Post

I think it's less about being self-critical (being realistic and identifying your shortcomings in order to evolve) and more about avoiding self-deprecation (defeatist attitude that leads to a lack of growth and a fear of trying). younger artists often conflate the two but they're polar opposites

but i don't see why they are discouraged from expressing this completely normal emotion. this isn't about growth or experience level or beginners, i'm asking why it's a big no-no for an artist to be publicly honest about how they feel about their work

oh ok I understand what you're saying now its because self deprecation kind of goes beyond expressing an emotion ("I feel like I'll never improve"), it's expressing an outlook ("I'll never improve"). being honest to yourself that these are feelings is part of breaking out of a fixed mindset.

Same tbh. 'you feel wrong about your own art' is such a weird 'discourse' I keep seeing on here. Feel like we need to revive the term toxic positivity just for this

exactly... ya like I see bids like "we want more sincere, weird, subversive, etc etc" art but you can't have sincerity in a space where "don't talk down on yourself" is an unwritten rule. i think knowing the artist's feelings & emotional state is a really valuable part of how someone experiences art

yess true. Also it's just kind of twee, like if people genuinely have an ecstatic reaction to their creative process that's cool, but pretending to feel that seems like Cozy-gone-mad. Feeling artmaking as struggle is extremely common, maybe actually more common.

i think theres several angles to this personally. being critical of your work is crucial to improve, but constantly bashing yourself leads to burnout and self-hatred and often people stop drawing because of it. i found that actually enjoying the results of what i like is very VERY hard and it took