Artist pet peeves master thread

above post reminded me of this ^ but its also something ive been thinking about lately because of the recent fiasco on twitter: people who think theyre entitled to attention on their art. i absolutely think artists should support eachother, especially smaller ones, but that doesn't mean its okay for you to whine and moan about how youre not getting the attention you want. (honestly this extends to people thinking theyre entitled about anything but this is an art thread so...) i used to follow people who would post art (didnt follow them for their art btw) that i didnt retweet because its not something i really liked but i would eventually unfollow cuz they would guilt trip their followers for not retweeting their art. 

basically COMMANDING people to share your art in such a way just makes me wanna do it less... and it makes me mad at you LOL. i understand how hard it is to build an audience as an artist but whining about it only makes you look worse and doesn't help your attitude either. there are many different factors other than art style or skill that go into online artist popularity, and unfortunately luck is like half of it. some people get really big easily, and others don't... and its completely up to the whims of fate. the way you present yourself online is also a significant factor: if youre often negative and complain about not getting attention people arent gonna like you or your stuff...

Gonna agree with above two posts. I'll admit, I used to rt a lot of those "retweets > likes" posts & I understand how hard it is to get attention on sites like twitter but? part of the reason I stopped is because looking back most of those posts are condescending as hell (being talked-down to is a huge pet-peeve of mine so why should I do it to other people?). And it really doesn't help some of the people rting these posts don't even rt other people's art. Again I get that it's hard to get attention & it's annoying when stuff you busted your ass for gets 2 favs or whatnot but that doesn't give the free pass to talk down to & guilt trip your audience (at least save the ranting for friends or your personal account smh). Also bugs me when people make posts like that & rarely RT other artists' works? if you're gonna spam that stuff at least practice what you preach smh

Also related, when people non-stop complain & spread 'algorithm scares'. Like idc what instagram does to their app or what 'shadowban' wave happens on Twitter because (at least when i was still using it) there was a new one every other month and NOTHING happened. There's been many algorithm & shadowban scares on instagram and it still was easy af to get attention (hell even studies and schoolwork got 20+ likes). And the problem is, there's never any evidence it's just someone not getting as many likes as they used to, and the biggest complainers are large accounts that still rack up a ton of attention even if they're 'shadowbanned' (tbh i stopped caring about that term because it's now a buzzword used to spread panic & get cheap pity-attention)

Maybe its a personal thing, but I don’t like the idea of HQ and LQ (high and low quality) pieces/artists. It’s really disrespectful to those who might not have the same capabilities as another who puts in the same amount and effort as another person does. I also don’t like seeing people being denied art trades because ”their style isn’t what I’m looking for” What style ARE you looking for? Unless it’s specified, it’s just outright rude to indirectly call someone’s art bad just because their style isn’t what you want. I can understand not wanting to draw a specific character, but not wanting to draw for someone because of the way a piece turns out seems kinda shitty. Art is art. 

I have to disagree for a sec with the above posts specifically with the "is not the style I'm looking for" reply. I don't think it's indirectly calling an art "bad"; when I give that reply, I mean it. I'm very picky with how my characters are represented and I've turned down artists of varying skills and huge amount of art per offer just because I don't think one fits with another. I may think their art is beautiful but at the end I wanna have a product to feel happy with.

Which brings me to this pet peeve: Different art skills do exist. As someone who chose Arts as a career, I can tell you for sure "quality" exists regardless of your style. Some can draw hiperrealism, comic, cartoony, anime or straight-up abstract nonsense or anything, and skill will show through different elements as the organization of the composition, the balance of it, what kind of lines/coloring you use to match what you want to transmit, proportions (even if heavily stylized), technic, understanding of volume, light and color theory... So a peeve of mine is when people, both artists and audiences, just ignore this and go for what's popular or classic arts. "Art is art" is too loose. Putting down someone for drawing "three lines and a dot" is too tight. There's study and technics behind those lines and a dot. Respect it.

When people start at art and expect to be good two weeks in after practicing a couple times... Dude... I've spent 15 years drawing and still not 100% happy about my work. Relax. Keep drawing.

P l e a s e normalize not drawing everyday and still be okay. Don't burn yourself out, your wrist will be grateful.

Something really specific but when you get a drawing done and everything looked good through sketch and lineart and then at the end you see a small disproportion right there. AFTER render. F*ck you.

-The fact people use the word "referencing" when they're talking about art theft, especially tracing. If the person is tracing or copying don't sugarcoat it by saying it's 'heavily refrenced'  call it out for what it is. Mainly because younger/newer artists see that and think "all referencing = theft and everything has to come from my imagination!" Its why I mostly use "referencing" when I'm talking about practicing and studying (and also, there's no shame in using references if you don't understand how to draw something! If you rely only on imagination/memory its just gonna be way harder to figure it out)

-how people think they're late to an art trend after 1 or 2 days of it getting big like bruh please take it easy, these things come so fast they're a pain in the ass to keep up with. if you need 1 week or more to finish it that's fine y'all it's not worth burning yourself out/putting yourself down for a few likes.

Llizsch just pinging to agree with you, both mediums are pretty different and shouldn’t be treated as mirrors of each other, i think. both can be equally impressive, and both require lots of practice to be great at! 

i have a few i guess. many have already been said, but i might as well write them anyways *shrug* please don’t take this personally if you do any of these things, they’re just observations, i guess.

- kinda obvious i guess, but when people fill their user content warnings with “DON’T COLORPICK MY OC’S OR TAKE INSPIRATION FROM THEM OR I WILL BLOCK YOU“ it kinda ticks me off. first of all, those are for nsfw and other trigger warnings, not for your whining. second, although tracing and other art theft is bad (of course), you definitely are not the first person to come up with a multicolored sparkly dog, you do not own the concept or the colors.

- on that topic, it’s especially bad when people do the above and their ‘art style‘ is the same thing you see on the popular page all the time. 

- this might not be super fair, as supply and demand can probably make work tough for popular artists, but seeing relatively simple designs (or like... colored sketches, essentially,) go for hundreds of dollars seems kinda unfair to me! i could probably do the same thing in like a few hours or so, and if i sold it i bet it wouldn’t go for even half as much! not gonna say specific designers but they’re around i guess. maybe i’m just jealous.

- this might just be a me thing, but especially on th i feel a lot of pressure to be constantly drawing or writing my characters, even though i’m kinda bored with a lot of them most of the time! i screw around in the art freebies section of the forums so i can get art/give art, but i feel guilty when i leave my own characters to get all dusty...

- HOW DO I PRICE MY ART?? some artists i love seem to be criminally underselling themselves while others sell for triple that amount, so i never know what price range would fit my current level of skill?? help

- i hate having grand ideas for stories then giving up on them because i get bored the next day... especially when i get halfway through something and then i have like 2 out of 5 profiles uploaded to th (because i store most of my ideas here after all, and tend to upload as i go). i feel bad about it but never do anything about it ;-;

Disclaimer: Alright so, I'm not really here to try and rabble-rouse or attack anyone, Plus reading through all the really good points and observations from everyone else has got my mind whirring. But honestly, I'm just feeling frustrated about something entirely different really and I kinda just need something to be angry about since I can't really be angry about my real frustration. And I'm pretty positive I'm gonna come off sounding really aggressive, so in advance, PLEASE, NO ONE TAKE ANYTHING SAID PERSONALLY. 

sorry....*deep breath*

Alright, Nifffi.. I'll let you have your opinion, but here's mine.

>All art is equal.

Yeah, this.

Do not sit there and try to tell me that the time or energy my 9yo nephew puts into his art is not worth as much as mine; that his feelings or his experiences or his thoughts that are conveyed through it don't hold the value that mine do...or anybody else's for that matter. There is nothing in this world that can convince me that the piece of themself that one person has put into their art is worth more than another, regardless of status, age, race, whatever.  Even if it's just to say that "I'm sad, " or "today is a good day" or "I'm in love" or "my heart is broken," 'cause it's those things that make art what it is: not how much money you pay for it. When money comes into the picture, that's a whole horse of another color, 'cause what you're really paying for, for the most part, isn't even really the product—you're paying for that person's time during the creation of the piece as well as the years they spent honing and investing in their craft. And a lot of the time for pricey pieces, particularly in the case of popular artists, you're paying for the name that comes attached to the piece, as it is with any other status symbols of which the advertising is shoved up the wazoos of consumers. Those things are not equal, yes. And at the same time, money-wise the value is still subjective from one individual to another. But time and energy is not synonymous with heart and soul. Time and effort go into studies but in the end those are still just studies.  And although the only difference between a study and art is what was put into it, it's still a helluva difference, 'cause I've looked off of masterful studies done by Davinci himself but I would never frame it. A drawing from my nephew? That would more likely make the cut.

On another note, since it came to mind while I was talking with someone else a bit ago, I wish that people that try to gun institutional learning of art....didn't? I mean, I can see where they're coming from with the points that they make with the money and, yeah, you can come out of it actually stifled from an artistic standpoint, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. There are moral/ethical/personal obstacles that you deal with in whatever endeavor a person decides to pursue, all of which would require decisions that  I personally feel should be left up to the individual facing that situation. So I feel like the best thing to do is to just inform an aspiring artist, rather than to demonize institutional learning of art. Knowledge is power. That way ones who are up and coming can make informed decisions and be wary of pitfalls. The reason I feel this way is about more than just "I think putting it down is wrong." I  grew up not really having other artists to engage with who, for a lack of better words, were as passionate about it as I was. And if someone is going to pay the kind of money it takes to afford that schooling then the chances of running into that type are high. Basically, I don't value institutional learning of art for the learning resources but more for the atmosphere that it provides. And yeah, you kinda have to have a nose for who's there simply out of egotism with the only goal of boosting their rep as a "real artist," but I believe there are more vibrant and unique creators there for less base reasons than that. I would like to hope....

DONE. :T