The mental side of the art thing is even harder than the skill learning

“It doesn't look like the reference and that's okay” That changed my entire life omg

I've always struggled to get myself to draw when I feel like 99 times out of 100 it won't be something I'm proud of or satisfied with. I've asked myself over and over if drawing is even something I like doing , but I know it is because that one percent of the time when I'm really proud of a drawing feels really great and I want to improve more so that I can get more moments like that.

I got to a point where I was pressuring myself to get everything "instagram ready". So eventually I didn't create anything at all. Then recently I watched my 4 year old son draw. He wasn't drawing to get to a certain result. Instead he just put color down while telling a story. "Look, daddy, the red color is living on this side and the blue color lives in the ocean and the brown color falls down from the sky and then when they meet they make a rainbow" and so on and so forth. It went on for like 15-20 minutes, adding more lines and color, mixing and layering. When he was done, the sheet of paper... kinda looked like a mess. It was a chaotic mix of all colors without any recognizable shapes. But the story he told during the process of painting was the real deal. He wasn't painting a final piece, he was painting a world to dive into for a couple of minutes. This completely cleared my art block.

I struggle with understanding how to create things while lacking the technical skills to get there. So I end up trying to practice fundamentals and getting bored because if I focus too much on that, I'll never get to draw what I want, which is designing characters. In the end, I try to remind myself in practicing how you just explained while designing my characters. Still, I get frustrated with the lack of skill but I tend to enjoy the minor wins. I really wanna get good enough to post my art without feeling shitty about it

One of things I'm doing to keep my interest and confidence going is I'm redoing from some of my old ar.t that I'm not happy with to see how much I've improved in many areas. 🙂

So glad I grew up in the 2000s there wasn't all this pressure to be good. In school I was a good artist because I was slightly better than everyone else around me. Not because I was Ross draws level at 14. I can imagine art sucking when we're bombarded by all this good art on social media. These things take time tho

What's interesting is I do the same with food. When I find myself in a creative rut with cooking, I lean into something I've never done before. It opens up so much more and allows you to be creative

“But then our standards raise ever higher every day.” You’ve cracked art wide open here. 😭 It’s a constant battle. Even when you find what you love about drawing you’ll still have new challenges and new things to learn. But that can be the most rewarding part when you’re able to solve those problems. Oh, also this blur-then-paint technique is so interesting I want to try it… those lips look incredible. You always paint the best lips good lord 🙏

My passion in life has always been animated music videos. I've wanted to make my own for ages. The music side came super easily to me. It felt so natural and intuitive, and I could feel myself learning new and complex things rapidly. as well as seeing a clear improvement in the sounds I could create. The art side on the other had feels incredibly unnatural to me. it's an almost comical juxtaposition, in how clean and satisfying my music is, to how much of a painful slog my art is. Nothing I make seem any good at all. I have fully come to terms with the fact that my brain is made for audio and not video, but I still want to get better so that I can make those music videos. It feels like I'm fighting against my own nature. Im going to try the advice in this video. Im going to see if I can find even the smallest bit of satisfaction from these stubborn fingers of mine. Thank you And have a wonderful day

I can't draw from the imagination and still rely on reference material for posture and expression - but following from your advice on letting pinterest know what kind of stuff I like, I've found that I'm not stuck having to draw people that are famous for them to be recognisable to cover basic mistakes with eye alignment and such. It's a long haul being stuck in the SUCK and my fundamentals are trash but I sketch 2 or 3 portraits a day during my trip to work - it's very therapeutic and helps open conversations with people in ways that I'd struggle to otherwise

literally my relationship with drawing is so,,,??? hmghm?? like i genuinely cannot imagine a future without art in it without making it my life just,, hugdgh without it i genuinely dont know who i am?? but lately i feel like ive just been so bad at it? like all my drawings just feel like theyre flopping and ,, sighs a monthly cycle but it always hits so much harder than i anticipate,,,

Thank you ergojosh my friend. You just saved me from wanting to give up for the ten thousandth time. I'm a little better at drawing than I used to be but my art still sucks. Whenever I get frustrated with myself I tell myself that I'm not good enough yet to be that upset with myself. I'm Gonna take your advice to heart and try to get good at just one little thing at a time. This will remove a lot of frustration and anxiety. You're the greatest. Thanks for all your advise.

I've hit a spout of depression, on top of struggling with mental disabilities (don't wanna over share, and disability is the best word I can come up with). Leaves me incredibly drained, on top of slowly losing interest thanks to living with different illnesses. It sucks, especially when drawing was something I loved doing and even helped me cope. I know other artists struggle like me in this same aspect, but it's so relieving and comforting to actually hear another artist talk about this. Thanks for making this video. Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy again soon, and feel like it's good enough again.

Art used to be really hard for me. Two years ago I would break down crying for hours because I felt like such a horrible artist, and like I failed. I would go through mental blocks where I just couldn't make anything. But I pushed through, and I'm proud of myself for that. I've improved so much, if you look at my old stuff you wouldn't think I made it. I'm so glad I never actually quit art like sometimes I would say I would. I still feel down now and then and I of course have so much more to learn, but in a visual way I'm very happy with my art. There's different things I struggle with now regarding art but that isn't important right now LOL

"Its hard to enjoy something you're not good at" what you said hit the nail for me im currently on the way to graduate junior highschool and im planning taking a course that leans towards art and character design im not good at drawing not one bit, but i know deep inside myself i truly know i want to pursue that career path, making models, characters, and drawing but im terrible at it so much and it makes me feel uneasy and lose motivation on if should go with it or just take a generic course that ill probably totally hate

I’m a mostly beginner artist trying to figure things out, and I realized that I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a while. Before, I decided that I wanted to draw fanart and characters, but I became very demotivated when I tried doing full body anatomy. Then, I tried using references, and although the new drawings looked better than the ones before, they still looked like crap. I got into this cycle where I would get a random burst of motivation, sit down and draw a little, become frustrated at the result, and then not draw for weeks on end. One day, I decided to just focus on one thing, namely, hands. I figured that I’d just practice hands until I got better at them, because I sucked at drawing hands, and so I sat down, looked up hand references and tutorials on Pinterest and KZfaq respectively, and started drawing hands. I found that I started enjoying drawing a lot more than when I was a little too ambitious before, and it was easier to make the decision to sit down and draw for a couple of hours. Plus, the hands I drew were starting to look alright.

Tracing really has been my gateway to getting better in a systematic way, where I can draw things I like, but also get some technical understanding. And it's funny to say that because I was all about "oh yeah if I have to get good I have to do it never even looking at a reference". So - I would skim over some technical study, going "uh huh, I see", and then go off and draw things that had tons and tons of errors that were completely unsalvageable, and be discouraged. Because I also knew that to fix it would be exactly as much work as it sounds, and I definitely wasn't study-motivated, I didn't want more grinds in my life. So even though I doodled constantly, I was avoiding the technical side of things. I was just impatient and wanted to pull an image out of my head, even if I couldn't really do it well, respect the time it would take to do it well, or respect the need to have good source material underlying the drawing. But the first time I traced it was for a work assignment where I had to reproduce some character art from a cartoon for a pitch document, and I was like, "well, shit". My first try was rough and the boss asked me to give it more polish, so I put in a few more hours and got it looking just about perfect. And doing that set off some gears in my head. I didn't start using it for everything immediately, but it got me thinking about applying it to more stuff over the course of the next decade-plus, occasionally tracing or working from reference, and finally I reached a position last year where I really wanted to visualize an original character, and I started applying tracing heavily, along with my basic technical skills courtesy of dozens of books and KZfaq tutorials over the years, to compose a detailed result and then simplify that. And from there I was hooked and started making it a daily thing to trace for fun, and then put some technical exercises and illustration work on the side as a goal, which has produced some results in a short time. And when I trace, it is still an exercise - I have to choose the reference, I still have to move the pen and make the marks, I still have to decide what shapes to emphasize, I still have to decide if I'm copying the whole composition or just parts. Just having some proportions is a small piece of the puzzle - there are so many ways to get your proportions nowadays if you simply allow yourself to use technology to assist you in your goals. It's more natural to pick the traditional skills up as you see a need for them, like "oh, I want to turn that leg a little bit to the side. How do I make that look right?" Or, "I want to give them a wardrobe change. How do I make the folds look right?" And then you'll sit there studying that specific problem for hours and hours because it's just that one problem you have to solve, not hundreds of other mistakes you don't understand. The other day I got into using tracing to build up my understanding of values using four layers: highlight and shadow layers using the lasso tool to build up shapes, pen outlines, and a midtone fill in the background. And it's like, yep, another thing unlocked, because picking out three values and a line from a detailed photo adds a lot of complexity over just describing the form with lines, but not as much as "light an entire scene from nothing but my own linework".

Iv been struggling so long with this, it almost felt like I was the only one so glad it isnt weird to feel this way despite what was in the beginning. Most of my frustration stems from the process, or lack of understanding of the process. People tell me to always start with anatomy and form of construction lines because I like creating characters and poses, but could never really "understand" how to do it or how to learn from the 100+ tutorials on the subject I find, I just don't know why but it always daunts me when I try to put it into practice and it ends up looking like I learned nothing at all, and just mkes me feel overall worse about my ability. If I just felt like I had some kind grasp on the process of it, I'd feel 50 times more confident to keep persevering because I could at least know what to improve on little by little. I don't know if anyone has any advice on this kind of thing, I highly doubt it, but it would be so helpful to get some insight on how to practice these things the "right" way or at least see that im following instruction correctly.

josh i think you're starting to become my favorite art youtuber because even though we aren't on the same skill level, it feels like we're equals and on the same fundamental level. You feel like a real person instead of some celebrity or something. Something that a lot of art youtubers dont do is truly show or tell HOW much effort goes into their work and how much it takes. You obviously don't know jack shit about me, i'm just some letters on a screen. But thank you for making these videos. The information you provide to your viewers is invaluable

I think another tip would be to just focus on one aspect of an artwork that you enjoy so that it compels you to finish it

There's a lot of characters that I would love to draw that I've made, crossover drawings I want to do, and drawing characters from very obscure or older media, primarily video games. I just wanna share the things I wanna make and be happy that I get to make it. Only problem is I suck at it and I'm trying to accept being okay with that. I just try to leave it at me trying my best. I don't know how I'll get better or how I'll improve but I do just want to enjoy the things I make. Human drawings are something I'm messing up a lot and often judge it harshly, so I'm taking a break from that and just drawing objects I see.

7:28 I know that mood from a prayer issue. I had the written out prayer I would do every night, but another prayer bargaining about skipping that prayer started forming behind it. Had to let go of my own rules, and just do what came naturally. Think that matches what I need with art, but I struggle dropping the perfectionism.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE ADVICE LIKE "HOW TO ENJOY ART WHEN YOU ARE BAD AT IT" WHEN YOU ARE A LITERALLY A GOD AT ART 😭 i'm subbing

As a chronic perfectionist with the hobbies I've had in my life, I've quit a lot of things because I wasn't "good". As someone that has always had an interest in art and recently started digital drawing, I really needed this video. Thank you

i haven't truly worked on art for about a year. i did some practice here and there but nothing ever consistent. i have multiple wips that i haven't touched in months. eventually took a month long break recently from art completely. i'm at the point where i love art and wanna experiment and create something but i'm greatly hindered by fear of failure, by not being satisfied with the end result reinforcing the idea that i'm not good enough. it's a difficult cycle to break out of when i do love art so much but sometimes i do think if i really should even call myself an artist when i lack so much. though i do enjoy when i manage to get over that gigantic hurdle and create something new. it's a nice surprise and makes me happy when i get to that point. i guess i just have to hold on to that feeling. and i'll definitely try out your advice. thanks josh

This video is honestly just what I needed. I love art, and I want to be able to make my own art, but I don't have the right skills or enough motivation because I'm not very good at any art types, really. This video gave me more hope. Thank you so much!

1 day i lowkey thought of quitting art but im so glad i did not im proud of were Ive come i might not be the best at it but the thing about looking back at you old art and now shows how much you improved. It doesn’t matter if you even improved a little bit! The good thing is you atleast improved and you will keep improving no matter how long it takes dont give up your dreams ^^

A common criticism I get on my art is my poses look stiff. So to remedy hat I’ve been studying poses from dancers and trying to sketch those. I’ve also been doing more timed gesture drawings.

Think mentality can be applied to everything, I love art and watching people go through the process of making their art. I personally don’t care to draw or paint, but I love the idea of getting better at a skill. As of now that’s engineering and filmmaking for me, and it’s really hard sometimes to motivate myself to do something I love but at the same time know that i could be doing it better. That’s the process tho, speaking of which, I should get back to improving lol

It’s nice to know that even good, skilled artists often feel unsatisfied with their art, but it’s also kind of disheartening, like l I’ll never finally be satisfied with my work. Also, the problem is when you’re not good at art, (or when you’re not as good as you think you should be passed age 30), it’s incredibly demotivating. Why bother trying to get better? What’s the reward? Why bother wasting my time when I’m an adult and should do something productive? Since my art will never be sellable, that makes doing art unproductive. And I’ve got lots of traditional art supplies drying up and wasting space in my studio, which I haven’t touched in two years. you once responded to me and told me to think about WHY I make art…. So now I daily, several times a day, ask myself why I’m making art. Do I even like this? I started a Webtoon, and was feeling really good about it the first two weeks working on it. But it takes me soooo long to do the simplest panels because my skill level is subpar. So then I ask myself, again, “Why am I even doing this? Does it even bring me any joy?” So far the answer is no. Unless I get into a hyperfocus frenzy. Then sometimes it’s fun. For every 100 drawings I make, there is maybe one I actually feel good about. That doesn’t seem worth the effort to me. I’ve been drawing since I was 9. There’s No reason for me to struggle to draw basic crap. But when I try to practice the “fundamentals”, it makes me feel even worse. I really think it’s time I straight up turn off my internet router at home, put away my tablet and phone, and just draw in my many sketchbooks. Just need to get back to having fun without comparing to other artists or have any expectations. Then again, that voice creeps in… “Why bother”.

Thank you so much Josh, this video was amazing, outstanding, and it was a big help! I used to think that art was only drawing full bodies, or full heads in different angles. But your video helped me to realize that art can be anything we want it to be. It can be just the eyes, the mouth, animals, portraits, etc. And I found out that I really enjoy making portraits and eyes that I really spend hours and go CRAZY on. My name is also Josh, I am going to become a professional KZfaqr Artist. See you at the top!

Once I started to gain _self_ confidence I started to love my art as well. And when that happened the rate of art improvement *skyrocketed.* It's unbelievably important to just appreciate and enjoy what you created.

I’ve been seeing more and more artists talk about the mental drainage that comes with art, and it’s super validating

Lately, I have felt quite stressed about school and in general, the environment in which I spend most of my day, when I get home I try to draw and I can't because of how overwhelmed I feel and it has happened to me many times, I know that being an artist is not easy and there are many low moments but I hope to continue enjoying this journey with what you are saying

Oh wow thanks for this video! today I was actually having what i call an "art style crisis" and it's been happening very constantly lately, where I don't feel satisfied with my art style and it really sucks bc there is a point where i don't even enjoy drawing. usually what I've been doing lately is to take my sketchbook and scribble whatever comes to my mind, whether it comes out good or not is not really the point, but it helps me relax

I'm restarting to draw again after YEARS. I was never good with references and stuff but I loved doodling my style. Now I decided I want to be good. Or at least, to get better than the day before. This was pure gold to listen to (and watch too). Thank you for this push🙌🏻

The struggle is real, being grown, knowing the value of time, and seeing the doo doo on the page.... it's hard to keep pushing, but I..... I MUST! ty josh

I'm going to share this video with one of my friends I think she needs it. The art industry and world is hard with our and other's standards being the ebb and flow of it.

Tbh think quit a good tip to focus on one thing and try to get better at it, I did recently,I hated anatomy and no matter how many times i tried practicing i would always give up because i sucked. Until i found an artist on youtube and i just loved the way they drew stylized body and poses, so i tried to conbine what i have learn through the year and with the art style,and now i can see a huge improvement matter of fact i started enjoying drawing dynamic poses now.

I keep seeing these all of these beautiful drawings online, whether it be scenery, or a character, and then I try to recreate it, and I realize just how much I such, I can't seem to get my proportions right (and I cannot draw a body, let alone hands for the life of me), I don't know how to draw hair, and by the time I'm just a few minutes in, I just hate myself for not being able to draw like I used to, it just feels like a chore to draw at all.

My recent philosophy is simple. I don't keep any drawing I'm not proud of and I will redo the same drawing until I'm satisfied. Also I'm focusing on the act of drawing itself and not the result. Then finally I will draw what I like, no matter if I have the technical ability to do so.

the timing of this is perfect cause I've been strugglinggg

Came here because of my art. Learned lessons i can use for any undertaking or passion. Big ups to you and thank you for the video

i always appreciate your perspective

As a non-artist, and I mean my stick figures were doing the wave bad, since I started watching your videos and trying different techniques, I've found a few things that worked for me. I can rough sketch a 3-4 inch drawing in about 30 minutes. Minor details to give it some life in about an hour. It took about 3 weeks of just doodling and trying different things. Thank you.

I resonated with this a lot. I am in that state where I feel like I have hit a wall because I still don’t have the fundamentals 100% figured out yet. I also started learning the fundamentals very late in life and that sometimes weighs on me. ☹️

this channel has helped me so much on the mental side of art, and i just barely found it. Ive been having such an art block due to not meeting the high standards ive put on my self from the beginning. I never realized how much the mental side of art is important. thanks man

You hit it right in the video. There's so much to learn but choosing a singular thing to be good at is such a good way to improve it's crazy. It has worked well when I started out. I no intention of doing color or anything with color. All I worked with was with pencil and paper. Similar to you, I started with heads and portraits. I told myself, if I could be the best frickin drawer out there, I'd be satisfied. Once I started getting better, I hungered for more, and when I hit a good level for portraits, I started exploring full bodies and gestures to cell-shaded coloring then painterly shading. It's always this similar cycle that you improve on your weakest link and then move on to the next. This builds up over time and what you're left with are all these skills trained up. It's like an MMO, if you're lacking in a skill, work on that skill and add stats to it then move on to the next.

Having fun is the first fundamental

I am going through trying to simplify down what I think I can do now. Maybe fantasy characters, then maybe scenery, then maybe chibi characters because they're simplified. I even have the book on Stick Figure drawing. I feel I did get good at eyes at one point so I like your idea of drawing and painting something to (your own) perfection. There is a great long quote by someone about how artists are often never happy with their own work, even though to others it is mind blowing.

Wow.. super motivational. Love the idea that still the piece could still be bad but you just focus on how you’ve improved, even if it’s the smallest of things. Note that improvement and keep going

Watching till the end because it's so mesmerizing.

Thanks dude. The message is simple but it's something that we need reminding of.

Your words really gave me some clarity with how I was feeling and how to go about it. I haven’t drawn in a while and I’ve been expecting myself to be just as good as before, but I’m kind of rusty, and it frustrates me every time. I know now that I shouldn’t compare it to something else really and just keep going. Keep drawing.

for me it's the constant struggle with figure drawing. it just feels overwhelming

Thank you for the encouragement! You have a really soothing voice and I like your painting style, the colors pop so beautifully.

this piece of advice really helped me with not only art but the other stuff i am passionate about. thank you so much!!

Man, this video was highly needed Ergo🙌for a couple months I've been stuck in a slump when it comes to my artwork and art style. Even though I have noticed changes, I still feel like I need to be better and do more. I'm gonna try this approach and take things slowly. Appreciate you man🙌🙌

This is that kind of thing where I don't know where to go with it. I do not plan on making a full-on career out of drawing but I've just wanted to get good enough to a point where I'm satisfied; where it makes me feel good. It's sometimes hard to tell if I am actually getting any better with what I'm doing, including finding better ways to improve with shapes and incorporating them into my work. Organizing and retaining the information is difficult (I have ADD, though I don't know if it applies). What I do find interesting about art is that I'll have moments where I'll get frustrated and stop drawing, but then I'll always eventually come back to it; like a spark of motivation or something I guess, If what I'm saying makes sense.

Excellent talk. I find that by having a number of things going at once, I can avoid getting 'stuck' on one particular project. If I hit a roadblock, I will shift my focus to other work to maintain my creative momentum.

I'm completely self taught. No art class when I attended school until the year after I graduated. I tried college, but the art teacher quit & they tried to replace them with somebody that didn't know anything about art at all. I was okay, but I've actually only met 2 maybe 3 people tops offline that draws, paints, or does anything. I gave it up because everybody constantly hit me up to "draw something for them" (for free, of course). I appreciate videos like yours. My shattered confidence kinda works itself back together a bit after hearing/watching something like this. I want to get back into art, but feel lost because I'm about to turn 49 in a few weeks & it's literally been decades since I gave a real shot at just drawing. I'm actually afraid to do it. It gave me so much joy as a child and then a teenager to just draw. I felt good at it. Pretty much the only thing I've ever really been good at. You've definitely got me considering it. Thank you.

heyy thats the Marc Brunet outro song, i was waiting for a weird troll thing at the end of the video lol

My advice: Hype yourself up. Even if the practice you do doesn't satisfy you, hype it up as importand lesson, point out all the mistakes you made, make a game out of it. When you draw something you really like praise yourself, like you achieved something monumental, leave it on your desk, for you to look at. I also like to listen to upbeat/Upbeat relaxing/classical music while drawing. I also like to look at other peoples art and think about, how I will also be able to draw like that if I stick to what I love doing, just creating. Another advice: Post nothing/only the stuff you're really proud of, and only to a handful of people. Validation from the outside is nice to some degree, but becomes exhausting very fast. And if you do get frustrated, you can always take a little break, like a day, and then you sit yourself at the desk again, doing what you enjoy. I think what I want to say: Draw for your own hapiness, not for the attention of others.

I really enjoy videos like this. Just hearing what you say feel really relatable. Thank you for making these types of videos!

This is the exact struggle I'm going through. This is a great video! I'll try the tips you talked about to make art more enjoyable while still grinding it out.

very inspiring and relatable content, thank You for it. I personally was in my lowest point just after i finished architecture uni. i was hired in an awesome studio but i felt like an unneccesary weight in my team and drained of all passion at work i couldnt properly motivate myself to get into art in my spare time. Till today i often think of myself as an useless man but then i was in a total mental hole. some time later i found a random wholsome community on twitch and discord. watching one stream i just scribbled whatever out of boredom on my old wacom tablet. counter to my comfort i posted those scrribbles as a fanart and to my surprise this thing i'd call worthless pile of crap... they seemed to like. the feeling was undescribable. it was the 1st time in months i broke my selfesteem of lazy, unskilled waste of a human. sometime i still get into graphics just to scribble and paint something digitally thus learning a LOT! in the process and experimenting on many tools and styles, watching many other artists in the community and getting inspired and motivated further. posting those pieces just to see a brief smile on somebodys face. this smile, laughter, or even brief moment of reflection on my "artwork" makes all the difference for me. i still find myself spending two weeks painting something i watched on some random stream, posting it in the fan-art-corner on discord and getting morbid exhileration from just a reaction and a comment or two. What i think im trying to say is, sometimes finding "fun" in artwork by yourself is too hard to break the 1st step and start moving. i found my motivation in making some random people on the internet happy. and this makes me happy, and want to draw more. Try to find somebody that you would like to share whatever you create and this will make your work worth more to you, and bring back the passion that so many of us lost somewhere in the school days... take care of yourselves people. You are not worthless. best of regards Sagano

i appreciate the title. right on, "so you're saying there's a chance!"

here i am again back at ergo josh's videos cuz I need an art therapy session lol. I'm struggling again with my portrait drawings, and been studying skulls since beginning of this month. So after studying for few weeks I did a drawing and posted it, which got lots of likes on my social media, so I was rly happy about that. But It didn't last long til I get stuck again trying to start a new piece. Which leads me here, again Ergo thank you for these videos it rly do helps

The same masochism and "you need to love it to do it" is the same with programming. I'm terrible at art and don't enjoy it but I've recently got myself a drawing tablet and I was thinking about trying it a little bit.

I'm pretty beginner and I am currently just doing a ton of random sketches (mostly faces) and its quite enjoyable. Occasionally I'll just decide to paint one if it looks particularly good. Thanks for the video Josh :)

I really do appreciate your way of thinking and explaining things. You manage to put words on feelings I felt about practicing art, and it’s really relaxing to hear you, it puts me on a cool mindset to create. Thank you :)

This video gave me hope to be happy with my terrible art. I've always loved drawing but I could never translate what was in my head to my art. You have gained a sub. Thank you so much!

I really love the portrait you did in this video, I’ve been improving a lot lately in perspective and faces, so much so that probably next month ima change my pfp. This video really gave my the motivation to keep going on perspective, form, and anatomy, so thank you for that, I also gain a lot of knowledge from your “talking head” style videos by observing how you draw in the background.

Some stuff that I noticed while being bad at art but having been very good at games (mostly LoL lmao): - doesn't matter what skill level you are, you *mostly* find enjoyment of seeing progress (both a god artist and a challenger/masters player can get tilted, despite their insane skills) - try to fall in love with "the grind"(you won't and it's ok), then save some time to love "the art". Some "4fun" drawing is A MUST HAVE, otherwise you'll lose your reason to why you even started trying. - YOU CANNOT FALL IN LOVE WITH "THE GRIND". You can only learn to tolerate it better. No one is gonna love to draw boxes and straight lines for the rest of his life, neither should one strive towards loving it. - it's gonna take ~5 years to git gud. A C C E P T I T !!!!!!!!! (only a prodigy can do it faster than this apparently) - you learn to tolerate it better with flow state and habits; some tips: - Atomic Habits by James Clear, Healthy Gamer GG cover most of the stuff in detail. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - Planning what you'll do IS CRUCIAL, you won't achieve flow state if you draw 1 face then try your hands at a LoL level splash art ( you don't do that in games either, you dont play 1 bot game then go againts faker, a god player ) - lock yourself out of seeing what other people do and focus only on yourself (NO "omg but I need inspiration", you're shooting yourself in the foot) - you need a SMALL WIN to get the day started (draw that 1 face that's easy) - how you increase your difficulty is based on these equations: - big effort/small reward= no motivation ( you tried to become buff as the rock in 1 workout, you gave it your all and still no results, you're sad now gg) - small effort/ small reward= no motivation ( you don't get motivated because you brushed your teeth) - small effort/ big reward= BIG MOTIVATION (fapping) - big effort/ big reward= THE BIGGEST MOTIVATION ( imagine being the lead designer on Arcane, yes it's hard but this is what gives people the biggest meaning in their lives, having a child is mostly unfun, but seeing the child grow gives every parent "a reason to live") NONE of this really matters. You can't really help out a lot in a single youtube comment. It is a lifelong journey of understaning yourself. (took me 2 years to become actually productive) But anyways, a quick TL;DR: There is always some sort of pain. You can only learn to choose the pain that matters. ( both being fat and working out hurt, but one pain is better than the other) You can only become aware of the brain's unecessary b*tching and choose to defy it. (when it tells you you're trash you pull up your old works to see how much you've improved) Look up the 5 stages of change to see where you are at. If you don't wanna even bother that means you're at stage 1.

It can be a real challenge to grind it out when you're beating yourself up over results.

You have such a warm voice!

Thanks a lot, that kind of videos always keep me up for drawing with hope for improvement.

I really needed this. My motivation to draw is really low because I want my painting to look really good/perfect. Right now, I'm trying to draw something every day, even if it's something super small. I hope I'll become an art god soon :)

dang I can relate to this so much. Thanks for giving me some insight as to what's going on and what I should do

I've struggled with this a lot as I've gotten older, when I first started getting serious about art as a teenager I was super passionate about it and I drew so much stuff (copied from reference) but I rememebr whenever I tried drawing from imagination it always looked bad, in more recent years I've struggled a lot with art trying to learn fundementals better and things like that but I feel like I've lost a lot of that passion and alot of the time I'm not happy with what I'm drawing which is really discouraging, I get so caught up in making everything perfect and worrying about all the details that I end up getting frustrated and not enjoying the process as much :( I am trying to learn to be a little looser and jsut have fun with in but it's still hard when I feel like I can't draw even though I really want to, but I don't plan on giving up as I know I really do love art its just a block I have to work thorugh and jsut draw becasue I want to draw

This in general is just good advice for anything you are trying to pursue. I'm trying to get into making music and by listening to this it's actually gave me a better mindset about it. I have the same trouble where i want to learn it so bad but Im so bad at it and it just unmotivated me. This video even though it is about art has helped me understand how to pursue things better in general.

I always had passion for art. I was a horrible artist. Has no basic knowledge of anatomy. I'm never satisfied by drawing. But I felt like I kept wanting to draw more more and more. And now I'm a lil bit better. But this vid rlly helps me on my artblock

I took a program in animation concept art knowing my skills were going to lack compared to everyone else. I recently started digital art a year ago, when everyone else around have been drawing all their lives, but I knew I that I would enjoy this in the long run so I’m pushing to become better.

Brilliant. I'm 29 a new mom and just starting my art journey.

There's definitely a lot of truth to your point of enjoyment coming as you progress. I think another thing to be cautious of is there can be outside factors that severely impact enjoyment of drawing like overstimulation (think dopamine exhaustion from compulsive video gaming), ADHD, depression, anxiety, etc. so it's important for people to take their mental health as seriously as possible and seek professional help if they suspect anything of the sort is holding them back.

I used to draw just to draw. Because I liked a character in a book, because I had a friend who i wanted to gift it to as a gift, a pretty feature I saw... But as my mental health went down, drawing has been really hard to just start. It's a constant struggle, and not one I find I will give up soon because I had asked myself if I really wanted to even draw at all, if it was bringing me so much agony. I had asked myself if I could have a career that was super easy, paid a lot, I was successful, but I couldn't draw anymore, would I do it? Even with all of that it feels like drawing is a piece of me, and I can't give it up. Maybe it's because of my mom and her friends and my friends all encouraging me with art, getting me materials, books.. And I would feel like I let them down. But it's just such a back and forth struggle. Forcing myself to draw sometimes brings out good stuff, but then I get hung up on unfinished drawings, no attempt to color, I'm not learning anything, and it's just a vicious cycle..

I needed this, Thanks Josh.

This is so true. Thanks for sharing this.

Honestly, this is exactly the video I needed. No joke, I was just contemplating this question two days ago. I have some art knowledge, but not enough to do what I really want to and I wasn't sure where to start because you can only practice drawing basic forms so many times before you want never see another sphere! Anyway, this answered my question perfectly and now I am extremely excited to get back at it.

Amazing video that not many ppl touched on that subject!!!

Man, after watching this video, I checked my Facebook memories and saw my first anatomy and compared it to what I have today, and it's either I have no improvement at all or just a teeny bit, that's it, thanks so much for making this video, I'm no artist because I'm more into DJing, but this has the same message that hits me so hard in a good way, again thank you

Josh you the man love this image and your mentoring

Been waiting for this one ever since i bought a iPad pro 2 years ago! Nice!

Really love this kind of advices Thank you!

This is a very good topic to speak on.

I needed to hear this🖤🖤🖤 thank you🖤🖤🖤

Love this!

Man, this is a great video. Thank you. I'm in exactly this position. I used to draw all the time as a kid, like 20 years ago. Last year I felt inspired enough to get myself an ipad and pen, and foolishly thought the skill would all just come straight back. Obviously it didn't. And man that is disheartening. I've barely used the thing in the year that I've had it (except as an alarm clock). I'll try thinking smaller for a bit. Try an hone just one thing first. Maybe even rewatch some of the old cartoons that inspired me as a kid. I love your art too, by the way! It's gorgeous. I'll stick around and check out a few more videos.

I enjoy drawing every time i do it even tho i suck at it so i didnt relate too much. However i do have a problem with consistency. Whenever i do make a small breakthrough, I get happy but thats never enough to make me draw on a consistent basis. This video reminded me to draw today tho. Thanks for the content 🙌🏿