Very often you will hear artists dismissing their artwork because they believe it is substandard. This is because there is a lot of competition between artists. Many people quit making art because they believe there is no point in making their art if it cannot be their best every time. Many artists determine the importance of their artwork based on how much praise they get from others, and if their work gets less praise than someone else’s, then it makes them believe that their art has less worth. The truth is, that art has as much worth as the artist gives it; the worth of a piece doesn’t depend on the opinions of others. But that mindset is very hard to keep when you are constantly seeing others doing better than you at a faster rate.
Truthfully, everyone works at different rates, but one major theme in art that causes many artists to think their art is unsatisfactory is exposure to artists younger than themselves. Often you will see (especially online) a kid making a very beautiful piece of art and you will see lots of praise under the post. But seeing people younger than you doing things better than you can cause you to doubt yourself, not only as an artist. Seeing people doing better than you, especially if they happen to be younger, can cause you to question yourself and what you were doing wrong when you were their age. But age has nothing to do with how much skill you have. How much time and passion you put into your craft will determine how well it will come out. Maybe the person you’re comparing yourself to can afford to do things that maybe the average person cannot. A more positive way to think about it is to think of how good you’re doing without the help of additional services like classes or advanced art tools. Also, think of how well you’re doing, with all the other things going on in your life. If you can balance school, extracurriculars, transportation, or a job and still find time to include your hobby in your schedule, that’s all that matters and shows how truly committed to your work you are
Another reason for competition in art is the recent rise of A.I. Though artificial intelligence has been around for a long time, it has just recently started to negatively affect the careers of artists. People can lose motivation to continue pursuing art when they see that a computer can generate a piece of art much faster than they can and possibly with even more detail. But art isn’t about how well you’re doing what you do or how fast, it’s about how much devotion and creativity you put into your work. A computer only generates what already exists, but when you make art, you can create any scenario, any creature, and any world you want, and it’s particular to you. Also, a big part of art is feelings, you can express emotions in your art in a way that is unique to you, but artificial intelligence cannot do that. If you’re looking to pursue art as a career, companies aren’t looking for a piece of work that is unoriginal and unfeeling. So if you were doubting your chances of being able to make art for a living, you still have plenty of opportunities to profit off your creativity.
Also, art can feel competitive when you feel like you don’t have enough time to devote to art. When your schedule gets busy, you find yourself doing what makes you happy less and less. It can make you feel like you’re falling behind, and when you try to get back into art after a long period of time, it is very likely your skills won’t be as great as they once were. But this doesn’t mean that you should stop pursuing art. If you want to stay consistent in your abilities to create art, you don’t have to take a whole hour out of your day to dedicate to drawing an intricate piece, unless you have time to do so. Art can be expressed in many different ways. If you don’t have time to draw, you can download apps and create characters as inspiration for when you do have time to draw. Also, doodling can improve your skills if you just take a little time to doodle a small piece of art on a piece of paper every so often. These doodles don’t have to be intricate, just something small like a bouquet of flowers or even stick figures. Small actions like this can actually improve your skills in anatomy and landscape. There are even apps for music where you can create your own little pieces of music on your phone in your spare time.
Ultimately, though there is a lot of competition in art, and surely any field for that matter, you don’t have to let the pressure of societal standards of “good art” cause you to doubt your abilities. Make art that makes you happy, and it doesn’t have to be your best every time. Like I said before, art is your own personal expression and you don’t need the approval of others to know that your art has worth. All art has worth, and don’t let anything or anyone make you believe otherwise. “Good” art is art that is creative; and it doesn’t have to be intricate or detailed.
