenge him. But I do think that eventually, cracks will begin show and they'll slowly drift away from him when they see that being his friend wont benefit them in the long run
I'll admit, when me and my friend cut ties, I felt like shit and blamed myself for it. In fact, he blamed for every mental problem in his life. And for about a month, I missed him. But after that point, every horrible toxic moment shared between us actually and I truly realized how awful he was. After that point, I made peace with it and decided to not let it bog me down. Hell, I went as far as to block almost every one of his friends whom by that point were stalking me on their social medias because they took enjoyment in watching they hated "suffer". And came out a lot stronger and I am happy that I'm no longer friends with him because it ended up benefiting me in the long run 
I think that fits him and his entire friend group because back when we were "friends" he had over 1000 followers on both of his 2 art accounts while I only had 200 or so, and so I'm guessing that the quick rise in popularity, with the amount of likes and praise, I can guess that he gained some sort of superiority complex. So when he was friends someone whom he saw had less followers than him but was "better than him", he might've saw me as a threat despite how nice he was to me.
Attitudes and behavior like that are signs of deeper issues that have nothing to do with the targets of the person's conduct. This isn't simple jealousy or giving up because they're frustrated. Something made them this way, and it isn't your responsibility to be their emotional punching bag when they're going through an episode.
I'm a healer. It's easy for me to allow people like that to suck me into their issues because I don't like to see someone hurting if I can help. The problem is that too often, these are the types that become emotional vampires.
It isn't intentional. They just get tired of hurting by themselves. When you allow them to hurt you, it takes some of their feeling of helplessness away. They feel a bit of power over their lives. You can't imagine how many YEARS it took me to learn that. Even after I learned, I still couldn't stop being their proverbial "whipping boy" because this relentless healer inside of me made me feel guilty if I walked away.
Let me tell you now: There is nothing wrong with walking away.
See, I finally learned that people like this will never heal or learn to grow if people like us keep being their coping mechanism.
When he's ready to admit what he's doing, he'll seek a better way to heal. He may reach out to you again. Or he may not. Either way, it's his responsibility to figure himself out. If he approaches you after he's done so, be cautious but be compassionate. It won't be easy for him to say sorry and probably embarrassed for the way he acted.
I'll tell you something else: Being angry at these people is still giving them your energy. It's doing you no good.
As for the others who were enjoying all of this, that's disturbing. Those are the people you truly need to avoid.
From the time I knew him, I could tell that something happened to him that made him the way he was. He had deep routed emotional issues, that's for sure. And I will admit that I stayed because of my mental state back last year. And I think he was aware of what he was doing too, because during these jealous fueled outbursts he'd apologize and say stuff like "you should unfollow and block me". And, of course, I'd say no to that thinking he'll do better only for him to do it again. It retrospect, that did seem pretty manipulative of him and might've seen my refusal to block or unfollow as the "okay signal" for him to do it again.
I really do hope when or if we do meet again, that he's gotten control over his life and put whatever hatred he had against me behind him. Because, frankly, I'm done dwelling on him and our falling out and just want to put it behind me. That's the scenario I want to happen, where we make up and laugh at how stupid our younger selves were. I don't want him coming into my dms 5 years from now, ranting and raving about how every bad thing that happened to him is my fault when his fanart account fails or his unstable friend group finally implodes.
