Bad at what i like

[UBC]

iv always liked art... all different kinds... iv tried alot of different things but just cant get good at any of them
i can do ok an most things but i haven't found something im really good at

i just need help finding whats right for me
i really want to get into art but i just need to find what im good at

[AdamAtomic]

I'm sorry this is so much pointless pathetic bullshit!  The only way you get good at anything is by practicing every day, not "finding" something.  Start practicing, and stop making dumb posts like this.

[Helm]

maybe too tough love there, Adam, but true. There's a self-helping loop where if you try something enough and get a bit good at it, the results give you even more motivation to continue. Encouragement from within is the best thing you can hope for. Do things until you can get good at them. Or die.

[UBC]

maybe too tough love there, Adam, but true. There's a self-helping loop where if you try something enough and get a bit good at it, the results give you even more motivation to continue. Encouragement from within is the best thing you can hope for. Do things until you can get good at them. Or die.

thats sorta my problem

i get a few good ideas... do them... they get better as i go... then i run out of ideas.. and im stuck

[Helm]

Could you tell us your age? It is to be expected that you'll have a lot of emotional rollercoasters, especially about creative stuff, while you're a teenager. Don't worry, we've all gone through them and most of us survived without doing anything too embarassing. I've set fire to flames... I mean, I've set fire to comics right after making them when I was 15 because they WEREN'T GOOD ENOUGH  and all that stuff.

My advice? Don't take your life too heavily for now, and keep doing what you do. Make stuff, hate it or like it for a while, make new stuff. Keep practising.

[bengo]

I disagree with Helm, you should become an hero and give us epic lulz. Heh, kidding, but to be serious, if you think you suck, the only way to make you not suck is to practice, practice, practice, so just keep drawing and eventually you'll get better.

[UBC]

im 16 turning 17 in a few months

i want to do thing but i need the ideas to start them...

like with pixeling.. i made a few pixels then i wanted to do more but i just couldn't think of what to do...

[Helm]

I don't understand the 'I don't know what to draw!' problem, I've never had it. I just don't draw until I have something I want to draw. Other times I ask other people to tell me what to draw, and I do that for practise.

[bengo]

Dude, I've been pixelling since I was 15, I'm 16 right now, you gotta be kidding me if you can't come with not even a single idea, also, you're not making much sense "I made a few pixels then I wanted to do more but I just couldn't think of what to do...", wait, a few pixels, like did you make a circle and go "I give up"?

It's not hard to do art, I mean jesus dude, just decide something, watch some TV, listen to some music and make something, you don't have to be totally original, go ahead and make some random person, it's still an idea, amirite? Now stop being emo and do something with your life, you can either bitch or you can start trying to get good at what you wanna do.

[UBC]

no iv done more than circles lol
and im not emo as far as i know...
my life is fine
its just art thats being mean to me 
 

so helm...
i guess this might help cause you said have other people tell you what to do...
Tell me what to do!

[bengo]

Dude, just draw something, draw Batman and Robin making out, since you can't think of anything yourself, you'll have to do it.

[Helm]

UBC, draw a robot that is lonely and in love.

[am_pm]

Draw an antelope with a harsh attitude and time to kill.

[AdamAtomic]

heh i guess my love was a bit on the tough side, but I stand by it.  If you're not inspired enough to draw The Perfect Drawing, then just draw SOMEthing, and concentrate on technique; there are so many facets to all forms of art that you almost always need practice, and practice doesn't always take the form of a major finished piece of work.  Grinding through technique practice will also help you be able to actually accomplish that inspired drawing when the idea finally comes to you.

[Xion]

Fill a page with eyes, mouths, noses, ears.
Then turn the page and put them together.
Viola, face.
Do it again.
Again.
Again.
Then make something else. By the time you're done drawing faces and parts of faces you should be either so fascinated that they're all you want to draw or so disgusted that you'll be happy to draw anything else.

[Aelyrin]

Or regarding pixel art, you could splice Pokemon. : D.... I'm not even kidding. I've been doing that for just over a year now, and it's still fun and love<3 Sure, it can get frustrating sometimes, but doesn't everything?

[UBC]

UBC, draw a robot that is lonely and in love.

while thinking of that this spaceship randomly popped into my head... no idea were it came from but it looked great so im making that now!

[Dusty]

I have a hard, hard time taking stuff from my head and putting them on paper/digital canvas. I could have an amazing idea for a picture and such in my head, but have a complete flop when it comes to actually drawing it.
Anyways... I find that if I try to draw, even when I don't feel I'm doing too good at it, sooner or later I surprise myself--and that's just the motivation you need.

[ndchristie]

The best way to get started is to be one of two things - rather controlled, or rather not.

Then just draw, draw, draw, draw......

Personally, I recommend working with pencil and colored pencil on printer paper, doing between 8 and 12 illustrations on the side of a page.  This will work your control and they are too tiny for anyone to obsess over, which is probably where a sense of failure comes from.

Aternatively, you can buy one of those big newsprint pads and some charcoal and do fast drawings, one or two to a page side, and keep yourself to about 20 minutes.  If you go over, you are thinking too hard.  The purpose is to make drawing a natural thing, where you don't feel as though your life depends on every move you make.  Breaking past that uncertainty is the first step to learning.

As far as subject matter, pick random shit, and pick things that you can see.  A flashlight, a pair of shorts, your watsebasket.  Why?  Because none of these things will ever really matter.  A scribbled coaster is not going to redifine you as a person.  Your left shoe turned on end is not a pietà.  You are expecting a lot for someone who is just 16; even if you were michelangelo or picasso you would have at least 5 years before you needed to change the world. 

Be content to sketch, and, upon sketching, say, "This is a fine sketch, much better than before.  Next time, I should accomplish even more."

Be aware of your practise and how it shows in your work.  If you are not improving, try something different.  Talent is a measure of how rapidly you are able to progress, inspiration a measure of one's ability to have ideas, while skill is a measure of the effort you put in.  The most uninspired, talentless individual can still have skill (see thomas kinkade).

[LoTekK]

I like to bust this big quote out for times like this. Originally posted by Marko Djurdjevic over on the ConceptArt.org forums, in response to a post similar to yours.

Originally Posted by Marko Djurdjevic

I just want you to know, that I'd feel much more comfortable, if some of you peeps would put down the pencil for a second and relax. Creating art is like picking up a girl. The harder you try the less you will achive. If you just stop caring, the girls will come on their own.

Where is your art supposed to come from? When you just sit in your studio and do studies all day? Go out, expierience life in all it's beauty, make good friends, people who got something to say, drink, smoke, laugh, enjoy yourselves and the company of others. Go to a rock-concert and smell the sweat and heat of a hundred people moshing, drive outta town and camp in the wilderness, try throwing rocks at airplanes when they cross above your heads. Relax, cool down, live the moment with all it's intensity and when you feel like you had enough, go back to the drawing board and create. Share what you are and what you've been through with the paper or canvas. But don't force it. Don't forget what life has to offer for you during the times when try to you sharpen your skills. Because in the end, you're just exploring your technique with all your studies, you're just forcing yourselves into routine. But knowing how to render a foreshortend arm, or a figure in perspective doesn't mean you're capable of expressing anything. Because art is what's on your mind and what you got to say, technique is just the groundwork to be able to express yourselves. See it like this, language, the tounge in your mouth gives you the abilty to speak, communicate, bring your thoughts across, but only if your mind is open, you can actaully say something of lasting value, somthing that will be quoted throughout the time. A great singer can have an angelic voice, but isn't it the great lyrics that we keep and store in our memories? But great lyrics only come from great minds or great situations in life. Inspiration that is drawn from the everyday situations we all go through every morning and every evening.
We can close our eyes and say, it's all boring, but it is not. It is what we make out of it. I don't care if I got nothing to do, lying on my bed, counting the flies on the ceiling or if I have an amazing night with friends barhopping throughout the city. I can enjoy both and draw my energy from both.

Just stop worrying, because it leads nowhere and blends out all the good things that happen to you. Accept that you cannot force anything in this universe, whether it's art, girls, friends, job offers, car accidents, etc...and finally feel free and open to create great things.

Marko

[Helm]

A great singer can have an angelic voice, but isn't it the great lyrics that we keep and store in our memories?

Neither just the one, nor the other. Silly dualism.

[elise]

I have problems with art block all the time, especially when I try something and get frustrated with how it turns out. But there are ways of dealing with it. You can either wait until you're inspired or force yourself to at least try to crank something out. I try to find inspiration when I can't think it up on my own by checking out challenges, contests, job offers, making fan art, doing requests, coloring line art, collaborating with other artists or participating in projects (like pixel stamps, pixel joint, iso city).

While I'm not making art, I like to study it. I love looking at through pages and pages of art by other artists, trying to figure out how they do what they do, maybe trying out a technique with my own twist. You should never outright copy anything verbatim, but you can't go wrong studying techniques they use, learning about what makes their pieces just right like light sources, anatomy, color theory, etc.

Practice makes perfect... eventually. Even if you don't like what you end up with, you tried. Get c&c and you make it better. And if you get frustrated with something, put it away and try again later.

Anyways, I know how you feel. A lot of artists do. Just keep at it.

[JonathanOfDrain]

I have some talent juice if you'd like a sip.

I challenge myself to fill 4 pages a week with game design ideas and at least 4 pages with character designs or redesigns. Works pretty well. 3rd week of this little project and I've come up with a handful of good ideas, some interesting character concepts and I think I've redrawn every classic RPG hero from fighter to the guy from Dragon Warrior 1. It's nice to analyze some old school RPG characters to see why they are so classic. It's a fairly solid practice technique I think. If I feel I need help with a certain thing I just spend a page drawing it. 8 full pages a week isn't hard.

You can skip that and just take talent juice, same results.

[am_pm]

I remember a great quote, I think it was from Adarias or AdamAtomic, that spoke of artists who, since they didn't draw something right the first time, didn't continue to draw and how to overcome that. I wish I could find that quote!

[zeid]

Really if you can't find something to draw (which is very odd) do some cliche studies. Do anatomy studies, face studies, animal studies, etc. If you keep doing these then you will get good at drawing/art in general. If you look the good pixel artists on this site don't just be really, really good at pixel art techniques, they are good at art in general; forms, balance, volume, colour theory, etc. So no matter what medium you use these are the things you need to learn. I recommend drawing, because you can do it all the frikin time!!! It is quick, you can be sketchy and fast and whirl out a heap of different starts of studies in a couple hours, hence you will get better faster then most other mediums. But in all honesty it doesn't matter what medium you use as long as you do something, if the mediums you have tried aren't 'fun' enough for you then maybe you are an art enthusiast not an artist

I usually have less of an art block problem and more of a stay the hell focused on one piece problem, as I tend to want to jump around so I can't sympathize with you there.

[Dokozai]

practice makes perfect,thats all I can say,I've been drawing since third grade,I'm in 7th now and I draw better than basically everybody in my classes

[miascugh]

Resurrecting inactive, weeks old threads, with little useful to say at that, is strongly discouraged from. Leaving spaces after punctuation is encouraged, thanks :)