I want to talk about a potentially unpleasant topic: when you feel like giving up.
This may seem like an odd subject with which to begin a series of posts answering reader questions, but it happens to be very pertinent to my current situation, and it was one of the first questions I received. Here’s the question.
Have you ever felt like just throwing in the towel and taking a little/LOT of time off?
The short answer is YES, in capital letters!
But then I venture to say that most artists reach this point at one time or another. Even the most impassioned artists hit a brick wall occasionally.
When You Feel Like Giving Up
Many, many years ago, I took two years off from art in all forms in order to get rich.
Oh, that wasn’t my stated purpose. My stated purpose was to develop an income sufficient to allow me to pursue artwork full-time. My goal was noble (or so I told myself).
Looking back on it now, I think I was really just tired of the struggle to make a go of it as an artist. I’d been pursuing equine portrait work for nearly ten years and didn’t seem to be making much headway. At least not enough headway. It seemed like time for a change.
At that time, the change involved stepping away from art and pursuing something entirely different.
How was I going to achieve financial independence? Amway, what else? It was a fun time and I learned a lot, but I would have been better off pursuing better art and marketing skills.
Live and learn.
That was the longest break I took from art, but it wasn’t the only one. Back in 2015, I had a serious bout with creative stillness. That season lasted for months and involved not only artwork but writing.
I’m currently in another season of creative struggle. I can’t say stillness, because I have done a lot of “for fun” stuff like coloring pages and ACEOs.
But the heart went out of fine art drawing and it was absent for a long time. The heartbeat is still slow, but it hasn’t stopped altogether.
In most cases like these, I felt like giving up on art altogether.
Are you feeling the same way? Here are a few suggestions arising from my experiences.
What to Do When You Want to Give Up
I would like to suggest that you don’t do what I did. Don’t take a lot of time off unless it’s absolutely necessary. Family matters, for example, or personal health.
Instead, look at the reasons you feel like giving up.
If you find yourself frustrated with making art the way you’ve always done it, do something different. Look for fun ways to use your pencils.
Maybe you could change the place you draw or the time of day you usually draw. Sketching outdoors, for example, is a great way to change things up and still hone your drawing skills.
You might need to try a different subject or style.
You might need to get really radical, but that’s okay.
My Radical Action
I spent most of the summer doing something so far outside of my comfort zone that I didn’t even consider it art. What was it?
Coloring pages.
The reason was lingering fatigue after a virus infection in June. It was difficult to muster the energy to do anything but what was absolutely necessary. I would have been content to let art go entirely had it not been for a niggling fear that letting it go completely might equal letting it go permanently.
So I did something that seemed not to matter.
A coloring page. You know what happened?
I enjoyed the first one so much that I did several others. Most of them were about page size, but I also did some that were smaller. One was an ACEO.
Speaking of ACEOs, I did quite a few of those, too. I also did some abstract art and played around with watercolors once.
Since then, I’ve finished a collection of ACEOs and also went back to my first art love, portraits. No, it’s not a horse, but it is an animal.
The Bottom Line
When you feel like giving up on art, it might a simple matter of being tired of doing things the way you’ve always done them. As I suggested above, that’s easy enough to fix. Just change something.
But there are times when wanting to give up stems from more serious issues. Health or family problems or other major life changes. It is okay to take a break in those circumstances. Show yourself a little grace and step back.
It is also all right to do fun things and make some art that isn’t your usual thing. Even a coloring page or two is a good idea, and you can find plenty of them to download.
The best part? A lot of them are free!
So don’t give up even when you feel like giving up. Find some way to make drawing fun and then have fun!
This post is part of a series in which readers ask questions about my life as an artist, and I answer them. Most of the posts this month will concern one of these questions. If you have a question you’d like to ask, please ask it. It’s never too late to get your burning questions answered!
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Excellent advice Carrie along with some very sound solutions to the occasional funk we sometimes find ourselves in when it comes to creating our art.
I’ve had many droughts over the years…sometimes lasting years for one reason or another, but I never considered the thought of giving up because I’ve always had that creative spark burning inside knowing that it was something that I loved to do, regardless of what medium I felt like using.
Sometimes, it’s just a matter of picking up a good old HB pencil and a piece of scrap paper and sketching out a landscape or anything from your minds eye just to keep those creative embers burning.
Until I can no longer hold a pencil in my paws…I’ll never give up…lol.
Thank you, Kim!
Since most artists work by themselves (myself included unless you count cats), it’s easy to fall into thinking that you’re alone, you’re the only one, and so on.
I never used to share my “funks” with anyone else because I didn’t want them know I wasn’t always at the top of my game. But it is helpful to share those things on occasion, if only because it gives encouragement to others.