Fix your Art Envy

Being jealous of the skill that others have is one of the human parts of living. Especially in art, where there’s so many different things people can create and be skilled at.

Jealousy and dissatisfaction with your own skill is a thing that’s common to every artist, but it’s especially present early on, when you’re just starting to learn. But it doesn’t mean we have to feel good about that, and there are ways to handle these feelings. I’m going to start by sharing my own experience, and then go in to some of my thoughts for handling it, because I think they can help you too.

Just a few years ago, I was excited to learn to draw simply because it was learning a skill that I knew nothing about, and it was fun to make my own silly basic little doodles. But as I started to think about what I wanted to draw, I looked around at others’ art. And it was super hard to ignore how good everyone else’s art was! Especially when people claim they “just got started” with art (a claim that is almost always bullshit, by the way) and were posting some pretty great stuff. No matter who made the art, I’d feel jealous. I’d tell myself, “that’s where I want to be”. But at the same time, it would kind of make me feel a little depressed, like I was “left behind” in some kind of race to learn and make art.

I’ll be completely honest here: these feelings would come and go over my first year of real art practice, and there wasn’t a magic moment where I suddenly felt fine and motivated. But I kept repeating things to myself to keep me going, and over time I’ve started to feel better about where I am and stopped caring so much about where everyone else is. Here are some of those thoughts.

1. First: reminding myself about the possibilities of learning. If you remember nothing else from my videos, remember this: you WILL get there. There’s no magic art secret that only some people have. If you practice you will improve, and someday you will be the artist others look up to.

2. Second: everyone hides their bad art. Some brave artists might share it on occasion, but I always remind myself that I’m seeing less than 10% of someone’s drawings when they share them online.

3. Third: age really doesn’t matter. Everyone is jealous of the people that started earlier. But you know what? Art skill lasts a lifetime. If you’re learning as an adult, even when you’re getting up there in age, you will learn more quickly because you can apply a lifetime of experience to it. The act of learning is itself a skill, and you’ve been practicing that longer than those younger than you. Use it to learn and enjoy a new skill of art.

4. Fourth: remind yourself that dissatisfaction and jealousy is a result of your own skill at seeing art for what it is improving. You’re able to tell the difference between where you are and where you want to be, and that’s truly a large part of art skill. When you notice this, try to write down some goals — anywhere, on a sticky note even — of how you want to get there. Is it proportions? Is it drawing hair? Is it the motion, the shading, the style of rendering? Look, I’m not going to tell you to “just feel better”, but I do want you to write down goals when you feel jealous. Because the next day, you can look at those goals with a clear head and be in a better place to apply them what you want to practice.

Finally: take all of these thoughts I’ve described and repeat them to yourself. Out loud and often, in whatever way you can remember them. “I can do this. I can improve. I will set goals and practice. It will take a while, but I’ll get there.” I know it sounds really silly, but literally telling yourself these things, repeatedly, will help you take a more objective view in learning and improving. And over time, as you do improve, you’ll be less and less jealous of others’ work, and can appreciate different kinds of skill for what it is. Thank you for listening to today’s video; I’m glad you’re here learning with me, and I hope you have fun drawing today.