Create something even if it’s poop!

Most creative people I know suffer for low self-esteem disorder. It’s a serious condition that can ruin your life if you’ll let it. I know how crippling it can be from my own personal experience. Basically, each time I look at my Instagram feed I feel overwhelmed.

It’s October the holy grail of all twelve months for most of the illustrators on this planet, in other words, Inktober. It was started by Jake Parker some time ago, I won’t go into details but if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about head on here.

This is my second Inktober during my Illustrator-ish career and I wanted to be the part of the Inktober community. I’ve joined the official Inktober Group on Facebook. And immediately I was blown away by some of the illustrations out there. My initial thought was – gosh, my work is crap and I might as well give up and go home. And I know I wasn’t the only one that felt this way. This is the dark side of social media where, even If you are aware of the issue, you can’t help but value your work based on the number of likes it gets. So it takes guts to put your work out there despite that.

I’m wiser now but there was the time when the low self-esteem was stopping me from doing anything… Hahaha, who am I kidding, it still gets to me on a daily basis 😉. Anyway, it can be extremely discouraging especially when you’re just starting your creative journey. But everyone needs to start somewhere, and doing nothing is your worst enemy.

Do something today even if it’s crap.

Artwork by Stefan Kunz

It takes work and time to get better at things, it’s simple as that. So here are a few words of advice from present me to me from a few moments ago ;). I hope you’ll find value in them too.

If you’re creating art for the likes, you are doing it for all the wrong reasons. The number of likes under your post doesn’t define your value as an artist. If you want people to like you and respect you, be kind to them, be helpful and respectful. If you want to make art – make art and don’t think about likes or shares. Make art because you like the process of creation. Create because it makes you happy or it helps you to express things that you couldn’t express in any other way.

This is the only way I know that can form you as an artist and help you to find your own unique style and eventually build a following that appreciates your work. Don’t compare your work to others, compare it to your own work from the past, if your newest illustration is better than your previous one – you’re doing a good job and you just need to stick with it 🙂

Cheers!
Agata