The Truth Is...

Doesn't that title sound spectacularly dramatic???

I wanted to do a post letting people know that I've decided to take a complete internet hiatus for the month of August. It's probably going to be a bit hard at first ( I love instagram and pinterest at the end of  a long day!!), but I have been cutting down on my social media time recently, and I'm looking forward to living without the distractions.

Honestly, it's something that I really need to do. For a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons is for my art. I haven't really let on in my posts and such (not that comes right to my mind), but I have been majorly discouraged with my art lately. For awhile, actually. A slump is something you can find your way back out of, but discouragement is a hard one to grapple out off.

Part of the reasons for being discouraged are, I have majorly lost sight of what it I most love about art: Art is my outlet. I have a hard time socially. I'm shy and have a hard time letting myself really get to know people. Art lets me compensate for those times when I feel really lonely or bummed about friends that don't really talk anymore (actually, a lot of my friends have let me know that they don't care for my art style, manga/anime, but that's another story..). This year, I keep finding myself worried about NOT making it as an artist, and that's never why I started drawing in the first place. I started drawing because I was inspired to, and I loved the process. I didn't pick up a pencil thinking that I would become a household name or make enough money to let my husband quit his job (wouldn't that be nice, though!). And because I've lost sight of that, my art has felt so forced. I have produced a few things that I've been really proud of, but most of it has been because I felt I HAVE to, not because I wanted to.

I have also taken the summer off from some things, like theater, so that I could use the time to focus on creating concept art for the fifties project I want to do. And I'm proud of a lot of the things that I have drawn for those concepts. I'm just very frustrated because I'm not sure what to DO with it all now. I see artists that have their stuff put on things to sell, like stickers, and stationary, etc., and I don't have the money to get into that process. When I try to sell things, I end up losing money because it doesn't sell, or I have to undersell a project just to sell it... and again, it's not about money, but it can be very discouraging. Especially when you've become addicted to Copic markers... which I have slowly started buying refills for, but it's still been a pricey process, and when there's nothing coming in to go back into the art, it slows the process up.

So, I've decided to take a month off. To regroup. To fall in love with art again, and continue on from there. I have some Miyazaki Monday's I want to get all caught up with, and I also wrote out a 31 day drawing challenge to do for the month of August (I'll post the challenges here before my hiatus starts!). I'm excited about it, and hope that I can find my artistic "get up and go" again in the process!!!


-Stasia-Chan  '16