/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

I'm 25 and i've spent the last 8 years of my life grinding my art to become a better artist, yet somehow I have accomplished absolutely nothing.

every "industry" opportunity i have been faced with has fallen through at the last minute

Resorting to taking furry commissions or drawing porn for patreon makes me feel like a dirty failure who is never going to "make it"

I recently started taking antidepressants which has made my muse completely abandon me and I haven't been able to even force myself to make anything for almost the entirety of 2020 and my social media numbers are slowly dwindling down, i'll be below 1k soon.

I have so many ideas for what i want to do that i think people will like and i always feel that little burst of inspiration/motivation/excitement but then it fizzles out before I even start. by the time i do start i'm so overwhelmed by just how much /work/ goes into making /anything/ that i just shit out the same garbage tier portrait of a cute girl with her legs spread like always to keep my patrons from abandoning me.

there are so many projects i start but never finish, and there are infinitely even more that i never even start.

whenever i see companies hiring jobs in my field when i actually look into them they look so abysmally boring that i never apply. is anyone really happy and satisfied with their "industry jobs" or is it all just a fucking grind to pay rent on time like it feels like it is? sometimes i feel like i should just go get a job at walmart if its going to be just as soul sucking as any "art" job but easier to obtain.

i cant even tell if my art is good or not.

>>3291618
I don't know how qualified I am to describe the 'techniques' I use, as it's always different for everyone, and I don't know how good my techniques really are, but I can share an epiphany I had for my art in general: That it was, at least in my case, much more interesting and fun to focus on drawing things that LOOK good, rather than focusing on structural correctness.

I read a lot of manga, since childhood, and I noticed that even if the drawings weren't anatomically correct, they were more concerned with conveying a specific emotion or aesthetic.
I found that, though fundamentals are important to know, the most important thing in making any sort of art is the feeling behind it - if you focus only on structural correctness, the only things you'll ever make are remarkable displays of technical ability, but nothing beyond.

In my case with this doujin, the 'feeling' behind it was to make it as sexy as possible. Look at page 9 of the doujin - after revisiting it, I've noticed that her head is kind of big and her shoulders a little bit narrow. This is something that I will keep in mind of in future projects, but my intent with that top panel was to draw focus to her face, especially eyes, because I thought that would make her look extra sexy.

I guess what's important is having a focus on the things you want to draw - though, a wise hobo samurai from long ago put it in better words than I have:

“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”