I’ve had the idea to ask this after a similar topic on the wall of unproductivity. I was wondering on what really motivates artist when you make art. I’m not a very proficient artist since I really only make animations but from my own experience I know that making art is hard, like real hard. Now i guess as you get more skilled it becomes easier, but nevertheless there’s bound to always be revisions and suggestions by fellow artist and if not just the general public about what you make. Dunno if anybody experienced the same thing but it’s a certain kind of feeling when you “think” that you’re done with a project but somebody points out that something doesn’t work.
Of course I’m always grateful for feedback and revisions on my own work, and I’m not saying I’m not open to critique, I’m just saying it takes a huge amount of time and effort to make an animation or art in general. I love all the animations that I create but each time once I’m finished I just felt mind bogglingly drained.
I used to think that what I wanted was notoriety, guess that’s a bit selfish but I wanted my animations to be used in hacks and such yknow, kept checking the credit lists of some hacks to see whether or not my name came up. And recently I got that, like some peeps would go “hey you’re the guy that made that thing and i really like it” but I didn’t feel any different, Like I go “cool, thanks” and proceed with my day as usual.
So with that being said I’ve been wondering why I make stuff, and especially about why artist make stuff, like imagine going over that tiring process over and over, there must be something very important that keeps yall going, I guess monetary gain would be one but you’d need to make a lot of “free” art first to get to a level where you’re even skilled enough to make things people would buy and for people to notice your capabilities wouldn’t you?
simply put, it’s a form of expression like many others.
since you mentioned animations, i guess we’re talking in terms of visual art, so i’d say that it depends on different things.
usually artists do it to convey their feelings, or to deliver a message, or just for the sake of making something unique by themself that can eventually be appreciated by other people as well, wether it involves monetary gains or not.
as for the process of making art, nobody starts as a master of their craft.
everyone needs to practice if they want to improve themself, regardless if you’re talented in what you’re doing or not.
Honestly, the art I do, I do because I enjoy it as a form of self-expression and as an expression of appreciation for things I like and that are meaningful to me. I guess that’s sort of a sentimental explanation, but it’s the best one I have, honestly.
Like what was said earlier, it’s a form of self-expression. And I’m of the mindset of “There isn’t anyone else in the world who can make art in the exact way I can”
For me I’ve always enjoyed just drawing and imagining characters and scenarios and putting them to paper when I could. Getting better was just a by product of just doing it for so long as well as picking up new techniques along the way.
However for me its not about payment, or commissions. Its about the enjoyment of drawing. This is why I don’t do commissions and sometimes do requests if I enjoy the idea of doing it.
It wasn’t until I was contributing to projects like Tactics/FEU/The Last Promise, Decay of the Fang, FE4 Advanced, etc. That I thought people would use my things.
Then I dropped from the community for many years. However because I enjoy spriting and drawing I never stopped that. It wasn’t until last year that I had an epiphany and decided to just release all my F2E work, because someone might need/want to use them and that they’re not doing anything for anyone just sitting on my portfolio file on my PC. Of course personal projects etc still remain there.
In my case, I wouldn’t call it a “bond” per se. It’s more like I wanna show things that I think are cool or present my thoughts and feelings on things that I can’t express through just words. It’s an alternative way of showing what kind of person I am, I guess is the best way to put it.
I won’t lie that that bit where you said you checked credits list somewhat resonated with me a bit, but that’s not really popularity for me in itself, I just sorta like attention.
I’d say obsessiveness or fun, or both. I want to have fun making and using stuff, I want others to have fun making and using stuff.
I’m a big fan of anime chess games, so working on FE hacks is a relaxing hobby for me. I’m also taking art lessons and I enjoy applying what I learn in the class in my work. If you don’t derive enjoyment or learn something useful (ideally both) then I don’t see the point to doing this, to be honest. I doubt there is much money or fame to be gained from retro pixel art. I’m more of a novice though, so take my words with a grain of salt.
I do it cause its fun and kinda relaxing just doing splices while listening to music is quite relaxing and seeing your work in others hack is quite fulfilling too
A lot of the art I do these days has a purpose in mind when I make it, whether it’s visualizing a character for one of my D&D campaigns to show the players or making something to use in my hack. But the reason I do it at all is the same reason I do those other things: I find it fun, both in the process itself of making it and in being able to show the finished product to others.
I think I need to try out other forms of art. I’ve been making exclusively battle animations for so long now that even If I think I’m getting better at it, it’s no longer “fun” the thinking step is fun at least but maybe I need to explore other artstyles or do other types of pixel art in general
In my case I started pixel art just for fun and as a new Hobby, and also because getting good at art, and being able to draw wathever I want to draw, is something that I always wanted to do.
Probably that aint the best of motivations, and I lose interest in things really fast, thats why im extremely Inconsistent and wait months without doing any Sprites.
Of course, seeing ur sprite in a Hack is really Cool, but I think that shouldnt be your main goal. For me, just seeing how much I progressed in the 2 years I focused on doing sprites, made me keep going.
Thou, of course one can grow tired of something and it happened to me, so now I gave myself a change, now im trying to improve my paper draws and im also trying digital drawing, and im having tons of fun again.
Early childhood: I need to fight picture battles. My robo dragon is the strongest. Also MegaMan OCs.
Adolescence: I enjoy improving.
Now: I get bored and feel like drawing once in a while. Limitations on this involve being unable to commit to a large project unless my mood decides to acquiesce.
It’s a struggle, but if you can’t find ways around the struggle, all that means is that you’re not cut out for making it your source of income.
Well, I am not oppose to it being one ways to make money though mainly I just wanna make it a hobby, I’m a psychology major so my career will be in that field once I’m done, but yknow I don’t want to just do psychology all day, thought if i could be motivated I could build up not just a good skill set but also be able to create cool stuff. Plus since psychology is super person involved, though it’d be nice to have something you can do alone lmao
I started making portraits to help my friend Retina out with his hack. Now it’s a hobby I like to do, and I even help out with projects and games that I’ve enjoyed.
I’d say that I sort of do? I’m certainly attached to it, and feel a sense of sort of… combined pride, affection, and responsibility, a sort of sense of “this existence is one brought into the world by my own hand”, if that makes sense.
Self-expression is something I mean a bit more… I dunno, “nebulously”, maybe, in this context? It’s not necessarily that each thing I create is a way of communicating one singular rigorously-defined idea or feeling or anything, but the process of art is a way of putting ideas and feelings and such out into the world, of translating them from raw thought into something more tangible and “real”. For me, at least, the creation of art is something that inherently exists within the same sort of realm as subjectivity, emotion, spirituality, etc. Stuff that isn’t “objective” or straightforwardly-“real”, but, rather, that pertains to the human heart and soul.
…This is even cheesier and more sentimental than my first post in this topic, haha
The advantages of it not being your job are great as long as you can get over yourself when it comes to “BUT I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING ;_;”
You can just do it when you want to and decide not to do it when you don’t want to.
That’s why I don’t have “publicly open commissions.”