Improving your mental health elevates your art TREMENDOUSLY.

[ergojosh]

Have you noticed any changes in your mental health since COVID? How has it affected your art, or whatever you create?

[canvasdrop_art]

I love such conversations and talking openly about mental health and art struggles... art has always been a way to process and self soothe or escape from all the noise

[sophieroque]

"You may have been given a dire consequence for a failure without the opportunity to improve"

... isn't that just school? Would explain a lot about the mental health of students (and recovering students) ngl

[canvasdrop_art]

As someone trying to grow on social media as an artist, I have let go of overfixating and overanalysing... it took some time to come to terms with things I can't control, but now I just try to focus on my art and it took a lot of weight off, , ,

[allanredhill]

physical health is a huge factor too. If youre eating bad and never exercise you wont have much energy and your mental health goes down the drain too. I know many people dont wanna hear this, especially because most of us are awkward shut in nerds but man we have to take care of us. If not for yourself do it for your art xd

[charlizesalisbury]

I have chronic health issues and lately I’ve been buying myself a lollipop every time I go to the hospital. It’s made me feel a little less resentful towards my body. Like it’s not working at 100% but it’s WORKING! It’s still allowing my brain and heart to function. I have all limbs. Sure I’m in pain and life sucks sometimes but I have a lollipop and for the 20-40 mins I’m eating it, I just think about how nice the lollipop is. People laugh at me but are miserable coming out of that hospital. I’m not. I enjoy my hospital days. I get a meal at a cafe I love and get some cake to have at home for the next few days. I think rewarding yourself for such “basic” and “adult” tasks is something that everyone ridicules but no one actually realises it works wonders. If I wake up and get out of bed when my alarm goes, I listen to my favourite song and dance while feeding my cats. If I journal for that day or meditate, I make myself a snack I love. On my work breaks, I watch an episode of anime or read a web toon. I have horrible mental health but it’s literally made the difference between suicidal and not. When I do art, if something isn’t working and it’s stressing me out, I will stop and start tracing references for fun to figure out the shapes of these really acrobatic poses. It’s fun to me and then when I go back to my own work, I’m not angry anymore. I can work without being scared it won’t work cause just like the tracing, I can go back to the basics like using triangles, circles and rectangles to get what I want. I’m doing a piece with like a million hands and it’s stressing me out because hands are hard when they are in an awkward position where the fingers are squashed and I had to legit take a pic of my hand and trace it for 5 mins to figure out MY WHOLE INITIAL SHAPE WAS WRONG! I drew a triangle base but it was a rectangle base! Sometimes we get so caught up in making things so complex and hard to prove out worth, we forget we have basics to fall back on. Anatomy is just shapes put together. All art is just lines on a page, sometimes just dots. And even then, if I get frustrated, I go do something I love and praise myself for even ATTEMPTING it. I don’t praise success, I praise EFFORT. It’s been a game changer. Praising success will always be outside validation. Praising effort is all internal. Only YOU can see your effort. It’s one of the things I’ll be taking into the new year. I hope everyone learns that mistakes are good and help you learn. If you make no mistakes, you never learn. There’s this apple pie where the apples are in the tin without any pastry under it and has pastry on top. It was made by mistake. If the bakers didn’t go through with it and allow it to be baked, we wouldn’t have that delicious apple pie. Sometimes, mistakes help us step out of our habits and routines and help us grow and develop. Utilise it!

[Scixxy]

"I was dimly-lit in every area of my life" -- man that speaks to me

[rinarina]

This is such an important message, especially after the collective trauma of the pandemic. Therapy was the best thing I did for my art since getting a drawing tablet. I believed I was a fundamentally terrible person for nearly half my life, and every time my art didn't get immense praise or attention I saw it as confirmation of my worthlessness as a person. And I'm not 100% better right now but...now that I'm learning to love, trust, and understand who I am, I've become so much more invested in my own artistic growth and success. I wish I could tell that young lady in high school that she would go on to do so much good, make so many valuable friends, and make art she could be genuinely proud of. Tysm for this reminder to stay strong in the face of our debilitating issues, you're a blessing to this community Josh 💖

[lilalo]

I can heavily relate to this.
I spent five years (FIVE YEARS!!) on this app that you can do pixel art on. I loved it! I learned so many new tricks and improved a lot along the way. It is where i garnered my first "big" following, and i enjoyed it. However, as the years went on and my mental health declined, i found myself comparing myself to other artists, on and off the app. It only made my view of my art worse and i ended up starting to draw when i felt bad. I created an alt account where i posted vent art, which initially i thought was a good idea! I could practice art and get my feelings on a canvas, whats not to love? Then i accidentally trained my brain into thinking, "Hey, whenever we feel bad we make art that reflects our bad emotions, so every time we feel bad lets make art that makes us feel bad every time we look at it." I ended hating the process of drawing so much after that and considered going on a hiatus of making art for months or even years until i magically started enjoying drawing again. Over this last summer i was off of that app and went back to traditional. Oh my goodness, not only did i improve so much not drawing for the sake of other people seeing it, but i started to enjoy the process again! When i went back to the app i made a post about me officially leaving and though me and many others were sad, it felt so freeing! I no longer had to look at a canvas and see the dark and dreary colors, and crying characters, or whatever else. I was finally able to let myself be free in enjoying my art. My mental health has also improved drastically since the beginning of the summer until now, and this is even the best mindset ive ever been in in my entire life. I still struggle with depression cause it never goes away, but changing my mindset was only important to my personal growth, but integral to my growth as an artist! And you were completely right, being stuck in a rut can ABSOLUTELY set you back YEARS worth of growth, it is actually insane. That is also one of the main reasons ive stopped doing pixel art now because it's just not my medium and wasnt helping me improve in the aspects that needed the mist improvement. Ive followed you because youve always kept it real, and i appreciate you for that. Thank you for making this video.

[scaredsanty]

I can't exaggerate how much I needed this all this time. Every time I feel like failing I felt that something was wring with me and it's a personal failure as an artist.
I didn't draw for 4 months and picking the pen now feels like a tremendous struggle.
I just started my first therapy and made tiny improvements but I still beat myself down and choke my ideas and something i get excited about.
I really, really needed this right now. Cried when you described the reaction of inner child towards self beating
It also gave me so much hope that I can work with my brain wounds and really improve as an artist, thank you so much

[soaringsavage]

Recently I've been overwhelmed by these ideas that seem to be prevelent in the art world that you must create EVERY day and constantly be on the hustle - OR you won't make it, you won't be successful, you are not a real artist, and you don't want it enough.
It's been devastating to be hearing this messaging constantly. I can't create every day. In fact I've spent years not creating. I do not understand the lack of compassion in this narrative, but because I could not always adequately explain WHY i could not create, it felt like maybe it was true.
I KNEW it wasn't. But it was easy to feel alone.
Thank you ergojosh for your vulnerability and encouragement. 💜I feel more at home inside my skin.

[YuReRro]

Honestly. I think a lot of artists have to rewatch it on weekly basis. All you say is absolute truth, I experienced it myself. Thank you

[ashrichfield]

i really appreciate this message since ive always felt this pressure in the online art community (weather or not its intentional) to never heal from mental health issues because if you do there's some sense that youll loose your creativity. and boy howdy do i have a lot of them.

[TheMightyBlackstar]

I’ve always identified with the connection, creativity is a direct link to God, and the result of being exposed to that level of divinity and pure ethos is a kin to the madness a human would experience being all knowing and omnipotent/omnipresent. Our capacity to create is an outlet of that creative energy linking to us. I always told people my drawing is more of a need than a want. If I don’t do it I feel sick and overwhelmed.

[chrismfielding]

damn man, some hard truths in there, some of which i was like dayum that exactly how it feels. loosing decades of skill when not mentally prepped for drawing is insanely true.

[GlobalOrbital]

Josh, I truly appreciate your insight into this matter of Mental health.
I am not alone, You are not alone, We are not alone.
Looking forward to more of you, love you!

[demakusan]

You one of my favorite dudes, I love deeper thought and art talks sm and your voice is so calm

[sol]

You have vocalized my exact struggle and thought process. Its so nice finally hearing from someone who understands and doesn't trivialize this issue. I now know how to get started on this journey. Thank you. Thank you.

[Netbro]

Ayyy I noticed your using hi paint, I have been learning hi paint recently, it's a relief that a professional like you also uses apps like these

[Alfred_the_doodler]

Wishing blessings and healing to everyone here.

Excellent video Josh, a reminder everyone needed