insecure GF
Images are sometimes not shown due to bandwidth/network limitations. Refreshing the page usually helps.
You are currently reading a thread in /adv/ - Advice
You are currently reading a thread in /adv/ - Advice
I really need advice lads, about my girlfriend. Shes currently at uni taking illustration and she has massive self confidence issues and insecurity about her art and talent. She thinks that she hasn't made enough progress for the 10+ years shes been drawing and thinks she draws like a child/teenager. Her stuff is good, not the best but its a lot better than she thinks it is, and I tell her this.
I'm really at a bit of a loose end with her, I've got no idea what to say to her any more apart from "your work is good" & "don't worry". I am currently talking to her about getting therapy and she wants to but I imagine she just won't go through with it.
Does anyone have any similar experiences with this kind of thing? I fucking love her and want to support her as much as possible but sometimes I advice her and she just gets more upset. Or I don't know what to say.
>>17234661
also a side note, I worry a lot of her issues are from a lack of perspective. Shes quite middle class and has never really had a 'real' job. She currently works at her parents accountancy firm doing very little for quite a lot of money.
>>17234661
If that's her work then it is pretty high school level. If you look at her work and it's stagnant or at a plateau, suggest working in different mediums to get her out of a rut. Worked for me.
>>17234682
I suggested different mediums but she said that shes tried pretty much all of them and that she hates all of them.
I once suggested doing something other than art but she had a bit of a breakdown about not knowing what else to do with her life...
>>17234661
Let me see her shit. I'm art major and an art fag. I've worked at an art supplies store as well. I have friends in art, sort of famous. But I can take a stab at it. I'm not great either, but I can always spot errors in other people's works.
Why do so many artists have low self esteem?
>>17234723
>artists are their own worst critic.
Have you ever notice the more inflated asshats aren't generally good either. Like reallg oblivious to errors in their works. Proportions, perspective, and shit like that is completely ignored because of their ego.
>>17234711
just a few bits, again not incredible but better than she says it is...
She worries that because she hasn't got some sort of job in the art world yet that she never will and that she is 100% terrible. Shes tried setting up commissions but hasn't got any responses.
>>17234692
She should pick up another hobby. I got a guitar to help me with my rut.
>>17234772
She might benefit from working in other mediums for perspective, like photography, sculpture, collage. Her art is pretty flat and derivative. She paints how she thinks things are while still working from a reference. If she really loves art she needs to work hard to break out of her own limited ways of thinking. I'm not trying to be overly critical, but tumblr and deviantart mentality of participation trophies is ultimately harmful to the artist. If she can't handle this type of criticism, she has no business trying to make a living off art.
>>17234772
Definitely like a highschooler. I can tell you what's wrong, but it's a lot. Good thing is, she's clearly seeing what's in front of her, she just can't replicate it well/doesn't know how too.
Her stuff is pretty flat and she needs to learn tone/values. Also that portrait is flat as fuck, but the facial construction is off.
Where are you located? I'd like to help. Also check out /ic/ , but expect to be ridiculed for sucking. Just lurk the threads for anatomy/proportional/ construction. They're also going to tell you to master the basics.
>>17234678
>doing very little for quite a lot of money
I'm quite the opposite of your gf except the drawing part. I'm from a shit poor family but now I support my own family (3 kids) together with my husband who was also from a shit poor family.
Everything we own including our pretty high living standards, we had to fight for and had to achieve ourselves.
Our kids have a pretty nice sheltered life and I can kinda how they are developing and how their characters lack certain things that we parents always had.
So I can tell you, that there are things you'll only be able to learn if you really have to fight for it.
Sorry. But nothing you can do here more than you already did mate.
"Not that bad" isn't good enough for an artist who wants to make a career out of it. Therapy isn't going to improve her skills. It's admirable that you're being supportive... but you're doing her a disservice by pandering. Honestly, if she wasn't your girlfriend, could you envision yourself paying money for her work?
>>17234816
This.
What is therapy supposed to accomplish? Make her believe her art is better than it really is?
