My partner is not an artist, but he said one good line - "If I want all the money and career, I'd need to work all days and nights, you'd feel neglected and leave me. What's the point of doing all that work if in the end I wouldn't have anyone to eat dinner with?"
It's so hard to not adopt the hustle culture mindset as an artist/Vocaloid producer but in the end the price for that kind of success is too much for me to pay
You are like 13 years old. All you make are covers. Focus on song creation, find your genre and your vocaloid tuning skills will follow. You can't expect success from nothing.
@@phatweeb69 why not just say something like “you’re too young to worry about stuff like this, just focus on doing what you like” instead of something weird like this…
@@phatweeb69 get your gross self away from a child, for god's sake. What a disgrace of a human being. You have zero reasons to exist, you're fully incapable of creation, and you dare to narrate young talents with your bs "advice".
as artist who does mostly illustration i went to art school for graphic design. i got extremly bad 2 and a half year burn out from all hustle culture and our professors forcing it on us. at one point i got told my my graphic design professor ''thats too creative too artistic''' and new gd professor that came in last year of school who after 30 of my sketches, 4 different finished products told me i didnt put enough effort totally broke me, i didnt want to draw anymore bcs it wasnt enjoyable anymore all my ideas were milked that there was no more anything. it was all about profit and money and 0% about what art is, expressing yourself. just this year i went back.
We have been told "Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life” , honestly the biggest lie ever😭 just because you enjoy something doesn't mean you must monetize it, and it took me so long to understand this but it was too late cuz I already got so burnt out that even a year later I'm still not completely back to art, something that I was obsessed with my whole life. Having another, stable job, and doing art in free time is much better for me personally..
My parents are letting me live with them rent free as long as I do most of the chores and watch my nephew when they’re not home, that’s the only reason Im able to do as much art as I do. I wish everyone had the ability to just be able to do art as much as they’d like without worry about life 😞
I'm burnt out and I don't even make art xD Getting started is daunting. Good luck to everyone who is grinding to perfect their craft, and remember to enjoy the process! That's the best part
Hustle culture honestly is so damn pervasive that even with me not really being a professional or posting TH-cam videos or really trying to grow my social media presence I still ended up giving in to it. I was drawing near daily for years and eventually I got so stale I couldn’t do anything for weeks at a time. I’m just now starting to come back out of that and trying my best to not get hung up on it again
This video just summarized my life these past 4 years, ever since I started working professionally as an artist. I just hope this someday will change, I'm constantly being forced to look for a regular, more stable job than my freelance art job because of constantly feeling burnt out or guilty if I'm not creating or doing something productive or that will earn me more engagement. Pretty sure more artists feel the same way... People from an outside perspective barely imagine what artists have to go through to make it, and I'm glad channels like yours exist. Best of luck for any artists and others out there to keep surviving this toxic culture demands!
Earning engagement in social medias is pretty hard so i dont recommend unleashing all your energy and just posting everytime. Take it slow. You can also practice on how to draw faster by simplifying your art
If I could get and keep a regular job, I wouldn't even bother trying with art. Like the whole thing is basically a scam, the market is massively oversaturated thanks to all these people who were promoting the dream of being a professional artist since Patreon became a thing.
Honestly even if it's a different profession a lot of what's said here applies to my Writing Job. It got to a point late last year working on College stuff that I genuinely suffered from really bad depression and still do even if it's more under control. I used to be an avid Fanfiction Writer and enjoyed watching shows and writing whatever I felt like, but somewhere along the line it became a job in itself. This Video came out at the perfect time for me because I feel like I'm not alone when I say that I'm a workaholic to the day I die. Recently I've started reindulging myself in my Gaming Hobbies though. I still feel this urge to keep working and working but it feels better to try and take a step back. TH-cam Anime and Video Games are becoming my comfort again. It's weird, taking a step back and watching the video now I can't unsee myself in those situations that Mangaka die in. So I'm gonna try to make a change and I already am. All this to say, thank you for bringing up this topic.
I just don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I used to be able to do some low tier commission works, mostly pet portraits before AI art was a thing, then it stabbed me so hard in the confidence that I deactivated by business account and couldn't even message a single person since December to ask if they want any work from me due to my mental state. My dream was one day reaching the level where I can make my country's minimum wage, about $500 a month with my art through commissions, but I'd even be okay with half of that at this point. I know that I'll never have a house on my own, I'll never have a family on my own, I'll never have a car, not even a bicycle. I don't even care, I just wanted to live from doing cute and meaningful little commissions for random people that will make them happy for a few dollars with honest work and live off bread and water if I can't afford anything else, but I doubt I'll ever make a single penny again with my art. I don't think I was asking for much, but it seems to be the case. Some days when I can't even force myself to make anything I just wish I could've died a few years ago full of hopes and dreams.
That’s the same thing with me with other passions. I feel like if I’m “forced” to do certain tasks and assignments with a particular passion that I’ll start to really hate it. It’s definitely happened before, game design classes got me less and less interested in making a game because we had to do a massive project that was forced to be a particular genre of game and it felt like you were trapped rather than having fun.
@@lulub517 ur replies arent showing up so real sorry for you. game design is so cool and its sad to see it ruined for someone but yeah, entering any creative space as a job sucks. if u wanna get big, you gotta be original and ambitious enough to create like a studio or something to become the 0.1% whos careers take off
The fact that I'm starting a webtoon and I'm extremely nervous of how things will end out reminded me of this. I'm always stressing and overthinking about the fact that people might (and most likely, in my opinion) hate and discourage me from continuing. The desire to constantly be better at drawing and writing to become great like other creators has been growing alot lately. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for myself and not others. To anyone who feels the same way or similar, please do remember that you are already doing great. Yes, improving is important but so is your life and mental health. I wish you all great luck in what you are doing and have a nice day!!
For awhile I went into such deep burn out that I just couldn’t get out any art that I was proud of, but due to the intense push of people around me, I never took a break from it. Eventually I kind of lost myself and just stopped doing art for a month or two. And now, I don’t think I have ever been happier with my art. Taking a break, is one of the best things I have decided to do. I found my art style, and new hobbies. I think this video explains all struggles with burn out and hustle culture really well.
I honestly didn't know it had a name and this hit me a lot harder then I thought it would. More so your final statement. I've been an artist all my life, for as far as I can remember. The SECOND I heard that people would pay you to draw for them and what a "commission" was, for me me drawing art for fun...was over. My mind is constantly try to think of different things to make to sell; adoptables, custom, YCH, and so much more. To the point it takes me to from, 'Wow! That would make an amazing art piece', to 'oh I should make it big enough for a wallpaper', to 'oh I bet someone would buy it!', to 'then I could put that money towards the house payment to finally pay it off some day', to 'oh but what if it doesn't sell?', to 'okay think of something else! Something that will sell!'...and I could go on and on to the point that I hadn't even opened SAI and I'm already severely burnt out. My mind is constantly thinking of different things to offer for commissions, to things to sell, and so much more but all I can think is how much my life would be better if I could just make the money I need to pay off the house payment, fix the roof so it stops leaking, fix the fence so I don't get a city fine, get enough food so we actually can make a decent meal, and just so much more! I just get to the point that I break down and start to cry because if I could work a regular job, I would, but I cannot. So, all I can think is, if I could just get a lucky break, just something! Then I just got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing until I break all over again and the process just keeps going and going into a vicious cycle. It's...horrible...
@GothicPhantomZero i thought i was alone in this too, until i watched this video and read the comments, especially yours that is very similar to my life with art 😭🫂💙 im here, & i feel u, fellow artist/art-lover
@@goldfishcrackers7845 Aww D:!!! I'm glad I'm not alone in this and so happy you have found another fellow artist who shares in this as well so you aren't alone either!
Thank you for putting this into light, for me, i will freaking fight it so hard, im not gonna give in, im not gonna hurt my health over art. I want art to be fun and creative.
Me personally it's not the case of doing art that burns me out, more than anything it's just my work that doesn't involve art in general as I keep putting more time in my general work than I can with my art.
My friend also got burnt out from huddle culture. She started posting on social media and started feeling like she needs to draw to please people online. She has quit art now and I feel very sad about it because she her art was amazing and probably wouldn’t have quit if she didn’t start posting 😢
Really an awesome video, highlighting the biggest issues us artists have to deal with on the daily. I know what burnout is like and it sucks- My heart goes out to anyone reading this who has, or is currently dealing with it thenselves 💙
I am reminded of the tortoise and the hare. Hustle only leads to short term illusions of success. As Shakespeare once wrote, walk Romeo, walk, we stumble when we hasten. It all comes down to individual definitions of value, productivity, and success. The way I see it humans are stupid for valuing money. The ability to achieve any results you desire regardless of the obstacles you face is far more valuable. Acquiring the skills to produce a much higher quality than the competition will always be more productive than shilling trash like an ai sheep. The less quality products there are in the world the more they are worth. Let the world destroy itself, then when the fools are dead there will be no competition or need for it. Selfishness is self destruction.
I don't usually comment on videos, but feel compelled to for this one. My solution to the whole hustle culture thing is simply putting my eggs in more than one basket. For a lot of artists facing this hustle culture problem, art tends to be the only thing they're betting their future and well-being on. I used to find it commendable, but I now I find it inefficient. I use my free time building up my other hobbies and skills when I get the chance so that I have options. Programming, music production, 3D modeling, etc. Sure, one could argue that with so many different things to focus on, you're not outputting as much as you could into just one skill, but my rebuttal is that getting up to a point where you can earn money from a skill you have takes a long time anyway. Because of this you're better off building up many different skills so that you have more than one chance to earn money from your work. And not just any skills, realistic ones. Instead of hustling and putting 100% effort into just art, invest some of that time into learning a high demand skill that you can fall back on in case the art stuff takes too long. The opportunity cost of just focusing on one thing is insane. I'm gunning for a web development career because the skills I've gained for it make it seem like an easy/lax job for the return of high pay. The ease of work will give me free time to do art on the side and also build it up, but if it doesn't go anywhere I can still just draw whatever I want because the tech job is carrying me. It's a long-winded rant, but basically what I'm saying is that time is the most important resource to anybody. Make sure you're using it effectively for your own benefit by branching out and creating options for yourself. Art doesn't have to be a do or die gambling game where failure leads to starvation or working at McDonald's
I'm glad this video was made. It's good to call out the reality of the situation and what happens from behind the scenes. Media has done nothing but promote this behavior, the thirst to claw your way up the ranks to be on top, constantly competing against not only other artists, but AI and algorithms Making art used to be a side hobby, I still consider it to be so but its becoming more and more obvious that I'm in denial. It's consumed my life and string of activities, games I used to play, music I used to make, ideas that are still waiting to be illustrated and a story that's still waiting to be started, I gave it all up to slave away for the algorithms. If I want to actually get out there and be recognized, I have to kneel to the system and constantly go out of my way to draw what the masses would want to see. I'm surprised that over my entire time of constantly producing art, I've only burnt out 2 times, but I fear my body will force me to burn out if things don't change soon. I've noticed my sleep schedule has gone out of whack, I'm skipping out on breakfast and sometimes lunch every day, and constantly stressing over my skills and no longer feeling like getting better would be a milestone, it's now a requirement if I want to get commissions. But hey, at least that one drawing broke through 100 likes right? I'm glad it's being addressed, but it's a shame it's become a cycle of hell, a trend that's becoming more and more present. Regular workers, youtubers, streamers, artists, creators of all kinds. The way creativity quickly became capitalized, it just feels disgusting I'm working on a secondary style to try and fix these broken habits, one I can feel proud of and one that I'll feel joy in making. One that'll keep my attention away from the numbers and other artists, one I can actually be comfortable being associated with
Just dropping my rule of thumb here because I find it not only works to some degree, but also enjoyable: Work until you are bored of it Then play until you are bored of it Then work until you are bored of it Then play until you are bored of it Repeat
Great vid, Duchess! As an artist myself, I've been dealing with burnout for almost a month and a half after posting my work on DeviantArt for two and a half years (2020 was the "best" time for me to post my work on DA but I wish I've started posting there sooner than that, but what can you do). Yes, the manga industry is brutal when the mangakas have burnouts, to which they end up using clichés that were in other manga to catch up deadline and with that their portfolio starts to decline, same with Webtoon artist. Heck, my hero Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor Leo) and Phoenix was able to make over 100,000 pages a day for from the time he started as a manga artist in 1948 at his late teens to his death in 1989 at age 60, leaving the manga he was working like Gringo, Beethoven and the life long Phoenix incomplete. But yes, this goes to show the feeling you'll be induring when you make art or other hobbies either for a job or as a hobby for so long. Really inspiring to us artist.
Thank you for this video. Honestly, I've felt hopeless for a while that anyone like my art due to how often I make hiatuses. I'm just burnout and needed to be not doing art constantly or content creation on top of other priorities just to keep up with everything online. Eventually it just messes up focus overall for everything and other big priorities get pushed to the wayside causing massive burn out on everything I'm doing. My personal solution is to just focus on the projects I think are the best ones to focus on, even if it will take me a while, between my other priorities. It seems to be working for the most part, and I'm super excited since this since my first project was to start listing a small sticker set. Not even to sell something, just to prepare something and supplies for it and put it up online, and I'm super happy about it. I'll continue down this path since I just can't do hustle culture, lol.
im genuinely angry that society has chosen to normalize and encourage this type of mindset because otherwise you'll only lose instead of success. i got into an argument against my father over it (and me essentialy being anti-capitalist), and the fact that they are so desperate to perpetuate this stuff does not leave me with any hope. thank you for making this video, you did the best you could
As a financially struggling artist, I still refuse to participate in hustle culture because I simply can't. I don't have the solution, but I'm at least trying to find one. I will say as much as hustle culture is a problem, it's one I do see getting a lot of pushback not only from other artists, but from general audiences as well. It gives me hope to see people push back against game publishers who crunch their employees, people genuinely wishing Beyond the Spiderverse be delayed so the animators don't have to be overworked like the first 2, and the fact that we're seeing the beginning of a huge labor movement with both actors and writers on strike with UPS following close behind. It's easy to be cynical in today's society with platforms constantly spreading negativity and misinformation, but there is definitely hope that things will get better for all of us
Listening to almost all descriptions you mentioned of how you organise your life ... I genuinely was aghast how you were/are still functioning ...... what you described towards the end sounded like a good direction .. good luck and hang in there!!
It's because of those darned gatekeeping algorithms, and death of organic reach. Bring back organic reach and creators won't have the need to constantly create and get exhausted.
she posts this video right after i hurt my wrist from drawing and then just switch hands and keep drawing i am taking breaks now so i don’t hurt my other hand so it should be fine
I think I remember going neck deep into hustle culture when I was like 18-20, partly cause I was and well tbh still definitely am a proud workaholic, but also cause I was kinda running high on the mindset of “people only care about what you make, anything that distracts or takes you away from your work is a poor excuse for you to just be lazy.” which is a work view I’m slowly starting to grow past (though with baby steps) cause of well personal reasons. I definitely am still a proud workaholic (I mean I legitimately enjoy working hard on stuff for hours on end and being productive) but I also wonder how much of that nature was influenced by hustle culture and how much of it is just because I enjoy working hard. But hey on the bright side I’ve been trying to find ways to sneak in my hobbies into my work life (like playing a game by telling myself I’ll draw something based off it afterwards so I can sorta psudo gaslight my brain into seeing gaming as a productive part of my artwork) not sure if it’s the best way but…hey it’s been slowly helping me feel less guilty about playing splatoon or Pokémon lol.
Every person enjoys the fruits of their labor, video games trick us into thinking we're getting things done and we get some happy chemicals, its not your fault the cult of work made you this way, anyone you work for benefits from this kind of thinking and there is nothing we can do about it, just take it easy
While describing hustle culture I was immediately thinking of why people would accept AI art due to the speed and "simplicity" of the creative process even if it strips the "heart and soul" from the very attempt to make new and unique images. Even if this might seem off-topic there was a similar message from an EternalSamurai video using a Season 5 episode of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" with the distinction of creating "art" for the consumer based on how well it sells versus the creating for pleasure, and essentially stating that while repeatedly making the same thing due to appeasing a large consumer base it effectively removes the benefit of why you're creating it in the first place. Creating anything is always a more introspective process where you need to develop something based on what you as a creative like or "sync" with and then use that to develop something that touches you or a potential customer/consumer on an emotional or spiritual level, but to strip that away just to appease a mass-market lessens the introspective benefits. In a similar vein a Tale Foundry video was expressing "Why is Writing so Hard" and essentially boiling it down to "it's in the wanting" and that trying to create a convincing or endearing story makes it challenging.
I mean i Don really bother nowadays whether people like my art because i genuinely want to draw what makes me happy but im just sad whenever i draw because Ive never gotten a single art hit on Instagram, Twitter, Amino that makes me question what i am drawing for and whom Im drawing for. And i agree, hustle culture is needed to be succeed unfortunately. Honestly, i do want to do live or youtube videos but the lack of audience, fear, ranty nature of me that makes it impossible. Because of that i feel burned out honestly Also not being happy with your work because it has to be profitable, ill be honest, even if i am not selling my art i do feel the pressure because i feel like i am not an artist if i don't make money from my art... Also the eye strain is so real? I feel my eyes have become worse from looking at 3 screens whenever I draw because digital art is so common now. Also, it's impossible for me to draw without referencing from my phone or tablet, so bad posture, sedentary life style being a problem is TOO real
I am at the point where I only put out low effort but appealing art. Because I don’t believe hustle culture deserves my best work. So, I’m trying to cheat the system by Making lazy art
And this right here, hustle culture, is the problem. The reason why people are turning to AI art. The reason why people are saying that creating art isn't a job. The reason why artistry as a whole is dying. So, if we can't drop it without getting put behind, then let me make a new name for hustle culture: late-stage capitalism....or was it always meant to come to this in the economic system?
Personally, I do not wish to partake in such a toxic & unhealthy lifestyle, but... I feel like I have no choice due to my own mother constantly pushing me towards it. No, this is not an ask for advice on my relationship with her. It's complicated, & I will not go into detail here. Also, yes, my commissions are open. 👍
Is there a way to make it to where you aren’t working as long but still have enough to live a good life? As well as to not make every moment a moment for you to feel you need to do something than always feeling you alive to? I don’t believe you should be stuck in this position not able to live your life.
I believe there is a dual opportunity here for change: one individual and one cultural/societal. Personal is expenses, habits, priorities, hence are you buying a bunch of trinkets and extra sweets that are unnecessary? Are you spending a bunch of time on social media that isn’t for work or branding instead of sleeping or just being with yourself? Not drinking enough water, enough breaks, enough food? In terms of food, is it whole foods and meal prepping or processed packaged already prepared meals? Too much sodium not enough greens and proteins? Are our rooms unnavigable and untidy? A bunch of crap that’s within our capability to change for significant change within our environment. Then there’s society which is more of a community collective effort. One within our grasp and then one within OUR grasp. Obvi not this easy to implement all at once, but something that we may be able to change ourselves.
Art is work, not a job. Or at least, not a typical job. So.. productivity values aren’t beneficial for artists, at least for the quality not quantity of the work.
yeh…unfortunately my options are 1.) get ANOTHER full time job on top of the 1.5 that I have now - which would result indefinitely in me just straight up quitting art cause I’ll have no time or energy left or 2.) use the “free” time I get after my day jobs to monetize my hobby to make up for the money I should be getting FROM my day jobs but that I am not because labors are less respected than public toilets.
learning how to be more efficient actually makes art more enjoyable Like i just quit drawing and just did painting instead because there's always issues with the line art i spent hours on that i would just paint over anyways. I spent way too much time on something that's just going to get painted over anyways. Now i don't do line art i just paint the whole thing and paint the details over it.
the issue with attempting to stop hustle culture is that people are addicted to success, i guess. sorta like what you've said in other videos, you worked yourself to the bone to save up x amount of money, but now you've got twice as much but don't feel like it's enough? sorta like workaholicism.
Sound like the perfect reason fot artist to embrace ai art for the hustle, like we did embrace digital art back then, work that pay don't serves you, outsource it to tools.
The obligation of being productive during quarantine has no connection to hustle culture. It goes without saying, people need to work, even if it happens in quarantine. People just misunderstand that in quarantine you should work more, then usual, because of slower communication and data exchange between workers in comparison to instant communication and data exchange between workers in all time face to face office job. Hustle culture however is specificly sacrificing all of your resources and time to achive the professional success in your carrier path.
So far I sold like 5 drawings to friends and I'm fa~r from making money out of drawings for a living, but I have my hot take. I'm drawing traditionally and everyone expect digital colored drawings... So what I found out is that not many people whom consume art are interested how you made it or how much time it took unless is for some vtube model. Therefore I'm in a process of understanding how AI digitalisation works and scan my art and transform it with a few tweeks of the AI engine to suit the customer or friends need. With that I can focus of a creation of the character and the pose it's in. the AI is making the rest saving me the entire hassle of bothering with tablets screens and coloring. What do you think, do you care if the art is partially finished by AI if it's still made by the artist? And it's done in a day two max? If you order from amazon you expect to arrive next morning isn't it? the same case for art, now leading to artist burnouts...
Hustle culture is kinda why I’m trying to focus on creating a business based on artwork that I can mass produce (ex: stickers). This way i can make money without having to constantly work on drawing like i would with commissions. It’s not ideal but I don’t have the mental stamina that most have so I’m finding my own way to try and keep up
As it become easy and obvious, millions of people have the same idea, it's difficult to earn for living from this (or mugs, tshirts, wallarts, etsy stuff etc.). And it gets you to the point from the video - to sell anything you must produce what people want, not what you want, it's similar to commissions, but commissions gives more satisfaction as you create for a specific person, sometimes they make you a better artist as you must do something new what you would never do:)
as a side hustle that can work, but dont make it ur primary job because it does NOT pay well (even if it does pay to some degree, you're likely not gonna be able to make a living off of it anyway)
I have IRL friends in the animation major in my college that are genuinely miserable in their major because of presence of hustle culture, mixed in with the sheer competitive nature of finding any kind of art job in general. The worst part is that for pretty much them and every one else in the major, it's their *only* option. :( As an optimist, I do want something to be done about hustle culture--and by extension the treatment of artists from all kinds of fields in the workplace as a whole--but I acknowledge that it is genuinely a key to survival for some. To anyone that does art of any kind--and to echo the conclusion of this video--it is absolutely important to try and take breaks and take time for yourself. Your skills as an artist are absolutely NOT dictated by any kind of numbers, whether it's revenue or likes. Don't compare yourself to others, and if art is something that you truly and deeply love and want to do, then don't let yourself or anyone discourage you from wanting to pursue that passion. And if you feel burnout of any kind, try to find ways to de-stress and focus on things that *aren't* drawing. I know all of that sounds easier said than done, and I'm not SUPER great with words, and I *also* understand that not everyone may share this same sentiment, but I hope this at least helps someone that may feel trapped in this vicious cycle.
the most important thing to learn about numbers as an artist: its not about how many you get, its all about WHO they are from. do you want high numbers if its all from trend tourists and dangerous people? i sure as heck dont!
tbh art itself is a horrible industry to get into at the moment. it doesnt pay well at all, unless youre the ~0.1% that sells shitty ""modern"" paintings to millionaires its best to get a stable job that you can live off of and support yourself, and then indulge in your hobbies. like... i love art. art is fun, art is cool, but i want to be able to eat something other than 2$ ramen every week
@@thebininabin4410You do know there's more to art jobs than painting right? There's clothing design, architectural design, advertising, and even web design to an extent.
I don't even have a job right now, but I'm afraid that no matter what job I get, I'll end up hating it and feeling burnt out. I want a career in art, but I'm afraid it won't be sustainable, and my other option is chemistry, but I don't want to have to sacrifice my hobbies for it.
Your gona have to make sacrifices in life. If you stop for a period of time you can always get back into it. Pluss if you get a well paying job you have extra money to invest in your art as a side gig. Look up Dave ramsys too get smart with money. When you have a handle on it you'll have options
This is what makes me hesitant to actually achieve my dreams of working in an art centric field I'm so glad you talked about it I finally feel like I'm not crazy for being so hesitant
Everyone needs to relax, even the most hard working person needs to realize that without rest - your hard work goes to waste and you become worse at it. We are not machines and your free time to do absolutely nothing is justified even more if you normally work long hours. A lot of passionate artists who do their craft when inspiration comes to them live the most healthy life, nobody forces them, nobody is judging them, they do not feel useless for taking a break and they always come out on top of the game. Unlike the so called "inspirational" dudes "WORK HARD, OR ELSE" time pressure and amount of work made in that timeframe is not gonna decide whether one is professional. You already are professional if you love doing your job and don't have to force yourself out of bed for it every morning.
With all the recent events making it that much harder to live as an artist, I notice I took some compensery toxic habits, making me burned out. I recently decided to recenter my art process around how I feel about it, letting myself be taken over by the flow when it happens and just setting Skyrim on fire or seeing my friends when it doesn't. I also stopped posting my art online, and both those decision made me realise I am much happier when I draw now. I'm just letting myself have fun like I did when I was a kid instead of stressing myself out about losing my place in the industry in the future. I feel like the current online and irl environnement for artist is not healthy.
I was hospitalised this year for a chronic illness I didn't know that I had and decided that I'm done with trying to do art fulltime. I was also suffering from burnout and was starting to dislike making art. I've gone part time with my art, changed the kind of art that I make to sell and I save my personal art for myself. Things have been so much better for me.
As someone who draws but doesn't post anything ,I'm really pissed every damn time someone suggest I become an artist as a job and that "I have to "sell my things . I see how toxic the art market is right now nor do I care about what other people want me to draw - at all - so literally everything I draw is absolutely irrelevant because it's not trendy , polished, or fan based . If I ever do end up making an art / Sims channel it will flop and I won't care 💪💪💪 Hell yeah!
I feel your words. Drawing is one of the only things that helps me a little bit not losing hope in life. And when I (rarely) show some of my works I almost always hear something like "oOoOoh you are sooo great! Do it as your career and make lots of money from it!!" It's more complicated than that but others won't listen or care. I am not willing to lose my fondness for art for stupid hustling.
Bro I feel you 😭 my mum keeps proudly telling everyone and me that she's gonna make me major in fine arts and when I tell her to stop she says "but you always draw tho 🤨"
Then brace yourself for the consequences, because waiting for the meat to cook gives others the chance to snatch it up before it's ready. You'll need a proper strategy to make it work. Best of luck to you.
As long as we have this obsession with labor and the cult of work, not to mention capitalism, things are going to get worse, people don't have money for the arts, artists don't get payed, artists have to work more, before AI I wasn't sure how I would take my art studies to a money making place, now I'm not sure its possible, the future is grim but I have to do this, I don't even study that hard, working on a piece with the little skills I have is exhausting, doing that super fast with more detail, color, as part of a larger project where constant changes have to be made, at 16 hours a day off cuff, its demoralizing to think about but that's the career path and that needle hole is getting smaller every decade and the camel that is artists in general is expanding by the minute.
This sounds alot like Karoshi, a Japanese term that anime heavy TH-camrs bring up every now and then. It roughly translates to overworking yourself to death as your body finally gives up from the stress and lack of care. The end result is they drop dead randomly. Does your SO have to force you to take a break?
Yeah, I’ve had burnout for pretty much a year now, it sucks so much because I WANT to draw and animate but I can barely bring myself to do even the little stuff. I always see all the artists esp in the warrior cats community, where it’s very elitist on who the map hosts choose. Same people every time. And I always compare my art to those of my friends and people I look up to and I just feel awful, because some of those people are younger or the same age as me, and I just feel miserable. I used to be able to make multiple pieces a day, now I can barely finish one- typically they stop in a sketch phase. It saddens me but i cant bear to draw much more.
I have adhd, I can't do the hustle as easily as others, so I take a huge break of a hour or two to give myself some time to be a kid, I practice animation and art at the same time with filpacilp, it's difficult but works because I need to practice smooth lineart without help, but I still do have sleep issues so I play games during night and eat, I don't drink much coffee because I feel weird if I drink coffee for days and save it for when I'm exhausted or late, I still barely eat but that's because I forget to eat, please let yourself be human and take breaks
This is such a doomer video, and the solutions are easy - but most of it involves fixing your framing. Where to start? Well, first off: Self-care, sleeping, and eating ARE productive. Working out and reading informative things ARE self-care. The conceptual divide between these things is an issue, because if you think of them as "not productive" or "not self care" well, you will ruin your mood and increase burnout chances. Plus if you end up in the hospital you are having neither a good time nor making money. Taking short breaks while working is important. There are numerous videos about this in art and learning in general - Sycra ( th-cam.com/video/9NeYpBTtMok/w-d-xo.html ) and Ethan Becker ( th-cam.com/video/7xQ9-JZHPuQ/w-d-xo.html ) both have done so You are always learning when doing art, and if you're not, then you're not actually being productive. It's the paradox of "productivity" - if you work until you burn out, you work less than if you pace yourself. If you are hurting your wrist, stop immediately. Pain is BAD - it means your grip or your posture is wrong. Don't draw from your wrist, use your whole arm. And grip the tool (pencil, pen, marker, brush, stylus, chisel, saw, WHATEVER) as lightly as you can. This will suck for a lot of people used to drawing in an unhealthy way, but it's important - even if you burn out and decide to stop hustling, if you mess your wrist or hands up, you will struggle with many other forms of work. Post AS MUCH as you can. Experimental stuff, "scuffed" things, etc. You are not posting to grab those popular, fickle masses as an artist - you are posting to gather and curate a core audience. As artists, we are entertainers. It's not simply out work that people follow us for, but the interplay of _how, why, and what we work on_ using our own personality and experiences. Watch Max Miller's video about Fettuccine Alfredo to understand this, because a man became world famous selling the most basic dish everyone knew how to cook: th-cam.com/video/BivfxrSpy54/w-d-xo.html In addition, speed and quality are not necessarily opposites. As you get better, you get faster. If you're not, then you need to go back and check some fundamentals - you may have weaknesses that you need to work on. As the foundations of your work get better, faster - you can do more elaborate pieces in less time. This is because you are making more time for yourself to do more "polishing up" work. You do NOT have to chase trends if you don't want to. Again, you are not just gathering an audience, but you are _curating_ an audience. Many artists are well known and gained a huge boost because they _began_ trends, not because they jumped on the train someone else started rolling. And most importantly: Draw what you like. Post it. As an artist on the internet, you are a small business owner with 1 employee - yourself. Treat your customers well, and they will remember it. Some will become regulars, some will become (to various degrees of personal/impersonal-ness) your friends. These are the people who will support you reliably, because they love what you do and don't want to see you struggle.
these are all so true! i learned these things just by brute force. i hope people see this. one more thing: dont just throw your art out into the wind. you gotta learn and understand who actually appreciates it. different people appreciate different qualities, and you can identify that in people at a glance after a while. you just KNOW. find a way to get the right people to see you.
@@hawshimagical Thank you! And yep, exactly - different fans you get are all different, will like different aspects, and with enough experience you can definitely start to see patterns in how what you make fits into others' tastes.
As someone who is trying finish an art portfolio to apply to art school, the best way of trying to make work more enjoyable is to listen to some music that you rlly like (imo). For me it helps distract me from getting too stressed out from school work and art assignments, and also gives me motivation to do more. But remember to take breaks, drink lots of water and give yourself small goals that you know you can achieve. Take small baby steps instead of taking in big tasks. But that's about it, try and just enjoy what you do atm. If everything is too much, take breaks and change the environment a bit (to keep things interesting and fresh).
I always make myself draw a comic page every day for my comic since I really want to see it realised and when I don't, I feel like I should be drawing. I know I should stop but I just can't stop thinking about it. It is not like I have a huge following, it is just the thought that if I do more ambitious stuff, I will have a huge following.
You say that if you could go back and do it again, you would, but you don't need to do it all again in order to change your habits. You know the harm you're doing, so please, take a break. You can't suddenly stop, as you've stated, but you can make small changes. How about every 4 hours you give yourself a 15-30 minutes break? You can justify this by saying it will improve your art by letting you take care of your body and mind in order to inspire yourself. Try taking at least 1 day off per week for social connections. It's not perfect, but if you've said, it's important to stop sometimes.
Burnout is the bane of my existence. I've hit many walls in my career and I know that if I keep working myself to the bone I'll end up burnt out, exhausted and antisocial. I can't stop working on my art, I'm always looking for inspiration, looking at Pinterest for reference pics and drawing while my hobbies are in the background. It's not healthy and I often force myself to take breaks and watch the shows I've been meaning to get into and go out with friends, anything to touch grass... And when I do I feel like I'm wasting time 😫. Even while I'm currently on bed rest due to injury I'm still drawing. I'm still up late and running on energy drinks, caffeine and sugar. Remember everyone Take. Breaks. You. Will. Be. More. Refreshed
The question I always wondered... Why bother with "getting ahead"? Why not just do enough to stay afloat? It's not like sacrificing everything (and in some cases, everyone) in your life is going to make it better. Yes, congratulations, you are now making more money than last year. But why? Why work so hard for a reward that you will never be allowed to enjoy?
There is always option D. Choose a regular job and go back to doing only the art you enjoy as a hobby. Especially when you are at a point where you feel that your job as an artist is harder than other jobs you could be doing, pick one of the jobs that you think are easier and more enjoyable for you and do it full-time. Either it turns out that the non-art job actually is a better fit, that gives you less burnout and more fulfillment: Then you have found a better job and got an enjoyable hobby back. … or it turns out that actually your job as an artist was pretty good after all and you get back to it with new found appreciation. In any case it is a net positive.
I always make myself draw a comic page every day for my comic since I really want to see it realised and when I don't, I feel like I should be drawing. I know I should stop but I just can't stop thinking about it. It is not like I have a huge following, it is just the thought that if I do more ambitious stuff, I will have a huge following.
SAME For me, I just want to finish it. I can't stand the idea of living my whole life without ever finishing it, but I want to move on to other things.
@@djjimmaster8261 I know! I just want to see my projects realized because when I don't, I get better ideas and I have to finish the current project so I can start another.
As someone who continued to work through covid as an essential worker, I was already too burned out to pursue my artistic endeavors. 😂 Now I'm trying to take back my time, but my day job is the burnout factor of my life.
I feel like not only is it hustle culture as a whole, but internet culture and meme culture that actually kills art more so than we think. I say this because I see a lot of great art out there that often inspires my own art, but rarely does it get even a fraction of attention as memes tend to do. It's really upsetting to me personally when I see a piece I'm proud to show my followers or whatever get like so little engagement that I'm kind of surprised when it gets even 1 like at all, whereas, I post some low effort shitty meme that I made in like what two seconds for shits and giggles and it gets thousands of reblogs, comments, likes and it pisses me off that this shitty drawing I did got more attention than the piece I was proud to show people. It happens nonstop with so many talented artists and it's become just the norm to make some shitty low effort joke over a huge piece of art because people only care about something "relatable" they can show their friends and not someone's amazing art because it's so easy to put words on a picture of someone looking surprised with a "When she says she likes pineapple on pizza" or some stupid nonsense. I'm super guilty of this sharing meme culture stuff too! I share memes with my friends almost every day, mainly because I don't feel right sharing someone's art without their permission which is understandable, but I still adhere to this joke-meme sharing because it's so built in our culture as a reality coping mechanism the same way art is. It's just the fact that so many individual creators get more attention from their memes than the work they're most anxious to share with people, and that is what just seems just so depressing and discouraging to me. I’m also not saying “I DeServe ATtention!” I’m just expressing how it feels to me that it feels discouraging sometimes and liking your art becomes harder if no one cares to look at it or even give you feedback at all. You can’t get everything from “self love” you need other people to tell you how to improve or give you any kind of feedback so you can learn how to get better as well as feel like your art IS taken seriously rather than just tossed aside for some meme. A huge example of this is like the time the there was an online contest of “who could draw the most realistic dog” and second place was definitely a really well drawn traditional realistic dog, but first place was literally a crappy memey doodle. this was based off of likes which goes to show how much people love shitposting over passion and perspective. And I just feel like how unfair for the actual artists to put so much effort into something only for it to be tossed aside by meme lords.
Yeah, 100%. And I feel like that's because of platforms, they favor such content so it manipulates people into doing it to well... survive. So in turn people just end-up preferring shitposting over passion and perspective. That's not to say I don't giggle at some shit posts, its just more to say stuff that you think about for days, even your life has been devalued to the nth degree because it favors clicks and viewer retention to place ads. Thus putting the very people the platforms need to attract users under an almost inhumane, machine like process - spitting in the face of hard-fought for labor laws of yesteryear, like a set amount of hours a day and weekends. No matter what you do, you should still have free time, even if the job is glamorous. The glorification of it is problematic. The sad part is it could be stopped if everyone stopped, but there will always be a couple grifters who would if creators "striked" per se and would win. A lose-lose all for a platform to sell ads. I wish the internet would go back to how it was in the 2000s and early 10s. But as days go on and I reach my 40s I lament that perhaps those days were just a temporary blip :/
"Hustle culture is bad. I mean, I'm successful thanks to it and will continue doing it, but you definitely shouldn't." Videos like this always sound like someone just trying to get rid of competition. If it's that bad, then stop and do something else. Except no one does, because as much as they claim it's awful and they're suffering, they want this over a normal job.
Im so tired of family getting mad at me for not trying to work for Disney. And then they get even more angry when I point out that I'm not an animator AND disney artists can draw at least 10x faster than me. Plus I dont want to work for Disney. I do commissions when I can, but I really just strongly prefer drawing for me. Art doesn't have to be a career. It's okay to create for just yourself.
I was ever expecting to hear anything Bungo Stray Dogs related in this, but it just goes to show how talented a creator Asigiri is. Ignoring everything else because I’m honestly too tired and burnt out to talk about it-I doubt you’ll see this, but if you do Duchess, where did you read the BSD light novels? I’ve been meaning to get my hands on them
Oof, this hits too close to home! I'm making a webtoon called "The Dancing Flame", whose chapters are planned to be way longer than the average and thus take a lot of time (And if I went and cut them in parts just so I could release more often it would hurt the pacing of the story). I have no team, it's just me working on like 70+ pages per chapter. It only has chapter 0 and chapter 1 for now. I love writing stories ever since I was a toddler and believe me, I love this story and characters with my life and I want to work on it and keep on making it, but I've never been a mentally stable person, so from time to time I get into depressive episodes where I can't make anything and that hurt my progress a lot. (And since my childhood dog passed away from old age I've been even worse in every aspect of my life and I'm still sad bc it's recent) I struggled with making chapter 0 and took way longer than expected, and after I posted it I took me way too long to finally finnish chapter 1. Both before and after chapter 0 I had my friends and family constantly asking me when I was gonna update my comic and had my mom constantly tell me that if I take too long to update people are gonna lose interest. And I know overworking yourself is dangerous, I have been through that in the past, that's why I'm taking it easy and allowing myself to heal... But I feel pressured to make content quicker. If not the comic, something to grow my audience, if not growing my audience, something to make money. I know my worth isn't measured on how much I can work and I know that my small follower base and my loved ones support me so much and just tell me those things because they want to see me succeed, but it's hard to not feel like I'm disappointing everyone for not making progress quicker, for not having achieved something great just yet. I know I'm not the only one in a situation like this, so if you are reading this and struggle with something similar please know that you're not alone and remember: The art you make with passion is important to the world, no matter if the algorythm doesn't like it
have you tried making promotional artwork? a common practice in japanese media is to make promotional material that incredibly mis-represents the actual story, to draw attention while also having complete freedom and not spoiling the story. 70 pages is a lot, so i think you can advertise those 2 chapters for a VERY long time. never ever rush your storytelling.
Hmm, here is an interesting take. I think that the issue is making hustle culture is only looking at the short term effects and not the long term. The exact same issue that many corporations that quickly crash and fall suffer from. What am I trying to say? Hustle culture says to "always do something productive" and as a result people take it to mean "always be working" when the must better meaning is "always do something that helps you". What is the difference? The former means no breaks because a break is "not working", the later means that you should take regular breaks because "a break helps you". Think of it this way, you spend 2 years working constantly because "always be working", but as a result you become unable to use your hands and so are now forced to not do anything for 4 years. Now imagine that you take regular breaks and work at a reasonable pase for 6 years, you would have no real issues except inflation. Yes doing the hard work for 2 years gives more immidiate money, but taking the more measured route leads to better health.
For some reason our work isn't even recognized as real work, by the same people who do nothing but conzoooooom our stuff and seemingly would get bored to d***h without us artists and designers.
This is such a lame pity party encouraging a victim mentality. A lot of the things you cited that make you feel like you can't keep up you're doing to yourself.
As a kid who has tried to post weekly for 3 years on a mostly art based channel, it's definitely catching up to me. I'm a lot less happy with my view count, and feeling a lot more burnt out. I feel the need to actually expand my channel, rather than it being a hobby but the algorithm is killing me. I want to make videos of the games I like, but they aren't trending and so I get low views. I'm doing this for "fun" and not income though, can't imagine how hard it is to use art as a job nowadays. Goodluck out there guys:D
once i turned 20 i facing with the need to do something to not die from starvation and living further, so, since that moment i don't have any amount of energy, power, motivation, desires and whatever else to continue drawing, because my brain spents all his energy just to keep my sanity from all this pressure and challenges, i don't know how to live further, i can't work anywhere, i have a bpd and the country i live in makes it even worse (Russia), i don't know how to stay alive and having a power to continue make arts and having a free time on my life and keep my mental state in normal condition and not destroyed, drained and exhausted one. I don't have a hustle mindset, i'm the opposite of it, but the problem is, no matter what mindset i have - world affects me the same, i can think that i don't need to work hard and spent all my free time on something for self-improvement, but, world just will kill me, take away my home, take away my food, take away everything from me, i just will die as homeless person somewhere in district from cold or starvation, and i can't do anything about it and just doomed.
2:47 Naming language learning among other activities makes me have to think about my hobbies because language learning is probably a hobby of mine LEAST related to art. Now I wonder whether pastimes that prioritize learning rather than enjoyment are direct results of hustle culture.
I honestly have never understood how someone can do art for 12 hours a day. Even at my best, I was only able to maybe do 8. Nowadays, it's a great day if I can do 4. I personally feel like I've been in perpetual burnout since I graduated college in 2013.
My partner is not an artist, but he said one good line - "If I want all the money and career, I'd need to work all days and nights, you'd feel neglected and leave me. What's the point of doing all that work if in the end I wouldn't have anyone to eat dinner with?"
That one's a keeper, you got a good one 👍👍
Best quote of the decade: 🏆🏆🏆🏆
It's so hard to not adopt the hustle culture mindset as an artist/Vocaloid producer but in the end the price for that kind of success is too much for me to pay
You are like 13 years old. All you make are covers. Focus on song creation, find your genre and your vocaloid tuning skills will follow. You can't expect success from nothing.
@@phatweeb69 oh god the weebs have found me
@@phatweeb69 why not just say something like “you’re too young to worry about stuff like this, just focus on doing what you like” instead of something weird like this…
@@phatweeb69 get your gross self away from a child, for god's sake. What a disgrace of a human being. You have zero reasons to exist, you're fully incapable of creation, and you dare to narrate young talents with your bs "advice".
@@crownedollI’m pretty sure that person is just a troll so don’t worry about them
as artist who does mostly illustration i went to art school for graphic design. i got extremly bad 2 and a half year burn out from all hustle culture and our professors forcing it on us. at one point i got told my my graphic design professor ''thats too creative too artistic''' and new gd professor that came in last year of school who after 30 of my sketches, 4 different finished products told me i didnt put enough effort totally broke me, i didnt want to draw anymore bcs it wasnt enjoyable anymore all my ideas were milked that there was no more anything. it was all about profit and money and 0% about what art is, expressing yourself. just this year i went back.
@@emmanuelmercado4018 i finished my school last year
sounds like we had the same tutor😑
We have been told "Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life” , honestly the biggest lie ever😭 just because you enjoy something doesn't mean you must monetize it, and it took me so long to understand this but it was too late cuz I already got so burnt out that even a year later I'm still not completely back to art, something that I was obsessed with my whole life. Having another, stable job, and doing art in free time is much better for me personally..
My parents are letting me live with them rent free as long as I do most of the chores and watch my nephew when they’re not home, that’s the only reason Im able to do as much art as I do. I wish everyone had the ability to just be able to do art as much as they’d like without worry about life 😞
I'm burnt out and I don't even make art xD Getting started is daunting. Good luck to everyone who is grinding to perfect their craft, and remember to enjoy the process! That's the best part
Hustle culture honestly is so damn pervasive that even with me not really being a professional or posting TH-cam videos or really trying to grow my social media presence I still ended up giving in to it. I was drawing near daily for years and eventually I got so stale I couldn’t do anything for weeks at a time. I’m just now starting to come back out of that and trying my best to not get hung up on it again
omg same you're not alone in this
This video just summarized my life these past 4 years, ever since I started working professionally as an artist.
I just hope this someday will change, I'm constantly being forced to look for a regular, more stable job than my freelance art job because of constantly feeling burnt out or guilty if I'm not creating or doing something productive or that will earn me more engagement. Pretty sure more artists feel the same way...
People from an outside perspective barely imagine what artists have to go through to make it, and I'm glad channels like yours exist.
Best of luck for any artists and others out there to keep surviving this toxic culture demands!
Earning engagement in social medias is pretty hard so i dont recommend unleashing all your energy and just posting everytime. Take it slow. You can also practice on how to draw faster by simplifying your art
@lyroseart 🫂💙
If I could get and keep a regular job, I wouldn't even bother trying with art. Like the whole thing is basically a scam, the market is massively oversaturated thanks to all these people who were promoting the dream of being a professional artist since Patreon became a thing.
Honestly even if it's a different profession a lot of what's said here applies to my Writing Job. It got to a point late last year working on College stuff that I genuinely suffered from really bad depression and still do even if it's more under control. I used to be an avid Fanfiction Writer and enjoyed watching shows and writing whatever I felt like, but somewhere along the line it became a job in itself.
This Video came out at the perfect time for me because I feel like I'm not alone when I say that I'm a workaholic to the day I die. Recently I've started reindulging myself in my Gaming Hobbies though. I still feel this urge to keep working and working but it feels better to try and take a step back. TH-cam Anime and Video Games are becoming my comfort again. It's weird, taking a step back and watching the video now I can't unsee myself in those situations that Mangaka die in. So I'm gonna try to make a change and I already am.
All this to say, thank you for bringing up this topic.
I just don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I used to be able to do some low tier commission works, mostly pet portraits before AI art was a thing, then it stabbed me so hard in the confidence that I deactivated by business account and couldn't even message a single person since December to ask if they want any work from me due to my mental state.
My dream was one day reaching the level where I can make my country's minimum wage, about $500 a month with my art through commissions, but I'd even be okay with half of that at this point. I know that I'll never have a house on my own, I'll never have a family on my own, I'll never have a car, not even a bicycle. I don't even care, I just wanted to live from doing cute and meaningful little commissions for random people that will make them happy for a few dollars with honest work and live off bread and water if I can't afford anything else, but I doubt I'll ever make a single penny again with my art. I don't think I was asking for much, but it seems to be the case. Some days when I can't even force myself to make anything I just wish I could've died a few years ago full of hopes and dreams.
It's interesting to watch this after coming out of a burn out cycle and starting to find joy in creating art again.
That's why I chose art to never be by career, but my escape from it.
Smart
fr
I dont want it as a carrer too so I agree with you.
That’s the same thing with me with other passions. I feel like if I’m “forced” to do certain tasks and assignments with a particular passion that I’ll start to really hate it. It’s definitely happened before, game design classes got me less and less interested in making a game because we had to do a massive project that was forced to be a particular genre of game and it felt like you were trapped rather than having fun.
@@lulub517 ur replies arent showing up so
real sorry for you. game design is so cool and its sad to see it ruined for someone
but yeah, entering any creative space as a job sucks. if u wanna get big, you gotta be original and ambitious enough to create like a studio or something to become the 0.1% whos careers take off
Celestia uploads = day made
Also, that art is BEAUTIFUL!
agreed!
The fact that I'm starting a webtoon and I'm extremely nervous of how things will end out reminded me of this. I'm always stressing and overthinking about the fact that people might (and most likely, in my opinion) hate and discourage me from continuing. The desire to constantly be better at drawing and writing to become great like other creators has been growing alot lately. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for myself and not others. To anyone who feels the same way or similar, please do remember that you are already doing great. Yes, improving is important but so is your life and mental health. I wish you all great luck in what you are doing and have a nice day!!
For awhile I went into such deep burn out that I just couldn’t get out any art that I was proud of, but due to the intense push of people around me, I never took a break from it. Eventually I kind of lost myself and just stopped doing art for a month or two. And now, I don’t think I have ever been happier with my art. Taking a break, is one of the best things I have decided to do. I found my art style, and new hobbies. I think this video explains all struggles with burn out and hustle culture really well.
I honestly didn't know it had a name and this hit me a lot harder then I thought it would. More so your final statement.
I've been an artist all my life, for as far as I can remember. The SECOND I heard that people would pay you to draw for them and what a "commission" was, for me me drawing art for fun...was over. My mind is constantly try to think of different things to make to sell; adoptables, custom, YCH, and so much more. To the point it takes me to from, 'Wow! That would make an amazing art piece', to 'oh I should make it big enough for a wallpaper', to 'oh I bet someone would buy it!', to 'then I could put that money towards the house payment to finally pay it off some day', to 'oh but what if it doesn't sell?', to 'okay think of something else! Something that will sell!'...and I could go on and on to the point that I hadn't even opened SAI and I'm already severely burnt out. My mind is constantly thinking of different things to offer for commissions, to things to sell, and so much more but all I can think is how much my life would be better if I could just make the money I need to pay off the house payment, fix the roof so it stops leaking, fix the fence so I don't get a city fine, get enough food so we actually can make a decent meal, and just so much more! I just get to the point that I break down and start to cry because if I could work a regular job, I would, but I cannot. So, all I can think is, if I could just get a lucky break, just something! Then I just got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing until I break all over again and the process just keeps going and going into a vicious cycle. It's...horrible...
The thought process is exactly same with me! 🫂🌧
@@goldfishcrackers7845 Oh my gosh I am so glad I'm not alone in this :(!!! Thank you!
@GothicPhantomZero i thought i was alone in this too, until i watched this video and read the comments, especially yours that is very similar to my life with art 😭🫂💙 im here, & i feel u, fellow artist/art-lover
@@goldfishcrackers7845 Aww D:!!! I'm glad I'm not alone in this and so happy you have found another fellow artist who shares in this as well so you aren't alone either!
@@GothicPhantomZero 🫂💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵
Thank you for putting this into light, for me, i will freaking fight it so hard, im not gonna give in, im not gonna hurt my health over art. I want art to be fun and creative.
Me personally it's not the case of doing art that burns me out, more than anything it's just my work that doesn't involve art in general as I keep putting more time in my general work than I can with my art.
My friend also got burnt out from huddle culture. She started posting on social media and started feeling like she needs to draw to please people online. She has quit art now and I feel very sad about it because she her art was amazing and probably wouldn’t have quit if she didn’t start posting 😢
Really an awesome video, highlighting the biggest issues us artists have to deal with on the daily. I know what burnout is like and it sucks- My heart goes out to anyone reading this who has, or is currently dealing with it thenselves 💙
I am reminded of the tortoise and the hare. Hustle only leads to short term illusions of success. As Shakespeare once wrote, walk Romeo, walk, we stumble when we hasten. It all comes down to individual definitions of value, productivity, and success. The way I see it humans are stupid for valuing money. The ability to achieve any results you desire regardless of the obstacles you face is far more valuable. Acquiring the skills to produce a much higher quality than the competition will always be more productive than shilling trash like an ai sheep. The less quality products there are in the world the more they are worth. Let the world destroy itself, then when the fools are dead there will be no competition or need for it. Selfishness is self destruction.
I don't usually comment on videos, but feel compelled to for this one. My solution to the whole hustle culture thing is simply putting my eggs in more than one basket. For a lot of artists facing this hustle culture problem, art tends to be the only thing they're betting their future and well-being on. I used to find it commendable, but I now I find it inefficient.
I use my free time building up my other hobbies and skills when I get the chance so that I have options. Programming, music production, 3D modeling, etc. Sure, one could argue that with so many different things to focus on, you're not outputting as much as you could into just one skill, but my rebuttal is that getting up to a point where you can earn money from a skill you have takes a long time anyway. Because of this you're better off building up many different skills so that you have more than one chance to earn money from your work. And not just any skills, realistic ones. Instead of hustling and putting 100% effort into just art, invest some of that time into learning a high demand skill that you can fall back on in case the art stuff takes too long. The opportunity cost of just focusing on one thing is insane. I'm gunning for a web development career because the skills I've gained for it make it seem like an easy/lax job for the return of high pay. The ease of work will give me free time to do art on the side and also build it up, but if it doesn't go anywhere I can still just draw whatever I want because the tech job is carrying me.
It's a long-winded rant, but basically what I'm saying is that time is the most important resource to anybody. Make sure you're using it effectively for your own benefit by branching out and creating options for yourself. Art doesn't have to be a do or die gambling game where failure leads to starvation or working at McDonald's
I'm glad this video was made. It's good to call out the reality of the situation and what happens from behind the scenes. Media has done nothing but promote this behavior, the thirst to claw your way up the ranks to be on top, constantly competing against not only other artists, but AI and algorithms
Making art used to be a side hobby, I still consider it to be so but its becoming more and more obvious that I'm in denial. It's consumed my life and string of activities, games I used to play, music I used to make, ideas that are still waiting to be illustrated and a story that's still waiting to be started, I gave it all up to slave away for the algorithms. If I want to actually get out there and be recognized, I have to kneel to the system and constantly go out of my way to draw what the masses would want to see. I'm surprised that over my entire time of constantly producing art, I've only burnt out 2 times, but I fear my body will force me to burn out if things don't change soon.
I've noticed my sleep schedule has gone out of whack, I'm skipping out on breakfast and sometimes lunch every day, and constantly stressing over my skills and no longer feeling like getting better would be a milestone, it's now a requirement if I want to get commissions. But hey, at least that one drawing broke through 100 likes right? I'm glad it's being addressed, but it's a shame it's become a cycle of hell, a trend that's becoming more and more present. Regular workers, youtubers, streamers, artists, creators of all kinds. The way creativity quickly became capitalized, it just feels disgusting
I'm working on a secondary style to try and fix these broken habits, one I can feel proud of and one that I'll feel joy in making. One that'll keep my attention away from the numbers and other artists, one I can actually be comfortable being associated with
Please remember, no matter what you need to rest, or your work will suffer anyway. The Brain is a machine that needs to be able to repair itself.
Just dropping my rule of thumb here because I find it not only works to some degree, but also enjoyable:
Work until you are bored of it
Then play until you are bored of it
Then work until you are bored of it
Then play until you are bored of it
Repeat
Good and necessary video, Duchess. I dig saying "keep up the good work" would have a twinge of irony here, but cheers to you for the work you do.
Great vid, Duchess! As an artist myself, I've been dealing with burnout for almost a month and a half after posting my work on
DeviantArt for two and a half years (2020 was the "best" time for me to post my work on DA but I wish I've started posting there sooner than that, but what can you do). Yes, the manga industry is brutal when the mangakas have burnouts, to which they end up using clichés that were in other manga to catch up deadline and with that their portfolio starts to decline, same with Webtoon artist. Heck,
my hero Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro
Boy, Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor
Leo) and Phoenix was able to make over
100,000 pages a day for from the time he started as a manga artist in 1948 at his late
teens to his death in 1989 at age 60, leaving
the manga he was working like Gringo, Beethoven and the life long Phoenix incomplete.
But yes, this goes to show the feeling you'll
be induring when you make art or other
hobbies either for a job or as a hobby for so long.
Really inspiring to us artist.
Thank you for this video. Honestly, I've felt hopeless for a while that anyone like my art due to how often I make hiatuses. I'm just burnout and needed to be not doing art constantly or content creation on top of other priorities just to keep up with everything online. Eventually it just messes up focus overall for everything and other big priorities get pushed to the wayside causing massive burn out on everything I'm doing.
My personal solution is to just focus on the projects I think are the best ones to focus on, even if it will take me a while, between my other priorities. It seems to be working for the most part, and I'm super excited since this since my first project was to start listing a small sticker set. Not even to sell something, just to prepare something and supplies for it and put it up online, and I'm super happy about it. I'll continue down this path since I just can't do hustle culture, lol.
im genuinely angry that society has chosen to normalize and encourage this type of mindset because otherwise you'll only lose instead of success. i got into an argument against my father over it (and me essentialy being anti-capitalist), and the fact that they are so desperate to perpetuate this stuff does not leave me with any hope. thank you for making this video, you did the best you could
finally someone calling capitalism by its name
Good job for progressing so much, we are proud of you and you are such a great example for so many people here💖
WHOOO NEW CELSTIA VID
As a financially struggling artist, I still refuse to participate in hustle culture because I simply can't. I don't have the solution, but I'm at least trying to find one.
I will say as much as hustle culture is a problem, it's one I do see getting a lot of pushback not only from other artists, but from general audiences as well. It gives me hope to see people push back against game publishers who crunch their employees, people genuinely wishing Beyond the Spiderverse be delayed so the animators don't have to be overworked like the first 2, and the fact that we're seeing the beginning of a huge labor movement with both actors and writers on strike with UPS following close behind.
It's easy to be cynical in today's society with platforms constantly spreading negativity and misinformation, but there is definitely hope that things will get better for all of us
yayyyyy new celestia video!
Listening to almost all descriptions you mentioned of how you organise your life ... I genuinely was aghast how you were/are still functioning ...... what you described towards the end sounded like a good direction .. good luck and hang in there!!
It's because of those darned gatekeeping algorithms, and death of organic reach. Bring back organic reach and creators won't have the need to constantly create and get exhausted.
she posts this video right after i hurt my wrist from drawing and then just switch hands and keep drawing i am taking breaks now so i don’t hurt my other hand so it should be fine
I think I remember going neck deep into hustle culture when I was like 18-20, partly cause I was and well tbh still definitely am a proud workaholic, but also cause I was kinda running high on the mindset of “people only care about what you make, anything that distracts or takes you away from your work is a poor excuse for you to just be lazy.” which is a work view I’m slowly starting to grow past (though with baby steps) cause of well personal reasons. I definitely am still a proud workaholic (I mean I legitimately enjoy working hard on stuff for hours on end and being productive) but I also wonder how much of that nature was influenced by hustle culture and how much of it is just because I enjoy working hard. But hey on the bright side I’ve been trying to find ways to sneak in my hobbies into my work life (like playing a game by telling myself I’ll draw something based off it afterwards so I can sorta psudo gaslight my brain into seeing gaming as a productive part of my artwork) not sure if it’s the best way but…hey it’s been slowly helping me feel less guilty about playing splatoon or Pokémon lol.
Every person enjoys the fruits of their labor, video games trick us into thinking we're getting things done and we get some happy chemicals, its not your fault the cult of work made you this way, anyone you work for benefits from this kind of thinking and there is nothing we can do about it, just take it easy
While describing hustle culture I was immediately thinking of why people would accept AI art due to the speed and "simplicity" of the creative process even if it strips the "heart and soul" from the very attempt to make new and unique images. Even if this might seem off-topic there was a similar message from an EternalSamurai video using a Season 5 episode of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" with the distinction of creating "art" for the consumer based on how well it sells versus the creating for pleasure, and essentially stating that while repeatedly making the same thing due to appeasing a large consumer base it effectively removes the benefit of why you're creating it in the first place.
Creating anything is always a more introspective process where you need to develop something based on what you as a creative like or "sync" with and then use that to develop something that touches you or a potential customer/consumer on an emotional or spiritual level, but to strip that away just to appease a mass-market lessens the introspective benefits. In a similar vein a Tale Foundry video was expressing "Why is Writing so Hard" and essentially boiling it down to "it's in the wanting" and that trying to create a convincing or endearing story makes it challenging.
I mean i Don really bother nowadays whether people like my art because i genuinely want to draw what makes me happy but im just sad whenever i draw because Ive never gotten a single art hit on Instagram, Twitter, Amino that makes me question what i am drawing for and whom Im drawing for. And i agree, hustle culture is needed to be succeed unfortunately. Honestly, i do want to do live or youtube videos but the lack of audience, fear, ranty nature of me that makes it impossible. Because of that i feel burned out honestly
Also not being happy with your work because it has to be profitable, ill be honest, even if i am not selling my art i do feel the pressure because i feel like i am not an artist if i don't make money from my art...
Also the eye strain is so real? I feel my eyes have become worse from looking at 3 screens whenever I draw because digital art is so common now. Also, it's impossible for me to draw without referencing from my phone or tablet, so bad posture, sedentary life style being a problem is TOO real
omg i love ur videos ❤ i always watch them when i get the chance 🩷 especially when i draw!!
I am at the point where I only put out low effort but appealing art. Because I don’t believe hustle culture deserves my best work. So, I’m trying to cheat the system by Making lazy art
nice!!! where can i buy your art?
And this right here, hustle culture, is the problem. The reason why people are turning to AI art. The reason why people are saying that creating art isn't a job. The reason why artistry as a whole is dying. So, if we can't drop it without getting put behind, then let me make a new name for hustle culture: late-stage capitalism....or was it always meant to come to this in the economic system?
Personally, I do not wish to partake in such a toxic & unhealthy lifestyle, but... I feel like I have no choice due to my own mother constantly pushing me towards it. No, this is not an ask for advice on my relationship with her. It's complicated, & I will not go into detail here.
Also, yes, my commissions are open. 👍
This just came out after my burn out 😭
jokes on you I am too lazy to ever fall to hustle culture
Is there a way to make it to where you aren’t working as long but still have enough to live a good life? As well as to not make every moment a moment for you to feel you need to do something than always feeling you alive to? I don’t believe you should be stuck in this position not able to live your life.
I believe there is a dual opportunity here for change: one individual and one cultural/societal. Personal is expenses, habits, priorities, hence are you buying a bunch of trinkets and extra sweets that are unnecessary? Are you spending a bunch of time on social media that isn’t for work or branding instead of sleeping or just being with yourself? Not drinking enough water, enough breaks, enough food? In terms of food, is it whole foods and meal prepping or processed packaged already prepared meals? Too much sodium not enough greens and proteins? Are our rooms unnavigable and untidy?
A bunch of crap that’s within our capability to change for significant change within our environment. Then there’s society which is more of a community collective effort. One within our grasp and then one within OUR grasp.
Obvi not this easy to implement all at once, but something that we may be able to change ourselves.
Art is work, not a job. Or at least, not a typical job. So.. productivity values aren’t beneficial for artists, at least for the quality not quantity of the work.
yeh…unfortunately my options are 1.) get ANOTHER full time job on top of the 1.5 that I have now - which would result indefinitely in me just straight up quitting art cause I’ll have no time or energy left or 2.) use the “free” time I get after my day jobs to monetize my hobby to make up for the money I should be getting FROM my day jobs but that I am not because labors are less respected than public toilets.
learning how to be more efficient actually makes art more enjoyable Like i just quit drawing and just did painting instead because there's always issues with the line art i spent hours on that i would just paint over anyways. I spent way too much time on something that's just going to get painted over anyways. Now i don't do line art i just paint the whole thing and paint the details over it.
the issue with attempting to stop hustle culture is that people are addicted to success, i guess. sorta like what you've said in other videos, you worked yourself to the bone to save up x amount of money, but now you've got twice as much but don't feel like it's enough? sorta like workaholicism.
I’m so tired right now…….
I was just watching videos about hustle culture. 'O-_O'
Wait.... you work 60 hours on TH-cam/art AND you keep a day job?? I barely have the energy to go for an hour long walk every day. How do you do it!?
Sound like the perfect reason fot artist to embrace ai art for the hustle, like we did embrace digital art back then, work that pay don't serves you, outsource it to tools.
Here before 10 minutes
!!!! :>
👇
The obligation of being productive during quarantine has no connection to hustle culture. It goes without saying, people need to work, even if it happens in quarantine. People just misunderstand that in quarantine you should work more, then usual, because of slower communication and data exchange between workers in comparison to instant communication and data exchange between workers in all time face to face office job. Hustle culture however is specificly sacrificing all of your resources and time to achive the professional success in your carrier path.
By any chance have you run into conservatives complaining that people aren't working hard enough?
YAAAYY NEW CELESTIA BIDEO(
So far I sold like 5 drawings to friends and I'm fa~r from making money out of drawings for a living, but I have my hot take. I'm drawing traditionally and everyone expect digital colored drawings... So what I found out is that not many people whom consume art are interested how you made it or how much time it took unless is for some vtube model. Therefore I'm in a process of understanding how AI digitalisation works and scan my art and transform it with a few tweeks of the AI engine to suit the customer or friends need. With that I can focus of a creation of the character and the pose it's in. the AI is making the rest saving me the entire hassle of bothering with tablets screens and coloring.
What do you think, do you care if the art is partially finished by AI if it's still made by the artist? And it's done in a day two max?
If you order from amazon you expect to arrive next morning isn't it? the same case for art, now leading to artist burnouts...
Hustle culture is kinda why I’m trying to focus on creating a business based on artwork that I can mass produce (ex: stickers). This way i can make money without having to constantly work on drawing like i would with commissions. It’s not ideal but I don’t have the mental stamina that most have so I’m finding my own way to try and keep up
As it become easy and obvious, millions of people have the same idea, it's difficult to earn for living from this (or mugs, tshirts, wallarts, etsy stuff etc.). And it gets you to the point from the video - to sell anything you must produce what people want, not what you want, it's similar to commissions, but commissions gives more satisfaction as you create for a specific person, sometimes they make you a better artist as you must do something new what you would never do:)
as a side hustle that can work, but dont make it ur primary job because it does NOT pay well (even if it does pay to some degree, you're likely not gonna be able to make a living off of it anyway)
I have IRL friends in the animation major in my college that are genuinely miserable in their major because of presence of hustle culture, mixed in with the sheer competitive nature of finding any kind of art job in general. The worst part is that for pretty much them and every one else in the major, it's their *only* option. :(
As an optimist, I do want something to be done about hustle culture--and by extension the treatment of artists from all kinds of fields in the workplace as a whole--but I acknowledge that it is genuinely a key to survival for some.
To anyone that does art of any kind--and to echo the conclusion of this video--it is absolutely important to try and take breaks and take time for yourself. Your skills as an artist are absolutely NOT dictated by any kind of numbers, whether it's revenue or likes. Don't compare yourself to others, and if art is something that you truly and deeply love and want to do, then don't let yourself or anyone discourage you from wanting to pursue that passion. And if you feel burnout of any kind, try to find ways to de-stress and focus on things that *aren't* drawing.
I know all of that sounds easier said than done, and I'm not SUPER great with words, and I *also* understand that not everyone may share this same sentiment, but I hope this at least helps someone that may feel trapped in this vicious cycle.
the most important thing to learn about numbers as an artist: its not about how many you get, its all about WHO they are from. do you want high numbers if its all from trend tourists and dangerous people? i sure as heck dont!
tbh art itself is a horrible industry to get into at the moment. it doesnt pay well at all, unless youre the ~0.1% that sells shitty ""modern"" paintings to millionaires
its best to get a stable job that you can live off of and support yourself, and then indulge in your hobbies.
like... i love art. art is fun, art is cool, but i want to be able to eat something other than 2$ ramen every week
@@thebininabin4410You do know there's more to art jobs than painting right? There's clothing design, architectural design, advertising, and even web design to an extent.
I don't even have a job right now, but I'm afraid that no matter what job I get, I'll end up hating it and feeling burnt out. I want a career in art, but I'm afraid it won't be sustainable, and my other option is chemistry, but I don't want to have to sacrifice my hobbies for it.
Your gona have to make sacrifices in life. If you stop for a period of time you can always get back into it. Pluss if you get a well paying job you have extra money to invest in your art as a side gig. Look up Dave ramsys too get smart with money. When you have a handle on it you'll have options
This is what makes me hesitant to actually achieve my dreams of working in an art centric field I'm so glad you talked about it I finally feel like I'm not crazy for being so hesitant
Everyone needs to relax, even the most hard working person needs to realize that without rest - your hard work goes to waste and you become worse at it. We are not machines and your free time to do absolutely nothing is justified even more if you normally work long hours.
A lot of passionate artists who do their craft when inspiration comes to them live the most healthy life, nobody forces them, nobody is judging them, they do not feel useless for taking a break and they always come out on top of the game.
Unlike the so called "inspirational" dudes "WORK HARD, OR ELSE" time pressure and amount of work made in that timeframe is not gonna decide whether one is professional. You already are professional if you love doing your job and don't have to force yourself out of bed for it every morning.
These people are just promoting social Darwinism. They believe that only strong shall live and weak shall perish like Nazis did.
With all the recent events making it that much harder to live as an artist, I notice I took some compensery toxic habits, making me burned out. I recently decided to recenter my art process around how I feel about it, letting myself be taken over by the flow when it happens and just setting Skyrim on fire or seeing my friends when it doesn't. I also stopped posting my art online, and both those decision made me realise I am much happier when I draw now. I'm just letting myself have fun like I did when I was a kid instead of stressing myself out about losing my place in the industry in the future. I feel like the current online and irl environnement for artist is not healthy.
I got out of college more than a year ago, studying illustration. The pure focus on hustle culture gave me such burn-out that I haven't drawn since :(
I was hospitalised this year for a chronic illness I didn't know that I had and decided that I'm done with trying to do art fulltime.
I was also suffering from burnout and was starting to dislike making art.
I've gone part time with my art, changed the kind of art that I make to sell and I save my personal art for myself. Things have been so much better for me.
As someone who draws but doesn't post anything ,I'm really pissed every damn time someone suggest I become an artist as a job and that "I have to "sell my things .
I see how toxic the art market is right now nor do I care about what other people want me to draw - at all - so literally everything I draw is absolutely irrelevant because it's not trendy , polished, or fan based .
If I ever do end up making an art / Sims channel it will flop and I won't care 💪💪💪
Hell yeah!
I feel your words. Drawing is one of the only things that helps me a little bit not losing hope in life. And when I (rarely) show some of my works I almost always hear something like "oOoOoh you are sooo great! Do it as your career and make lots of money from it!!"
It's more complicated than that but others won't listen or care.
I am not willing to lose my fondness for art for stupid hustling.
@@nelsama0881totally, like making money off of art is an obligation rather than an option 😑
Bro I feel you 😭 my mum keeps proudly telling everyone and me that she's gonna make me major in fine arts and when I tell her to stop she says "but you always draw tho 🤨"
@@akaiatama oh boy, that sounds so stressful ! Best of luck getting her off your back - moms are a notoriously tenacious lot 😏
To be honest, I will be the one who is gonna cook the meat. Cause art is not a sprint race. Art is **marathon**.
Yeah, sometimes you need to take breaks too. Its not like you'll die if you go easy for a while. It'll make your art better.
Then brace yourself for the consequences, because waiting for the meat to cook gives others the chance to snatch it up before it's ready. You'll need a proper strategy to make it work. Best of luck to you.
@@fightingleaf you can poison if you wanna eliminate.
As long as we have this obsession with labor and the cult of work, not to mention capitalism, things are going to get worse, people don't have money for the arts, artists don't get payed, artists have to work more, before AI I wasn't sure how I would take my art studies to a money making place, now I'm not sure its possible, the future is grim but I have to do this, I don't even study that hard, working on a piece with the little skills I have is exhausting, doing that super fast with more detail, color, as part of a larger project where constant changes have to be made, at 16 hours a day off cuff, its demoralizing to think about but that's the career path and that needle hole is getting smaller every decade and the camel that is artists in general is expanding by the minute.
This sounds alot like Karoshi, a Japanese term that anime heavy TH-camrs bring up every now and then. It roughly translates to overworking yourself to death as your body finally gives up from the stress and lack of care. The end result is they drop dead randomly. Does your SO have to force you to take a break?
Yeah, I’ve had burnout for pretty much a year now, it sucks so much because I WANT to draw and animate but I can barely bring myself to do even the little stuff.
I always see all the artists esp in the warrior cats community, where it’s very elitist on who the map hosts choose. Same people every time. And I always compare my art to those of my friends and people I look up to and I just feel awful, because some of those people are younger or the same age as me, and I just feel miserable.
I used to be able to make multiple pieces a day, now I can barely finish one- typically they stop in a sketch phase. It saddens me but i cant bear to draw much more.
I can relate to this 🫂🌧
I have adhd, I can't do the hustle as easily as others, so I take a huge break of a hour or two to give myself some time to be a kid, I practice animation and art at the same time with filpacilp, it's difficult but works because I need to practice smooth lineart without help, but I still do have sleep issues so I play games during night and eat, I don't drink much coffee because I feel weird if I drink coffee for days and save it for when I'm exhausted or late, I still barely eat but that's because I forget to eat, please let yourself be human and take breaks
This is such a doomer video, and the solutions are easy - but most of it involves fixing your framing. Where to start?
Well, first off: Self-care, sleeping, and eating ARE productive. Working out and reading informative things ARE self-care. The conceptual divide between these things is an issue, because if you think of them as "not productive" or "not self care" well, you will ruin your mood and increase burnout chances. Plus if you end up in the hospital you are having neither a good time nor making money.
Taking short breaks while working is important. There are numerous videos about this in art and learning in general - Sycra ( th-cam.com/video/9NeYpBTtMok/w-d-xo.html ) and Ethan Becker ( th-cam.com/video/7xQ9-JZHPuQ/w-d-xo.html ) both have done so You are always learning when doing art, and if you're not, then you're not actually being productive. It's the paradox of "productivity" - if you work until you burn out, you work less than if you pace yourself.
If you are hurting your wrist, stop immediately. Pain is BAD - it means your grip or your posture is wrong. Don't draw from your wrist, use your whole arm. And grip the tool (pencil, pen, marker, brush, stylus, chisel, saw, WHATEVER) as lightly as you can. This will suck for a lot of people used to drawing in an unhealthy way, but it's important - even if you burn out and decide to stop hustling, if you mess your wrist or hands up, you will struggle with many other forms of work.
Post AS MUCH as you can. Experimental stuff, "scuffed" things, etc. You are not posting to grab those popular, fickle masses as an artist - you are posting to gather and curate a core audience. As artists, we are entertainers. It's not simply out work that people follow us for, but the interplay of _how, why, and what we work on_ using our own personality and experiences. Watch Max Miller's video about Fettuccine Alfredo to understand this, because a man became world famous selling the most basic dish everyone knew how to cook: th-cam.com/video/BivfxrSpy54/w-d-xo.html
In addition, speed and quality are not necessarily opposites. As you get better, you get faster. If you're not, then you need to go back and check some fundamentals - you may have weaknesses that you need to work on. As the foundations of your work get better, faster - you can do more elaborate pieces in less time. This is because you are making more time for yourself to do more "polishing up" work.
You do NOT have to chase trends if you don't want to. Again, you are not just gathering an audience, but you are _curating_ an audience. Many artists are well known and gained a huge boost because they _began_ trends, not because they jumped on the train someone else started rolling.
And most importantly: Draw what you like. Post it. As an artist on the internet, you are a small business owner with 1 employee - yourself. Treat your customers well, and they will remember it. Some will become regulars, some will become (to various degrees of personal/impersonal-ness) your friends. These are the people who will support you reliably, because they love what you do and don't want to see you struggle.
these are all so true! i learned these things just by brute force. i hope people see this. one more thing: dont just throw your art out into the wind. you gotta learn and understand who actually appreciates it. different people appreciate different qualities, and you can identify that in people at a glance after a while. you just KNOW. find a way to get the right people to see you.
@@hawshimagical Thank you! And yep, exactly - different fans you get are all different, will like different aspects, and with enough experience you can definitely start to see patterns in how what you make fits into others' tastes.
As someone who is trying finish an art portfolio to apply to art school, the best way of trying to make work more enjoyable is to listen to some music that you rlly like (imo). For me it helps distract me from getting too stressed out from school work and art assignments, and also gives me motivation to do more. But remember to take breaks, drink lots of water and give yourself small goals that you know you can achieve. Take small baby steps instead of taking in big tasks. But that's about it, try and just enjoy what you do atm. If everything is too much, take breaks and change the environment a bit (to keep things interesting and fresh).
gl to u. art industry is... not looking good rn. maybe by the time u get out of art school things will look up (so you can actually find a stable job)
I always make myself draw a comic page every day for my comic since I really want to see it realised and when I don't, I feel like I should be drawing. I know I should stop but I just can't stop thinking about it. It is not like I have a huge following, it is just the thought that if I do more ambitious stuff, I will have a huge following.
Legit lost sleep because felt bad about not working this vid is too real
You say that if you could go back and do it again, you would, but you don't need to do it all again in order to change your habits. You know the harm you're doing, so please, take a break. You can't suddenly stop, as you've stated, but you can make small changes. How about every 4 hours you give yourself a 15-30 minutes break? You can justify this by saying it will improve your art by letting you take care of your body and mind in order to inspire yourself. Try taking at least 1 day off per week for social connections. It's not perfect, but if you've said, it's important to stop sometimes.
TLDR: Practice what you preach
@@abigail4816 That's literally what she said she was doing haha
Burnout is the bane of my existence. I've hit many walls in my career and I know that if I keep working myself to the bone I'll end up burnt out, exhausted and antisocial. I can't stop working on my art, I'm always looking for inspiration, looking at Pinterest for reference pics and drawing while my hobbies are in the background. It's not healthy and I often force myself to take breaks and watch the shows I've been meaning to get into and go out with friends, anything to touch grass... And when I do I feel like I'm wasting time 😫.
Even while I'm currently on bed rest due to injury I'm still drawing. I'm still up late and running on energy drinks, caffeine and sugar. Remember everyone
Take. Breaks. You. Will. Be. More. Refreshed
The question I always wondered... Why bother with "getting ahead"? Why not just do enough to stay afloat? It's not like sacrificing everything (and in some cases, everyone) in your life is going to make it better. Yes, congratulations, you are now making more money than last year. But why? Why work so hard for a reward that you will never be allowed to enjoy?
Wake up babe, celestia posted ❤
hello
There is always option D. Choose a regular job and go back to doing only the art you enjoy as a hobby. Especially when you are at a point where you feel that your job as an artist is harder than other jobs you could be doing, pick one of the jobs that you think are easier and more enjoyable for you and do it full-time. Either it turns out that the non-art job actually is a better fit, that gives you less burnout and more fulfillment: Then you have found a better job and got an enjoyable hobby back.
… or it turns out that actually your job as an artist was pretty good after all and you get back to it with new found appreciation. In any case it is a net positive.
I always make myself draw a comic page every day for my comic since I really want to see it realised and when I don't, I feel like I should be drawing. I know I should stop but I just can't stop thinking about it. It is not like I have a huge following, it is just the thought that if I do more ambitious stuff, I will have a huge following.
SAME
For me, I just want to finish it. I can't stand the idea of living my whole life without ever finishing it, but I want to move on to other things.
@@djjimmaster8261 I know! I just want to see my projects realized because when I don't, I get better ideas and I have to finish the current project so I can start another.
That's my secret, I draw for fun primarily but it also feels productive because I'm building a skill I might be able make money off of in the future
(I realize my situation isn't really relevant to somebody already making money on their art)
As someone who continued to work through covid as an essential worker, I was already too burned out to pursue my artistic endeavors. 😂 Now I'm trying to take back my time, but my day job is the burnout factor of my life.
I feel like not only is it hustle culture as a whole, but internet culture and meme culture that actually kills art more so than we think. I say this because I see a lot of great art out there that often inspires my own art, but rarely does it get even a fraction of attention as memes tend to do. It's really upsetting to me personally when I see a piece I'm proud to show my followers or whatever get like so little engagement that I'm kind of surprised when it gets even 1 like at all, whereas, I post some low effort shitty meme that I made in like what two seconds for shits and giggles and it gets thousands of reblogs, comments, likes and it pisses me off that this shitty drawing I did got more attention than the piece I was proud to show people. It happens nonstop with so many talented artists and it's become just the norm to make some shitty low effort joke over a huge piece of art because people only care about something "relatable" they can show their friends and not someone's amazing art because it's so easy to put words on a picture of someone looking surprised with a "When she says she likes pineapple on pizza" or some stupid nonsense.
I'm super guilty of this sharing meme culture stuff too! I share memes with my friends almost every day, mainly because I don't feel right sharing someone's art without their permission which is understandable, but I still adhere to this joke-meme sharing because it's so built in our culture as a reality coping mechanism the same way art is.
It's just the fact that so many individual creators get more attention from their memes than the work they're most anxious to share with people, and that is what just seems just so depressing and discouraging to me.
I’m also not saying “I DeServe ATtention!” I’m just expressing how it feels to me that it feels discouraging sometimes and liking your art becomes harder if no one cares to look at it or even give you feedback at all. You can’t get everything from “self love” you need other people to tell you how to improve or give you any kind of feedback so you can learn how to get better as well as feel like your art IS taken seriously rather than just tossed aside for some meme.
A huge example of this is like the time the there was an online contest of “who could draw the most realistic dog” and second place was definitely a really well drawn traditional realistic dog, but first place was literally a crappy memey doodle. this was based off of likes which goes to show how much people love shitposting over passion and perspective.
And I just feel like how unfair for the actual artists to put so much effort into something only for it to be tossed aside by meme lords.
Yeah, 100%. And I feel like that's because of platforms, they favor such content so it manipulates people into doing it to well... survive. So in turn people just end-up preferring shitposting over passion and perspective. That's not to say I don't giggle at some shit posts, its just more to say stuff that you think about for days, even your life has been devalued to the nth degree because it favors clicks and viewer retention to place ads. Thus putting the very people the platforms need to attract users under an almost inhumane, machine like process - spitting in the face of hard-fought for labor laws of yesteryear, like a set amount of hours a day and weekends. No matter what you do, you should still have free time, even if the job is glamorous. The glorification of it is problematic. The sad part is it could be stopped if everyone stopped, but there will always be a couple grifters who would if creators "striked" per se and would win. A lose-lose all for a platform to sell ads.
I wish the internet would go back to how it was in the 2000s and early 10s. But as days go on and I reach my 40s I lament that perhaps those days were just a temporary blip :/
"Hustle culture is bad. I mean, I'm successful thanks to it and will continue doing it, but you definitely shouldn't." Videos like this always sound like someone just trying to get rid of competition. If it's that bad, then stop and do something else. Except no one does, because as much as they claim it's awful and they're suffering, they want this over a normal job.
Im so tired of family getting mad at me for not trying to work for Disney. And then they get even more angry when I point out that I'm not an animator AND disney artists can draw at least 10x faster than me. Plus I dont want to work for Disney. I do commissions when I can, but I really just strongly prefer drawing for me.
Art doesn't have to be a career. It's okay to create for just yourself.
I was ever expecting to hear anything Bungo Stray Dogs related in this, but it just goes to show how talented a creator Asigiri is. Ignoring everything else because I’m honestly too tired and burnt out to talk about it-I doubt you’ll see this, but if you do Duchess, where did you read the BSD light novels? I’ve been meaning to get my hands on them
Oof, this hits too close to home!
I'm making a webtoon called "The Dancing Flame", whose chapters are planned to be way longer than the average and thus take a lot of time (And if I went and cut them in parts just so I could release more often it would hurt the pacing of the story). I have no team, it's just me working on like 70+ pages per chapter. It only has chapter 0 and chapter 1 for now.
I love writing stories ever since I was a toddler and believe me, I love this story and characters with my life and I want to work on it and keep on making it, but I've never been a mentally stable person, so from time to time I get into depressive episodes where I can't make anything and that hurt my progress a lot. (And since my childhood dog passed away from old age I've been even worse in every aspect of my life and I'm still sad bc it's recent)
I struggled with making chapter 0 and took way longer than expected, and after I posted it I took me way too long to finally finnish chapter 1. Both before and after chapter 0 I had my friends and family constantly asking me when I was gonna update my comic and had my mom constantly tell me that if I take too long to update people are gonna lose interest.
And I know overworking yourself is dangerous, I have been through that in the past, that's why I'm taking it easy and allowing myself to heal... But I feel pressured to make content quicker. If not the comic, something to grow my audience, if not growing my audience, something to make money.
I know my worth isn't measured on how much I can work and I know that my small follower base and my loved ones support me so much and just tell me those things because they want to see me succeed, but it's hard to not feel like I'm disappointing everyone for not making progress quicker, for not having achieved something great just yet.
I know I'm not the only one in a situation like this, so if you are reading this and struggle with something similar please know that you're not alone and remember: The art you make with passion is important to the world, no matter if the algorythm doesn't like it
have you tried making promotional artwork? a common practice in japanese media is to make promotional material that incredibly mis-represents the actual story, to draw attention while also having complete freedom and not spoiling the story. 70 pages is a lot, so i think you can advertise those 2 chapters for a VERY long time. never ever rush your storytelling.
This is why my artwork will always be a hobbie side-gig. I am not making it my main source of income and will work on it at a relaxed pace.
Oh daym... I'm drawing consecutively these days to hussle then this video pops out...
if you're reading this go do some stretches 🫵‼️‼️‼️
Smile tho
Hmm, here is an interesting take. I think that the issue is making hustle culture is only looking at the short term effects and not the long term. The exact same issue that many corporations that quickly crash and fall suffer from.
What am I trying to say? Hustle culture says to "always do something productive" and as a result people take it to mean "always be working" when the must better meaning is "always do something that helps you". What is the difference? The former means no breaks because a break is "not working", the later means that you should take regular breaks because "a break helps you".
Think of it this way, you spend 2 years working constantly because "always be working", but as a result you become unable to use your hands and so are now forced to not do anything for 4 years. Now imagine that you take regular breaks and work at a reasonable pase for 6 years, you would have no real issues except inflation. Yes doing the hard work for 2 years gives more immidiate money, but taking the more measured route leads to better health.
For some reason our work isn't even recognized as real work, by the same people who do nothing but conzoooooom our stuff and seemingly would get bored to d***h without us artists and designers.
This is such a lame pity party encouraging a victim mentality. A lot of the things you cited that make you feel like you can't keep up you're doing to yourself.
Artists are the first to cry about how hard they work when your work speaks for itself. You can -see- how much someone actually studies.
As a kid who has tried to post weekly for 3 years on a mostly art based channel, it's definitely catching up to me. I'm a lot less happy with my view count, and feeling a lot more burnt out. I feel the need to actually expand my channel, rather than it being a hobby but the algorithm is killing me. I want to make videos of the games I like, but they aren't trending and so I get low views. I'm doing this for "fun" and not income though, can't imagine how hard it is to use art as a job nowadays. Goodluck out there guys:D
once i turned 20 i facing with the need to do something to not die from starvation and living further, so, since that moment i don't have any amount of energy, power, motivation, desires and whatever else to continue drawing, because my brain spents all his energy just to keep my sanity from all this pressure and challenges, i don't know how to live further, i can't work anywhere, i have a bpd and the country i live in makes it even worse (Russia), i don't know how to stay alive and having a power to continue make arts and having a free time on my life and keep my mental state in normal condition and not destroyed, drained and exhausted one. I don't have a hustle mindset, i'm the opposite of it, but the problem is, no matter what mindset i have - world affects me the same, i can think that i don't need to work hard and spent all my free time on something for self-improvement, but, world just will kill me, take away my home, take away my food, take away everything from me, i just will die as homeless person somewhere in district from cold or starvation, and i can't do anything about it and just doomed.
2:47 Naming language learning among other activities makes me have to think about my hobbies because language learning is probably a hobby of mine LEAST related to art. Now I wonder whether pastimes that prioritize learning rather than enjoyment are direct results of hustle culture.
I honestly have never understood how someone can do art for 12 hours a day. Even at my best, I was only able to maybe do 8. Nowadays, it's a great day if I can do 4. I personally feel like I've been in perpetual burnout since I graduated college in 2013.