Drawing and Animation

[crimson_chess]

Hey all, 

I've taken Leo's LPC some months back and I've been just experimenting with a bunch of projects to find something that clicks for me. I'm pretty decent at drawing because I've spent a lot of time on it, probably around 200-500 hrs total. Not a whole lot of time, but I can draw alright. I thought I wanted to become an animator for a while because I suffer from depressive episodes and some of the animations I've seen have really reeled me out of the depths of hell. I see meaning in the work. The end result of what I will make and roughly how I will benefit the world and help others if I venture down this path is clear enough to me. One big caveat though: the work isn't very enjoyable.

This kinda echoes another thread in the LPC/career sub-forum, but the drudgery is really hitting hard. I see this end result I want to reach, but I don't feel like putting my pencil to paper and creating art anymore. This isn't just a one day/one week thing. I've felt this for a while now. Not only that, but animation is unique from regular drawing in that it can take large teams of people to make even a short animation (check out the end credits on [most] high-quality animated movies/shows for reference). This holds true especially in my situation, because I'm really particular about a specific style of animation I want to go for that is pretty labor-intensive. This makes it hard to do short projects, as one second is generally 24 frames.. and.. well, in short, it's a lot of work. 

I also don't really have a community or art mentor I can receive feedback or much motivation from. I've been trying not to step into a victim mindset, but I really just don't enjoy my work and I don't really have anyone to lean on for art advice. 

On the other hand, I don't really see anything else I'm super interested in learning.. It feels like it isn't too late to pull back and find a new pursuit/craft for myself, but time is ticking and I'm not very gung ho about anything in particular. 

I feel like I want to tell a story: I'm not a shabby writer, but not great by any means either.. but I don't like writing because it leaves too much up to the imagination, and stuff like film making just isn't up my alley. I've tried a lot of possible LPs by this point.. but none of them really seem to work.

 

To repeat myself from earlier, the main thing I see that I can really create value in is visual art.. specifically animation. At the same, however, the work isn't very fun. But I feel like the end product of any other field I would go into is.. not meaningful to me.. and I don't know how much fun it would be either. I try to force myself to keep going through rough patches, but that makes me hate my work even more. Accepting the pain of creating.. is still painful to me. Nothing really seems palatable for me right now. 

In my eyes, my choices are: 1.) settle with drawing/animation and keep grinding out work. 2.) just keep searching for something new.. and invest my time this way without the guarantee I'll ever find something better. It feels like I've already tried almost everything. 

 

Sorry to get a little solemn on readers here -- but if you made it this far, I just want to say I'm super grateful for you. Thank you for reading~ 

If you have any advice, I'm happy to listen and/or discuss!

Edited June 7, 2020 by crimson_chess

[nistake]

Well, I think every job/profession has the shiny side and not-so-shiny sides to it. The shiny side that you see in the final product. In your case, the complete animation. It looks awesome and it's really satisfying. However, it's necessary to bite the bullet sometimes and just power through the difficult parts of the work.

Let's take a look at Leo. I'm sure that his business is insanely satisfying and meaningful. But I'm pretty sure that it has several aspects that are not so exciting or even downright boring and tedious (just like every other job/profession). For instance, finances, answering to emails, moderating the forum, editing videos (that can be a huge pain in the ass in my opinion), etc. Maybe Leo enjoys some of these, who knows? The important thing is, sometimes you just have to find the strength to power through the difficult parts of your work. You have to know that it's gonna be worth it.

[Oliver Saavedra]

I feel yor are overwhelmed and in a rush.

What is it that you dislike about the things you've tried? 

[crimson_chess]

@nistake Thank you for your response! After some thought I reached a similar conclusion -- sticking with what I think is meaningful is probably the best approach here. 

[crimson_chess]

@Oliver Saavedra Thank you for your response! I think I've pretty much resolved the issue, but thank you still. 

[dvdas]

Check out this channel 

[Space]

@crimson_chess You need to ask yourself whether your resistance to doing the work is a product of laziness or whether its a genuine disinterest in the subject. If you're really not interested in doing animation then don't do it, but also realize that art is not always an easy process that is always fun and enjoyable. Very often, making art is hard, challenging and sometimes boring. The way you know if drawing and animation is the thing for you is; do you loose all your motivation and interest in the subject when it starts getting hard, tedious or boring? Or is there always an underlying passion and interest in the subject despite what you're doing on a day to day basis? It's OK if its the first. But its important that you figure this out, because you don't want to waste more time in something that you're just not interested in. 

You should also recognize that animation is 1 field within art as a whole. You can apply your drawing skills to many other areas such as editorial illustration, concept design, character design, product design, product illustration, scientific illustration, game design, logo design and probably a hundred other specialties. Each one of these has a whole community of people online providing all the lessons you need. Why are you stuck on animation? I know you said its because animation has helped you out mentally, but don't be attached to it. Be flexible, experiment with other types of art. Try doing an illustration project for example, or some logo design even? There are so many art related industries and jobs. 

Another option you have is to not focus on doing full projects, which often take a lot of time and commitment and can be frustrating and challenging to complete if you're not experienced enough. Try focusing more on building basic drawing skills, or just drawing one off images, or do lots of experimenting with different mediums and drawing styles, or spend a few months trying to really improve your anatomy knowledge. When I first committed to pursuing art, I spent like 4 months doing anatomy, and filled 3 sketchbooks will rubbish drawings that no one will ever see but served me enormously ever since then. And its still an ongoing process. There's a lot of stuff you can do to improve your artistic skills that don't involve finished pieces, but are still super fun, relaxed and creatively rewarding.

If you want to continue on with doing animation projects, try making them really small and easy to finish. It's important that you're able to finish projects. Make five 10 second animations. Then make a 30 second one, etc. You'll learn more and get more experience doing smaller projects.