Self Conscious about my art

[imiogri]

Absolutely all the time, I think all artists can relate. The important part is to not let it bring you down, and work towards improving the things you don't like! Never give up!!

[PrncssPscs]

Thanks! Someone else asked me this same question and I gave them some advice but then I went back to my art and I was like woah!

[yonaremi]

I think about it this way:
If everyone stopped creating because someone is 'better' (which is also kinda subjective) eventually only 1 best thing will remain...
boy, what a boring world would that be ;p

So yeah, just keep doing what you love and don't bring yourself down with those doubts ^^

[beta1042]

Yeah it happens, but you gotta change your mindset from "Wow I suck" to "WHOA maybe if I keep working hard I can draw like that someday!" Use them as inspiration not demotivation

[dawgofdawgness]

Yea, but go your own route! The art community isn’t fun without a huge variety of styles

[c0ldw1nter]

Yep. But drawing's just a hobby for me, whereas some people I admire are pros. So no shame in losing to them. And seeing their stuff makes me wanna improve. I'd actually want to meet a hobbyist rival with similar style, so we can compete and compare.

(If someone seeing this thinks the same, check out my style and poke me :p)

God's Paradox | Tapas

[LittleMissDevil]

It's super common to feel self conscious about your own art, especially if you compare yourself to others. But everyone at some point in their life looked to better artists and felt like they could never be as good. And if you give up you surely never will be. But the thing is, those super great artists are as good as they are because they worked hard and that is something everyone can do. ^^

And the fun thing: So many great artists still have their idols they feel they could never reach. There ALWAYS will be someone better, so don't think to much about it.

Don't let yourself be discouraged. Try to learn at your own pace and don't forget to have fun. Oh and take your time to look back at you old stuff. You'll see how far you've come

[eleoza]

The trick is to not compare yourself to others but to compare your old art to your current art and see how much you've improved and learned

edit: woops, LittleMissDevil above me said the same thing I see ^^

[Hodge]

Allll the time, literally every day lol. Hopefully it'll go away, but the emotional torture is enough motivation to get better I suppose haha. Hell, I've even set sketchbooks on fire.

[baasinsimple]

Sometimes, I think much less than a lot of artists on that kinda stuff, since I'm rather bull-headed and more of an "Oh shit I can't compare, better show 'em up" or "Meh no sense comparing" kinda guy myself. Reason why I don't try to compare myself is because, well I just do alot of things other people don't do and they do things I don't. They can inspire me to do differently, but I just don't get jealous because I see fellow creators as peers or people that I need to learn from.

[spadesart]

i'm much more self conscious in a classroom setting than online, something about actually seeing the people in front of me feels more competitive and higher pressure

i used to refuse to accept compliments on my art years ago until i forced myself to just say thank you until my brain learned its ok to take them

[PrncssPscs]

I know that everyone has their own unique styles, sometimes I just look at others works to learn and use those tricks in my own way to perfect my art.
Looking at other artist is also motivating as well.

[RestartingServer]

Oh god, it's so easy to doubt yourself! It doesn't matter how skilled you are, you'll always doubt yourself. Which is horrible- but also a good thing?

I haven't seen anyone here else mention it but--

1) Remember you are your own worst critic. You will ALWAYS see things that can be improved on in your own art, and see blaring flaws. Unlike when you look at other people's artwork. After all YOU'VE probably just spent the past 12 hours looking intently at your own art.

Another thing is-- remember your artist eye!! Not only as an artist are you developing your drawing skills, but your seeing skills. Sometimes you're better at seeing something correctly than drawing it, and vice versa. But that's how you improve!! Be proud of that!!

At least-- these are things I like to remind myself of when I'm feeling super down about my art.

[Zhengo]

Seeing other people's art usually doesn't make me doubt myself really. I'm a competitive person so it kind of motivates me more to improve myself XD

The thing that really makes me doubt myself is when people mention how quickly they can get their art done (which is usually better than mine) or I watch speedpaints and see how quickly an artist is able to get a sketch down with like almost perfect anatomy.

For me what really gets me down is not just seeing some who is skilled, but seeing someone who's both skilled AND fast. I don't know, for me I'm not really bothered seeing someone who's art is better than me, because I think if I keep working at it, I'll get there eventually. But I can't say the same for myself with getting as fast as others. I've always been a kinda slow person even at things that I'm good at, and I want to do a bunch of other things besides my comic, it just feels like I will never get to them because I'll never catch up my speed.

[ble]

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[kitschensyngk]

The thing about professionals is that at one point they were in your shoes. I'm sure that they too had moments where they doubted their own skills. And yet they kept plugging away at their art and learning more and more as they went.

It took a lot of practice for them to get as good as they are. If it worked for them, it can work for you.

[Milhamah]

My webcomic style is vector art, and I keep it simple enough to churn out content as a one-man operation. While I've taken pro art classes before and can do intricate work, it's time consuming, and I prefer digital illustration since the undo button is always there.

My advice is let your art be appealing enough to tell the story, and always try some new technique to improve each issue or episode.

[NullVoided]

Take it from someone whose default state of being in real life is self-conscious, it isn't fun. Just do the best you can and avoid seeing stuff that is higher quality than yours and say "I can't do this in a million years". I changed my perspective from that summing up my thought process to "Ok then. Challenge accepted". To be honest I used to be unable to get a basic story flow to work, now I'm on here looking for a way to get a dozen or two arc+ story to work. Practice and a lot of failures are ahead, but no one has ever gotten anything perfect first time, just learn from your failures and the failures of others and improve. Probably ought to stop the cheesy philosophical rambling here. Good luck and never stop learning.

[awesomefeelsman]

With the series I always compare myself to youtuber animators since the characters I created came from the marshmellow people style. I'm always afraid someone would call me out as a copycat and it discourages me to continue it. But because I've already made an identity for them I feel like it would be a waste to drastically change their look.
I'm self-conciois about that. I'm getting used to it now tho. So yeah... the feeling sucks XD

[NullVoided]

Well to be honest here, the only reason the story is as sizeable as it is, comes from lots of reading of other authors works and different mythologies and taking inspiration from them. The main inspiration for me was the Skulduggery Pleasant series, which has a similar base to what I am working towards. I would never steal key events or characters straight from another's work, but I might use some of their storytelling techniques if it works with the story I am aiming for.