Maybe I might have appreciated my work a little more.

I used to always compare myself to other artists that I would see, artists much older than me, with the training and the experience I didn't have. It didn't seem to matter to me where they came from, just that they where good, and I was not. If I had understood at the time that someday, with perseverance, study and practice, I too might be ask good as they, maybe I might have worked a little harder, studied a little more and not been so down on myself. Now I look back on alot of artists who where my idols, their art saved to my ancient computer in the basement for reference and inspiration, and they really weren't that good, some of them where actually quite bad. At any given time, even if your art sucks to you, it is amazing to someone else.

If it seems like you are not improving at all, maybe it is because you have stopped learning. When people draw the same mistakes over and over, they are simply practicing doing it wrong. Take a moment of study, learn to do it right, even if it is hard, and messes you up now. It won't forever, this was a really hard bridge to cross when I was young, and stubborn, and lazy, and just wanted to do what I felt like at the time. Now I can't wait to learn and study something new and have improved crazy fast in a short period of time for doing so. It will always seem a bit slow, but keep going, and don't be afraid to look at your older works when you're having lows; you don't notice your hair grow, but you can sure see the difference if you look at pictures of yourself months or years after your last cut.

There are many artists I see on DA who simply do not want to make any effort to improve. They lack understanding of what they are drawing, they are simply practicing their mistakes over and over, their art will always look the same (though it might look shinier) for as long as they do this and really, you can't tell them differently. Just let these people be, if you don't have only praise for them, they want nothing to do with you. Most people get over this phaze eventually and begin to mature as artists on their own.

ANYWAYS! My point is, every artist thinks they suck. I think I suck, but it's all relative (going back to paragraph 1). Just remember:

"You don't suck, you just suck right now."



Cheers