This is a topic I have been sitting on for awhile, trying to come up with a way to frame this subject for “normie” people who might not understand it and for artists to relate to it in some form.

I will be speaking from a representational artist/illustrator point of view. But I am sure some points here will be relatable to artists of other genres/styles.

#1: “There Is Always Room For Improvement”

The old adage for perfectionists, artists, athletes ,etc. “There is always room for improvement.”

Always knowing that there is another higher plateau to reach, another higher peak to climb over can affect people in many different ways.

Knowing this means you are always having to push for more forever, the moment that you realize that as an artist can make you go crazy.

Finding the endless process of always needing improvement fun/taking it not too seriously can help take the sting out of the concept.

However, even if you do, it can be said that chasing something endless and unattainable is crazy and finding it fun is also…crazy.

Artists go crazy because many of them embody this concept and push themselves to continuously chase an always shifting, always unattainable, a always out of reach standard.

#2: The Struggle Of Representing Objects As 3D On a 2D Plane

There’s a struggle for representational artists regarding drawing/painting.

They have to portray to the audience/viewer the illusion of a scene with depth, a 3D scene, like a camera/viewpoint taking in a fantasy scene, on a flat 2D surface.

This portrayal has to be believable and appealing, the artist has to portray that on a flat 2D surface, something that looks like its 3D but its still ultimately actually 2D.

Representational artists can’t think in terms of “Oh, I am just drawing things on a flat surface so it’s all going to be flat, I will just think of things as flat.”

Representational artists have to think “I have to give the illusion of depth on a 2D flat plane/surface, how do I do that through my drawing.”

They can’t think of a simple circle as a flat simple circle, when they draw it, they have to think of it as a 3D sphere.

They cannot think of things as flat when they draw them but they will always end up being flat by the nature of the media/genre.

This can make them go crazy. (It kind of does for me, I can’t mindlessly create pieces with the just-think-of-everything-is-flat mindset)

#3: The Misconceptions of “Normal” People

This one I am sure, all artists can relate to.

“The computer draws everything for you!”

“So, who is going to pay you to draw things?”

“Comics and cartoons are for kids anyway.”

“You can only earn money by teaching kids art”

“Why aren’t you earning as much as ____”

etc.

etc.

The list is endless and all these feed into the mystification of art and when art becomes mystical and not understandable, it is very bad for the art scene especially depending on the type of society you live in/your country.

The society that doesn’t care for it, doesn’t support it even if art is part of their culture and because they don’t do so, the artists for that society is set up more easily to fail at many stages/levels.

Every industry has their own version of those kinds of statements for sure but none gets more flack from everyone else than the art industry.

It is maddening when the immediate people around you that know/are related to you and total strangers have misconceptions about what you do which is also your passion.

#4: The Maddening Fundamentals

Everyone wants to draw the cool things.

The dragons, the magic, the castles, the guns, the characters, the world.

Everyone wants to do this but they first must go through the Maddening Fundamentals.

Imagine wanting to draw all that but in order to draw those properly, you have to deal with the Drawing Fundamentals of…

The cube, the sphere, the cone, the pyramid, the cylinder, perspective, etc.

You have to deal with these aspects first before you can draw any of those fun stuff.

You not only have to deal with those first but you also have to master them as much as you can to draw the fun stuff properly/to the standard you want to achieve.

You might have even started drawing/art because you are not a mathematical person than you are trusted with Perspective a very logical/mathematical-esque system to learn.

Finding drawing simple forms as that fun would be really beneficial to your art journey because you will have to practice a lot of them to manipulate them as basic building blocks.

Finding drawing many spheres and cubes fun is…quite crazy, having to draw many spheres and cubes before the fun stuff can drive someone crazy.

Conclusion

There are definitely more than 4 ways artists can go crazy and I hope everyone doesn’t encounter these (or the non-artists don’t contribute to them) or more of than these 4 ways in their artistic journey.

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Keep Creating~!
JR