I'm sorry I'll shut up now

[Pinwheel]

I'm sorry I'll shut up now.

[yonseo]

[directorador]

when i started in art, I showed everyone I could my works. Even when I knew they were less than appealing or decent. Friends and family would say they are good compared to what they can do. And it encouraged me to keep working.
I think I did not really improve until I started receiving real criticism on my works. i was able to learn new techniques and grow.
I guess like, things I do for attraction makes me feel uneasy. So like if I made a piece for a woman to impress for instance, I would be apprehensive about showing them.

You just need to create, and continue creating without worrying about inabilities to make it how you want. The biggest thing to any work, is not quality of presentation in terms of like super realistic art or performed music. It's more that the presentation is done in a way which is totally consistent to the entire work. So if you have a style already, make an entire work in that style, and you will be surprised how you improve And there is so much a style can do for a work or story.

Does this help?

[feardeer]

I struggle with this too, but here's a good habit to get into:
For every perceived flaw you see in your work, remind yourself of something you like about it. Force yourself to fill both slots.

Example A: I struggle with foreshortening, BUT my linework is pretty dang clean.

Example B: I can't draw animals worth shit, BUT drawing trees and foliage is my jam.

Example C: I have trouble visualizing subjects in 3D and constructing forms, BUT I've gotten a lot better at drawing expressive faces.

The benefit of doing this is that it keeps you grounded, bolstered, and motivated to keep improving. It also helps you narrow your focus, so you know what exactly you should be studying and practicing.

[LCT_m_a_d]

It's going to come with time, experience, setbacks and success. You gain confidence understanding what you do well at and excepting that most things in life you wont do well at (and thats perfectly OKAY). You can still be great.

Also be careful with labeling and describing yourself.
Not to say you aren't humble or non-egotistical but those things you really can't know without a good amount of experience. In fact, Most inexperienced people have an ego. They're just not aware of how much it is. Which is why they get stuck in bad habits. You have to develop consistently healthy habits to really be confident that your instict is usually a good one. If you try to act that way, it'll just be that. An act. An alter ego.

Give yourself time. Don't put a timeline on success, productivity, or goals. Just be open to life, try new stuff, figure out what works and what doesn't. The moment I took myself out of the equation, was the moment I really found myself and became happy with being that someone.

[Pinwheel]

I'm sorry I'll shut up now.

[directorador]

no. just be honest with yourself. know both your weaknesses and strengths. be well rounded in how you see your art

[SleepingPoppy]

no. just be honest with yourself. know both your weaknesses and strengths. be well rounded in how you see your art

The problem is they see being honest with themself as an excuse to rip their art to shreds. They're a pessimist calling their pessimism realism. (or so it seems to me!)

@Pinwheel
My advice is to stop tolerating the level of negativity towards yourself that you do. Don't insult yourself and call it humility or honesty. That's not being honest, it's being a huge jerk. You would never talk to other artists the way you talk to yourself, which I think is evidence that you're not treating yourself fairly. It's not okay to treat yourself badly.

I would say, start with thinking about how you can be less negative, be it towards your art or towards yourself in general. Find ways to push back. Focus on the things about art you enjoy.

[directorador]

I used to do studies, drawing shapes of subjects over and over until I hit a point that I felt was acceptable.
That's kind of how I feel about my writing most the time. Even in knowing what I'm doing well or not, I feel it's bad.
I haven't learned to overcome this.
But I agree, find the things that are enjoyable about art, not just your own. What about the classics?

[Luminosophy]

I was going to suggest something along the lines of directorador. If your lack of confidence is born from feeling your art isn't where you want it to be, why not do a lot of studies? They sound boring and scary even, but after a while of diving in you get a huge confidence boost when you begin to see evidence of progress.

Though from what I have seen it really sounds a lot more like you won't find any confidence until you give it to yourself. I think you're letting a lot of irrational thoughts and fears control how you perceive yourself rather than rationalizing through them. I actually don't think it's bad at all to have an ego if you can back it up. If you've made major accomplishments, you absolutely should feel proud.

[directorador]

I would like to say. Perhaps the best advice I ever received about self and creativity, is from an old family friend who has known me since my birth.
"The tribes say that all the mistakes you make in a work, is your signature."
In a lot of ways, we create ourselves. These stories, images and works, are in our minds first, and we translate that through motor skills and imagination and make pieces that inspire others, entertain and bring a since of accomplishment to the person who creates them.
It's really something we should accept in ourselves, that we are flawed. We will likely always see some way to improve, and that is good. It means we aren't stagnating if those things change with each new piece we create.

[LCT_m_a_d]

I wouldn't say that. I would say, slow down and be more open to opportunities. It sounds like you have a lot of expectations In terms of outcomes, but we have almost no control over how things playout.

I got stuck thinking working tirelessly, studying myself to death and isolating my life in the pursuit of being great was going to make me successful as an artist and engineer. Sure, I could potentially do some big and great things. Life, However is made of MANY little things, and a lot of those little things... I wasn't so good at. Obvious signs were overlooked, Both in my crafts and spirit.

There's probably no answer I can give to make your prblem go away. One thing I got in the habit of doing is asking myself "what thing can I do, big or small, would make some kind of difference?" And then without question... I'd do it.

If you really wanna appreciate the big things, look for the little things. If you don't know what the little things are, you at least know where the problem is and the fix is to start searching. Best of luck

[Hodge]

Hmmm thing is it's hard to control your emotions, I'm a horribly negative person so kinda gave up on confidence lol. Though I rationalized it as just accepting that there really isn't much reason for me to be confident. I'm young, inexperienced, and am not recognized by the masses or artists I admire. Also, I haven't developed "an eye" for art fully if that makes any sense. There was plenty of times when I thought a work was better than actually was simply because I wasn't able to see the mistakes. At my skill level the lacking areas still outweigh my strengths (which I have still yet to pin down hence a sign of artistic immaturity). The only thing I try to be confident in is my potential to improve.

But honestly it wasn't the confidence I wanted as much as the flow state and momentum that confident people can more easily get. So maybe try to focus on just sheer concentration and controlling your mental state rather than pursuing fleeting emotions. I used to play violin and had horrible performance anxiety. When I asked those better than me how they had so much confidence and not seem nervous, it was never that they were not nervous. They just did their best to focus and utilize the thousands of hours practicing and developing their muscle memory. Granted it's not that simple, but I think it's a more tangible direction to go pursue.

[Shanny8]

Keep drawing, trying things out & practicing with things you've learned until you dont hate your work so much.

[nekoendy]

There's nothing more de-motivating than an empty page, do quick sketches to illustrate the events/locations/characters of your comic no matter how lame and rushed they get, don't stare too long at an empty page, the more you do it, the harder it will be to start.

[punkarsenic]

with out becoming an egotistical prick?

stop caring abt that tbh - getting cocky comes with the territory really, and youre actually not being more honest when you say youre bad at art. the honest thing to say is: 'this is where im at, this is what i like about my work and this is what i want to improve. im on track.' theres a difference between being humble and being self deprecating, and with self improvement comes ambition, and with ambition comes a little ego. try it on for size, itll help.

another good way to build confidence in art is to do a lot of it! and learn new things! i think proko on youtube is a really good comprehensive art learning resource to start with. and research a wide range of artists - comic and fine artists alike - and youll see how wide the range of style is, and you might see a lot of well respected stuff that doesnt meet your definition of good, and will force you to change your perspective.

also, i recommend the dirty old ladies (podcast) episode "whats your excuse" - it goes through various reasons people hold off starting a comic, and try to resolve them. its a brilliant motivator

and take aaaaaaaaaaall the pressure off yourself. a quote from the podcast above that i live by is "everyone has 200 awful comic pages inside of them, and the only way out is through." if you accept that your first projects will be a bit awful while youre getting to grips with things, you can have fun with them! do short projects first, things youre not too attached to, and then get on your idea baby

and for that idea baby, go SLOW. divide things into lots of different tasks - you dont just sit down and go ahead with the first page. first you plan out the story, then break that into chapter / episode plans, then page by page, THEN YOU SKETCH OUT DIFFERENT PAGE LAYOUTS LIKE 10 TIMES, AND THEN SKETCH YOUR CHOSEN LAYOUT AT LEAST ONCE, AND THEN YOU CAN DRAW

this sounds like more work, but breaking it into these bites actually makes things go a lot smoother bc theres less pressure on each task; at the beginning bc youre only roughing out a plan, and at the end bc you know what youre drawing and know that it works.

this is like... a chaotic mish mash of advice but i hope you can glean something helpful from it :U good luck, and never shy away from sharing things with the forums for advice or feedback

[Jenny-Toons]

Well first and foremost, you need to get rid of the idea that having confidence in your work means you're arrogant and cocky.

Frankly -- GET. RID. OF. THAT. NOTION.

This is one of the KEY reasons, if not THE very reason, you don't have confidence in your art. You keep associating "confident in my work" to "I think I'm better than everyone". That's not at ALL how that works. Having confidence in your work does not automatically make you an arrogant jerk who thinks they're better than everyone.

I dunno who taught you that or where you got that idea from, but you're gonna leave that at the door while you're here trying to improve.

Just -- -takes that idea of yours and throws it out of the window- -- Get rid of it.

When you are GOOD at something, you have to KNOW you're good at it. Because if you yourself don't have confidence in your abilities, you will not know how to improve. If you don't know your strengths, you're never gonna know your weaknesses, lemme tell you straight up. You'll spend more time trying to figure out what you're "bad" in than trying to improve the parts you should improve.

Even more, people will doubt your credibility. An engineer cannot doubt her abilities to be an engineer. A heart surgeon cannot doubt his ability to be a heart surgeon. An artist cannot doubt their abilities to be an artist. The moment you continue to do that, as opposed to saying "hey, I can improve", the moment more and more people will agree that "yeah, you're nothing at all"

Honestly? Time and Time again, this discussion comes up, and time and time again, it's your mindset that's holding you back.

When people give you supportive, strong criticism -- one that shows what you've done well and what you can improve one -- do not have your first reaction be "ok, you'e trying to fluff me up" or "stop lying to me"

Actually. LISTEN. to the advice

Ask questions, ask them why they believe so, have them point out where they saw the good and where they think you need to improve. Don't dismiss feedback just because someone objectively saw something good in your work.

Because that's not humble. It's demotivating and only furthers you away from progress.

Stop. Look, and Listen to the feedback you get that provides you ideas of what you've done well in.

Actually give yourself a break and stop thinking everything and anything you make is trash.

Just -- ERRRR, some of ya'll who do this kill me because you have amazing work and you're improving. I know it was probably force down your brain that confidence = arrogance, but that's not true at all. If you're good at what you do, you're entitled to be cocky every now and then. Just be good at bringing it back, being humble, and help others. When you do that, you're never an arrogant jerk.

[shazzbaa]

It's easy to think that talking good about yourself is pride and talking bad about yourself is modesty, but I don't think that's true. Constantly judging your own work to be Not Good Enough is a lot closer to pride.

Just create and let your art speak for itself. Don't be so proud that you're unable to put a "bad" drawing out there. Don't be so defensive that you have to point out how not-good your art is!

When you're excited about your own work, even if you feel it's not the best, that's not egotistical, it's just enthusiasm. There's nothing jerkish about saying "I like my work and I think it's pretty cool." But if you start saying "my work is good, unlike all this other mediocre trash," THAT'S when it becomes egotistical. In other words: you become egotistical not by speaking well of art, but by putting art down.

So if you want to avoid being egotistical, you really, really have to work on breaking your habit of putting your own work down.

I struggle with this too, but here's a good habit to get into: For every perceived flaw you see in your work, remind yourself of something you like about it. Force yourself to fill both slots.

Example A: I struggle with foreshortening, BUT my linework is pretty dang clean.

Example B: I can't draw animals worth shit, BUT drawing trees and foliage is my jam.

Example C: I have trouble visualizing subjects in 3D and constructing forms, BUT I've gotten a lot better at drawing expressive faces.

I like this advice a lot!!! I also think it's important to pay attention to the way you talk about your art. Like, "I can't draw people" vs. "I haven't figured out how to draw people yet." "This sucks, but here's this garbage drawing" versus "I'm not satisfied with how it turned out, but I finished it!" You don't have to say things that aren't true in order to reframe your struggles with art as something you're working on.

This sort of thing, like art, is a matter of practice. When you're used to drawing people with heads that are too big, learning how big the heads are supposed to be isn't going to magically cure that habit. You're going to have to draw the head too big, go "oh shoot wait I made it too big again" and fix it, and do that over and over, before you build new habits. That's the same thing you're gonna have to do when you're practicing confidence. "I can't draw interesting poses, all my art is boring -- wait, shoot, no, I mean, I haven't learned how to draw interesting poses yet, it's something I want to work on more."

[ZombieOwl]

Maybe you're being so humble, you've started tricking yourself into thinking you're not a good artist at all.

Start looking at your art with a more positive point of view. Critique yourself ("I love how the hair turned out, but next time I want to try drawing a new hairstyle"). You'll see the good as well as what you can improve on in the future.

Save those "failed" drawings and look back at them someday; you'll be proud to see how far you've come.

There's nothing wrong with being happy or proud with what you've created, especially when you've put in thought and effort!

[lil-sea-salt]

I had this issue a while back where my expectations got in the way of my work.

I think the main thing was comparing my art now to the way it was before. I'm not the best watercolor artist . . . I honestly will probably be never as good as Nathan Fowkes or other really top notch artists . . . but I can be better than I was before.

Views wise . . . remember it's not a race and even the most popular artists are only popular for a short while . . . none of that stuff lasts. If you really want to create something, it takes time and a lot of patience for it to get good. The only person you can really compete against is yourself. A way to gain confidence is to create a large body of work . .. then you can see where you compare to other people . . . and recognize although there are a lot of people ahead of you . . . there are also a lot of people behind you and that's ok, everyone is on their own journey trying to get better together.