Finding art motivation

The speaker, Vextasy, addresses the question of how to stay motivated to draw. They explain that if they love something and enjoy the process, they don't need motivation to do it. They give examples of their love for drawing and dancing, which they do without needing to be convinced. They emphasize that if someone can't find motivation, it may be because they don't enjoy the process or lack focus. They suggest trying different subject matters and mediums in art to find what interests them. They also mention that their interest in drawing humans developed over time. They conclude by saying that motivation comes from within and if someone can't find it, they may need to consider other hobbies or interests. Alright, so hey again, my name is Vextasy, that's X to C with a V, and I am recording this because it's another frequently asked question I get quite often, which is how do I stay motivated or inspired to draw? And rather than repeat the answer to this question a hundred times over, I've decided I'm just going to record. So honestly this will be a pretty short recording because really the answer for me is quite simple. If I love to do something and I love the process of doing it, then no one really has to twist my arm to in fact do this thing that I love to do. Sometimes when people ask me this question, and especially when they have a ton of rebuttals as to why they somehow still can't find the motivation, at that point there's not really a lot I can do to give them any further of an answer because, you know, if it happens to be something that has to do with maybe just not being able to maintain focus, then I'm just not the person to have an answer for that because that's not my reality. So the examples I typically give people are, I love dancing, you don't have to twist my arm to do it. I love drawing, you don't have to twist my arm to do it. I love drawing so much that when I first started out drawing, I could easily draw for 12, 13, 14 plus hours, and sometimes even longer than that. My days would honestly look like wake up. I didn't have any other job at the time or any other responsibilities because I started drawing digitally when I was like 18, 17 or 18, something like that. So pretty much I would wake up and immediately hop online, check my socials, blah blah blah, and then I would start drawing and I would just draw all day long. And it wasn't something that was not fun for me. I really don't know how else to explain it than that. Again, I love drawing. Now an example of something that, you know, in theory, I would love to learn how to do is play the violin, right? I love the violin, I love the instrument. I think it's super cool that people can play the violin so well, but when it comes to the process and learning it, I actually don't find any enjoyment in that process. So I simply decided, well, then it's just not for me. And I feel like people are super dead set on insisting that just because they want to do something, it means they should be able to do it. And that's not how the world works. I, you know, want to be able to speak, you know, 17 different languages. But do I have the time? Do I have the patience? Do I have the interest? Do I have the focus? Do I have the drive for that? No. But I do have the drive, patience, to an extent, and love for art to be able to do that. So, you know, it's a possibility that maybe you need to approach art differently. I can 100% say that if I was drawing things I didn't enjoy, then in fact, I would not enjoy drawing. I'm not a portrait baby artist. I don't draw portraits of people's babies. I don't draw portraits of people's wedding moments. I don't draw mountain ranges with nothing else going on. There are so many different avenues for art that maybe you need to find the subject matter that actually interests you. There are also multiple different mediums for art. The medium could, in fact, be what is frustrating you. If you find that you aren't succeeding with pencil and paper, maybe try watercolor. Maybe try crayons. Maybe buy the cheapest tablet you can find and try to start getting into digital. Or maybe, vice versa, you don't like digital and you need to go back to your roots and just pick up the pencil again and you can maybe revisit digital art later. There is so many different paths when it comes to art that you can try a bunch of different things to see if you can connect with it and find that love for it. In that same vein of subject matter, when I first started drawing, I hated drawing humans. I absolutely had zero interest. I found them very difficult, very frustrating, and I just didn't want to do it. Most of my beginnings were drawing furries and typically drawing femme-presenting furries. Even now, that is my mainstay, but with time and finding more comfort in the things that I like to draw, I found that I could translate the skills that I developed over the time of doing what I loved into, you know, now I do draw more humans and now I do draw more masked characters on occasion. Not very often, but on occasion, it's far less mentally taxing for me to do so. So there's just a lot of things that could be determining factors for you and your personal situation. But again, at the end of the day, if you ask me, how do I stay motivated, I love drawing. I take a sketchbook with me on the train, I take a sketchbook with me on planes. If I'm at a family gathering and the moment I start wanting to tune out, I will pull out a piece of paper and start drawing. It's just not something that's any less of second nature for me to enjoy the way people enjoy watching TV and can do that for hours a day, or they enjoy playing video games and they can do that for hours a day. I actually don't share that deep love of watching TV endlessly, and that's not something I am super motivated or even interested in doing. I would rather be drawing, whereas there are people who would rather be watching TV or playing video games than drawing. So you're going to have to, at the end of the day, figure that out for yourself. No one can make you be motivated to do something. Motivation is something that gets you going. Discipline is something that keeps you going. But if you can't find even the motivation at the start, then maybe it's just something you keep as a hobby or you do on occasion. Maybe there is something else that is your calling. I hope you find it, but yeah, that's this segment.