It genuinely makes me so sad that there are artists and writers out there who view other creatives as competition and not fellow freaks in pursuit of telling stories about their blorbos
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
I love creatives. Only people I consider to be "competition" are those damn prompters. Artist actually enjoy & care about art, prompters steal from artists and mostly enter the field as they see art as a side hustle which is just insulting. Also often not disclosing that they didn't draw it.
Maybe because there are only so many gigs & commissions available at any given time?...& that for every creative pro who lands one, there are several who could've gotten that commission/job & did not? We may not like it but this is a zero-sum game. Always has been.
I don't understand fanfic writers with this mindset. Almost NONE of us are making money. What are we in "competition" for? Internet clout? Validation? I know that's important to some people, but it's such a fleeting, transient thing. Better to keep wiring what you love and ignore that.
I see other creatives as kindred spirits before even knowing them. Like yes, we want to polish our work to the point where it can stand in the market alongside that of others, but just by being fellow creatives we understand each other in important ways, I don't wanna squander that connection.
I know this sounds dumb, but my low self-esteem was finally useful. 😂 I can't compete with people in pure skill, so I'll find another way to be noticed. (Finding unique ways to showcase my projects) Now I can admire all the people I feel are better than me because I left my ego at the door. 😅
My whole art life has been not bending to people who said this was the wrong career paths for me but it makes me happy & it's the only thing I'm decent at so... 😅
That’s something I never liked in art school, “you’re all friends but remember you’re also competitors in the industry!”
Like idk, doesn’t seem like real advice even, haven’t ever met someone gunning for the same job as me specifically anyways. Probably better to just make friends
I have plenty of story to tell, but competition is something that fuels my drive to create art in the first place. it's not personal and out of spite, it's just what inspires me.
I'm industry but I do love a degree of friendly competition where we all chase each other beyond the horizon building on each other in a constant state of improvement. It shouldn't be a "one has to fail" situation, tho
I keep thinking about this!! I think losing confidence has something to do with it for me! Big life changes have made me super lose confidence in my abilities and make me feel that way. I want to get back to a time when confidence didn't mean anything and I made shit anyway. ily
I have noticed this ever since it got normalized that in order to be more popular than someone else you need to show that they are problematic in some way to get them cancelled. Including subjecting people from other countries to USA morals.
I think part of the problem is being raised in a world where *everything* is a competition. From a very young age it was basically ingrained in me that the mentality (at least where I live) is work harder than everyone else to succeed.
The mentality breeds a lot of unhealthy habits.
As a wannabe writer, worldbuilder, and game dev, I've fallen for this trap HARD. My brain has me utterly convinced that art, no matter the medium, IS a competition, and that my work NEEDS to be as close to perfection as possible to have any chance to "win" and see any sort of success whatsoever. 1/
"After all," my brain says, "only so many people may be interested in your dumb, niche, weird ideas, and they only have so many hours in their days and dollars in their wallets. Why would they waste those on your absolute rancid garbage when there's SO MUCH ELSE out there that's SO MUCH BETTER?!" 2/
It's a hard one to refute; there's some actual logic there.
"Screw metrics," you may say, "just make it anyways! Art for art's sake!"
I wish I could, but I can't. The work hardly feels worth it at times if it just rots on my system, and seeing what I put out get ignored makes me deeply sad. 3/
And what's worst is that, instead of inspiring me to get better, me seeing my skills as any less than perfect does the opposite: demotivates me, makes me feel hopeless and apathetic, and makes me deeply ashamed to even mention my ideas, much less start real work on them. So I'm basically trapped… 4/
Yeah, like I'm not here for a race, I just like doing art for the sake of art, I do not care about numbers and I like sharing with other artists and be friends.
They probably studied an art degree
Nothing will make you dislike other artists faster than being forced to study a course written by academics who Do Not Understand Art while being trapped together for 3 to 4 years
I didn't make a single friend there, tho a handful of people have my undying respect
Love collabs and friendships with other artists! Be eachother’s inspiration and collect your friends’ art not the competition. The world needs all of us. And f*** Adobe.
As someone who was once a graphic design major, I can confirm Adobe is the real enemy! (I currently use Affinity Designer 2 for YouTube thumbnail work.)
Comments
Like idk, doesn’t seem like real advice even, haven’t ever met someone gunning for the same job as me specifically anyways. Probably better to just make friends
The mentality breeds a lot of unhealthy habits.
"Screw metrics," you may say, "just make it anyways! Art for art's sake!"
I wish I could, but I can't. The work hardly feels worth it at times if it just rots on my system, and seeing what I put out get ignored makes me deeply sad. 3/
Yeah, like I'm not here for a race, I just like doing art for the sake of art, I do not care about numbers and I like sharing with other artists and be friends.
Nothing will make you dislike other artists faster than being forced to study a course written by academics who Do Not Understand Art while being trapped together for 3 to 4 years
I didn't make a single friend there, tho a handful of people have my undying respect
But I absolutely remember the atmosphere while studying
I was so bummed, I thought I'd finally be amongst my people!!
And the battle was glorious.
“Don’t fight each other. Fight Adobe”