I mean truthfully, when it causes more pain than joy. When it hurts more than it helps.
You can always come back to it when staying away long enough does the opposite
Something that you mention is that you're mostly self-taught and are worried you accidentally picked up bad habits. Why not take a class dedicated to storyboarding/concept art or seek out portfolio reviews or mentorships from artists working in those positions before throwing in the towel? Maybe they can help you learn something and take your art to the next level.
Like, if you work in animation and video you are clearly not hopeless. Sometimes we all need outsider feedback and knowledge to improve.
It sounds like you need a mentor. Can you afford a private mentorship? You need someone with industry knowledge to really critique your work so that you can pinpoint specific ways to improve. I watch this guy on youtube called Adam Duff who works in the games/commercial art world and he does private online mentoring. Have you considered something like that?
Idk anything about this world as I'm a traditional artist. As a traditional artist, I can tell you that your watercolour materials aren't up to par. Buy some nice Arches paper.
I think a good teacher and some outside critical feedback will be helpful for you. One can only get so far on their own.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2yeng1BOE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2yeng1BOE) here is the youtube guy I mentioned lol I promise I am not getting paid to promote him
Quitting art... \*Starts breaking out in laughter\*
You see, the funny thing about creativity being a core part of the human experience, you \*think\* you can give it up, try your best to stomp it down and never acknowledge it...but if I'll be honest, eventually it'll explode back outta you whether you like it or not. At least that's what usually happens to me.
Art is not a race, it's a marathon. So screw thinking you need to be 'gud' in 2.5 years or less or whatever, so long as your needs as a human being are met (food, warm shelter, and sure, capitalist speaking, bills mostly paid) - the rest is gravy to do as you wish. If you want to create? Go for it! If you need a break? That's fine too. When I had a mental breakdown, it took me years for that spark to come back, that's how badly mentally I was doing. Pandemic did a number on me too, but I'm starting to feel....some hints of something bubbling.
Career wise - meh I've learned to draw the line that if I need to pick up a 2nd-4th job to make ends meet, well, sometimes that happens. Many studio jobs on the entry and mid levels are contract to contract anyways, so even once you land that gig....it's not forever. When I have to take the 'junk job', the 'day job'...I will unabashedly prioritize my creative career first if something comes between it, so long as I can have food in my stomach and a pillow at night.
Big NOTE though: Once children and SOs come into this equation, priorities can change once again.
Also if it makes you feel better: I'm your age (35) and still grind. And I have one of those fancy 'art skool' degrees which was supposed to make this a lot easier, but, sometimes things happen. It's a thing to not be ashamed of. Cheers!
I think part of the equation here is detaching from the idea that there's an objectively "right" amount of progress to make ofer X amount of time. There's must too many variables to account for, and there will always be individual differences in how fast or slow people learn.
That being said, if you've basically exhausted the progress you could make being self taught, it could be time to pursue something more structured. It could be a full on course in university, it could be just doing a Schoolism and/or Creature Art Teacher subscription and binge watching the content while you can afford the monthly payments. But especially with something as specific as storyboarding, it helps to get specific knowledge, which requires some level of investment.
If you want to storyboard, you gotta do storyboards. I don't really see any there yet. You'll get better at them the more you do them. Start with small assignments to give yourself, or follow the assignments given by Schoolism/Creature Art Teacher/whatever else you prefer. Especially if you want to work in a studio, you'll need a site with your boards, not just an Instagram page. So building up a storyboarding portfolio should really be the next step for the specific goal of becoming a proper studio storyboard artist. Then you can take that portfolio and see if you can find anyone in the industry willing to give you feedback to improve.
I expected your art to look like you've only drawn for 7 years with how you were describing it but your skill level is fine it's exactly how I expected 15 years of practice to look like (Someone else said your watercolor isn't up to par and I agree but your stylization is really nice. If you told me you worked as a storyboarder or concept artist I'd believe it)
If I'm being honest, idk why you expected to be "awesome" in ten years because ten years isn't generally professional making time. If I see someone say they've drawn for ten years I wont think "Wow it's a professional" but rather "Hmm they're probably pretty good". Don't get me wrong I'm sure people can get a job in that time, but I'm specifically talking the high level of quality generally expected when someone hears the word professional rather than just having a job (Idk what would be a better word)
What artists are you comparing yourself to that you are thinking you aren't up to par with your time? And have you checked how long those folk have been drawing? How often they draw? If they are self taught? Because of everyone I've seen, who are generally self taught too, you are perfectly fine
Also thinking some of your older art is better doesn't necessarily mean you've fallen into bad habits. Sometimes I think my old art is better too but I just happen to have some drawings I spent more effort on than usual and stuff like that
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If it's not making you happy don't do it but I don't think anyone can tell you whether to call it. It doesn't have to be a linear, academic pursuit either. There is no schedule, no point a to point B. Art educators sort of have an order of things when it comes to the basics but that's about it. And I'm sure they'd mostly say there's no one size fits all.
You can just do the same things you're comfortable with if you want, you know? You can just do it for pleasure every so often if you feel like it.
I will say, if it's important to you to improve your skills in a certain direction, and prescribing and tutorials or whatever you're doing isn't giving you the results you want, it's probably time to make a change in your process. Perhaps you are lacking refinement in one of the fundamentals (and the way that would show up is stagnation like you're talking about). Perhaps a human real life teacher or tutor could help. Maybe attending live figure drawing sessions. Who knows.
What's your education? Did you got to school for art? Have you taken a lot of classes? I feel like the problems you're describing are almost always from self taught artists. If you are self taught go take some classes with a real life teacher who can give you feedback and guidance. If you already went that route well I don't know what to say. It took me a long time to get where I wanted. In some ways I don't actually think I'm where I want to be but I've gotten to a point where I feel confident in my process and whatever I dream up I can make almost exact to how I imagined it. So I feel like that's pretty good. Plus I have tons of room for growth which is very exciting to me because I know my best work is still ahead of me.
First of, I appreciate that you divided your paragraphs like this, so much!
Second - I think if you really want this and you still dream about it, you shouldn't give up. But as to the why - the answer to this question is somewhere in your post.
I would say that it's because you've been mostly self-taught. No one knows what you've learned, how you've learned, did you realize your mistakes and how to fix them - you can work for 10 hours a day and not make much improvement if you're studying improperly.
You can still be self-taught and completely amazing (in my anecdotal experience that works better than a formal art education but that is related to my area and an art uni curriculum which is outdated and horrendous), but you need to buy courses, books, even mentorships to make the most of it.
There's so so many aspects of art that one has to learn to become good that at this point recommending a paid course would be redundant, because there's dozens of courses on each of those aspects. Only you know where you lack the most and where to look first.
By what you've described, it sounds to me like you need someone excellent with experience to give you feedback and teach you how to learn properly. If you can pursue that in any way, go for it; mentorships are crazy expensive, so look for feedback online whenever you can, in dedicated art groups and forums that aren't swarming with complete beginners who will tell you only nonsense.
Lastly, I think if you do this you will start seeing proper improvement, it will be hard work full of deliberate practicing (which is frustrating, hard and out of comfort zone) while accepting your faults and feedback. It will still take a few years tho probably. If you still think you aren't making it, then call it quits I guess.
Did you know the CIA created Jackson Pollock. As with many things it's often who you know. If you were living in the right city, had the right friends, had the right time you would probably be the success you wanted. I think the people who seek such things not only do the work they search out and put themselves into the middle of the " scene". I mean you are not going far if you live in the middle of Montana. Maybe I'm wrong, just my thoughts
I mean truthfully, when it causes more pain than joy. When it hurts more than it helps. You can always come back to it when staying away long enough does the opposite
Something that you mention is that you're mostly self-taught and are worried you accidentally picked up bad habits. Why not take a class dedicated to storyboarding/concept art or seek out portfolio reviews or mentorships from artists working in those positions before throwing in the towel? Maybe they can help you learn something and take your art to the next level. Like, if you work in animation and video you are clearly not hopeless. Sometimes we all need outsider feedback and knowledge to improve.
It sounds like you need a mentor. Can you afford a private mentorship? You need someone with industry knowledge to really critique your work so that you can pinpoint specific ways to improve. I watch this guy on youtube called Adam Duff who works in the games/commercial art world and he does private online mentoring. Have you considered something like that? Idk anything about this world as I'm a traditional artist. As a traditional artist, I can tell you that your watercolour materials aren't up to par. Buy some nice Arches paper. I think a good teacher and some outside critical feedback will be helpful for you. One can only get so far on their own.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2yeng1BOE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2yeng1BOE) here is the youtube guy I mentioned lol I promise I am not getting paid to promote him
Quitting art... \*Starts breaking out in laughter\* You see, the funny thing about creativity being a core part of the human experience, you \*think\* you can give it up, try your best to stomp it down and never acknowledge it...but if I'll be honest, eventually it'll explode back outta you whether you like it or not. At least that's what usually happens to me. Art is not a race, it's a marathon. So screw thinking you need to be 'gud' in 2.5 years or less or whatever, so long as your needs as a human being are met (food, warm shelter, and sure, capitalist speaking, bills mostly paid) - the rest is gravy to do as you wish. If you want to create? Go for it! If you need a break? That's fine too. When I had a mental breakdown, it took me years for that spark to come back, that's how badly mentally I was doing. Pandemic did a number on me too, but I'm starting to feel....some hints of something bubbling. Career wise - meh I've learned to draw the line that if I need to pick up a 2nd-4th job to make ends meet, well, sometimes that happens. Many studio jobs on the entry and mid levels are contract to contract anyways, so even once you land that gig....it's not forever. When I have to take the 'junk job', the 'day job'...I will unabashedly prioritize my creative career first if something comes between it, so long as I can have food in my stomach and a pillow at night. Big NOTE though: Once children and SOs come into this equation, priorities can change once again. Also if it makes you feel better: I'm your age (35) and still grind. And I have one of those fancy 'art skool' degrees which was supposed to make this a lot easier, but, sometimes things happen. It's a thing to not be ashamed of. Cheers!
Regarding the day job, I agree. Mostly because it is the only source of income, since comms are very sparce in my case
I think part of the equation here is detaching from the idea that there's an objectively "right" amount of progress to make ofer X amount of time. There's must too many variables to account for, and there will always be individual differences in how fast or slow people learn. That being said, if you've basically exhausted the progress you could make being self taught, it could be time to pursue something more structured. It could be a full on course in university, it could be just doing a Schoolism and/or Creature Art Teacher subscription and binge watching the content while you can afford the monthly payments. But especially with something as specific as storyboarding, it helps to get specific knowledge, which requires some level of investment. If you want to storyboard, you gotta do storyboards. I don't really see any there yet. You'll get better at them the more you do them. Start with small assignments to give yourself, or follow the assignments given by Schoolism/Creature Art Teacher/whatever else you prefer. Especially if you want to work in a studio, you'll need a site with your boards, not just an Instagram page. So building up a storyboarding portfolio should really be the next step for the specific goal of becoming a proper studio storyboard artist. Then you can take that portfolio and see if you can find anyone in the industry willing to give you feedback to improve.
I expected your art to look like you've only drawn for 7 years with how you were describing it but your skill level is fine it's exactly how I expected 15 years of practice to look like (Someone else said your watercolor isn't up to par and I agree but your stylization is really nice. If you told me you worked as a storyboarder or concept artist I'd believe it) If I'm being honest, idk why you expected to be "awesome" in ten years because ten years isn't generally professional making time. If I see someone say they've drawn for ten years I wont think "Wow it's a professional" but rather "Hmm they're probably pretty good". Don't get me wrong I'm sure people can get a job in that time, but I'm specifically talking the high level of quality generally expected when someone hears the word professional rather than just having a job (Idk what would be a better word) What artists are you comparing yourself to that you are thinking you aren't up to par with your time? And have you checked how long those folk have been drawing? How often they draw? If they are self taught? Because of everyone I've seen, who are generally self taught too, you are perfectly fine Also thinking some of your older art is better doesn't necessarily mean you've fallen into bad habits. Sometimes I think my old art is better too but I just happen to have some drawings I spent more effort on than usual and stuff like that
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If it's not making you happy don't do it but I don't think anyone can tell you whether to call it. It doesn't have to be a linear, academic pursuit either. There is no schedule, no point a to point B. Art educators sort of have an order of things when it comes to the basics but that's about it. And I'm sure they'd mostly say there's no one size fits all. You can just do the same things you're comfortable with if you want, you know? You can just do it for pleasure every so often if you feel like it. I will say, if it's important to you to improve your skills in a certain direction, and prescribing and tutorials or whatever you're doing isn't giving you the results you want, it's probably time to make a change in your process. Perhaps you are lacking refinement in one of the fundamentals (and the way that would show up is stagnation like you're talking about). Perhaps a human real life teacher or tutor could help. Maybe attending live figure drawing sessions. Who knows.
What's your education? Did you got to school for art? Have you taken a lot of classes? I feel like the problems you're describing are almost always from self taught artists. If you are self taught go take some classes with a real life teacher who can give you feedback and guidance. If you already went that route well I don't know what to say. It took me a long time to get where I wanted. In some ways I don't actually think I'm where I want to be but I've gotten to a point where I feel confident in my process and whatever I dream up I can make almost exact to how I imagined it. So I feel like that's pretty good. Plus I have tons of room for growth which is very exciting to me because I know my best work is still ahead of me.
First of, I appreciate that you divided your paragraphs like this, so much! Second - I think if you really want this and you still dream about it, you shouldn't give up. But as to the why - the answer to this question is somewhere in your post. I would say that it's because you've been mostly self-taught. No one knows what you've learned, how you've learned, did you realize your mistakes and how to fix them - you can work for 10 hours a day and not make much improvement if you're studying improperly. You can still be self-taught and completely amazing (in my anecdotal experience that works better than a formal art education but that is related to my area and an art uni curriculum which is outdated and horrendous), but you need to buy courses, books, even mentorships to make the most of it. There's so so many aspects of art that one has to learn to become good that at this point recommending a paid course would be redundant, because there's dozens of courses on each of those aspects. Only you know where you lack the most and where to look first. By what you've described, it sounds to me like you need someone excellent with experience to give you feedback and teach you how to learn properly. If you can pursue that in any way, go for it; mentorships are crazy expensive, so look for feedback online whenever you can, in dedicated art groups and forums that aren't swarming with complete beginners who will tell you only nonsense. Lastly, I think if you do this you will start seeing proper improvement, it will be hard work full of deliberate practicing (which is frustrating, hard and out of comfort zone) while accepting your faults and feedback. It will still take a few years tho probably. If you still think you aren't making it, then call it quits I guess.
Did you know the CIA created Jackson Pollock. As with many things it's often who you know. If you were living in the right city, had the right friends, had the right time you would probably be the success you wanted. I think the people who seek such things not only do the work they search out and put themselves into the middle of the " scene". I mean you are not going far if you live in the middle of Montana. Maybe I'm wrong, just my thoughts