I've been working as a professional illustrator for about 8 years now. Most of you have probably seen some of my works. (No, I'm not going to share who I am, because I don't work under an alias and I don't want this to creep into my private life)
The thing is, I've lost ALL motivation to draw, I've also lost my interest in videogames, animation and cartoons.
It's like someone flipped a switch and now I find all this shit that I was invested in incredibly lame. Videogames are for retard kids and most cartoons are shit.
I've taken a sabbatical, haven't touched a pen in a week and I'm in this total void of motivation and I dont know what to do about it.
How did you get out of your artists block?
pic only related on meta
>>2397570
at some point you'll need to do something meaninful
the solution is taking action, not blaming the quality out there
You're in the pain train right now
>>2397570
Get tested for depression.
>>2397570
Jesus Christ is his mouth supposed to be opened or something?
>>2397572
>at some point you'll need to do something meaninful
Well that's part of the reason why I took a sabbatical.
But then I realized that none of this shit is meaningful in any way.
I re-read old graphic novels and comic books I liked since when I was a teenager.
It's all immature bullshit. I looked at some of the artbooks I collected, it's all infatile twaddle. Pouty blondes with angel wings on their backs, robots with capes, vapid looking girls in all states of melancholia.
I feel like I was sedated for the last 10 years and I surrounded myself with shit.
>>2397591
there's bolonga on his face.
>>2397593
uh, yeah dude. that's where the market is. making art is a job like any other, the subject matter you work with isn't always going to be what suits you. it's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do.
>>2397570
>Videogames are for retard kids and most cartoons are shit.
>I've been working as a professional illustrator for about 8 years now.
So edgy, kid. Try harder
>>2397593
Go to a museum with an area for ancient shit. Primitive pottery and shit. Refuel your visual library with stuff that hasn't been regurgitated by entertainment bullshit umpteen times already. Then make some new pieces inspired by your existential despair.
>>2397593
Get involved with creative studios that are doing meaningful projects. Or make up some projects that is meaningful. Even if its is child book with unusual educational topics or series of awareness posters. Easiest way would be to think about what pisses you off and do something that tries to fix it or make it better.
>>2397593
I can understand your POV, I don't have that serious feeling yet
most things are meaningless, or at least, have little to none meanings and most of their messages are simply naive, superficial or wrong.
If you need to make the difference, plan to do so, you can do it, it doesn't matter how succesful and popular it gets, do something that matches your true self and manifest w/e you want to share to the world, you're already a senior so pick yourself up and don't fear to start your own proyect as a side work, if you can't yet due to time or economics, you should focus your short term goals to make that situation viable, and then push it without huge sacrifices
maybe go to a therapist, it might help you, but one that isn't related with using drugs (don't take pills)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFPJL1uQbs
>>2397570
>I don't want this to creep into my private life
How is posting on /ic/ will creep into your life exactly? That's fucking autistic. Also half chan is kikebook tier nowadays anyway.
>>2397651
>How is posting on /ic/ will creep into your life exactly?
I'm old enough to know to never share private information on 4chan, especially when I'm discussing a life-crisis.
>>2397627
I was thinking about seeing a shrink. But I don't wanna get the bloat from antidepressants.
>>2397608
Where do I find those studios?
>>2397606
Yeah, looked at some fine arts, made me even more depressed, because reasons.
>>2397599
Uhhh... yeah, I guess?
>>2397570
>pro for 8 years
>only just now having to deal with artists block
lol, yeah right
> Videogames are for retard kids and most cartoons are shit.
Sturgeon's Revelation motherfucker, 90% of anything is shit. That's the world we live in, and if that doesn't motivate you to be part of the 10% that's not garbage then welcome to the shitheap.
This happened to me a few years back. The source was depression. Depression also makes it so you hate the things you used to love. The reason I wasn't enjoying what I was doing anymore was because I ended up in an art career that butchered what made me originally love art. I only recently got back into art after a five year break, and I already hate the industry again.
Do you want to be an illustrator? What was your original reason for drawing? Are you depressed? Is there something else you want out of life and an art career? What your goals? If drawing for other people isn't making you happy, then stop drawing for them. Find your reason for drawing for yourself again.
>>2397663
>Where do I find those studios?
Not that anon, but avoid big studios and aim for something small and risky if you want to see more interesting projects. Comfortable, well-paying, secure stuff, like what big companies offer, is always going to be boring. Sacrificing profit for interest worked in my case.
>>2397593
>But then I realized that none of this shit is meaningful in any way.
>looking for deeper meaning in things meant primarily as entertainment
These things are made with a purpose and that purpose is not "hit the audience with some deep meaning" and acting like not having deep meaning = immature is itself immature pretentious hogwash.
>>2397663
Look up some interesting projects or campaings that fit your definition of meaningful and see what studios or creative agencies are responsible for these. After that send portfolio with explanation that you would like to work with them on something. Also, try writing directly to art director, skip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9OhYroLN0
>>2397593
I understand where you are coming from OP, I went through something similiar. I didnt get out of that slump for a while and when I did, I ended up forming a new perspective on art altogether.
Discipline > Motivation
>>2397688
You got my point wrong on such a fundamental level and you think you're being smart.
Holy shit, this went so far over your head I wouldn't even know where to start explaining this to you.
Yes, "faux deep" is also immature drivel. That was one of the points I was making.
>>2397709
I've been doing work for AAA videogame projects and some movies in the last 5 years, I really wanna run my portfolio through a blender.
>>2397721
So what did you learn from the experience?
>>2397570
get into painting, and do it for the admiration of the technical side of it.
>>2397593
I think you may honestly have depression, go to a doctor.
Other than that go and do non-art stuff for a month, don't even touch a pen or pencil. I went through a period where I was fedup with art and didn't do anything for weeks when you come back a lot of this art nihilism will fade.
>>2397761
I realized i was growing out of all the videogames and comics and shit and decided to take up different mediums like music and sculpting. I figured I was just getting bored with the same thing over and over again and opening my mind up to two new art forms reinvigorated my motivation. It may be different for you though OP, but it worked for me. I dont read comics anymore but I will occasionally play videogames now and then, but not as much as I used to.
>drew like crazy as a child all the way through 19
>overtaken by massive insecurity compared to the work of others. Urge to improve and set goals/dates to hit a certain level of skill basically made drawing feel like a chore as opposed to a hobby, and with work/school in the way I bowed out completely
>basically lose interest in any hobby and majority of my free alone time these past 6 years was basically spent sitting on my ass and shitposting on imageboards
>had epiphany about the former and a sudden urge to pick up the hobby again now that I've damn near completely lost interest in video games and want to actually have some form of creative hobby under my belt
reading through this thread a bit, it's sort of comforting to see i'm not alone in the wax and wane of drawing/gave it up for years
You're making me seriously think over my entire life OP.
>>2397570
Do something more meaningful then. If you find the environment to immature, create a new one or join a new one.
Some people suggest it's a artist block or depression. It might just be that you are maturing. You start liking things you thought were boring and vice versa.
Ok so you think everything is immature or that something is wrong with it. Try and fix it then.
Try and draw for yourself and what you like.
>>2397761
There is nothing bad in admiting to someone openly that you want to start doing something creative and that your current portfolio is not reflection of want you want to do. If you are as good as you say than you definitely have enough skill to be able to sketch fast and visualize fast and that is valuable everywhere. Only thing that might be tricky is how creative you are. ( visual development wise)
>>2397570
>I've been working as a professional illustrator for about 8 years now. Most of you have probably seen some of my works. (No, I'm not going to share who I am,
>Professional of 8 years
>Browsing /ic/
Honestly OP you sound depressed. Seek psychiatric help asap
>>2397570
this exact thing happened to me when i went through my short depression, i feel you anon.
mine lasted about a year and a half and ended only after i stopped giving a fuck and made some big changes.
telling you what i did won't help your case though.
just find something else that makes you happy right now, you can always come back to art and vidya. it's not going anywhere.
>>2397570
You sound a lot like me, apart from the fact that I was a critical asshole even when I was a semi-weeaboo. I think I liked the idea of anime better than I liked actual anime, as I had based my view of it on a handful of shows and movies that got me interested in the first place. It took me a few years before it dawned on me that the vast majority of anime was shit, and I was holding on to an ideal that never existed.
Same with games, though I disliked the blatantly immature designs and stories in Japanese games to the point where I simply never played them. FF and other JRPGs looked like garbage even when I was a teenager.
So yeah, I've always liked the style and potential for storytelling in manga, but have burned out on the material itself, so I'm kinda stuck not enjoying what I draw, and being too tired to change my routine.
>>2397570
Same here... I want to draw comic books, and I used to think that maybe I could draw manga style but still present them in american comic format (think Udon, Alvin Lee and maybe Adam Warren). The reason I became interested in that style is because fan service (I dunno, I just feel it looks better in that style) but now... I've never been interested in Japanese pop culture, not even anime, I love the style the colors and the inking in some manga but the stories are just fucking awful and even the "good anime" it's just not for me, I cannot think of any other time where I got fucking pissed off at watching a cartoon, I just can't get into it, and the fan base, oh the fucking fan base.
I wish I could just draw a different style, make american comics and distance myself from such things but it's impossible, even if I just draw like Jim Lee type of style from my own experience it seems like the norm is liking anime and then maybe and just maybe being into american comics... I'm seriously contemplating either quit comics all together. I just can't handle the environment
>>2398176
This... love the visual aspect of it, hate everything else... Is there a way to "draw manga" while distancing oneself from the weaboo thing?
>>2397590
>depression is an illness
LOL
I thought that once too, oh to be naive again
Life is a game that gets harder to play the more you experience it, there's no way around, everyone loses.
Here's to bountiful distractions to come, can't wait to blow some faces off in simulated reality!
>>2397761
After accepting the whole 'existence is pointless no matter how hard you try at anything' deal, you can sometimes find yourself forgetting this fact and just enjoying the way that your imagination can process information into something meaningful, if only in the brief context of that moment.
At least that's what I tell myself
>>2397570
>It's like someone flipped a switch and now I find all this shit that I was invested in incredibly lame. Videogames are for retard kids and most cartoons are shit.
All kids shitposting aside, it's quite normal to grow up and distance yourself from a decision and career choice you made as a kid.
It happened barely 3 years into my career. I told my seniors, rode the project out, took my cash and traveled the world for a year.
When I got back I had way more social experience and could distance myself from my work much more in a positive way. The style or the project theme wassn't as important as me being a professional.
After this I moved to senior and I'm expected to go into lead this year. More management.
Hope it helps OP
>>2398206
>This... love the visual aspect of it, hate everything else... Is there a way to "draw manga" while distancing oneself from the weaboo thing?
Yeah, it's called steven universe.
>>2398637
>HUURRRR HURR I DON'T KNOW WHAT DEPRESSION IS! THEM YOUNG, REDPILL, CONSERVATIVE FOLK ON 4CHAN TOLD ME IT WAS A JEEEEWISH CONSPIRACY TO SELL PILLS! ALL THESE PEOPLE PRETENDIN' TO BE SAD NEED A GOOD OLE' KICK IN THE REAR! YEEEEHAW! TRUMP 2016!
This is what you sound like.
>>2398757
I am in agreement, anon. Stop being a fucking retard, OP. You probably have an assortment of problems that are being neglected by your own ignorance and arrogance.
>>2397570
>faggot
go on kickstarter and start a personal project so its not completely autistic pandering faggot shit
>op is literally autistic anyway
>>2397570
>Sean
wut
>>2398668
>Steven Universe
