JaxPad Forum Topic - Anxiety and Art: Your Thoughts

Comrade Dizzy

Sun, 25 May 2008 03:23:58 -0000

I never had that anxiety when it comes to perfection, but some of my friends do. One time, I commented on a friends drawing that was, in my sight, perfect, and I quote her "No way, it sucks. *Insert long list of things that went 'wrong' with the picture here*." It's never affected the way I draw, but it sure buggs me how she wasn't proud of her art. Come to think of it, I do have some anxiety when it comes to drawing eyes. Wether a character will look angry, sleepy, or drunk is totally up to how I hold the pencil, and it freaks me out!

kitsukami

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:59:23 -0000

My type of anxiety is more of a "you suck compared to pretty much everyone else on this little blue and green planet." I just feel completely inadequate, and because of that, I rarely finish anything I start. A big way, though, that helps relieve anxiety is random doodling. My only truly finished piece (which may have the axe taken to it pretty soon) is the one currently in my gallery. After a few minutes or so, I would find that my art program would botch a layer I was trying to make, or I would completely butcher the anatomical correctness of my character. So I would grab my little notebook and start doodling. Just anything that came to mind or sight. I would walk around my house, sketch and/or cuddle my cat, and come back to my work later, feeling a little more confident. I think the biggest part of overcoming anxiety may just be letting yourself go. A friend of mine (she's a fantastic artist and my art guru) suggested that instead of sketching with pencil, sketch with a pen. You can't erase it, so you're forced to live with it. The more you practice letting yourself make mistakes, the easier it becomes to accept them. I'm still struggling with it, but I believe it has helped me a lot.

Wulffrith

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:12:39 -0000

Hmmm...I can say that I don't have this problem. At least not anywhere near the extent that others here have it. I do sometimes feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless white that is a blank sheet of paper...but that's just because I don't always know how to get my ideas out. I've found that being in the right frame of mind (I don't know how to describe it, so I'll just go with what was said earlier and say it's being "in the zone") and forcing myself to block out basic shapes usually corrects this. I do sometimes get frustrated when I sketch and sketch and just can't seem to get something to look right, but I don't really consider this anxiety. I find that a good way to keep from being a perfectionist is to draw in pen. I know that I can't erase the mistakes, so I have to live with them. I've made quite a few sketches that I like that I would have abandoned had I drawn in pencil.

street jaguar

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:52:03 -0000

Anxiety lately has been "I want to do this but I have x projects due like.. tomorrow" for college :P Which is great, certainly learn to push some amazing work out, but I can't wait til the semester ends and I have the summer to catch up on personal work. I think when I'm not making something or really conceptualizing about something, I don't feel entirely 'whole' in general. I like to be busy. I used to feel this was crippling because the only art I did for a long time was visual 2D illustration.. now that I've opened up the doors with other materials, I never feel like I'm stuck because I can always change my materials or change the setting, etc etc.

Aurora

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:14:00 -0000

My anxiety is directly related to time. I feel like I'm an extremely slow artist and that it takes me much longer to draw something that looks nice or passable than other artists. It became very apparent to me at FC when sketches were flying around and I was taking twice as long to draw than everyone else. Maybe it's that perfectionist attitude. I'll erase and redraw parts of a sketch 20 times until it looks right if I have to, and anxiety stems from not being able to get it right at the first or second re-draw. I suppose it will get better with time and practice, but for now it's a hindrance.

Feather Dancer

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:05:23 -0000

I've found a get away from my own personal OMG PHAIL when it comes to working out character designs, revamp or whatever the heck else I'm up to, do them tiny in my already small doodle pad. It works because I always use biro but I'm getting a feel via scribbles and since so few people look at them I feel I can make a total botch of it and not have to worry. Course on the big screen I'll be likely mauling what I'm doing, heck it took me a week before I was satisfied with the Notalope's shoudler and wing arm on that ref pic. Just wasn't happy with it but it's also letting me do my favourite thing which is meshing so kinda worked out :) Doing someting completely random usually helps me a lot when I'm having a/head desk going on or the scanner chewed yet another document at work. Heck, thanks to that I discovered drawing moles is actually exceedingly fun. I tend to trick myself with improvements as well, mean my humanoid anatomy is utterly awful so I "sidestepped" the whole thing by tackling humanoid anatomy via anthromorphics or random designs so I'm forcing msyelf to learn it without the freaking out because it's purely human. Swear I have to try and stay a few steps ahead of myself otherwise I'll spend more time wasting on something I know I can't get to work at that present moment. :D

Vizon

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:54:58 -0000

KoOkY! said: So we all have this problem to some degree or another but.....what's the solution?? :) Just tell the little voice in your head to shut up and take a stab anyway at drawing some species you never drew before, trying some new coloring method, or drawing pages and pages of hands?? :P One thing that's helped me lately is simply coming to grips with the fact that if I'm going to try to do something new, it's going to come out horrible the first several dozen times, but it WILL get better. Imperceptibly at first, but does happen and not to be afraid to fall flat on your face trying new things.

Well said.

KoOkY!

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:35:16 -0000

So we all have this problem to some degree or another but.....what's the solution?? :) Just tell the little voice in your head to shut up and take a stab anyway at drawing some species you never drew before, trying some new coloring method, or drawing pages and pages of hands?? :P One thing that's helped me lately is simply coming to grips with the fact that if I'm going to try to do something new, it's going to come out horrible the first several dozen times, but it WILL get better. Imperceptibly at first, but does happen and not to be afraid to fall flat on your face trying new things.

Vizon

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:31:36 -0000

Well goodness Thorn, if you're lacking in confidence we DO need to get together for a sketch-a-thon. One sketch session with me and ALLLL your confidence will return because I rarely get anything right the first time. I live by the undo tool and erasers, and heck if I'm drawing on the same page as you (or even the same room) I think I'd feel stressed enough that it'd all be crap. Ha ha ha! You'd feel the pro you are in the first 10 minutes. :P

Thornwolf

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:10:36 -0000

To all of you who get anxious about the opinions of others, I totally feel you. Sometimes even when I ask for critique on a piece I'm really excited about, I find that when people point out /so much/ wrong with the image that I would essentially have to do it over, I just end up abandoning it. I don't know if it's an ego thing or what. It's gotta be. Its like, I'm not pleased with the style/skill its done in after people point it out that I just go "well..I cant really do better than that, oh well, in the bin it goes". I know there's a lot of things about my art that people probably just /can't stand/. Heck I have stuff I can't stand about other people's art but I try to tell them how to improve (if they ask for it or are open, otherwise I bite my tongue). Stuff they wouldn't dream about telling me for whatever reason or another. I've had quite a few times where people were nice to my face but mocked my art in secret to their little friends, accusing me of this and that and the other thing based on the content of what I drew (nevermind if it was commissioned, a fun piece, or whatever) but yanno if something about my art bothers you /that much/, why not tell me what it is so I can improve it? Someone pointed out that I draw a lot of things facing left, so I tried to fix that! I'm not one of those people who's like "no I won't change" or "its my styuuuuul", but its still the fear of that kinda keeps me from finishing a lot anymore. Not to mention, and this is the big one, if it doesn't come out how it looks in my head, I get incredibly discouraged and feel like I'm worse of an artist than I am, that my hands are incapable of communicating well enough with my brain that I should just give up. Then there's also all these historical pieces I want to draw...SO BAD...but I know in my heart of hearts I'll finish a piece and someone will point out a historical flaw like "they didn't use that style of button in the middle ages" or something that will just shatter me. Stupid little thing, I know, but...I can't help but feel that unless I do an /excessive/ amount of research on it I'll fail and feel bad about it, but that kind of research is just too much to do so I end up just..sitting there. Artless. Kind of like the other day, I almost ended up /not/ drawing that sketch of Sleipnir because in my head I was thinking "Thorn, don't even bother drawing a horse because there are so many other people out there who draw horses WAY BETTER than you and knowing you you'll probably mess up a major muscle and it will be blatant and people will point it out and you'll just feel worse. Unless you can draw it perfect the first time, don't try." Very destructive I know. I have a lot more insecurities about this sort of thing but perhaps I've whined enough for one forum post.

legathin

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:04:42 -0000

wow Im happy this is here its very good to know that im not alone.

KoOkY!

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:42:16 -0000

The thing I'm most afraid of is hitting my ceiling as far as improving on my artwork. Like getting to a point where I'm at the very limits of my ability and no matter how much further I might practice, I won't be able to improve. Everyone has a ceiling I think. I know I could practice every day for the rest of my life and never hit the level of like Boris Vallejo, just as an example. So I worry that my ceiling is going to turn out to be a lot lower than I'd like. :P Bit of a pessimistic view I guess, but still it's realistic.

Feather Dancer

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:51:05 -0000

I just seem to be having a slight "art crisis" again myself, less being unable to put anything and more hating myself for barely any improvement in a couple of years, if anything getting worse :S I go through these phases quite a bit, not really hating the artwork it's self but more my lack of ability with the so called basics and rag at myself for a few weeks before I calm down again. Artwork, just like writing is a love hate relationship :D

KoOkY!

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:41:07 -0000

Hehe. Yeah I think lotta people get that feeling. It is intimidating sometimes looking at a blank piece of paper because I know if I try drawing something, and it goes badly, that I'll be up for hours in a pissy mood over it. :P Solution that kinda works for me though is the warm up sketches. Even if I'm just doodling cubes and spheres or something. Just anything to get my hand moving.

linacrow

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:49:51 -0000

Oh god, I have art anxiety bad. I'll find myself staring at a blank piece of paper, with nothing coming to mind. Nothing I sketch turns out good so I get into this self-hating mode. "You can't draw, who are you kidding? You should just die, YOU SHOULD JUST DIE!" It gets kinda scary. 0.o

thegreymirror

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:10:21 -0000

So I googled "anxiety and art" and came to this thread. It is a little comforting to know that I'm not the only person who has this problem. For me I've always had a bit of a problem w/ anxiety, but for the most part I've been able to over come my anxiety through lots of time and therapy. Though anxiety seems to hit me hard every time I go to sit down and work on some art. I really don't know what the problem is, because I love art. But the anxiety will get so bad, that all I'll want is it to go away, so I'll end up laying in my bed in the fetal position w/ my lights off, which is the only thing that really seems to work. But then I'll end up falling asleep for a few hours. And while I do wake up refreshed most of the time, I'm also extremely upset at myself for failing to do something as simple as create art. I cant really pin point the exact reason for this anxiety... its just like when I sit down to work my mind starts wondering, and it just starts thinking about all kinds of negative things. I mean, I do certainly have some defiant ideas as to why I'm having this anxiety. For starters I'm a perfectionist. And I think I'm just putting too much pressure on myself, because my goal is to turn my art into a profession. I'm trying to strive for greatness. So ok, lets say these are my problems w/ anxiety and art. Now what? Do I just practice trying to control my thoughts, and my anxiety? I feel so crippled. :( I've also started a thread on the same subject here.. http://www.furaffinityforums.net/showthread.php?tid=17083

Tigress

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:01:08 -0000

Coffee Fossa said: "Call it anxiety-perfectionism-chaos. This anxiety usually results in some pieces coming out well, and others turning out...where I know I could do a lot better (case in point, the shirt on my Halloween Fossa sketch). Or others where I'm too stressed or worried to start, or where I end up 'overdoing' it." "... [chaos] tends to gather from looking at the sheer, happy possibility of a blank piece of paper." "I enjoy art. I enjoy creating it, even when I'm stressed. However, this anxiety-perfectionism-chaos is a real barrier."

Oh my, you've summed it up for me perfectly. It happens in this order for me: 1) Blank canvas evoking extreme excitement of possibilities and achievement. 2) Fear of failing to produce and idea or result grand enough to match the non-specific idea of perfection and wonder in my expectant mind. 3) Idea and performance impotency; nothing comes out of my head right/ 4) Frustration, disappointment and utter self-loathing for major suckage and epic failage. 5) Groundwork laid for repeating similar behavior next time. Add to that the desire for other people to connect to and like my work. I have so many blank canvases and sketchbooks because of self-fulfilling prophesy like that. I just know so bad that I'll fail that I stress myself out to the point that the ideas and work don't flow. The work then reflects my mental and emotional stage: broken, strained, unbalanced, awkward and disjointed. I can hyper focus too and it seems my best works come about when I do, but what happens to me, is a burn out. I get tired and frustrated of it taking so god awe full long and I begin to see my slowness as a lack of mastering the skills and technique (which is is). So basically, I get mad at myself for not being "good" enough or "perfect" enough yet. Like, "Why do I still suck with lighting? I see no improvement." Etc What make sit worse, is i KNOW I can do better. =\ It's so hard to break out of that self-abusive mind set once you're neck deep in it. The only way I've been able to work out of it is to get to the point that I just don't care. I'm doodling and drawing and painting and creating for me, and no one else. Painting wildlife does it really well for me because it's something I do for myself. Actually critiques help me a GREAT deal also because, like I mentioned, I can't tell if I'm improving or not. I can, but I can only see it in leaps and bounds. Other people are more able to see the subtleties. That goes for the mistakes as well. It helps me improve to hear what other people have to say.

K'sharra

Wed, 02 May 2007 06:04:30 -0000

Vizon said: Oh and when I'm taking figure drawing classes my stuff is always tons better (of course), but then it regresses again once the class is over. At least it seems to. I always feel like things would be so much easier if I had a little posable muscle man...like with rubber muscles that stretch and contract. Those wooden dummy figures are junk. They can't even do a fetal pose. My Spiderman action figure does better.

Do a search on eBay for "Material Force" action figures. They're toys made in Japan, about 3.5" tall, but they're far superior to the wooden dummies (which I use for decoration now LOL). They come in male and female, of different muscular builds (slight, medium, and built/stacked), and they're a LOT more flexible and poseable. They also come with interchangeable hands in different poses.

K'sharra

Wed, 02 May 2007 05:57:48 -0000

I have coloring anxiety. I love the process of sketching and inking, but for some reason, fear grips me when I move to color. Like I'm going to completely ruin the piece and have to start over from scratch. It always turns out just fine (except these two pics that I was trying a new technique on that completely BOMBED), but I'm always terrified for some reason. I'm also having some serious anxiety about this painting that I've got drawn out on illustration board. I haven't done a painting since my year of art school, 6 years ago. ^^; I just can't seem to bring myself to lay paint to board... I'm considering getting a few cheap paint-by-numbers pics to practice handling a brush again and work up some confidence. So I'm not ruining something totally original. *JUST now came up with that idea*

Coffee Fossa

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:03:26 -0000

I have the same problem, Redfeather. My closet is filled with them, and when I moved, I left some of them behind. I think the "not finishing" is a universal thing--I try to look at them as "potential backgrounds" for other pieces. IE, some lines and color are there, and if used carefully they can enrich the piece going atop them. :) I really appreciate the suggestion to listen to music. I will try that and see how it goes. Hrm...ArtSpots radio, anyone? ;) Thank you all for sharing your thoughts on this. Amara, I don't know how you do it!