watcher
Life passing by as I watch
★★
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2020
- Posts
- 4,692
I used to think that as long as I invested time and effort into a skill, I would evolve, no matter what. Even though it followed the diminishing returns, you could still get a little bit better.
However, even though I have been honing my skills for a decade now, I am not at a professional level. I did everything that you would expect, I practiced a lot, I learned from masters, even bought lessons from some of my favorite artists.
But as I draw something now, my level is basically the same as many years ago. I simply stopped getting better quickly. The truth is that we all have limitations about our skills in anything, and even though I was a "prodigy" in art as a child, admired by friends and family members, my drawings became less impressive as I grew up, and once I started to take it seriously and learn it in a more consistent way, I became like 50% better and never managed to get better than that ever since.
When I look at the work from the masters that I admire, I realize that no matter how much work I put into it, I will never reach their level. And this is the art black pill. Anyone who you ask will tell you that art is about effort and that professionals simply spent more time into it, that is a total lie. I did everything I could. The most brutal part is after finishing a piece only to notice it looks like total shit, but you have no idea why. Then you post it online looking for feedback, and you get suggestions from other artists that either make no change whatsoever or sometimes it even makes it worse (because they are either at your level or below it) Not knowing what is wrong with your art and being able to tell its garbage is something that is annoying in the beginning, but its soul-crushing in the 35000th time.
Once again, I have to face the fact that life is not about effort but about what you are born with.
However, even though I have been honing my skills for a decade now, I am not at a professional level. I did everything that you would expect, I practiced a lot, I learned from masters, even bought lessons from some of my favorite artists.
But as I draw something now, my level is basically the same as many years ago. I simply stopped getting better quickly. The truth is that we all have limitations about our skills in anything, and even though I was a "prodigy" in art as a child, admired by friends and family members, my drawings became less impressive as I grew up, and once I started to take it seriously and learn it in a more consistent way, I became like 50% better and never managed to get better than that ever since.
When I look at the work from the masters that I admire, I realize that no matter how much work I put into it, I will never reach their level. And this is the art black pill. Anyone who you ask will tell you that art is about effort and that professionals simply spent more time into it, that is a total lie. I did everything I could. The most brutal part is after finishing a piece only to notice it looks like total shit, but you have no idea why. Then you post it online looking for feedback, and you get suggestions from other artists that either make no change whatsoever or sometimes it even makes it worse (because they are either at your level or below it) Not knowing what is wrong with your art and being able to tell its garbage is something that is annoying in the beginning, but its soul-crushing in the 35000th time.
Once again, I have to face the fact that life is not about effort but about what you are born with.