Lack of confidence...
 

Towards my creative endeavours. Though people around me say my art is decent I still feel like it's very childish. As if all my practice and hard work hasn't pushed me forwards at all.
Because of this I never put myself forwards. Is there any way to get past this?

I have a confiedence issue when it came to my work as well. When throighout your High School years, practicing your drawing and my art teachers tell you repeatly "You're not that good enough.", "Cartooning isn't art, just doodles." and other degrading quotes. because they favor the ones that win stuff in Art shows because the teachers liked them.

I wanted something in the artshow, but they couldn't because it wasn't good enough for their approval.

On top of that, my mom loves to brag to other people to make her look good, especially when it came to my work. Telling everyone about it, and I get embarassed by it.

So, what I can do is keep it in the closet until I am ready enough or when I know the person well enough to show it to that person and/or confess about it (They never find it by accident such as find me on dA and/or Facebook, so I'm not worried about that). And their indifferent about the "talent" that's been passed down in our family.

My DA is rarely used. And I do post this and that. I just always think it looks childish.

Mine just doesn't look....."well" since everyone has photoshop (which to me an expensive software) and I'm using paint.NET so it looks weird and it usually won't cooperate with the lines I made

Ahh I see. I use GIMP which isn't bad. I just prefer a pencil and paper. But scanners are expensive >.<

My printer comes with a scanner. I perfer for me is actually Bic Markers but when I scan it. it looks weird in the Computer

I found that when I had markers. I had to touch everything up. Not that I don't have to with lineart.

I wish I had Copic Markers, but since thay are so freaking expensive and I have a set of Bic Markers, I can go online for ways to color like Copic using Bic Markers, and I had to buy Flesh color prisma colors and for sine reason it ends up bleeding the lines when I inked them so it ends up with this purplish skin form xP

Lol, that's gotta suck. I had copic markers years ago but once they ran out I didn't have the money for more.

How long did it took for the copic markers to die out?

A couple of months. But back then I was working in full colour and on A3 paper.

I used this poster paper I got a walmart for 5-pack for like 50¢ and the bic worked well to my opinion. I'm not really picky on paper nor the markers as long as they blend well then I'm good

Ahh cool. I use just sketch books and pencils at the moment. That or my graphics tab.

I use computer paper hole punched to a binder so it save me money refilling my sketch binder than to buy more sketch books

I tend to lose pictures that way XD

When my binder gets full I take them out and I place them in those 13 pocket filing book where it's kept there forever

Just keep on practicing. Even if you don't thin kyou improve you actually are. I thought I wasn't improving and I looked at my older sketchbooks and was actaully surprised how much I did improve. Everyone feels like their art isn't getting better sometimes (Like me XD) but even though I think that I still draw and try hard to improve. Practice makes perfect :>

I do :) . I hope this pixeling thing will improve my confidence.

Yeah see :D You can pixel! You should be proud you can do that >W<- Many people can't :>

I know where you're standing, Taiania. Before I went on avatar sites, all I heard was critique and negative comments about my art. My parents are pretty artistic too, and they considered the manga style as something for children. They changed their mind eventually, but I'm glad I was too stubborn to give up drawing just because everyone said that xD I just liked it much more than realistic art. It bored me eventually.

Just don't give up and try to search for the people that share your interests. Because there will always be people that are negative. But that doesn't mean your art is bad. Barely anyone actually even knows what manga is! So who are they to judge? x3

I saw your pixel piece, you've got the skills for beautiful and quality art. You don't have to worry! Draw a lot and don't be scared to take a chance and ruin your piece: the next one will be better.

I can't do pixels to save my life XD

Save your life?

It just means that I can't do pixels at all even when my life depends on it

I'm sure you got something else you're great at ^^ Because trust me, you cannot make a life out of pixels. Unless you work for one of those MMORPG's like Ragnarok, but even then I wonder if it really pays that good.

Thank you all so much. I feel so much better now and I will keep going. :)

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/...rbang001-1.jpg

This is a fanart I made about a couple of weeks ago. It's South Park Fingerbang (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormmick). I colored it out of Bic Permanent markers and the lines are from fine line sharpie markers.

My High School doesn't consider this art, as well as my family. So I do keep it in the closet and embarassed by it.

The world of art is harsh and rude, all I can say is to stay strong and have this 'F U' attitude about it sometimes, you'll need it ._. It seems to work for me, because some people online think I'm a real biatch sometimes xD But irl, I usually sit silently in the corner by myself.

That's why I never took art class. Art should be expression in it's truest form. A baby scribbles on the wall, that's art. A mentally ill woman throws paint at a canvas to release her frustration, that's art. Art teachers and many others forget this. All art is beautiful at it's base.

or they are picky about it. Even being piseed off and throwing paint at a canvas is considered art and sell for big money just for getting pissed off at a canvas and ironically have a lot of paint

Some art teachers need to learn that things can be art even if the anatomy is incorrect. Or the shading is wrong. Or it's not drawn within the lines. Because those are the first steps everyone learns. This is critical for those who think outside the box and do not do this. It'll bring those people down while they could be the artists of the world.

This is how I think of art; It's about the message you want to give with the piece, or the message you put in it yourself. Something you want to say, or to keep secret. Every piece I make has a little story, even my sig arts. But teachers do not look at that, they look at the result and process in the art. I can understand that. But I wished some teachers were more positive and helpful than others. It took me over 19 years to meet someone that was actually criticizing my pieces yet motivating me to continue and become better.
Every other teacher - or person - I met before only looked at the final result and what they liked about it. (The people I met online not included, they really helped me!)
I do not like Picasso. But I understand it, and I know the story behind it. This made me love the artist, not his art. If he would ever ask me for critique about his pieces, I would not say I don't like it. I would say which parts I don't like and why. I would also say what I do like. But I usually ask what do you want to say with it?

I had to take art classes as a required class...so there was favorism between the teacher and the classmates. After High School my mom wanted me to take more art classes but I couldn't because there's a fee for them and I couldn't handle all of the favorism, rude remarks, and the negative critism of mostly would say "you're not good enough" and hence I'll fail it

Echo, you're even better than my 20-year old classmates at Graphic Design college. You are good enough @_@
I'm the only one that can actually draw. And one other person is great with illustrator, but very comic-like and limited. And that's it!

My grandma on my dad's side was an artist she can do basically ANYTHING, whether it's drawing, painting, needlework, carving, etc. Those old school things before she passed away from cancer when I was 8

It's usually the amazing artists that are put down because they're different. No matter how truly skilled they are the masses see something that is different and immediately shun it.

its the 5% of the artists get 95% of the attention

Exactly. That's why many of the people on my watch list on DA have talent and potential but are not very popular for reasons unknown.

Like their style isn't mainstream

Lol I now have hipster kitty in my head.

My back just hurts

Awww that sucks :(