Advice For Artists Who Are Too Hard On Themselves

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Song Played:
Message At The Gate by Benjamin Monday

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[shneancy]

When you said "art isn't something you're going to master" I felt a wall inside my mind break. Thank you for that, I can't count how many times I had said to myself "no, not yet, it isn't good enough, it's not perfect"

[miguelguri]

No sage at all. More like a caring father conversation that I rarely experienced before, thank you

[kanachiaki]

MAn, this was emotional as hell, how was I supposed to draw thru the tears??? Seriously tho, my therapist says to me the same things, being kind and compassionate to ourselves is key. I still find it very hard tho. Thank you for sharing, this was amazingly interesting and a great talk.

[glitterglueblood]

sit with those negative feelings, dont fight them when they come up - but dont join in those feelings fighting you either. just sit with them, let them pass you by, like waves of the ocean, take some deep breaths. you're safe, you're okay. let them fade out peacefully

[lazaroc]

Hi Adam, I hope you like this quote, some of my friends mistreat themselves a lot and I always tell them In a funny way:
"Do not mistreat yourself, because the person you are mistreating is my friend".
Thanks for the video, have a nice day.

[mylesbrownGSP]

"We spend so much of our lives being hard on ourselves and being gentle to everybody else."
As an elementary school teacher and artist, I felt that statement in my very soul. Thank you. Your videos are incredible.

[xjc]

“There’s not a goddamn thing wrong with you. Stop that.”
Thank you for the reminders, kind human.

[MrNuclearPsychopath]

your friend's words hit me like a bullet holy shit
had to pause for a cry break unironically

[Mortrexable]

I've been called lazy and unmotivated for many years when I was in school up until highschool because I have trouble concentrating for long periods of time and it became really hard for me to attempt or invest myself in anything because I kept running away from things that looked to difficult or time consuming and basicly killed my drive to do anything constructive up until a few months ago when I started to learn to draw.
I had tried to do it a few years back but stopped when it became to hard like I did before. I realize that the self doubt and the voice in my head telling me to give up and go do something else is not my own and I've been having a hard time stopping it. I fell into addiction and depression for a long time cause I didn't know what to do and I still feel moments where I might slip back in them but learning to draw has really been a way for me to prove to myself that I'm not lazy, that I'm not unmotivated. I listen to a lot of your videos when I draw and thank you so much for them. They've really helpt me in some bad times when that voice telling me to give up was the loudest.

[on]

I leave most of my drawings unfinished because I always think that they don't look good enough and after I actually complete a drawing it doesn't take long until all I see in that piece is only what I consider to be flaws, so when I show them to my friends and they say something positive I always tell them that they really good and other people would of made something much better. I can't really remember the last time I actually stopped and thought that what I made looked good, that probably is why I find myself drawing less nowadays. I quitted the architecture highschool I went to because I thought that I am not as creative as the others and that most of them were much better suited for this than I was but now that i think about it nobody told me this, I was the one thinking like this. This video was verry helpful, it made me open my mind.

[Jurgoroth]

Thx for the video again!
Reminded me of this great quote:
“I am not what I think I am, and I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am.”
- Charles Cooley

[vey_]

I used to mock myself how bad I am at drawing and start questioning myself why do I start picking up art rather than studying for a better life, and I'm still doing it. But thats how I really get better and better and better, and now I realize why I pick up drawing.

People have different feelings for why they pick up or start drawing, but for me I do it for what we can do by drawing. I can convey a lot of feelings without speaking, with just a person standing in edge of a mountain looking a really beautiful scenery can convey thousand of feelings like love, sadness, adventurous, nostalgic, etc.

I really don't know why I'm posting this, but I just really want to say it. But just remember we walk through the same pain but with a different reason. Don't hate yourself because you're bad, love yourself because you're growing.

[ts]

You're the only person to ever say these things to me and I hurts so much. I can't stop the tears

[ElizahMendoza]

Adam: "I hope it didn't get too heavy today."

Me: (literally crying) well, it did

[Edyorke]

This is probably the most valuable message I have ever heard about being an artist. Thank you.

[DeriazIronfist]

"There's not a god damned thing wrong with you." "Have some compassion for yourself." "Art is something you're never going to completely master -- that's not the point." So many gosh heckin' good quotes in here...


Thanks, Adam. I'm glad YouTube pointed me here. With this quarantine, I haven't been able to see my therapist, and it's been getting rough on me mentally, but everything you've said here in this video have been topics me and my therapist have been going over. It's incredibly moving to hear it, specifically HEAR it and not just see it written on Twitter or something. And not only from another human being, but from an artist of your talent.


In college, for four years, when I was just learning my fundamentals and trying to find my path, I was continually berated from multiple angles. That I was indecisive, that my interests were too broad, that a goal I may have picked or an artist I did a presentation on wasn't "good enough", and that the projects I would make for homework or for finals weren't deep enough or "too illustrative". After years of that, you can imagine how much I appreciate the story at the beginning of "they begin to think that about themselves", because it's something I struggle with almost a decade later. I'm only now starting to find the confidence to shrug that stuff off, and figure out what I want to do for -me-, rather than for my peers or for some imaginary standard of "good enough". There's still fear, of course, but I'm taking those steps.


But I end a lot of my work days berating myself, or finding myself mid-painting each day suddenly hating my colors, my brushwork, my composition, anything and everything, like the nitpicky college critiques. I never thought that it might be learned from hearing it constantly from others throughout school; I just figured it was how everyone approached art if it was being told to me in an educational setting. You can't hear inside another artist's head, yeah? So it just... Never occurred to me that I was being disgusting to myself. That that isn't necessarily normal. So thank you. Sincerely. Thank you.


I know this maybe doesn't need to be said in a comment this ramble-y, especially maybe not in a YouTube setting, but I wanted to add myself to the pile of comments saying thank you. I have a lot to think about thanks to you. And I will try to be more compassionate to myself. And to this painting I better get back to. Keep up the great work; I'll be keeping an eye out for more videos~ Cheers.

[Dozer]

I literally cried when you started "color dodging" me at the end...This video, It's like it was recorded for me personally. Having someone actually saying something about these clouds in my head really helps a lot. (The "fear of hurting someone" one was especially huge.) Thank you, Adam.

[Darksideava]

"have some compassion for yourself"
I will, I'll try

[AtelierLinty]

You really are an artistic lifesaver. The encouragement you put out is touching so many. Thank you.
I don't have people that really understand making art, insecurity and the things I care about. Listening to your video's is like advice from a friend.

[Angel.bomb]

Never thought I would actually cry, currently going through a few things personally and I can not talk to anyone about it. But in all honesty, most people tend to think of themselves as imperfect, or just monstrous when in reality they are the opposite. You should never take yourself for granted as well, all of you have such beautiful minds and you need to know that. ;)