Why did you stop drawing?

[Jonathan Lanza]

Explain yourself.
All that amateur fanart you did years ago, what made you stop? You know you'd be much better if you had kept at it until now.

 

[Aurica]

I just don't have the motivation. My art is terrible. It's a skill I would like to work on, but not any time soon.

 

[Olinad]

It's one of the many hobbies I pick back up once in a while, and then can't keep up with and abandon :(

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

I'm taking a break man I drew like 2 hours ago!!!

 

[mopinks]

I wish I could stop

 

[Delphine]

I've been having gigantic art block and art anxiety on and off ever since I finished art school some years ago, which is probably the reason why I have an art block to begin with, it did a number on me. Currently working on fixing that.

 

[LegendX48]

I didn't stop, I'm just on break.

 

[CoyoteSpitfire]

I just don't have the discipline to practice consistently. Nor do I find any enjoyment in the process. So my only reward for attempting to draw these days is frustration and disappointment.

 

[Stabi]

Work, family and motivation

I used to draw during class at school or when I was alone at home.

Since I've lost that free time, i ended privileging other hobbies and I never really readjusted my habits to make sure I keep more diversified activities.... Which I should

 

[InfiniteKing]

I started, I've been sticking with it for so long and doing it everyday I've been filling out 4 sketchbooks with different ones. I only stopped a few weeks after back to back messed up portraits, nowI'm back at it after succeeding in some of them, going to give it a try and I really need to go through and finish a loomis book I was starting.

 

[hjort]

Work. It kills my creativity. When I was unemployed I couldn't afford shit, but I was able to draw, paint and compose. It felt meaningful and valuable then. Now it feels as if my whole identity is being eaten up by work, and I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to actually do something for myself.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Focused more on writing.

I didn't stop wholesale, though. I still doodle; mainly portraits, and I'll sometimes scribble out a figure when the mood strikes.

 

[It’s Time To Go]

I'm very bad at it.

 

[thetrin]

I took up writing. I resonated more with it, worked more on it, went to school for it, and fell in love with the medium.

 

[Free Time Hooligan]

I would love to make a career of it, but being gainfully employed and fear of failure kills my motivation. I pick it up like once a month I just can't stay with it.

 

[Kapryov]

I struggled with progressing out of my limited skills, and pushing myself too hard ended up burning me out - leading me to writing instead (and a similar thing happened there, and now I write music).

I'll go back eventually, this is just a 20 year break.

 

[GameDev]

Grad school. The anatomy book sitting on my desk makes me wish I wasn't inundated with busy work.

I am almost done with school and can't wait to dive back in.

 

[Shiz Padoo]

No motivation to practice once I started working, which left me with a lack of skill. I cannot sketch, so I would always try drawing the finished thing from the start instead of building it up.

Trying to get back into painting, but that's an equally slow process. I have some brushes. Just need to order some paint and a few mini canvases. I've been researching how to do the Bob Ross style in acrylic, which probably isn't really possible. But if I can find a way of emulating it I'll be happy.

 

[Snormy]

I never did. I just don't show anyone my awful doodles.

 

[apocat]

I don't know. I wish I kept it up.

 

[Blairbat]

Sometimes I get depressed and dont for a few days, but generally I draw 4 to 5 hours a day. Sometimes all day if i can keep focused which would be ideal.

 

[Poltergust]

I'm terrible at it and I hate drawing anyways. Art was always my least favorite class back when I was a kid lol.

 

[turbobrick]

didn't have a strong enough interest to keep working hard at it

 

[ItchyTasty]

I guess I moved on to mostly visualize my creations with a computer. I do a bit of computational design in my free time. I would love to be better at drawing perspectives and such tho.

 

[Deleted member 26156]

I drew enough for today and decided to get some sleep, sheesh. Can't a guy get some rest?

 

[Kaswa101]

My drawings suck

 

[Delphine]

I never did. I just don't show anyone my awful doodles.

Click to shrink...

Please show me your doodles Snormz!

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

I still do, just never upload anything because I don't like showing people most of the time.

 

[SanTheSly]

I'm bad and could only ever draw well when I straight up tried to copy a piece of reference material.

Everything else looked bad or ended up horribly out of scale.

 

[Wubby]

Because I suck. I took it up again a few years ago but it's been a while since. Too busy with other things, like posting on Era 👍

 

[Last_colossi]

Depression?

 

[julia crawford]

I realized that my parents splitting up was not actually my fault.

 

[Wackamole]

It was the middle of the night. I had to get some sleep.
But drawing again right now.

 

[Jonathan Lanza]

For shame on all of you.

Spoiler

I did a lot worse than all of my friends in art class in highschool and it made me think that I was just bad and this wasn't my calling so I gave up on it for years. In hindsight that's such a silly reason and it's one of my only true regrets that I didn't stick with it more consistently. No time like the present though.

 

[WyLD iNk]

Because someone broke into my car and stole literally everything in it, including all my portfolios and in progress work, and all my tools and medium. Literally everything I had done for the previous 17 years - from the time I got out of high school to that point was taken in a single moment. All I have left is stuff I did in high school and a handful of mere pinups and design thumbs as fucking scans. The originals were also taken.

It hurts too much to think about doing it again. I'm old now. May not do it ever again. I hope whoever stole all my shit died from the fucking meth they bought with all my stolen stuff.

 

[Akumatica]

Because the fan art I made wasn't very popular and was pretty amateurish.

 

[Azem]

i dunno, depression? anxiety? not seeing much improvement over a few years and being discouraged? all of the above?

 

[Belladonna]

Any skill requires consistent practice. I do want to be in a position where I can say, yes I can do this regularly and I know I'll suck for ages but if I stick with it I'll see improvement. But at the moment I can't get into that headspace. This isn't just art but music as well or really any skill that I would love to learn or continue improving.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

I've been having gigantic art block and art anxiety on and off ever since I finished art school some years ago, which is probably the reason why I have an art block to begin with, it did a number on me. Currently working on fixing that.

Click to shrink...

This mirrors my personal experience. I should have kept it as a small hobby as opposed to something to attend classes for. What can I say, I was young and dumb.

 

[sirap]

Arthritis.

 

[issa]

Because I got on the internet and started comparing myself to every great artist in the world.

 

[SigSig]

My hands hurt. If I kept drawing I couldn't do my dayjob.

 

[Delphine]

This mirrors my personal experience. I should have kept it as a small hobby as opposed to something to attend classes for. What can I say, I was young and dumb.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that can happen as well.

In my case it's more related to going through a burn-out and a subsequent depression.

I hope you will find joy in drawing again though, it's precious.

 

[Danby]

I took a long break, but I'm back into it now. I want to get better, and it's starting to show progress even in just the six months or so of work.

My first big effort on the internet was when I did comics for a Nintendo Fan site ten years ago, but surprisingly the people there were very mean and critical in retrospect. That sort of pushed me to stop. Now, I might get some rude comments on Reddit, but the vast majority are actually rather welcoming in comparison. You guys have been pretty nice with the stuff I've shared too.

I still have a lot of anxiety posting my work, but I'm trying hard to push past that. I'm not entirely sure what my end goal is, but I'm at least becoming a better comic artist in the mean time.

 

[citrusred]

Explain yourself.
All that amateur fanart you did years ago, what made you stop? You know you'd be much better if you had kept at it until now.

Click to shrink...

Don't worry OP you can draw for years on end and still be barely any better than you were to begin with.
Wish I could give up to be honest. I like drawing that I do it consistently but I've never had any sort of goal that would help push me forward in a meaningful way. I wouldn't even say I enjoy it as such, its more is when I occasionally draw something well there's a sense of satisfaction I don't get from anything else.

 

[mugurumakensei]

I have no talent. All I could draw was eyeballs. That's it, and eyeballs are creepy.

 

[IdeaOfEvil]

I sucked at it and never improved =(

 

[Vommy]

I found at that my peak is a stick figure

 

[Smithy]

was pretty good at it. Stopped when I realised it's time consuming on not giving me any perspective for the future

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

That was actually going to be my career and I had loads of talent but at some point sitting there looking down at paper started to give me serious headaches.

I tried the digital drawing pads and such but the lack of any "friction" completely throws off my ability.