At 9/16/23 02:06 PM, Tenebrare wrote: Been thinking about a notion I have seen posted here a few times. "I want more than what i got". A small story time. Or rather something that I have been told "what you say is a lie and you do not believe in it as no one would agree to it."
Now one of my slogans has been, "if there is even one person that smiles seeing my doodles, then me sharing it has not been in vain". I have been challenged for that statement more than i can count. "You cannot tell me and claim that you are genuinely happy, when you get a singular like!"
... but i do. Nowadays i do. There was a time, when I wanted also 100, 1000, 10 000 and what-not-likes-and-followers, but years back I met a person, who was suicidal. She told she keeps a written diary to distract herself from dark thoughts. In there she pretends to be someone else, on a journey and she writes this story as a character. And one of those dark days she had by accident run across one of my doodles. Lets be said it was a doodle with 0 notes, shares, likes, anything.
There was many coincidences - me making the doodle, me posting the doodle in time, me posting the doodle to that place (not posted it anywhere else) and her finding it at right time.
She wrote to me how my doodle came just in time to prevent her hurting self on that day as the doodle was like 100% correct illustration to her story. I do not want to share too many details of what was the story, or what was the doodle or the character for obvious reasons.
Another time my 'obnoxious and irrelevant' doodle reached someone (a civilian) , who had just landed on front lines of a war and it was their favorite character.
Those stories to me are more important than whatever 1000s of notes I got for some other work in same platform. I had created something that at least in given moment offered something to someone else. I do not even know if those people are alive today. I hope they are.
Those are also stories why i tell myself to do what I (me, myself and I) love and then share it in hope that those works reach the right people in right time. I post my silly doodles in hope that they make someone smile - that one right person smile. It does not matter if they tell me that (it be great if they do), I just hope there is someone. who smirks thinking, "oh that's awesome!" and presses 'save as'.
It was not easy road for me to get there, but to be able to impact even one person and make them smile is an honor. Not statistic.
I also see people sometimes post in threads like these, or elsewhere in socials how their friends and family liking their work is 'irrelevant'. I think it is actually good to see best friend drop off their chair laughing, seeing my stupid drawing... why are my friends worse than random people online. I'd smack them cross their head NOT liking my doodles!
Here is a perspective that I have on this if I may.
I take pride in being an artist. Not in a way that is in a over-cocky or sinful in the eyes of some, but rather knowing that I have worked to actually get the skills to be proud of being one and continuing to hone those skills. There's a level of ego that has to be dropped however and realize that my feelings can not get in the way of the work itself for the most part. The only line that line ever gets crossed when it comes to the work is if it's content involves something deeply personal from my experiences as a human being, but as for the other art that I make as far as I am concerned I cannot control the reactions of how other people see my art on the ethos.
The way I look at it, people are either going to like or hate the art for one reason or another. If they like the work, great! If they do not, then I can't control how they feel about why they do not like it. The job behind the art is to see how people click to it and that is ultimately the reason why we make things. That's regardless of whether or not is something of Fan-Art, Original Work, Doodles, Refined or Completed pieces.
If someone offers critique on a piece that is a work in progress, that is another story going into the technical side of things. That is ultimately where the respect matters most in this field. You want to help one another learn, but you also want to do so in a way that helps them grow and whether or not they take the feedback is on them. I've built my mentality around that, but that goes into a whole other ball game.
In your case, I would say that your work is doing what it should be doing, but in a way it's also helped someone keep going which is a humbling experience that is rewarding in of itself. And that should matter more than the people who dare indifferent to the work you make regardless of who they are.