Artistic Motivation and Perseverance - Just like magnets, how the fuck do they work?

[Hypodermic Johnny]

So, I know the only way anyone gets better at art is through four million years of practice.

"Draw every day and eventually you'll improve!"
"You don't even have to make a finished piece; just doodle if you can!"
"*JUST DO IT! Shia LeBouef noises*"

And barring overdoing it and turning your art into quickie Parple Kekkles-esque slop, that sentiment is generally true.

But how do people manage to actually get that perseverance/motivation to draw started?

I'm old. I mean, I'm in my 20's and I know my art skill level's not at all where it could/should be, even for just a hobbyist (who might want to make a little scratch on the side every now and again). I don't want to go to art school even if I could afford it, I don't want art to be my job, I just want to have fun drawing. But somehow even without the pressures of professionalism, I rarely, if ever, do.

Thing is though, I used to. In high school I drew almost every day. Was it any good? Christ, no, but at least I did it. I had fun with it even if it was garbage.

Now I've lost all motivation and drive. I desperately want to draw, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't know if it's fear of ridicule due to aforementioned lacking skills or a symptom of a larger problem (I've been losing my enthusiasm for a lot of things lately and have come down with what I call a bad case of 'WHOGAF' or 'Who gives a fuck?').

So I pose a question to my fellow artKiwis on the Farms here: How do you deal with losing your artistic drive? How do you get it back? How do you keep it going?

 

[Somsnosa]

For my personal experience, what helped me the most in the darkest times (I left my broken wacky cartoony stuff, learned basic anatomy but then didn't know where to go and drew shlob I hated) was discovering new inspirations. I used to think I only needed cartoons and comics since that I what I want to do; then I learned to be open to all forms of art and found new mentors in all fields. Painting, cinema, music, literature, sculpture, cuisine, architecture; I tried them all, and absorbed some names. Mostly from documentaries

An helpful excersise is to hand draw patterns, with a pen on cheap paper. Stars, flowers, or imaginary shapes; practices consistency and gets your hand used to the mechanism of drawing.

A fun one is to make simple abstract pictures like Motherwell's taking colors from random photos or other paintings. I do it with Fortunato Depero's pictures quite often. It's an exercise for color contrast and combination

 

[Tragi-Chan]

Writing is more my thing, so I don't know how useful this will be, but...

I think working according to inspiration is a bad idea. What's important is to work even if you don't feel inspired. Inspiration will come if you let it - you just have to get started. My ways of dealing with a creative block are:

1. If possible, set yourself deadlines. I discovered this while writing for theatre, where there was a definite date by which the script had to be finished - as the date became imminent, I found waiting for inspiration to strike just wasn't going to cut it, sat down and started writing. The end result was the best thing I ever wrote. If there's no externally imposed date, I generally get sympathetic friends on board. Tell them I'll let them read my script on [X date].

2. Work in a distraction-free environment. Go to a pub or a cafe or just anywhere where you can start working, as long as it's not somewhere where friends are likely to come in. Don't connect to the wi-fi. With nothing to do but work, it becomes a lot easier to get work done.

 

[Mantequilla]

Like Jammie Hewlett said, "always draw, or design, or create from the things that excite you, not from what you think should be inspiring you".
Draw whatever makes you happy and it doesn't matter what age you are, there's time to keep learning and becoming better.

Make friends who are artists, show them your work, put it online, ask for critiques, draw whenever you want, draw different things and take breaks. If you want to do it, don't be afraid and just go with it, I'm sure you'll do great.

 

[DatBepisTho]

I went from drawing something every day in class to maybe drawing like once ever three months. I think my motivation is shot mostly because I no longer have stretches of time between classes.
I found trying to draw in a different style keeps things fresh, but ultimately fucks with your ability to be consistent if you don't devote time to getting them mastered before you move on.

 

[Chiang Kai-shek]

First I'm actually in the same boat as you. But one thing you need to do is look back at your old art. Not a few days ago or even a week ago but in terms of months (yes plural) and years. Allow me to demonstrate:

Spoiler: Two years ago

Spoiler: A month or so ago

(Admittedly I think I should be better but that's a different subject). Art takes time and it can be mentally painful. Second remember you're not alone. Every artist worth their salt has these problems. It's a bit of a paradox really we're all different with different experiences yet we all go through the same thing one or another. Third just fuck up. Like screw up and learn from it. It is hard to do but everything important in life is not easy. That's all I got hope it helps.

 

[Euphues Evenlede]

Inspiration is for cucks.

A third-grader's stick figure portrait could be "inspired," but that wouldn't make it better than a well-practiced commercial artist who works solely to get paid.

Doing something as a hobby is fine. In fact amateurs can improve a craft by stepping outside the boundaries imposed by market forces and finding those areas of the craft that have been left untilled. As a hobbyist your prime motivation would presumably be an inherent enjoyment you have for the craft. Your difficulty in drawing could come from a lack of enjoyment. Or it could come from Nihilism. I don't know. But if something isn't fun, it's probably going to be pretty difficult to rationalize spending your recreational time doing it. That's a problem only you can solve, and sometimes the solution is to find a new hobby.

BUT, if you are committed to drawing, the best suggestion I can give is to set aside a particular time tomorrow to draw. It can be fifteen minutes, or it can be an hour. The point is just write down a block of time where you will be drawing. Then when that time comes, turn off the television/computer/ebook reader or whatever would be likely to distract you, and sit down in a particular place to draw. Like some of the above posts suggested, you could even walk to a nearby park or drive to a library or other quiet place to work. Spend the entire time you allotted with your work, even if you get nothing done. After that time, set up a new time for the next day, and repeat the process. Eventually something should break and you should be able to get to work and proceed with whatever plan you have for improvement.

The key word there being should.

If, after all that, and several days of trying, you still cannot bring yourself to draw, you really should consider finding a new pastime.

 

[John Furrman]

First, I have a few ground rules when it comes to approaching art. Most of them I've gleaned from other artists over the years.

1. Always try to surprise oneself. - If I'm not surprised by what I am making, it isn't done yet or it will never be worth showing other people.
2. Lie to tell the truth. - Make things appear better than the reality that inspired them.
3. God is in the details.
4. Don't worry about trying to be original. - Everything has already been done in one way or another. If you worry too much about differentiating yourself you'll have less time and energy for actually practicing and enjoying the process. in other words...

Second, find a medium that interests you. I prefer digital art because of how cheap, quick, and versatile it is to produce. The only monetary investments made by me to do it were a drawing tablet and the PC to draw it with. I didn't make any art for almost a year there between early 2015 and mid 2016, what got me re-engaged was buying a new drawing tablet so I could make digital art again for the first time in over two years.

Third, you have to force yourself to draw, even when you don't want to make anything. This is how you get better. Even if it's just 15 minutes a day.

Especially don't worry about being original if you are stuck in a rut. Just force yourself to draw something that at least challenges you on a regular schedule. This is the most difficult and most important part.

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

tbh I always favored the method of "find a piece of art that I like from somebody else and try to redraw it."

I never post these drawings anywhere, and they generally look like crap, and nothing like the original picture, but it always gave me something to work with. Sometimes I would try to draw it from memory and get it as close as possible to the original. Sometimes I would attempt a style change, like taking a hyper-detailed landscape and making it flat and cartoony and visa versa.

:powerlevel: I have face blindness so drawing people is always a difficult fucking time because I forget what people look like with proper proportions. I can't imagine a face, which makes drawing them hard. It's a blow to the confidence, lemme tell ya. I look at people drawing these cool sketches like @PortsideDave do and wonder "Why the fuck can't I do that?" :powerlevel: But it's not healthy for me to be concerned with how other people are doing all the time. If I draw a picture that has a steadier line quality than the last one, I improved, and that's pretty good. Don't discount the little things you do better.

Real advice: if you want to get better at something, set aside an hour and do allow yourself to do anything but it. There are times when I'm writing where I tell myself something like "I am not allowed to get out of this chair until I've typed at least X% of this chapter." And then I stick to it. By giving myself an arbitrary rule, I ensure that I at least do something, even if it's not my real goal. A lot of the time, I end up doing more than what I planned because I get really into it.

Like Jammie Hewlett said, "always draw, or design, or create from the things that excite you, not from what you think should be inspiring you".

I fucking love Jamie Hewlett's art. No matter how weird he gets it's always interesting to me. You can see the evolution in his work. And he's right. In one of my college drawing classes we had to do still lifes, and I was inspired by one shot of a d6 visible from a squatting position. It was sitting on an overturned bowl with fabric over it and when I squatted it sat under a hammer handle that was sticking up. It looked really cool. (Every try to draw for days on end squatting? Owwww) It's a pretty weird fucking thing to be inspired by.

Also yeah, @John Furrman is right, find the right medium. I can't do digital to save my life, painting is my mortal enemy, I adore working with ink pens and sometimes black markers for thicker lines.

 

[Somsnosa]

Inspiration is unavoidable though. No human being is capable of creating something out of nothing. If you want to improve you gotta look around you, so you might as well guide yourself

 

[Azafran90]

I just kept working until someone liked it.
Like, I'm far from being popular on DA, but a friend once drew fanart of my shity comic for my birthday and that has been motivating me when I feel like nobody cares.

I know that in theory I shouldn't do art for others, but I just do. Art is for the people.

 

[Trilby]

I will say being motivated to doing something artistically can be a challenge when you've got a block. I find myself in this rut time after time.

 

[The Fool]

A big motivator for me was making a webcomic. Kind of forced me to draw, and I started to want to draw my characters more. It was indeed practice but it didn't feel that way, I felt I was actually doing a real thing and not just grinding my way to progress. It was just an all-around good motivator for me.

Of course you actually have to try and improve and always redraw things or else you'll be like OPL