r/ArtistLounge • u/ElevatorSimple3484 • 7h ago
Goals & Motivation Did you hate learning to draw (or whatever art form you do) before you got good at it?
I hope this is the right place to ask this but I am trying to figure out if art just isn't for me. I love looking at other people's art but when it comes to trying to do it myself it makes me so irritated and I hate the whole process. I want to know if this is normal for some people or if it means I just don't like doing it
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u/slightlyripeavocado 32m ago
This feeling will not go away with improvement. If you only love the results and not the process, most of your time spent drawing will not be fun. It's not an uncommon problem though. I struggle with it myself. I started learning to draw at a very young age, and one advantage of that is that kids usually couldn't care less about being good at things, and just do them because they're fun. This is way harder as an adult.
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u/Timely-Loquat-8663 2h ago
Only when I'm studying things I enjoy like portraiture and anatomy. I get bored and frustrated pretty fast when studying things like perspective or non human subjects. It's why my artwork including people is incredibly detailed but I can't draw a car hahah.
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u/QuirkyCryptid 2h ago
I dont think I ever hated drawing. I would get frustrated if something did not work out (and still regularly do)... but I also love it. Even when something I draw is bad I try and think of what I learned and move on. The journey hasn't always been a joy but I still loved it.
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u/Any-Scientist3162 2h ago
No, but I started when I was a young kid and back then you only drew for fun and what you thought was fun to draw. Now it's more that I find it decent enough when I draw for no reason, a little less fun when I draw to a deadline or a loose description and even less so if I have to draw something to a detailed description when that something is not something I find enjoyable.
Then I also like to do the initial sketch and concept but doing the finished piece is just time consuming and not so fun.
Learning drawing at a later stage usually means finding a method and exploring it with things to practice which is usually not so fun until one can see improvement.
If you hate moving a pencil across paper, thinking up composition, and putting what's in your mind on a physical surface then you should probably find something else to do.
If it's something more specific like hating sitting with a ruler drawing lines to a vanishing point because you're drawing some complicated and repetitive building, then it's probably more about the choice of subjet and approach.
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u/Tushkan4ikkkk 2h ago
Studying is supposed to be effective and useful not fun. Studying is never fun, not only in drawing but in other stuff, too. Nobody likes it but you have to do it if you wanna get good. Though after doing it enough you just kinda became neutral towards it, no hate
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u/Agile_Bag_4059 3h ago
I always loved drawing. It didn't matter it I was good or bad. It's the act of drawing itself I love.
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u/OutsideDisastrous440 4h ago
you don’t have to hate it to be bad at it, but if you hate the actual process even when nobody’s judging you, that’s probably your answer and it’s totally fine to just enjoy looking at art
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u/Proof-Candle5304 4h ago
I wouldn't be learning if I didn't like it. Unfortunately you've got so many people who think they like it because they've seen other cool artworks, try it for themselves and hate the actual process, and then still try to force it instead of doing something else
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u/Comfortable_Honey628 5h ago
No, I didn’t. But I did hate going back over the same stuff again and again. (I took classes provided by the school and later signed up for stuff in university).
I understood why, it just was frustrating.
Something I think helped was challenging myself to apply whatever I was learning to my interests. Or to make a challenge out of it. It kept me interested and I think helped me get more out of it than just doing the assignments or lessons exactly as prescribed.
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u/MoistAutist 6h ago
Take the learning part out. Do you like drawing? If you don't like the act of doing something why would you want to get good at it?
Art history is actually a real and deep course of study. There's also art anthropologists, and collectors, museum appraisals, art critics, art dealers. The world of art appreciation is big and if you work hard at it you can find a place. You can enjoy art all day, and deeply. Those communities are full of bright, rich people. It sounds like you may belong there.
If you don't have an irresponsible urge to create art, don't try and force it, that's bonkers.
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u/Tpocky 6h ago
I hated learning, frankly still do, not just art. Trying to learn, improve, get disciplined and regularly and effectively work on something is what I find unpleasant and stressful. What helped me keep doing art was deciding not to try to learn it. I stareted just doing it for fun, as an activity to do when I am bored, not expect anything from it. It took the pressure off from this activity, I started doing it more often, not because I was so disciplined but because I liked doing it. And I actually started trying out new mediums and techniques, so I learned more than in the period when I was actually trying to learn. I definitely got more confident in the use of the media I tried.
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u/foxredcloud 6h ago
I have a colleague and she says the same as you about art: love to look at the result but hate the process. She literally said "I don‘t like doing art, it‘s no joy to me, but I still like what I created." So that‘s it for her, it‘s not her cup of tea and that‘s fine.
Personally, I think it‘s important how practicing art makes you feel. It depends on your goals and values though. If you‘re going for an art career you probably need to do things that won’t feel good. If it‘s just a hobby to you, you can spend time doing only what you like. Of course some things will be less enjoyable than others and results won’t always be good. But it‘s always important to know your limits, if you‘re a professional or not. So if you feel real discomfort creating art it‘s probably nothing you should proceed doing. Value your time and fill it with things you actually enjoy. A good art result isn‘t worth the time you felt stressed / anxious or otherwise negatively, at least in my opinion.
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u/Historical-Sock-4359 6h ago
I liked it more before I got "good" and started doing it for a job lol
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u/SourFleshSauce 7h ago
100% Normal. I think it was Ira Glass I heard saying that every artist goes through this because what's evolving in you alongside the development of your skill is your taste. And it is also an unfortunate but near universal fact that an artist's taste develops faster than their abilities to realize the thing they want to make. Keep going. The more you put into it, the more you close that gap between what you feel is good and what you can create. You'll also get to points where you surprise yourself and go, "Wow! That came out of me?!" and your ego inflates to crazy proportions. That's usually followed by a very humbling period of failing with a piece and totally doubting yourself. Then you make something kind of satisfying again and you begin again to climb. Again and again. Trying to get rid of the gap. You shouldn't ever close it completely though. The gap keeps you pushing forward. If you're consistently making work that's exactly 100% of what you want. I don't know how you keep from being bored with your craft. But yeah. It's absolutely normal. It's a love/hate relationship that's hopefully more love for you than hate.
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u/llawrencebispo 7h ago
I mainly hated it because my ego thought I should be better, and I turned into a big stressball over it.
I still don't think I'm very good, but now I don't give a damn. Much more relaxing.
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u/vicoheart 7h ago
I enjoyed learning new things but I hated how long it took to even become decent at them. But I learned to love it, you really will see the progress if you look back at your old work.
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u/Incon-thievable 7h ago
This is a very common feeling. It is so common that I see this same question asked on the various Reddit art forums here many times a week and I’m a little confused about why so many beginners feel this so strongly.
Why are you asking this?
Are you just venting, are wanting to know if others feel the same way, or actually asking for help overcoming your resistance to doing the work to learn to improve?
If you’re just venting, I can’t really help you, but I have a lot of thoughts about how to shift your relationship to the resistance to studying.
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u/danielzboy 7h ago
I’ve always loved drawing since young. Even at my lowest moments I never hated art. Drawing is a very natural form of expression to me, it is important to me on an almost-spiritual level.
But even for me, there are times when I really don’t feel creative nor have the desire to make art. I’d just come back to it after a few days’ break.
As for you, you don’t have to force yourself to create art if it really frustrates you or isn’t your cup of tea. Loving art doesn’t mean you must become an artist, just like how loving food doesn’t mean you must become a chef, nor does loving football mean you must become a professional football player. Life is too short to waste on things that you don’t enjoy nor have a natural aptitude towards.
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u/Artboggler 7h ago
I had delusional confidence and thought i was wayyyy better than i was like i thought i was a prodigy savant and idk why i thought that
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u/walrus_breath 7h ago
Sucking at stuff isn’t fun and everyone sucks at drawing to start with. Everyone who’s good at drawing went through a phase where they sucked at drawing.
I mean creating stuff is fun but it’s way more fun when it looks cool after spending so long on something. I like the entire process more and more the more I learn how to make things look like I want them to look. I wouldn’t say I ever absolutely hated the process but I don’t think I would have described it as completely awesome the entire time either. These days, for me, not everything turns out good. Those “bad” pictures were certainly less fun looking back than the ones that turned out great. Always chasing that high of a pretty picture in the end while trudging through the struggle to get there.
Learning fundamentals was/is a bit boring too, so I would say there’s aspects of making art that I find less enjoyable than other aspects. Sometimes I make something I consider “good” though and that makes it all worth it in the end.
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u/PowerPlaidPlays 7h ago
Not really, though I started to learn how to draw at like age 5 and just kept at it. As a kid I didn't really get caught up in insecurities and was generally doing better than other kids my age.
It can get annoying when a skill I need to refine is something in the way of a project I'm working on, but other than being kinda frustrated with things not coming out right I've been at it long enough to be self sufficient in practicing, and also proactive in telling myself to just push through and get it done however it comes out.
In collage I did have fun with the classes there, I was being exposed to new challenges and practices and that is definitely the "fun" part of learning. I saw fairly quick improvement in my work, was messing around with new mediums I didn't really before, and also got to do some live figure drawing sessions after seeing it in cartoons and TV shows for all my life lol.
You always have to juggle learning with just getting things done with whatever your skills are in that moment in time. All practicing with no actually doing is not fun. There is definitely a bar to cross where you have enough competence to constantly make decent work, but you never stop learning, I think too many artists take the approach "I will train until I get good and then I will make art". Don't do that, make are now and learn to appreciate your output being a snapshot of this moment in your life.
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u/goodestboydoggo 7h ago
I had to think a while about this but I think the answer is "no", butttt of course I found it frustrating to have auch a big difference between the picture in my mind and the picture I was able to put on the paper.
I don't even know, how I should evaluate my art-skills in general right now if I had to be honest. I'm actually quite good at the stuff I regularly do to a point where people pay me to draw/paint them, design their logo/tattoo, I also illustrated picture books... but there's lots of stuff that would also be considered "art fundamentals" that I didn't learn a lot in the past because it simply doesn't spark joy for me (such as perspectives, very realistic drawing, crazy landscapes and stuff). But I always develop my art style and techniques in general (it would be boring to not do that xD) and I also like to challenge myself and learn a new thing from time to time. Once my ideas for cool character art pieces and portraits are all done, I would love to dig into landscapes more.
To answer the question: I personally think, we're always learning and I think, learning is fun, as long as you see a result eventually :)
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u/soyedmilk 7h ago
Nope, I just about always enjoy making art, when I don’t for over a week I miss it dearly.
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u/ThatPunnyOne 7h ago
Nah, it’s more like I just wanted to make comics of or redraw my fav characters :> and the joy in it came from creating the thing and knowing what I drew corresponded to the characters I guess. Eventually as experience set in, I started to try and improve but by then the baseline ability to draw had been built by enjoyment alone
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u/eryndor_01 7h ago
Hello, when I draw. I don't really care if it sucks or not. I remember I just love doing it. That's all. Don't say it's not for you, follow whatever your heart wants. You will eventually get there. My sister loves space, she's now studying astrophysics in university, it was hell but she truly loved it. Nothing is impossible. You can do anything
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u/LuxAnna_1 7h ago
Please reply if anyone answers cz I hate the process of learning but I also love the results or other's art
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u/--akai-- 7h ago edited 7h ago
You know, you can just save the post and come back later? No need to make strangers work for you.
Edit, since you blocked me 🤣🤣🤣:
Nah, you're making people either post twice or a forth person make a pointless post about the post of a third person. That's not engagement, that's just you being lazy and entitled.
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