[DISCLAIMER]
This piece of design art was not made by me, nor for me. I do not claim any copyright on it it is just something i wanted to use to explain something. If you own the copyright to this and wish me to remove this, feel free to send me a note and i will promptly remove this.

The original diagram, far less elaborate and intricate than this was first given by:
https://www.marcdalessio.com/self-p.....r-the-years-2/

This specific version comes from: http://shattered-earth.com/
(i will ask somebody to make their own version of it so i can put it here).

An habit i see many take upon themselves is that of deleting their galleries. of removing what is old.

There is this diffused thought spread that you must unclutter yourself to move forward. Which is totally true in the short term.

But let me give you something to mull over before you think that "deleting the past is always good".

Because... honestly i have seen way too many people say that they want to start with a blank slate.

But that creates a 2-fold problem: Deleting the past deletes the perception of progress.

What is old and broken and ill conceived and regretted is not "good" because of any inherent quality.

But it is because of our mistakes and how we have grown after making them.

The society of today far too often tries to cheer people by telling them they are doing fine "now".

And we have lost the sense of the fact that in order to "do fine now" we all needed to do a f-ton of f-ups.

Because the only way to learn is to make mistakes.

And once you make mistakes and you start realizing why they are mistakes...
You do feel horrible, true.
And want to delete everything, true.

But you could not have learned how to do better if you did not make mistakes.

And today i see too many people trying to go in denial, as if delusion makes stuff real. But that is not out of being coddled, that is born out of fear. Fear of doing mistakes.

What makes stuff real is that you f-ed up but you are still standing.

And that is powerful. Yes, your art sucked, but you learned how to do more and better.

You learned how to take on lots of things together and still output art.

You learned how to get hit by a bus-load of problems and still do art or keep arting.

And all the "ugly art of your past is a reminder... that you are good today.

You do not suck.

You are not good because you are "perfect".

You are good because of all the mistakes you did. And people should let you do mistakes.

There is no other way in life to learn than to try and do stuff... do mistakes and end up learning from them.

You grow faster if you know what you wanted to achieve and you can look at your work with eyes that tell you "yep that was bad. How can i do it better now?"

But in the society of today i see too many times that mistakes have to be hidden, not out of "being coddled" as some idiots say...

...but out of fear.

People will judge you harshly for any mistake you did, and they will form unwavering opinions. "you must be X and doing Y because of Z"

Fact is... everybody does mistakes.

And judging people as if they are incapable of learning is today's biggest mistake.

I've seen people who are still judged because of art they did years ago.

And... that is really bad.

It compounds the problem i said before.

When you are already down and kicking yourself because you did not do something as you liked... out comes some idiot telling you of a mistake you did 5 years ago that has labeled you as something or other.

And when the world is in a panic people will just love to ram onto other people like there is no tomorrow.

I would like to remind you all...

...doing mistakes is normal. And it is how people grow up.

The one piece of art you did because you "needed the money" but that sucked the faith in humanity from you and that people still point at today because of... something?

...yeah. That is totally you. And you learned a lot from that bit of art.

You should not delete it. Yeah. You can put it in the scraps, you can put a disclaimer. But do not delete it.

By deleting stuff you lose perception of yourself. Of your journey through life.

Sure, you can hide it away from immediate sight, but you should keep it somewhere where you can easily link it or upload it quickly.

Because it's not just about you learning.

It's about other people appreciating how far you have gone from where you started.

Everybody sucks at the beginning.

But you must remember that you are now and today at the beginning of the rest of your life.

So. When you feel down. Look back at what you did before. All the idiocies you did, and smile.

Smile. Because no matter how much you feel like you suck right now, looking back you will see that you sucked a lot more before.

And that means you have kept on walking your path. And you've gotten pretty good at it if i must say so myself. Whoever you are. 😂

When people tell you you should go to art school... yes that is a good (if expensive) option. There are cheaper ways today. Because of the internet.

But... art school is a good place to start because it tells you how everybody else in the past f-ed up and what were their solutions to their own personal f-ups.

That is what art school does.

But i get it: bad art school explains nothing. That's... something pretty common today.

You get told "do this". And you "have to do it". But nobody explains why it is important.

• "why should i draw cubes in multiple vanishing points?!"
• "what is the purpose of human anatomy if i want to draw furries?"
• "Why should i study architecture if all i was to draw is some schmeckhsy fornication with excessive copulation?!"
• "None of these people draw what i am interested in, why should i study what they drew and how they did it?!"

those are all valid points... if nobody answers those questions. The short answers are (in order):
• Because you will need to know how perspective works and cubes are the first building stage of any perspective, by knowing how to put cubes in a perspective you can then move to more elaborate shapes and then put those shapes in a humanoid figure inside cubic cages that then will follow perspective.
• Furries follow the rules of anatomy just like humans do. They might have alien anatomy, but that is not very much of a concern, once you understand how movements are possible, a whole universe opens up on how to make the most absurd possible poses you can conceive.
• Architecture is useful because it's made out of simple shapes with elaborate patterns over them. Once you know how to do those in perspective and how they work, you will be able to apply those patterns to everything. And patterns, once you start to go "meta" can be anything, from fur patterns to clothing or whatever.
• You learn how they did stuff and what were the tools they used. A f-ton of the digital tools made today are based on physical tools of yesterday. Also you tend to learn a lot of "useless stuff" that will seep into your art... and by studying a slew of old artists you will be touched by a thousand art styles, and once you start "going meta" and start to decompose art and art forms into their basic elements... that is when you learn how to make your own style. Also: you will learn a lot of terms and names to name stuff so that you can then google it when you will need to know where you f-ed up. 😂👍💖

Being critical of your own art might seem bad but it's just how you learn how to do stuff.

The "one simple method" is "know what to do first and then make a lot of mistakes trying to achieve that".

Your pieces of art will always suck compared to what will come next.

And that is great!

Do not delete your art because "it does not reflect my art level" but marvel at how far you have gone!

People want to chastise at mistakes you did in the past? Show them how you are learning!

People should stop asking perfection. Of themselves. And of others.

People should learn to start appreciating growth.

Nobody is constantly static. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody grows.

We need more empathy, and start to do less accusations and more "okay that was a mistake but you can learn".

Accusations creates fear and fear leads to a lot of mess, guilt and every bad thing.

Heck even as far as 6000 years before the current era people knew that.

"Satan", the Hebrew word for the devil, or "diabolos" if you like greeek, literally means "the accuser".

Mistakes are normal, you do not lack skill, you have got loads of it, it just means you now know that you are doing mistakes that you previously did not know you were making.

So... GO YOU! You made a mistake, now you can learn. Do not wallow in the "i suck" know that you have already learned a lot and you can learn more.

And have faith in yourself.