PSA - Artwork isn't competition!

This may sound ranting but let's start from the top here.

Jealousy... a lot of people have been talking about this. With me, not with me, on journals, etc etc. It's not just one or two people. It's a bunch of people having issues with this and it's about time I spoke up with my own crazy experiences and ideas here.

Jealousy IS a natural human emotion. It exists. You can't destroy it forever. But you shouldn't let it control you.

I have theories to what's causing the big issue here: and I'm pretty sure it's it's either popularity or drawing ability.

-------------------------------
First off... Popularity

If you are drawing for yourself, read this:

• If you draw on here, it's most likely you are drawing for yourself. And this is perfectly fine! Draw for yourself. Love it! Find that passion that YOU are enjoying your stuff.
• If you draw for yourself, you should NEVER be worried about hits or favorites. Hits and favorites and watchers are just numbers. Art for fun is subjective, not an RPG!  That hit number is not a statistical point counter that shows how much EXP you get to level up in the art world. You shouldn't even think about using it to measure how you are as an artist.
• So in turn... you shouldn't try to force people to help you get hits. Kiriban are perfectly fine to do as a thank you, and I won't make fun of people for using them. But never abuse them or string people along with them like a carrot just to make yourself look cool. Having a few good friends near you that talk with you and enjoy your stories and characters are worth 100+ of those people who are hammering on the refresh key to see you draw. And I'll bet my headphones that you're going to feel better about yourself when you draw (even randomly or as a surprise gift for a friend) for those few good friends than for just some random person who is striving to hit a magical number on your hit counter.
• EDITED/ADDED: No one's a perfect artist, so you can always improve. Improving yourself is a good short or long term goal to work towards. You are completely free to decide what to improve, just never think you're unable to learn.
  

If you are drawing for profit, read this:

• If you aren't happy with your incoming commission list or sales. You need to buckle down, be honest with yourself, and "change". This isn't a radical idea, this is marketing. The rule of the game is demographic: You NEED to draw what they want to see. You can't force someone to like your work, but you can appeal to what they want to see. This also includes, but is not limited to evolving your work by improving on line style, anatomy, perspective, developing new drawing techniques and styles, learning to draw from life and realism, programs, etc etc...
  
• The hit counter is a tool to help you. If you fake it, it's like falsifying information. The hit counter is useful for seeing what you're doing right and wrong, just don't abuse it. Never fake popularity to make yourself look better. Don't use those websites that say "I'll give you hits if you give me $5". Don't do anything to give yourself a false sense of superiority over other people. It "could" come back to you later as part of some crazy karma thing and cause more harm than good.
  
• Focus on finding the problem and improving on said problem! Trust me. This is important.
• You can't put a price on everyone's art to compare it to your own price. Art is subjective. A fair price for your work is what you think it's worth initially, then adjusted to fit your audience. If people aren't buying, you are either charging too much, or you aren't selling to the right demographic. Likewise, if you have too many people buying at once, then you are underpricing yourself and lowering your own self worth on your art.
  
• Intelligently self sacrifice your time when you absolutely need to. Heck, we all self sacrifice to make ourselves happy for a BIG project or goal. If you aren't pushing yourself, you aren't putting your heart into its success, and therefore you sure aren't crafting something awesome. Try something different even or just practice! Paper is cheap, and layers and files in a graphic program are free.
  

Make sure your clients are happy. If they aren't happy, you don't eat. Be humble about your work and strive to be better. If you're drawing for yourself and fun, KEEP that fun in your heart and don't let anyone tell you differently.
Mewsha says it best: Respect time. Time wasted on worrying about others is time that could have been used to improve yourself... or even to rest/relax to prepare for that next project.

-------------------------------

Second... this should be a bit quicker... Art drawing ability.

Are you jealous of someone else's ability to draw?
Then be willing to learn, experiment and practice.

No. That's it. I'm serious. Don't give an excuse. I'm not hassling you.
Find that itch to want to improve and do it. Don't spend your time in depression where you'll be stuck in a mood where people will pity you. That won't help you!
If you ever get into the "I can't do it." That falls into the Lina Inverse theory about: You always have a 1% chance of something succeeding, when you give up or have a severe doubt about it working then that becomes a 0% chance.
(Of course this doesn't apply to impossible things... like flapping your arms and expecting to hover off the ground... so don't try to troll me with something like that)
So back on topic: Drawing better is something you CAN do. It's just you need to will yourself to want to do it. Even to the point of: you want something so bad you'll do anything to achieve it.
THAT... is passion. The want to get better is a fine goal and something that you will be proud of once you finally do it.

But being jealous of someone's ability to draw isn't the way to handle that emotion.

Talk to that person that you are envious of. Be friendly! Ask them how they learned to draw perspective perfectly. Or how they created that background. Or how to properly draw that reverse joint leg. Or just chat up small talk with them if they're capable of it.

The point here is that if you have issues with envy on drawing ability, the worst thing you can do is to sit back and let it ruin your life.

-------------------------------


And without me looking like: "I'm Thiridian and I'm superior..."... which seriously. I'm not trying to be. I have SOME experience here in this matter, and I'm not perfect. BUT I do think that somewhere in something I said there is some truth to look into.

Let me rattle off some last things here:

Minor thing: my question from a while back about "Why was my 3-d Animation not popular at all?" was because I'm still tweaking my path through my BFA for animation, and my Evellee animation here is at a very odd low view count in my gallery. And I was at the crossroads in my major of... "3D or 2D"?  And if my 3D doesn't seem like a viable path, then I should go 2D, but there's more jobs 3D... But am I 3D material? So, I had to check to see of what others thought about it.


This is more important: Honestly, I was jealous of a lot of things at one time. I let it consume me. I let it keep me from doing ANYTHING. I sat there at my monitor staring... and just like "Am I just unlikable?" What am I doing wrong?
Seriously, at that time... I let it wreck my life. I had days where I came home and did NOTHING.
No gaming, no drawing, and no school.
And it came from the fact that I wasn't looking from the right perspective about drawing, characters, how the audience reacts, what people want to see, everything! In short... I was naive to the truth on how things are.
Being a lover of catgirls, I found Mewsha, who told me about her axiom, and I used that to overcome my problems. I trust the kitty, and I'm better for it.


I'm here to hopefully give everyone that "HEY! Wake up!" message that this thing CAN be overcome. Not eliminated, but you can logically reason with yourself on it and make it where you can manage it.

You can find your own special person, kitty, elf, dragon, or WHATEVER thing code, axiom, law, or way to just keep yourself in control of your body.
Find what you love, don't be a fake, and be the stronger person.