Artist regret

[Killian Jones 2,653]

So recently I got thinking on the topic of artist regret.

 

What is artist regret? It's where you create something, and at no point ever feel satisfied with the end result, no matter what other seem to say or think of it. be it a picture you drew, a piece of music you composed, or even a house you built in Minecraft.

 

I myself suffer majorly from it, especially with my Minecraft builds.I never feel like I built anything pretty looking, or it is not detailed enough. And I sometimes hear people say the same thing. And I feel the problem starts from the fact that if you look at the same thing for long enough, you stop seeing what you actually made, you feel you see all the cracks and the bumps.

 

Of course there is the complete opposite of that. Major artist pride, which more often then not, can be much worse. Where an artist feels they created a masterpiece, yet drew some stick figures anyone could do, hell stick figures which could have been made better by someone else.

 

If anything, do you suffer from similar things, or do you have no issues at all?

[Chigens and Kay 3,831]

Yes!

 

If you looked at pretty much anything I drew, I hate nearly all of them.

Though most people would disagree...I am hardly ever satisfied with my drawings.

[NeverNeverland 1,940]

As a former fanfic writer and a starting out vector artist, I can understand this. It's often because of artist regret that I start all of my projects over, or simply scrap them period...

[Finesthour 7,284]

My (ex)girlfriend has this.

 

She thinks EVERYTHING she draws is pure crap, when they're amazing.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Kohta

[Dragonshy 2,305]

This happens to me quite a lot, with any art. I always think something is off or that it is a complete fail when it comes to art.

[DashPony 359]

This happens to me with my music sometimes. I very rarely ever feel like any piece of music I write is anything special, even if others seem to love it.

 

They say that the artist is their own worst critic, and that is very true.

[Nah 3,181]

I regret trying to write a fanfic, or trying to draw, I suck at drawing, and writing.

 

Art is not my niche.

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

Ugh, ive had it a couple of times when it comes to music, the one thing im decent at so far. I especially hate when I make a rash decision to delete everything and start over.

[moneyshredderofdeath 414]

I can have a lot of frustration getting a piece to my liking sometimes. That being said, I usually think I do an at least decent job on my pieces, at least nowadays. My old stuff was awful, but I guess that's the case for many people haha.

[Strife 455]

I don't like anything I've written. Ever.

 

Fairly sure it's all garbage.

 

Although people never read them, even though I try, so I guess it's more reality than simply a case of "Artist Regret".

[Captain Nemo 164]

I usually like most of the art I make. I keep tweaking it until I'm satisfied with it.

 

However, there is one thing I don't like that came about after I started drawing. I find myself judging other people's art, thinking I'm better than them, and always looking at the flaws in their works. I don't do it intentionally and I'm really trying to stop, but it seems to happen automatically. I'll open up a DA image and look at the views, thinking "Ha, I can do better than them." It's annoys the crap out of me.

[Jokuc 8,172]

Nope, I spent 4 months building a Minecraft puzzle-map and I think it turned out great :3

[LovingTolerance 131]

If anything, do you suffer from similar things, or do you have no issues at all?

 

A work of art is never completed, merely abandoned. --da Vinci

 

At first I usually feel like the fan fiction I write is good, but I soon realize it isn't. I feel like I can't really do anything to fix it. The problems usually rest with the over all plot, so I can't fix it without destroying the whole story.

 

It doesn't bother me that much. I just move onto the next thing having made the best revisions I could without spending forever on it.

 

Sometimes I think I should try drawing instead, since it would be so much more clear if my creations were good or not. Any idiot can tell a good picture from a bad one, but stories are harder to judge while writing them.

[~Chaos~ 3,966]

This just happened to me, i hate it, I'm pretty sure Artist regret is why i haven't put up much drawings lately, or maybe I'm too picky with my art, it just really annoys me. Sometimes i will start a drawing, get half way through or more, then just stop and never finish it, it's something i want to work around, and stop doing.

[Evilshy 5,089]

I have it pretty bad. There isn't much of my writing, art, or minecraft builds that I can actually say I like :/

 

Come to think of it, I don't like any of my writing, none of my minecraft builds, and only maybe 1 or 2 pieces of art.

The only creative thing of mine I do take pride in are the worlds and characters I create. I honestly think I come up with some pretty good ideas for worlds, concepts, settings, characters, etc. It's just the small details and stuff that make me dislike writing stories.

[Croaks 251]

Whenever I sketch something, I always feel as if I don't have enough detail, even though it's fine. Every time I look at it, I have to make at least one pencil mark.

Except, I don't view it as regret more than I do as a desire to improve.

[Krystal 1,468]

Happens to me evey time. But it's not just with my work; wherever I look the first thing that comes to mind is "how can it be better"

[Guest]

Yes -- with pretty much everything I've ever made. It's hard knowing you can still do more !

[Ezynell 2,036]

I feel like the only one that doesn't feel this. Whenever I don't like something I made, I either remake it, or just move on... hrmmm, is something wrong with me?

[Crispy 5,563]

Everyone is a victim of this at some point. Knowing yourself as you do, you will always find things that you know you could have done better, or see at the end what you should have seen as you were doing it.

[Abaddon 95]

I'm a writer and I deeply struggle with this. Every time I produce a piece I think it's utter crap. I'll read it over and over again, each time finding new things to dislike. However, I have learned to just post my work, after editing, regardless of my utter hatred of the piece. What boggles my mind is that everyone likes my writing, even though I can't stand my work. It gets very confusing and disheartening, however, I just keep writing because I love to write.

[AIMonkey 197]

Warning: Edit: This just got longer and longer, brace yourself. It's a bit of random rant (like most of my things...)

 

(My following words won't be able to apply for everyone. They are just my words based on my personal experience, I don't want to bring anyone on the wrong path)

 

This is something I have been through. (as an Game Artist drawing things)

I think one of the biggest problems is when you are not making Anything at all!

That's probably one of the biggest obstacles you'll need to get through in order to advance.

 

For drawing, one needs to keep drawing to become better, though also able to look at their faults.

I didn't use the word "good" because thinking something is "good" brings its own risks.

Liking something so badly, that you clinch to much to it. Stopping you from looking beyond it.

 

Now comes something I personally come to enjoy , "Kill your darlings". It can hurt, it really can, depending on how drastic your actions are. Like ripping up a drawing you have been working days on! (I missed that particular lesson though, So only my friends ended up doing that)

 

Anyhow, It's good to turn you back on something you "finished" or just put so much time on that could keep you working on it forever.

When the entire piece can stand on it's own and it's just polishing you're doing, you could and should maybe think about stepping away from it and moving on

 

This all really is something where you need to be able to look at yourself. Others can only do so much, as in telling you things, advising, But for everyone it can be different. Knowing how different it is for you and being able to adjust to that and knowing what you want, is all part of the process.

 

Additionally, as far as it comes to making bad things. One big thing is also how much you'll see from "good" or "professional" people. "They all make just good things right?" No... probably not, you just hardly get to see it.

And of course, their "worst" might still not be your best, but for them it might be considered bad.

 

Personally that is one of the reasons I try to reveal some work in progress stuff around to show. Like really bad sketches. Matter of perspective here again though. It might not be completely bad, but something I just make terrible terrible thing. Trying out new things for one, I might be absolutely bad at it, but heh, It's my first try right?

 

"I'll just pump this out for you to enjoy and a good laugh.Heh, maybe that one part wasn't that bad right? Huhm, I could really use that here, lets do that."

 

 

To close this off, I think everyone comes to one of the points mentioned in the OP. I wrote a bit about both artist Regret and having to much pride (Kill your darlings already! )

But it can also be very different for everyone. Best is just to keep pushing and trying to learn from Everything. There is no bad or good. One can always improve.

 

Just keep making things, even if it's not worthy of showing to others, it's still worth learning from. Keep it to learn for yourself, or show it to others to help you learn from it.

 

PS: In terms of drawing, knowing what direction you want to go with, really helps. I don't redraw photos (as in 1on1) or anything, since that almost only improves my drawing skills and not my creative bits, coming up with own ideas. Of course, if you don't know how to do something, it can be worth having a look at what others might be doing, I'd say, just always try to strive to putting your own flavour through it. Make it yours

Edited June 18, 2012 by AIMonkey

[I used to be a stranger 7,989]

Being able to be satisfied with your work walks a fine line alongside how critical you can be of yourself.

[roomforapony 285]

Every single thing I have drawn I always hate. I will look at it the next morning and immediately hate it. I just keep it up on places like DA so I can get some critique.

 

Well, I do like the drawings I didn't try on and were supposed to be funny and not serious. Currently my McNuggies picture is my favorite thing I have ever drawn at the moment, haha.

[TOMahwk 351]

I think my work is good, but not as good as people make it seem. I'll make something and then someone tells me "WOW THIS IS AMAZING!!" and then I immediately think "okay, they're over-exaggerating or saying it to make me feel good, I can see flaws here, here, and I could've done this better."