Compare yourself

"The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel" 

There's so much truth in this quote.

I can remember signing up to this website quite a number of years ago. I used to be among the best artists at school, but compared to most artists here... I absolutely sucked!
So I guess I did the thing that most people do when they first publish their shit on the world wide web and realize they aren't nearly as good at they thought they are; I got depressed and ragequit art for a while. Then I got back to drawing and lamented the fact that I wasn't among those insanely talented people (which, admittedly, I sometimes still do XD).

The funny thing is that I created entire scenario's in my head about those 'art idols'. About how amazing it would be that they could draw anything they want. About how people would naturally flock around them because they had skills. About how they earned big bucks by selling their art. About how good it must feel to have millions of people tell you you're awesome every single day. About how popular they must be and how easy it must be for them to make friends, find a relationship... and all that stuff. And of course about how they would never EVER answer my messages because my art sucked and they probably thought I was a loser of some sort.

It's funny how we think all of that bullshit is true, while in reality most of it isn't. 

Just like television, social media presents us with images that are only partly true. We show the highlights, but not the lows. We show the most amazing artworks we make, but not the countless of failed sketches we threw away, or the hundreds of boring practice exercises we did in order to even get to that point. We show the days that we're inspired to draw and do well, but we don't show the days that we feel depressed and want to quit art because we feel like we'll never improve.

It would be a sobering experience people did that, though.

Over time I've received some of the 'art idol' messages that I used to send my art idols years ago. It weirds me out somewhat.
To think that people send me messages they want to be like me (Believe me, you don't), that they assume I can draw anything (I wish I could), that they assume everybody likes me (You can never ever please everybody, keep that in mind) and my whole life is freaking amazing just because I can draw (Again, nope... sorry guys -- I do have fun while making art, though). And perhaps the worst of 'em; that I don't answer their messages because I think lowly of them (Seriously... you should just SEE the massive backlog my inbox has these days XD)


What I wanted to say, is to take the above quote to heart.

If you want to compare yourself to anyone, compare the current you to the former you. Because nobody knows you, your life and your personal circumstances better than you do. 
If you're doing better than before, congrats! You're on the right path. If not, then get to work and make sure that you will!