What I did when art wasn't fun

People often like to ask me how I can be so motivated or disciplined, when in fact I am neither of these things! It's really easy to keep up the drawing habit when you just find it fun... but there was a point in my life when I had forgotten how to have fun with art. It was very frustrating, so for fellow artists that are stuck in that same mindset, I hope I can help you out of it, even just a little bit, by telling you how I got out.

0:00 Intro
0:34 Art is harder than you think
1:58 Art improvement is difficult to measure
2:56 Expect to plateau
3:58 Focus on the process
5:48 Comparing yourself with other artists

Edit by @ScribClips

[koshetz]

I'm 27 and i didn't had ANY major improvement since i was 21-26 (which was frustrating and painful) but for the last year my skills went up dramatically after i decided to draw only when i want and to have fun. When you don't have expectations you don't have insecurities and when you don't have insecurities you are more willing to experiment and try different things.

[MikusDad]

part of "draw what you love" also sometimes means picking and choosing which parts of the process you do and don't want to do- not every piece has to be fully rendered if you don't like shading, if you don't like doing lineart just clean up your sketch a little or even skip straight to coloring the rough sketch, stuff like that! it's good to practice those skills sometimes but you shouldn't force yourself to slog through parts of the process that you don't find fun, it's going to discourage you from drawing at all. nothing is required for a piece to be "complete"!

[Zedrinbot]

I think one thing a lot of people also miss is how a lot of forms of improvement are invisible. If you can get the same result in half the time or with half the layers, and less prep work, that's still a major improvement, but it's not one anyone's going to notice cause it doesn't affect the final result.

Recognizing that can help you feel like you're making progress even if others aren't seeing it.

[onlysmiles]

I think one thing that's helped to offset this is paying special attention to not just your physical improvement, but also your ability to detect what doesn't look right. Having a good eye is just as important, if not more so, than having good hands.

It's gonna feel like shit seeing all the mistakes you're making in real time (and even after you're finished, in fact ESPECIALLY after you're finished), but it'll help a lot in the long run

[SatyricL]

I feel both inspired and frustrated at the same time when looking at professional artist's work. The ratio of inspired/frustrated shifts as I work on my own art. 😂

[hams]

"I worried way more about art than I was actually drawing" THIS! I understand you so well. I feel like this video articulates all of my problems with art so well. Art can be so much fun and so rewarding but also soo frustrating. I know that other artists I look up to also struggle with this, but you're the first artist to really hit the nail on the head for me. You're just like me fr fr.
This channel in general (and also your streams) have really helped me enjoy art again and actually have fun while learning! Which like even one year ago would've been absolute bonkers to me. Keep up the good work man! (Also shoutout to ScribClips the editing looks phenomenal as always)

[blackcitadel]

I wish that my body wasn't in such poor condition. I find it difficult to put in the time needed to practice because I always end up tired and ill.
I still keep going, knowing that building a system that leads to good results even if the results aren't great now is better than giving up, but for me the frustration comes from not being able to do as much as I'd like to do.

[DelDel__]

It's just really fucking frustrating when you see people mich younger than you being so much better at drawing, meanwhile you have been stuck in a depression hole for years now and can barely improve because burnout. And all you see is your skills regressing over time...

[_yourlocalartist]

HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT I WAS STRUGLING 😨

[Tinacha_Art]

When i start losing enjoyment in art, i jump all the way back to the smack dab middle of that box known as the comfort zone! For me its flowing hair and letting my hand and brain and go autopilot mode. When that doesn’t work, i stop and take a break. It is very important to take breaks and not overworking yourself. Remember, bored->comfort zone or break

[datobooi]

i've been struggling for the last 2 years, thanks pikat for letting me know that i'm not the only one

[damien]

you've got such a soothing and logical way of talking about art while keeping things really entertaining, i get a neat boost of serotonin everytime i watch one of your videos

[peregrinmorrison]

I graduated last summer and I thought I had done something horrible to burn out this badly, to only create maybe 5 peices since the summer of 2023... but this video kinda opened my eyes. I've been too focused on the results!! I need to sit and just, draw something I love and focus on the process, without worrying too hard about the end result. Genuienly, thank you so much!

[Merdragoon]

The short of it: Trying to chase after what you think would make you successful instead of making what you enjoy work for what you want to do is only going to kill your enjoyment of *doing* art. Improve at your own pace, not what you "should" as Plautuing as Pikat said is normal.

A fun little anidote: Recently I figured out that what I was struggling with was the rigidity of my linework was making my work look lifeless and stiff. I always loved the more flowy, more shwisy lines that sometimes look messy. Traditonal art is never perfect and I was missing that quality in my digital art. It was feeling flat and far too simplfied and I had more fun doing painting landscapes/backgrounds because I wasn't trying to be "perfect". And mentally I was upset with myself when a friend of mine said "I like the hair of this older art" Wasn't their fault but it had me thinking that I was missing something. It clicked when I went back through looking up Sailormoon Offical Manga art to show to another friend for a convo we were having and I was The linework was something I used to emulate back in the day. I loved the more fluid movments of the work and similar styles such as the Art Neuvo artists Toulouse-Lautrec and Beardsley and the art of Yoshitaka Amano and Old Clamp before they leaned to Tusbasa's style but also loved the style with xxxHolic so much more (Also Clamp). And none of my digital work was looking like that because I was fighting with trying to make it work for So I could get income as a freelancer two years prior and it never worked.

I gave up on that forcing and decided to return to that love of imperfect lines and beautiful flow Last week, and I hadn't been so happy with my work for a while as I do today. I enjoy my art again because it's exploring forms, and lines, and how they work into a beautiful cohesive peice. It wasn't like trying to follow the twitch line style was doing me any good anyways, so I might as well have fun with my own twitch channel and update stuff to this more fluid style again. I already have better luck with the backgrounds anyways so might as well do the same with the linework. It's possiable to love the art again even later in life and after you've been not drawing for 3 years due to depression.

[CushionSapp]

My full time profession has nothing to do with art or animation. I think that's helped me not feel burned out or not get sad when I work on my animation projects. Since its just a hobby, I find it relaxing and satisfying. I've had many failed animation projects, but I've never got depressed about them since I just view them as a learning experience.

[_mmini]

this video is very comforting. i recently reached a point where i even started to hate my art, i was constantly my biggest critic, judging myself and the little progress i've made while simultaneously not putting in the hours needed to improve. i just looked at the years i had been drawing for, instead of the little time i actually invested in my art. this video made me see things very differently and provided another perspective and thought process that is a lot more forgiving and warm. great work! <3

[LotusMouse]

I started art a couple years ago, only because my friends had started reading Wings of Fire and drawing dragons I decided to try my hand as well. They weren’t great, as one could’ve predicted. But that didn’t really bother me that much because I expected that, as I was just starting out. But then as the next year passed and art became more relevant in my life, I started pressuring myself to make better art. Instead of finding it reasonable to be bad at this still rather early stage, I kept asking myself why oh why couldn’t I draw good? It wasn’t a misconception of skill and time, it was more of an observation I was poisoning myself with. Then the next year came around, where I had indeed improved noticeable. Although not that much, it was still better. That year was probably the most amount of improvement I’ve seen to far, as I’m just the summertime I had gone from drawing scraggly people and clawed hands to actual illustrations that I was proud of. But then came an emotional roller coaster where it seemed like five times a day I liked art, I hated it so much, or some bland in between. Being completely honest, I was not enjoying making art. But art had consumed most of my life (not in a too too bad way, but by a lot) that it seemed like too far to turn back now. Sometimes I felt amazing and that everything would be ok in my near artistic future, and then two hours later I was crying in bed, stressing to much the fact that I was not ready for art. But I kept going because I knew that if I stopped I most certainly wouldn’t be ready, but it wasn’t hope or determination, it was my self esteem dragging me along, wanting those moments of clarity to last

[spaghettibete]

This video was SUPER helpful to me right now, because I've been "taking a break" from digital drawing, but I just realized that I wasn't actually taking a break! I was just stopping because I didn't think I could make anything good, and I would come back once I thought I was good enough. That ended up putting a lot of stress on me to somehow improve even though I wasn't drawing, and I expected myself to suddenly have my next drawing be way better than the last one. After watching this video I decided to pick up my tablet pen and just *draw*, so thank you :)

[FiddsOnYou]

I've recently entered a weird spot where I want to draw for enjoyment so that I can fire myself up enough to eat my art vegetables, but I can't seem to find what it is I like anymore and everything feels like a chore. It makes practicing difficult but I have hope that I'll find what it is I can do for enjoyment

[spkymnster]

WOW the most perfect timing, uploaded 2 minutes ago as I'm drawing while wondering how to make it fun again