Don’t mind this. I’m just ranting to get this off my chest.

I consider myself an artist. I genuinely enjoy drawing (most of the time). But over the past five years, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become increasingly obsessed with making everything look perfect. It’s gotten to the point where 90% of my work is left unfinished because I get caught up in the tiniest details. I need every sketch to match exactly what I see in my head, and when it doesn’t, I get overwhelmed and incredibly frustrated.

I know it probably sounds childish, but I feel really lost. I used to love drawing. I could sit for hours, just letting ideas flow, not caring how the final product looked. But now? I can’t do that anymore. Even if I somehow manage to finish something, I just end up feeling disappointed and discouraged when I look at it.

I completely lock myself into the specifics, and it’s slowly killing my passion. What makes it worse is that I know this mindset is a problem, but I can’t seem to stop. It’s obsessive. I once spent 13 hours on a single sketch, constantly erasing and redoing it, chasing this impossible standard of “perfect” only to end up upset and giving up.

Then I look at my friends. They just draw. They don’t care if the anatomy is off or if the lines are messy. They play with poses, colors, whatever they want. And I’m left feeling envious. I feel like I’m never good enough, and it pisses me off.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry at my friends, I’m angry at myself.

I’ve tried taking breaks. I’ve watched countless YouTube tutorials, tried all the exercises they recommend. Nothing really helps. I don’t know what to do anymore.

>>7613724 (OP)
You can't b prfectionist when drawing, because you probably need some kind of construction and that's where you have to draw dirty, erase, and explore.

Also a drawing doesn't have to be perfect to look good anyway. Many great artists have a very sketchy style.

>>7613724 (OP)
>I once spent 13 hours on a single sketch, constantly erasing and redoing it
That's probably too long for a sketch, unless it was a very big sketch. When drawing you have to pay attention to the flow. As soon as you spend too much time erasing hands or whatever over and over again, you most likely can be sure that the drawing won't really look good. It has to be fun, that's when the drawing turns out well. Erasing for hours is not fun.

The thing you should do is analyze where you have problems. What made you erase so much. Then you just have to concentrate on that particular thing and practice it alone, until you get better at it.

>>7613726
I usually use references so that I have an idea of what pose I want and how the anatomy would look. I wonder if I get hung up on the shapes and how mine look different when I put them on paper. I know its impossible to make a 1x1 copy and its not really what I want either but I just get so incredibly compulsive about it.
When I dont use references, I struggle getting what I’m visualizing in my head on the paper.

>>7613727
Sometimes the anatomy will look okay, but I just feel discouraged because it’s not as good as I imagine it in my head. I’ve completely lost my flow and I’m not sure how I can get it back.

>>7613732
>>7613733
Sounds to me like you lack in some foundations like perspective and construction. If you really understand perspective and have a solid construction plan, then you don't really need references. You just use references to make it look better then, but you don't really need them.

Relying on references can be very tedious and frustrating. I experienced this myself, that's why I tried to rely on them less by studying perspective and construction more. Then it's just a matter of applying your anatomy and artstyle knowledge to it, which I already studied since childhood.

I hate to say this but being a perfectionist isn't good enough

>>7613736
Do you have any recommendations in getting better at perspective and construction?

>>7613778
Youtube has some good tutorials and artists. I often just stumbled upon random perspective videos which helped me when searching for perspective tutorials, or searched for stuff specifically wich caught my interest, like how to draw 90 degree angles in perspective for example, or how to figure out the vanishing point of tilted planes in perspective, etc. Otherwise the Loomis books, Steve Robertson if you want to go more into detail, etc. Kim Jung Gi also has some interesting videos. It depends on what you want to draw.