..i know that feelz

It's a rough gig, some days.

Tyranny of the blank page gettin ya down? :<

The blank page is fine, it's the page I've tried to draw something on that usually bothers me, heh.

omg... yes the same thing here ^___^

truer word have never been said

You just drescribed how i felt somedays ago man....just wow..i rlly liked this ^^

Heh, thank yas. :P

I really love this piece ^^ makes me want to draw

I'll solve yer problem.
Draw more porn

Haven't felt much like drawing smut lately, to be honest. Not because I've lost interest in the stuff, far from it. I think I just want to be better at it before I jump back into the naughty stuff!

Haha, anyway, you draw way better than rarakie, zambuka, redrusker and other shitty "artists" who earns 200$+ for an shitty image cause they are popular.
So, no worries, and good luck :)

Oh, I wouldn't say that... I can think of many ways that each of those artists is superior to me. Not in all ways, but that's true of any two artists, they'll have various strengths and weaknesses. They all do good work though, and can do many things I never could!

hmmm yah. pretty much what i feel everyday. you do that to me sometimes XD you mean person!! no im kidding your awesome keep up the great work.

I'll do my best!

For me, that person is you.

Just sayin'.

I had a feeling that might come up a few times. As long as it inspires the need to improve in others like it does with myself, it's not quite so bad!

It inspires me to try to find something I can do that is as awesome. Thus far, nyada.

You seem to be one of the awesomeist admins I've seen in a long time on any site, if that counts for anything. :P

Heh. I try to be who I am without consideration that I'm an admin. Unless I want to yell at someone. With mean mean words. Then I dn't get to. ;_;

Also http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17713914/IMAG0503.jpg I do stuff like this, so maybe :3

It's the admin stuff that's particularly impressive, though. I haven't seen much admittedly, since I'm a pretty low-maintenance member and have never needed and rarely seen action from admins. But I've seen you around once or twice, working harder than just about anybody else to keep people happy and get things sorted out. So that's always impressed me!

As for the picture, that might take some explaining. x3

That is 9 cases of a furry themed energy drink I had made. Gonna try to sell them at cons :3

Ah, couldn't really see the label all that well. I can see the word "fuel" and something red. x3 That is pretty awesome though! Any chance you've got a better picture of the design on the cans? I'm curious now.

Yeah, I do -

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8094460/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7999051/

Heh, that's pretty cool actually. Pretty cool!

Yes, and the red rocket was unintentional!

boy do I know how THAT feels ;o;

Eeeeyup. *Nods*

THIS. You just summed up how I have been feeling as of late and how I feel when I run into someone else's work, but I still keep going, even though sometimes it feels so.. exhausting to do so. Like I am weighted down by so much and can't seem to lift my hand just to etch out the lines for something. But I still keep going.

Thank you for sharing this, and for showing that those that feel this way, are not as alone as they sometimes feel. ^.^

I suspect it's something every artist feels. My guess is that no matter how good an artist gets, they'll always see something in their own work that bothers them, and they'll find others out there who can flawlessly do all the things they have trouble with. It's just the way of life with art, but at least we all have something in common that way. x3

Eeyup, too true.

And to think, that feeling can be inspired in anything, not just artwork.

'Tis true! I've felt this way about music on more than one occasion. I've played a few instruments, just enough to realise how truely incredible it is to be good at any of them. Hearing a particularly skilled musician can make me get all mopey and down about how not capable I am at it. So I go draw some stuff because I can actually do that a little. x3

What the... Hey come on! Why did you say that? Talking like this won't help you a lot!
I know it's hard sometimes, but you HAVE to keep hope and strenght to continue your art!
Ruaidri, I tell you, you have got an UNIQUE STYLE of drawing, and many people here want this badly! When we see your drawing, we always say *Ah it's ruaidri/ruaidri style...

And don't forget one rule, you have to keep pleasure when you're drawing something. Maybe you'll think your art is bad, but many people will think it's a great art!

Keep up and don't feel depressed!

No worries, the whole point of this picture was to say that, even when drawing is at it's most frustrating it only inspired harder work. I ain't going anywhere yet. :P

Gotta say, I love your art, and the person doing the art. Seems like the better an artist is the bigger of a prick they become. So far, you remain a pretty great person and your art keeps getting better.

Keep it up, I say.

There are a few things I've been determined to stick to from the start. One of those is being nice to people who are generally nice to me. I don't always succeed, like anyone I'm human and some people just rub me the wrong way... but I do my best to keep everyone happy wherever I can! :P

this is every day for me, I am a style mooch. My hobby is studying furry art and attempting to draw it. I see someone's art style and I absolutely must have it! the problem that arises from this behavior is that sometimes the styles meld or sometimes I can't replicate a style to the desired degree.

maybe this stems from lack of confidence, I'm no good at art, I'm an engineering major, what do the sciences know about these art things?

This is exactly how I feel on the subject.

If it makes you feel any better... from what I hear, my style is pretty unique, and I don't think I've personally seen anybody who draws anything like it either. But the interesting thing is, I've gotten to this unique style by just copying things I like from other people. I really didn't come up with any part of it- I just saw somebody I liked and said "I wanna do that!". The problem is, I copy really badly and it never looks the same, which is why my style is as unique as it is. x3

Also, I've always been of the math/science creed myself. I'm basically forcing an art-shaped peg into a science-brain shaped hole when I draw. But it seems to work so far. :P

you learn from what you see, but you also have gotten a pretty darn good mental idea of color schemes and how to use the materials you have. At least from what I get from looking at your art. Your efficient, and that's impressive.

I personally like to believe that math minded people can make art.

Art (and an artist's style) is a reaction to what came before it. So you're not so much copying as you are 'reacting' to the furry art you enjoy, and incorporating bits and pieces of it into your art.

All the time.
We were doing portraiture in my drawing class. And i was like "FINALLY. Enough of this dumb still life, something i like and am good at!" And then i saw someone else's drawing in my class and i was like "oh..."

But yeah. i get the feel.

Also,i still think you're one of the most amazing furry artists out there. Especially considering it's all pencil and/or watercolor.

I don't think I'd ever have the guts to draw with someone else in the room. I hit so many dead ends and start out badly so many times, it'd just be too embarassing if anybody saw it. x3 The fact that you can even handle an art class impresses me!

Well if i plan on majoring in the thing i love then i better be able to handle it. xD

Besides. People are usually waaaaay to engulfed in their own drawings to look at other peoples'.

Ah... If only I could channel my frustration for something like this.

It was very much forced, believe me. x3 Vent art has never been my thing- drawing takes work and focus and effort, which are not things that come easy when frustrated or depressed. But I was more interested in drawing the picture than catering to my whiney inner voices, so I just sat down and did it. It was a fun little first try with proper two point perspective, at least!

Also, mayo is delicious. You go very tasty on my subs! x3

No... I'm not that mayo. D:

Ahh I see. Hmm, need to try that with myself. :p

I pretty much feel like that when I see anyones art, so I tend to only watch friends, and avoid pages other than my own..

Drew myself some vent art this time last night after feeling pretty useless...

The trick is just to turn that energy into a desire to improve. It's the only way artists can survive, I suspect!

just asking

did you had picture you redrawn pose 6 times becouse it was not good enough/looked right (your opinion not commissioner)

I've literally spent entire days before just drawing/redrawing pictures, only to end up with a smudgey but otherwise empty page at the end of it all. I've nearly brought myself to tears before trying to get a picture out of my head and onto paper without looking like garbage.

It rarely comes easy.

*offers hug* just wondered had close friend who is artist too draw picture for me who was lot problems , was really nice to him about it , but when i saw this wondered if you got similar problems

This is a problem that's only alleviated with lots of study and practice- I suspect most artists around my level have this problem fairly frequently. I certainly do!

mhmm he is a bit new art but his style is nice never the less , probably everyone even best and worst artist struggle with this

oh and hardons during drawing porn!

That goes away after a while. Personally I'm usually too worried about keeping the anatomy in check and making the lighting interesting than what's actually going on.

Maybe it's a bit weird, but I get my hardons when I'm reading the reactions after posting the picture for everyone to see. I get off on getting other people off, I think. x3

hehe x3 i rarely paw to mine commissions who is wierd , used to not at all in past but that changed some recently
and thats interesting:3 well RP's are similar thing , some may wonder why words can do that , but its all your imagination to use , it can be your best friend when comes to sex;3

reason it changed is probably my "new" art is based on my dark hidden fantasies rather then being "vanilla sex with friend of some sort"

As a quick question, do you do thumbnail sketches and preplans?

Sure do! Sometimes it helps... sometimes not so much.

Art-block-pictures are the best sometimes.. you can nearly feel, what the artist feels. =)

Actually, art block is one of those things I never experience. I might occasionally have a few hours where drawing is tough, but I can almost always doodle something by the end of the day. I don't think I've ever had a sustained art block for any period of time, where I couldn't get motivated or make anything look right. I'm a bit lucky that way, I think!

Ahh ok, thought so.. but thats nice.. for you and for all of us, when you post the pieces! =)

You're far from bad at it.
You're a very talented artist that constantly pumps out new artwork.
Love your art, love your work, and you seem like a great person.
'Nuff' said.

Also, this is a great submission! X3

Hah, well thank yas. I certainly do my best! Sometimes that's just not good enough, that's all. x3

We are our greatest critic, yes.

Haha, don't feel bad Ruaidri. I can't even draw a stick man properly. When I browse people's art, like some of my friends' galleries who have super photo-realistic creations, every strand of fur in high-definition, 4000 x 3000 resolution stuff... I just shake my head, laugh loudly and write it off to some sort of demonic possession.

Seriously, I'm nearing my thirties, by now I pretty much am set for life in the areas of things I can do well, and things I will properly never be able to do. Drawing are one of these things; if I am at my most bored mindset and I even begin to try to doodle something, it'll look like it was drawn by a 4 year old with ADD who drank a can of redbull while riding on the back of a pickup truck without suspension, during a hail blizzard while under attack by a swarm of flying midget harpies, during an earthquake, in the middle of a meteor shower... WITH HIS EYES CLOSED. And he HAS NO ARMS SO HE WAS DOING IT WITH HIS FEET... WHICH WERE CRAMPING UP.... You get the idea.

What you can do on the other hand, is pretty well along that track to damn greatness. So just stick at it, as you said. You'll get to the place where people look at your art and feel the same as you do now :)

To be fair, that's exactly what my pictures looked like too, until I really sat down and spent about a solid year drawing something every single day. Art doesn't come naturally to many people, it's a trained skill like anything else. I think the most important and truely difficult aspect of art is having the dedication to actually sit down and work at it. I'm sure just about everybody would love to be able to draw, but it takes a special breed of insanity to sit down and actually spend your whole damn life figuring out how to do it. x3

That said, we all have our things, that's for certain. If you've got a thing that you both enjoy and are good at, then I'd say you're a lucky one. :P

*chuckles* I'm somewhat familiar with this feeling - 90% of the artists on this site do that to me.

I'm an amateur hobbyist however, not a professional. Hence perhaps when I look upon it, I don't see it as a insurmountable problem... but as we termed it in the Navy an 'Opportunity to Succeed', or a Challenge.

It might take me another decade or two to even begin approaching your level, much less beyond... but I intend to reach it some day and that takes work.

Best of luck bud on making this happen and perhaps all you need is a change of perspective yourself? Instead of getting frustrated, turn it on it's head and take it as a personal affront their art is by some measure in your head 'better' and use it as a challenge to drive yourself further and onwards to new heights.

This. Just... So much this! I've recently tried to turn that depressing feeling towards simply STARING at what they do better than me and try to dissect it, try to figure out exactly what their line/shading is doing that mine is not. Sometimes the depressive state wins out and I find some way to vent the frustration (drawing, gaming, whatever)... sometimes, I little light goes off in my head, and I try to draw the trick I noticed in their work. It's not a perfect scheme, but hey, it's something right?

I have to admit, I've had the reaction to your art sometimes. Mainly your speed of production. For last few years I've had long spats of just... not drawing. The urge doesn't hit me and when I sit down to draw, it's all crap. Then one day the muse returns and I draw again, as if the lull had never happened.

Anyway, awesome all the same!

Yeah, I bookmarked the gallery of the guy that made me feel all blargh, for later study. I'm not going to let him get away with that without at least learning some of his secrets along the way. x3

If it makes you feel any better, I'm not actually that fast at drawing. For how simple my pictures really are, my turnaround time is pretty slow. It's not that I draw quickly... it's that I draw a LOT. I'm always drawing. If I'm not eating, sleeping or gaming, I'm drawing. It can give the illusion that I draw pretty quickly, but that's something I actually really need improvement with. Takes me ages to get a finished picture down. :P

It's more of that I only seem to draw for maybe... 20 hours a week... it's really not good and I just can't seem to figure out a way to get myself to draw more. I do enjoy drawing when I sit down to do it, but the actually STARTING is always a problem for me.

I'd love to blame my medication for it, since I've been having a bit of a wandering depression for the last 2 years, but that just doesn't feel like the only issue. Ohwell, I'm moving at the end of the week. Maybe the new place will have a desk layout and such that will jive better? Who knows.

Oh, believe me, I've felt that way...so many on here superior to my own skill.

honestly some of the best drawings and works i've ever done was when i was feeling my absolute worst. art just works off of raw emotion i believe... what we gotta remember is that it's a labor of love =]

It might be a weak statement but, you are not bad at drawing, and yet again you should never stop learning, because when you stop learning you also stop improving, and there is always room for improvement, regardless of who you are or how good you are at what you are doing

That's basically the reason it took me so long to start publishing my drawings. I never finished my drawings before cuz they sucked. They still does, but I don't care anymore, I just try to improve

I've always said that, above and beyond everything else, having fun is the most important part. If drawing wasn't enjoyable then there'd be no reason to do it at all, heh. So if you're having fun, nothing else really matters much!

Drawing should always be a challenge, and its very good try out new stuff. I think an artist should always call themselves an amateur because it means (no matter how good their art is) they are always trying harder to create something new. Hang in there man, your artwork is great!

Think all great artists are generally down upon their own works. In their nature really.

Far worse though having the mind / creativity, yet posessing no measurable skill. When one can dream of mystical realms and magical creatures, and yet can never draw a straight line let alone put such thoughts to paper.

You do have a gift I believe. Need only build on your strenghts. It may not be what you want, but it doesn't mean you cannot get there someday.

Don't give up as i have. 'Tis far more miserable of an existance.

To be fair, I wasn't exactly a genius at it when I started either. I don't have any natural ability to speak of- everything I can do has been fought for tooth and nail, and the battle is far from over. The only way to get beyond being completely unable to draw is through tons of work and study, even if it's hard sometimes and feels a bit dead-endy.

While it's true that some people are just naturally more gifted and talented than others, some artists will always just be better than others, I do believe that everybody can improve. It might take a bit longer, but if there's a genuine interest and a real will to work at it, I don't think there's anybody who couldn't as good as I am or better.

oh I feel your pain -.-
my anatomy is so derp x3 I think what makes our artstyles is our flaws, if we all would draw 100% perfect, we would be printers ^^;
not to mention my coloring, is horrid xnx wish I could do it like yours but I dont know how to use watercolors and youre so pro at it ;w;

I don't really know much about watercolours either. I have some experience, but I'm still pretty nooby with 'em. Best advice I can give- youtube is you friend. x3 There's tons of guides and tips and tricks that you can put to good use. If you're seriously interested in watercolours, or even just a little interested, consider searching for some videos on watercolour tutorials. FA needs more traditional arters. :P

I do have a set of watercolors laying here and makes me mad I never use them X3 I tried the tutorials but im not even sure if they mean the same watercoors than I have (here we call watercolors those wood colored pencils that melts with water) http://www.watercolorpainting.com/w.....-tutorials.htm but Im more fond of hard colored pencils X3 we need more traditional arters =3
I need special paper for it too right? I dont want to walk in the artstore and dont know what to ask for X3 any particular paper and .gr you reccomend to me?

Those are watercolour pencils- they're simliar but can't really be used the same way. They're basically watercolour paint, dried up and stuck inside a pencil casing. You can create some interesting effects with them, but for an actual watercolour painting I don't think they'd be all that useful. Doable, but you'd be slowing yourself down and losing a lot of interesting effects.

If you're going to try watercolour painting, I'd say the absolute most important part of it is the paper. You can skirt by with cheaper paints and cheaper brushes- they might cause some minor annoyances, but they'll do the job. Cheap paper, however, is awful. It makes painting almost impossible. If you really want to try proper painting, make sure you put your money into the paper!

That said, it doesn't have to be -terribly- expensive to get good paper. I paint on Arches watercolour paper- highly reccommended and generally regarded as one of the best. When I go to the art store, I buy the huge 22x30 inch individual sheets. They cost about 6 to 8 bucks each sheet, and I can get five 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of paper out of each sheet, with lots left over for smaller sizes to paint or practice on.

TL;DR of that is, for really good paper at a standard size, I end up paying at most 2 dollars per painting. If you cut out smaller pages, a good idea when practicing, the cost per painting goes down. A little expensive, but really not too bad.

If you really get going with this you'll want to start experimenting with different papers to see how they work for yourself, but to get started, you'll want two things- an inexpensive set of watercolour tubes (something like this http://www.seniorart.com.au/images/.....rcardboard.gif - don't worry about the brand or anything, this is just an example, anything with 12 tubes at around 10-20 dollars should suffice) and a sheet or two of "Arches 140 lb cold pressed paper". Don't worry about what any of that means for now, it's just a good middleground to start with.

All said and told, the set of paints and a sheet or two of said paper should run you at most 30-35 dollars, and the paints will last you for a very long time depending on how you use 'em. Hopefully not too expensive or complicated, I know this can be kind of daunting to jump into at first, but once you get going it's not too bad. x3

I knew there were something wrong! they are pencils now makes sense @.@
im sure the paper is the most important, I will ask for that .gr and brand of paper when I get to the artstore thankie a lot =3
and yeah I did the same with buying big sheets of paper (canson in my case)
I shall give it a try =3 and 12 colors set, got it ^u^

for last question tho, I see they are really small tubes, do I need to combine what i will use with some bit of water? (maybe dumb question, but "watercolors" uhm well @.@)

hopefully will help me improve my backgrounds too, im kinda tired of working with the "studio white" background X3

Thankie a lot for the super useful advices Ru ='3

Yup! With watercolours, you mix a lot of the paint with water, you very rarely if ever use paint straight from the tube. In fact, what I usually do is squirt out a fair amount of paint onto my palette... now that I think about it, do you have a palette? You'll be needing one for watercolour paints. Something small and simple like this should do for starting out http://www.danielsmith.com/ItemImag.....ge/p71988b.jpg though it may add a bit to the cost estimate I gave up above, my bad!

Anyway, as I was saying, squirt some of each colour out into the palette in seperate spots, and let it completely dry and harden. Then when I'm ready to paint I just get my brush wet, swish it around on top of the dry paint until it's picked up enough pigment, and spread it on the page. If you need to mix paint, if you have a palette like the one I linked, just bring some paint into the middle with a wet brush, then rinse it off and repeate with the second colour, going back and forth until you get the shade needed.

I don't know if this is necessarily the best way to handle things, you'll want to experiment and find whatever way you like the most, but I find it gives me good control over the amount of paint going on the page. Again, you'll want to watch a lot of guides to get a feel for how various things are done, and of course practice like a madman. Watercolors are a picky medium and it can take some time to gain control of them, but they're a ton of fun once you do!

Glowy, this made me think of some great advice that one of my art teachers gave me :3 He said "Your 'style' is the mistakes you make that you decide to keep". So on the one hand, people use "it's my style!" to explain away their bad art and not get better, but it also covers for the great artists that are recognizable for their unique artwork :3

it is true tho, iunno bout art academy philosophy but I do sit and think what im doing in a daily basis XP

This is sort of true... but only to a point. A great artist, like a great musician, can cover for their mistakes and make them look intentional, and may even look great to an outside observer. But that definitely doesn't mean they're a free pass! Mistakes are covered for by inentional, precise painting and knowledge. If you just go about letting your mistakes shine all the time, I'm pretty sure it'd just look bad. x3

A brilliant sketch and a rather common feeling for artists too. Still, he should really cheer up and focus on something else for a bit before coming back to the art. Art should be fun, not stressful.

Yes, I know a few have said it here, but you are definitely that person to many others, ahah. l3

Really, that feeling should be, in and of itself, that no one can just plop out an idea perfectly on the first go, including the very people that you seem to feel can do it~ And I suppose it's something that's lost on many viewers, those with talent, and those without~ It's easy to see a new submission and say, "Wow, I can't believe he did that, he must be super talented." ... when in fact it may have taken ten times to do it, and all day long~! l3

But the point is, your effort shows, that's for sure.
You choose a harder path than most, doing it traditionally -- you can't just use the ink tool and grab/bend your lines perfectly, or Ctrl+Z eighty times every time you draw a line~ That combines with how much of yourself you seem to put into each piece, to create something truly special~ <3

There's a reason that even with the catalogue of artists I have worked with, of all shapes and stripes, that you are quite possibly my most-sought-after of all, you know. l3

D'aw, you always have a way of flattering me, 'coon. x3 I've always been a bit of a masochist that way. When I see an easy path and a difficult path in front of me, I always feel like I'm copping out if I take the easy one- even if it's really the better choice. Fortunately, as far as art's concerned, traditional is really the way to go for me. I've toyed with digital a bit, and it's just no fun. There's nothing quite like putting water on to paper and watching the colours flow and blend in random and beautiful ways that no person could ever do willingly.

I just need to figure out how to properly harness that randomness and I'll be good to go, heh. Hopefully once I've got myself sorted out we'll be able to get you some more pictures! Has been a while now since I've done anything full sized for you.

Well, you get more experience points if you do it the harder way, so. l3
And don't you worry, if/when the opportunity presents itself, I have quite the bundle of money already earmarked for you. For serious. l3

I think it is... how people call it jealousy for some others skill. Don't worry, I have the same feeling sometimes, but it's for other special needs. It's my own little selfish being for wishing for my own entertainment, and doing art at the other hand only for my amusement. To see things which are uncommon and something you can't see everyday.

Do you want hugs?
Hugs always help.

Never been a fan of hugs honestly, but I appreciate the sentiment. :P

the eternal cycle of improvement, never being satisfied is what drives us to achieve perfection, and the success of others being paraded around you, highlighting every minute failure. No wonder artists are insane, and this cycle is even worse for musicians, hearing on the radio, and every where else, people doing things you never could. The only solace is every tiny step of improvement.

I experience that feeling just about any time I try my hand at art. I do NOT consider myself an artist, and am very, very lacking in practice--two reasons one might argue I shouldn't feel bad about my lack of skill--but just about any time I try to draw something any more intricate than a sloppy sketch, all I can think is "There are people out there who can sketch in minutes something that takes me hours to get looking just right. Why do I insist on wasting my time with all this effort when I know the end result will be mediocre at best?"

But that said, here's a few thoughts from a "who even wakes up this early willingly" still tired mind that will hopefully mean something.

My craft is programming. There is arguably nothing that I am more proficient in than being able to code. I have had many people consider me an excellent programmer, an amazing programmer, even a master of my craft.

Yet I still have so very, VERY much more to learn. For as much as I know about programming, and as much as I might be able to code circles around others, there is just as much that I don't know, and there are people who could make me look like an amateur.

On the one hand, I've put everything I have in to becoming as good as I am today, and on the other, there are times I wonder how I could ever be considered good when there is so much I still suck at compared to others.

It doesn't bother me though. I know that even if I still have so much more to learn--still so much to stop sucking at--that I really have come so far already, and am so far beyond the skill level of anyone just starting. As for those that are better than me... they have simply traveled further along that path than I have. I'll get there one day, but only if I keep moving.

You are in an excellent artist. An amazing artist. Your work is incredible. Sure, you could improve. But no one ever reaches the point where they can't improve any further. Don't let those you consider better than you depress you... let them inspire you. You could be them some day, so long as you keep working towards that.

But most of all, whenever you're feeling bad about the artist you aren't, don't forget the incredible artist you are.

I think I perhaps make it sound a lot worse than I actually intend to. Sure, it can be a little depressing to note just how hard I have to work to improve even a little tiny bit, where some artists out there just can't seem to help but constantly improve without even thinking about it too much. My sister was one of those types- she never really studied or worked all that hard at it, and she hasn't drawn or painted much in over a decade. But I'm certain that if she picked up a brush and went to work, she could still paint better than I can, perhaps better than I will ever be able to, and I've been painting nearly every day for five or six years now. Something in her brain is just wired for it.

So yeah, thinking about things like that can get a little under my skin sometimes, but it's hardly a deterrant. Getting annoyed at people who are better than me just inspires me to work that much harder at catching up, and really if I wasn't enjoying myself I wouldn't be doing it in the first place. Something keeps me here, and I don't really know what it is, but I don't think it'll be letting go any time soon, heh.

yeah, i get the feeling too. the idea that other people are better than you, that you can't draw what's in your head at all, that something always looks wrong. yeah, i know that feeling well *hugs*

Oh x_x

I get this with Pure Maths. I'll see a proof for something that is so unbelievably elegant and then think about how utterly incapable of reproducing that I am.

I'll try anyway and I might, if I'm lucky, get something that works but is just not... pretty. Like, an argument I spend a couple hours working out and convincing myself of but then I see it in the literature and it's a quick one-line statement that makes so much sense without any need to do the hour's work!

Uh, okay. Not quite the same >.> But similar.

I dunno, I think it's exactly the same. Math and art, while using slightly different skillsets, are still both very difficult and both require large amounts of skill and creativity to be at the top of the game. Like any skill, some people just have a natural affinity for it, and those of us who have to work a bit harder to get there might naturally get a little awe-struck in their presence from time to time, heh. But we'll get there I'm sure! x3

Since I can't draw anything better than a stick figure, every picture I see done with more than a kindergartener's skill makes me feel this way. :| That's why I stick with writing instead.

For what it's worth, I'm amazed by anybody who's good with words. Reading over my descriptions and comments should make it pretty clear that they're not something I've got a lot of skill with. I have to focus -really- hard just to make sure my sentences make sense and get the proper message across.

They still don't have the time. x3

I'm also the type of writer who thinks he's a complete hack and everyone who can pick up a pencil is a better writer. :P Self-confidence has never been one of my strong points.

One of the most re-assuring things I've ever heard, some artists take longer than others. Some can sneeze and all of a sudden, greatness. Others have to work hard and long to make something even remotely as amazing. That doesn't mean one is greater than the other, they both achieve the same thing, and that's to portray a message in a way that words simply cannot. And besides, anyone that hasn't had to struggle, really shouldn't be allowed to consider themselves' an artist. *hugs*

This is why I wouldn't take art as a job or anything too serious.

Sometimes a picture pops in your mind, you feel it, and bam, you draw something wonderful. It's the natural way.
But if I go like "ah, I have to draw", then hardly anything great will come of it.

Best of luck struggling for inspiration or getting things "right" !

Yeah, that's why I gave up drawing :P
Started putting skill points into other things.

I think it's too late for me to change trees and this game doesn't have any respecs. D:

It does actually, it just costs a lot of money and takes a whole year of retraining! D:

And just so you know, I think your art is awesome.

I just had this feeling yesterday.. I needed to read this, it's great encouragement, thank you!

Well you're certainly welcome! :P

It takes a lot of guts to be able to ignore those feelings sometimes. Good on ya for being able to channel it into something productive :)

Thanks for the words. =3

*hugs* I know your feels. <3

It's a delicate balance to being an artist. You have to like the pain of not being good enough, because it makes you keep working to get better.

Indeed, what's the fun if it doesn't hurt a little? The difficulty only pushes us to work even harder methinks.

For what it's worth, everything is like this.

But it's a sign you care about your output. A lot of people don't.

Art is an abusive thing to the person that tries it. But it is the safest hobby I have.

Thats my reaction to you and half the people i watch.

I get that feel when I go through your gallery D':

I know this way too well, it's why I removed all my uploaded artwork, cried for about an hour, and now just delete, not finish, or throw away most all my drawings.

Now that's just not the right way to handle it. :P Getting a little frustrated is perfectly normal, but you've gotta use that energy as drive to improve, not let it crush you! If anything, I've only been working even harder since this happened. These people should show us the sort of things we can look forward to if we keep working hard enough, even if it's a little frustrating at the time. x3

I might be able to offer my modeling services. hehe

Sillyness aside, I've always thought it would be handy to have someone around who I can use as a reference when I get stuck in drawings. Unfortuantely I haven't had much luck finding anyone willing to get naked and lay around in my basement for a few hours a day yet. x3

That's actually my job right now, to sit around naked and let people draw me. As long as he room is warm it. Really isn't an issue.

Your art is the farthest thing from bad, but I know that awful feeling youre talking about. Sometimes I will stare at the work of said other artist/ Just stare, and hope I find something wrong with it. Anything. Even just one jaggy line. And when I find it, I make up something about how they dont know what the hell theyre doing and I'm amazing at art and they arent.

It's pretty messed up of me, if you ask.

I think we've all probably got things like that.... dark little secret thoughts that if we shared would make us look like really messed up people, I suspect. x3

You're still my favourite c:

Ru, you need to get those nasty ideas out of your head. If you were as bad as you think then nobody would look at your general rated sketches, you wouldn't get that much persons here trying to cheer you up, your commissions slots wouldn't fill up as almost instantly as they are and you wouldn't have around 30k eyes watching you.

You shouldn't be that hard on yourself, you are a much better artist that you think plus you are unique!

The ideas aren't as nasty as I perhaps make them sound. It's not that I hate myself or think I'm awful or anything like that. I just have a lot of work to do, heh. A lot of things I struggle with that really shouldn't be posing this much of a problem anymore. But this sort of situation just makes me try harder, that's all!

awwwww

If you feel like your art is bad, then give yourself permission to draw bad art and do it anyway.

I feel that way about my writing a lot of the time, like it'll never be good enough, especially after seeing how well some other writers manage to pull off the same thing. And somehow I still have readers who tell my how great it is. Not as many as you have, by at least an order of magnitude, but a fair number regardless.

If I didn't draw or post things that I thought weren't good enough, my gallery would be almost empty. Nobody makes a perfect picture every time, for every masterpiece there's 1000 failures. Or something like that. Point is, I'm not really all that worried about the results, it's the improvement over time that's important, and the hard thing to manage. :P

This nicely captures the frustrations I think most all artists go through. It's rough to be one's own worst critic, yet that is how we grow and persevere! :)

Someone's always going to be better than you at any given thing, unless yo're one of the priveliged few who are truly the best in the world. Even then, there's competition.

Earlier this week, I went to a shooting competition, and was very pleased with my performance (Sharpshooter on the IDPA classifier). I got my ass handed to me on a plate by someone who was a lot better, and I know that drills that took me 15 seconds or so have been done in 5 seconds by professional shooters with custom race guns. This isn't to say that I did bad - I did well compared to most of the people there, and was probably in the top third of the people who braved the cold to come shoot. I'm just doing the equivalent of playing high-school football - I'm good where I'm at, but nowhere near as good as the folks in the next levels up. At some point, I decided that being better than 90% of the public at my chosen hobby was good enough.

I'd say you fall WELL above the 90th percentile with your art. I've always seen you as a very talented artist, whose relentless desire to be better has led to continual improvement. Even though you're not perfect, every once in a while it's alright to sit back and say "You know what? I'm pretty damn good at this."

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4064351/


:)

You are not bad at art, I'd go as far to say you're one of the most talented artists on this site!

Ru, you draw like no other artist on this site. There are others here with amazing talent, but none of them even compare to the work I've seen you create. You may think your drawing skills "suck" but you have no idea how much I've looked up to you for inspiration. It's your art that makes me wish I had even an ounce of your talent. The reason I have a furaffinity account is because of you.

You knock yourself down waaay to much, just look at what you've made so far. I honestly cant see how you can say your art is inferior to someone else's, it's just not true.

You're an amazing artist, you're an extremely humble and kind person. Just try and give yourself a little credit.

Ignore the digital art celebrities. When it comes to water-color you're easily the most talented artist on FA, I've yet to see anyone come even come close to the level of skill you display with water-color. I can honestly see Strype sitting in that same chair crumpling up his failed attempts at painting traditional art.

You also breathe emotion into your art which something I've seen lacking in many of the pieces here.


Hardly anyone uses paint as a medium anymore, or any kind of traditional. It's really depressing.

Erm, excuse mer. You are definitely not bad at all with art. I adore your art. ^-^

Heh, I'm kinda glad in a way to see that I'm no the only one who sometimes gets all depressed by simply browsing through new submissions, usually for me it's pretty much like "Damn I like how this last pic I've drawn turned out, I'm finally getting somewhere !" then I see a few of my favorite artists' new pics and it's more like "Dammit my art's a joke compared to this..." But I'll have to admit that I still enjoy most of my pics, so that keeps me motivated to draw even more, I mean after all, if we keep sketching again and again, I doubt we'll get any worse, but we definitely can get better. So I guess as long as you enjoy drawing, and still get positively surprised by one of your own pics from time to time, it's what really matters. Anyway, usually I don't comment a lot, but I really liked this pic and the story behind it and felt like sharing my thoughts about it. So keep up the great work cause your art rocks. ^^

It's never easy in any craft if you're serious about it. Do you know how many years I've sunk into my novel, now, and it still isn't done? (Well, the manuscript is, but the editing ... the editing....)

donpt be sad Ru, remember that we love you!

Throw shenanigans at you. Drawing is indeed hard, but you are not bad at it.

Looks good to me, nice work! I know what you mean, but remember- you are your own worst critic. If people see flaws, they'll point them out.

can I share this on tumblr? credit given obviously

Sure, have at it.

yay thanks \o/

I love the way you captured this ! I've so been there .... every time I look at your drawings in fact! lol j/k I love your stuff and your so eloquent !

Going thru all my old as fuc favorites to find a photo for My friend
You've come such a long way! Many congrats~~