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This is partly written out of rage because I've had a headache for two days now and life just isn't going that great...

How do you deal with someone (a family member even) looking at something you are working on and saying it's not good or it looks -insert negative thing here-.

I've been working on something to take my mind off things and then my brother looks at it and says, "she looks like she is either constipated or on her period." and then just now again today when he's home, "She still looks like she has to tinkle."

I told him to stop being mean to me especially when he can't draw himself and he asks why I'm so crabby...does it not make sense that someone would be angry when you insult something they put time and effort into?

'My attitude is based on how you treat me' - I'm not sure where this saying is from but it's really ringing true right now and I just wish people would understand. I'm feeling really sensitive right now being unemployed and lonely because I can't see any of my friends and my family being in a lot of tough places. I don't cope well will stress or being bossed around and lately I just feel like crying all the time.

I feel insulted and hurt, I guess this is kind of a personal/mental health thing as well. If I can't be happy about making art because I want to I have nothing else to go to really. I can't just ignore what people say all the time, but it sucks that I see my own work differently in a way that makes me hate it too now...

damn, you definitively seem to have hit a hard patch huh : (

Well the first thing I'd say is you know your brothers just being a pain, because siblings are like that. Mine are the same way, so I know its hard but try to forget about his naive little cocky attitude. Phhh what does he know. Like you said, he doesn't even draw, he doesn't understand how something like this is hard and demands loads of dedication and time, and its only normal he can't bring himself to fully appreciate a real piece of art.

Second of all, amandelie, I've said it before and I'll say it again, your an amazing artist. You've got an amazing talent for drawing, your sketches are dynamic, and colours are vivid and full of life. You alway try to do your best when working for commissions, and you have a wounderfull personality as well. You are a kind hearted persone with lots of talent and motivation. Your motivation is down right now, but most artist hit this point a few times in there lives. You just gotta take it one step at a time ok.

Try to take a breather, if your brother is commenting on your art, draw your art out of his site, stay a way from him when you draw. Post your stuff here in the guild if you want feed back. People here know there art, and I haven't met anyone here who bashs for the sake of bashing... people here are nice and will only try to help you become a better artist.

Try to stay strong and just remeber your ******** perfect : ) even if you don't feel like it... I'm telling you, you are! K

Awe, I'm sorry you have to go through with that. I can relate with what you're going through and what your feeling. My whole family is like that and even the people around me are like that.

Just yesterday I got into an argument with a classmate that art isn't easy. She kept saying it was and that I should just give up and do something else if all I do is waste time drawing useless cartoons cause that will get me no where. I was hard pressed not to throw a heavy text book at her face.

The most you can do is try to explain to people it's not as easy as it seems but it's hard for them to understand. You can try comparing it in an example with something they do. Perhaps their passion is playing an instrument, but that doesn't mean they're be amazing without hard work and dedication.

Like the others have mentioned, just try to be strong and realize your own value. I know it's hard. I hate my own art too. Especially right now I feel like I'm not making any progress. I've actually gotten worse and it's very depressing. But I still trudge on in hopes that I will be able to love my own work again.

D4 is also right that your worst critics can be helpful to you. Yes, they may not know what art is or the hard work that gets put into it, BUT the majority of the world is like that. You have to take into consideration that in a way he's helping you to realize what is visually appealing to the masses. Now, I'm not saying that your work is bad. It just may only appeal to some and not others, that's how it will always be. So know that there will be people who will love your work.

I don;t like my family members watching e drawing things, because they won't understand all this stuff I do.
I simply don't draw in front of them in order to avoid such unpleasant situations.

my reply is delayed but I figure I can maybe still give my two cents. I grew up with people always doing better than me, or with people that hated or didn't like my style of art, calling it fake etc. Sometimes you just have to remember that some people are out to just piss you off. Maybe your bro was just trying to intentionally rag on you (hey, he's your bro afterall, and thats what we do lol).

My advice to you is to look to how the drawing makes YOU feel. Don't let other people's opinions mire your work or your time. Its about you, not them. If you let them get to you, they win.


As they say, haters gonna hate.

My opinion's a bit different.

Sometimes my little sister would walk in to comment on my artwork - "her eyes are ugly" or "her arms look broken", and instead of feeling insulted, I'd use her comment to improve. When I'm drawing, I'm sometimes so engrossed in it, flaws that should be obvious - I miss completely. Seeing my art from a different person's point of view is great, no matter how harsh it is.

If someone said "damn she looks buttugly and you should just throw this picture into a meat grinder", I'll ask "why?", and then I'll try to improve. Someone's trying to piss you off? Use that to improve. And there's no point in getting pissed off - that means the person succeeded in their goal!

Kind of unrelated, but this reminds me of the time in my art class where the teacher gave a friendly critique to this one girl, who then started complaining about how the teacher was "mean" and "never liked her drawings". I was like "jesus, girl, he's just trying to help you improve!"

Oh I realize it's a lot of crap, I went through that in school from my own professor saying that my work looked like a grade schooler's. I'm sure you can all imagine how happy that made me.

I guess the situation I originally started this thread about two weeks ago is more specific to the one piece and how I was feeling..and my brother in general, he can literally say ANYTHING he wants and get away with it. I am not lying about that at all, I'm called the "n-word" nearly on a daily basis for no reason. So this is just a frustration with my environment right now..I don't feel like anywhere I've been except with a few friends who would willingly model for me while hanging out/watching tv/talking(they would sit for the time needed even through limbs falling asleep just to see the drawing in the end and get all excited about it, and it's fun going back through the pages of my sketchbook seeing all of them sitting around in our lounge again) has been a nurturing environment for an artist. I ramble..

It's tough to think that I will never be praised by everyone, it's important for me lately that I get attention in a positive way because a lot of things in my life are not easy. Family, money, illnesses, long distance relationship, the fact that I got 4 As and 1 D on my final semester of school(I don't let go of things easily sometimes), the list goes on..

Sorry to be turning this into a 'poor me my life is so hard' thread, I'm sure that I'm not the only one that goes through this though. And heck, I don't even know what I want to do with my life..if I do want to be an artist or find something else I can do..but then again jobs aren't so easy to come by so I don't really have as many choices as I may think I do.

/superlongramblerant D;

As for the people wanting to help you improve, I don't think all out criticism should be how it's done. My old roommate from school would be AWESOME about helping me work on things, she would literally stand there and say something like "Ok, that arm should be a little different." and then she would either do a draw over or come over to my desk and model the pose herself so I could see what she meant. I don't think it's appropriate to say "the arm looks awful" or even worse.

Critique isn't bad in and of itself, but as they say in Germany "the tune makes the melody"
If you're not even bothering in elaborating why something looks off, or why it looks weird, why the expression looks like a different one, then it's better not to say anything at all. Of course there are some people who see that something doesn't look right, but can't really say why or how to improve it, then just say so.
It's not so difficult to take the feelings of the artist into consideration.