How do your parents, friends & entourage see your art?

[The Bearded Man]

I have been wondering recently about How do your parents, friends & non-artistic entourage see your art?

I am asking because I am quite intrigued and would also like to compare with my situation.

For those whom it interests to know:

Spoiler! :

Mine are somewhat supportive in the way that they help me by buying me art-tools & letting me study animation(which is already A PRETTY BIG PLUS) but aside from that they don't like that I spend my time drawing and are far from being comprehensive when I tell them I need time to work on my stuff.

They also won't admit it but it is obvious that they doubt my art-skills as I do not spend my time making amazing photo-realistic drawings.

Another point would be that I do not want to show them too much of my art because some major points in our opinions on some stuff may differ and they are quite nosy parents so if they saw me drawing stuff that they do not approve (even for a little bit) I can be sure they will start looking at everything I do and ask me awkward questions and become hypocrite with me during discussions and all that bad stuff...

So now I'd like to hear from you. Do your parents, friends & non-artistic entourage support you, resent your art or somewhat acknowledge it? What is their opinion on it?

[RyoSoulreaper]

They think my art is pretty fuckin good.

Which I know it's not really. I've had all the warnings about an art career too. As for subject matter, I doubt they like it. It's very cartoony and Animu and they are adults/jaded as fuck.

They would be supportive if I actually pursued it though. I'm pretty sure about that. Too bad I'm not. It's a hobby and they are ok with it.

My main issue is the asking about drawing them shit. I'm not ready to do that. I still have trouble with basic shit.

[The Bearded Man]

My main issue is the asking about drawing them shit. I'm not ready to do that. I still have trouble with basic shit.

Now that I think of it, I'd feel weird drawing something for my parents too... Maybe I just don't have that kind of relationship between my parents and my passion.

Also, just practice, I used to depress so much over my "skills" but I now realize that persevering was worthwhile since I have so much fun drawing and being confident about my art now!

[mitchellbravo]

My mom's the best in terms of support. She really doesn't seem to mind if I talk at her for hours about plot points and characters, and offers some really good feedback.

As for the rest of my family and friends, only like two or three people read my actual comic. Everyone seems to enjoy my art, but they don't always have the time to sit down and immerse in the work, which is fine. They enjoy looking at a piece or two, or the bizarre scrawls that my flatmate and I plaster our apartment walls with.

I used to have a really bad habit of developing manic crushes on people who seemed really enthused about my art My gent reads my comic, but I think it's probably more because he knows it means a lot to me than because he actually likes the comic itself. Which is fine; he doesn't have to be a fan of it, but it's nice that he's familiar enough with it that I can share something comic-related with him without having to explain everything all from the beginning.

[The Bearded Man]

Which is fine; he doesn't have to be a fan of it, but it's nice that he's familiar enough with it that I can share something comic-related with him without having to explain everything all from the beginning.

I usually don't bother talk too much about comics with the people I know unless I know they're interested since a good 99% of everybody I know are not open minded about comics. You make me wonder how amazing it must be to have someone to talk to about what is for me a real passion.

[RyoSoulreaper]

My main issue is the asking about drawing them shit. I'm not ready to do that. I still have trouble with basic shit.

Now that I think of it, I'd feel weird drawing something for my parents too... Maybe I just don't have that kind of relationship between my parents and my passion.

Also, just practice, I used to depress so much over my "skills" but I now realize that persevering was worthwhile since I have so much fun drawing and being confident about my art now!

Oh I'mma practicing.

Gotta work on Limbs the most.

Mostly open hands, feet and foot wear.

[itsjustaar]

My family has acknowledged my art back when I was getting into making big comics in high school, or doing comics for the middle school newspaper. At one point we all considered me going to college, but I made the decision to back down, purely for worries that I wouldn't cut it. To this day, I'm undecided on whether or not this was good or bad.

They do think it's good, but that's about it. We're hoping on the account of bringing it to one of those shows or conventions at the mall to expose it to folks. I don't think it'll help, considering how bad the very first issues are (they need to be badly redone; I've learned a LOT since then).

The family is kinda too far apart and too much into their own thing to discuss my art now these days, which doesn't bother me.

[M-Hewitt]

The only person who supports my art would be my partner, and I, the only for her. Our friends and family like to encourage us with compliments and all, but it's mainly just words. Whenever we work on a project, they don't have any interest and will often just nod without care. I don't exactly mind too much, but it does annoy me to an extent because they are always questioning us about our art and when we don't elaborate, they get annoyed, but when we do, they change the subject or don't listen. I understand that maybe art isn't in their field of interests, but the least they could do is just to let me be and not bring up art when they have nothing else to converse with us about, haha. Reminds me of when people bring up the weather--they don't really care, they just have nothing better to say.

I do have other friends who are artists, but their interest only perks when it somehow involves them, haha.

[The Bearded Man]

The only person who supports my art would be my partner, and I, the only for her. Our friends and family like to encourage us with compliments and all, but it's mainly just words. Whenever we work on a project, they don't have any interest and will often just nod without care. I don't exactly mind too much, but it does annoy me to an extent because they are always questioning us about our art and when we don't elaborate, they get annoyed, but when we do, they change the subject or don't listen. I understand that maybe art isn't in their field of interests, but the least they could do is just to let me be and not bring up art when they have nothing else to converse with us about, haha. Reminds me of when people bring up the weather--they don't really care, they just have nothing better to say.

I do have other friends who are artists, but their interest only perks when it somehow involves them, haha.

Ah yeah, sounds like my friends. I don't blame them, they too have interests I may not be fully into but we manage to keep conversing on other topics we agree a little more on at least. Still sad because I wish I had people (aside from the Internet) in my life with which I could talk to about art, rad stuff and awesome ideas/projects...

[DragonHat]

i tend to not let my parents look at my art???

which is kinda not nice of me but i have some complex where i think they will make fun of me or i will have drawn something weird somehow and they'll be like "oh... um." when i'm really proud of it????

my non-art friends are like "WOAH YOU'RE SO GOOD HOW DO YOU DO THAT"

and i'm like "............ what are you talking about no stop you don't know that i'm not that great look at all these flaws LOOK"

[Jops]

My parents are quite supportive regarding me pursuing my hobbies, they've always let me draw and been quite happy with the idea of me doign something creative. Especially my dad, he's more open minded and keen on learnign about new things (such as comics and videogames) even if he never really got into them.
That said, they hardly ever read my comic. If they do it's just to see if my style has improved or to merely show it off a la "look what my kid can do" like proud parents sometimes do.
They clearly have other interests than comics and it's more common for us to talk about other artistic forms such as books, movies and music.

About my friends... well, first of all, i gotta say that don't actually have a stable group of friends. I'm constantly moving, changed address 7 times in the last 4 years and that includes changing city and even country at times. So, all my long-time friends are people I meet occasionally or keep in touch via internet or phone.
I know a couple who check my comic regularly and genuinely enjoy it. Sometimes they give me some feedback, tho, mostly they limit to mention when they spot soemthing in the comic that might be connected to my real-life experience.
My other friends rarely show interest in my works and illustrations, unless they intend to aks me to draw something for them (but since i normally say "no, sorry, i don't have time"... they don't bother anymore).

My ex-GF used to help me write the stories for my comics, eventually gave me some pro-tips so i could do better at writing myself.
Back when we were still a couple, she even went as far as joining the ComicGenesis community and hang around in the forums. Now, well... i actually dropped from the webcomic scene myself for a while. Anyway, since we parted on good terms, we're still in touch, she reads my new comic, checks my DA gallery and occasionally gives me some comments. Tho, i gotta say that, with her, it's far more likely we end up talking about XKCD or other comics than my own work.

[The Bearded Man]

i tend to not let my parents look at my art???

which is kinda not nice of me but i have some complex where i think they will make fun of me or i will have drawn something weird somehow and they'll be like "oh... um." when i'm really proud of it????

I tend to go crazy with some scenes when I do comics and most of the time my parents wouldn't understand why I exaggerate a pose or a movement so much. Even if I explain that it is to add more dynamism, that the exaggeration is to make it look funnier and sometime be satirical about clichés that tend to be shown as serious. I wonder if it is intentional or if they really can't get it.

Spoiler! :

My parents are quite supportive regarding me pursuing my hobbies, they've always let me draw and been quite happy with the idea of me doign something creative. Especially my dad, he's more open minded and keen on learnign about new things (such as comics and videogames) even if he never really got into them.
That said, they hardly ever read my comic. If they do it's just to see if my style has improved or to merely show it off a la "look what my kid can do" like proud parents sometimes do.
They clearly have other interests than comics and it's more common for us to talk about other artistic forms such as books, movies and music.

About my friends... well, first of all, i gotta say that don't actually have a stable group of friends. I'm constantly moving, changed address 7 times in the last 4 years and that includes changing city and even country at times. So, all my long-time friends are people I meet occasionally or keep in touch via internet or phone.
I know a couple who check my comic regularly and genuinely enjoy it. Sometimes they give me some feedback, tho, mostly they limit to mention when they spot soemthing in the comic that might be connected to my real-life experience.
My other friends rarely show interest in my works and illustrations, unless they intend to aks me to draw something for them (but since i normally say "no, sorry, i don't have time"... they don't bother anymore).

My ex-GF used to help me write the stories for my comics, eventually gave me some pro-tips so i could do better at writing myself.
Back when we were still a couple, she even went as far as joining the ComicGenesis community and hang around in the forums. Now, well... i actually dropped from the webcomic scene myself for a while. Anyway, since we parted on good terms, we're still in touch, she reads my new comic, checks my DA gallery and occasionally gives me some comments. Tho, i gotta say that, with her, it's far more likely we end up talking about XKCD or other comics than my own work.

I think you'd be the right person if I wanted to talk about something I experience allot, aside from people that are into comics, don't you sometimes feel that we're not being taken seriously? Well that's how I feel most of the time. The biggest problem it causes me is that people have a hard time understanding when I tell them I am "working" on my stuff.

[uglyfun]

I'm very lucky to have parents who support my desire to be an artist. I am more grateful and indebted to my parents than to anyone or anything else in the world. When I told my mother I definitely wanted to go to art school, she signed me up for figure drawing immediately-- so I drew my first nude figure at 14. I think that was the exact moment that I started to really improve and think about art in a new way. They encouraged me to take as many art classes as I wanted in and out of school, and didn't sweat my mediocre grades in math as long as I was maintaining a GPA good enough to get into my school of choice. They sent me to pre-college at an art school and they now pay most of my tuition so I can go to the art school of my choice. They were supportive when I took a year off to live, work, and intern across the country in California all alone. Not to mention all the sacrifices they've made in all the other areas of my life-- but speaking just in terms of how they see my art, my parents are beyond 100% supportive of what I do. I honestly think that has been crucial to my artistic development. They are seriously the best.

[Jops]

I think you'd be the right person if I wanted to talk about something I experience allot, aside from people that are into comics, don't you sometimes feel that we're not being taken seriously? Well that's how I feel most of the time. The biggest problem it causes me is that people have a hard time understanding when I tell them I am "working" on my stuff.

Not really! not about me drawing the comic, at least. I treat it as a hobby and i'm not particularly ambitious about it, so they just undertsand that i need time to dedicate to my stuff and they're fine with it. It's when someone asks me to make an illustration for them that apparently has no idea, of the time and effort required.
"But i've seen in your gallery you already hade done somethign like that!"
"Yeah, but it took me 4 full days, i was in the right mood to draw something outside my comfort zone and the pose was nothing fancy (as opposed to what you're asking)."

When i get the feeling of not being taken seriously it's when I mention that i work in the videogame industry. Non-gamers often enough give me that "waste of talent on useless crap" look, especially among older generations (that means uncles, aunts... and most of my extended family). Even my parents took some time to learn to appreciate computer games, but only after i started describing them the kinks of game design.

Oh, right, about my extended family. They do annoy me when they give me this talk about turning my comic into a business (and my mom sometimes does aswell) or, even worse, "why bother if you ain't making any money out of it" (and this is the kind of crap i get primarly from my cousins, who're all about fancy cars, fancy clothes and look rich/classy.... meh, and then they wonder why i always try to find some excuse to miss Xmas reunions).

[phoenixgem]

My family are aware of my art and randomly go into my room and see my art, but they're not that immersed in in, which is fine, they'd have the same sort of attitude if I wanted to be a lawyer, there's only so much they can do if its not in there field of work you know? They've accepted that art is the path I want to take and they don't put me down which is the best I could ask for, they know I'm not stupid, I know that the industires competeitive, what schools I should be aiming for and all that jazz.They also appriciate design, the work that goes into CGI movies, graphics in games, sleek designs of gadgets and user interfaces, isn't lost on them, epescially my dad (cause he's a nerd about technology XD) So it's all good.
My sister draws and dables in comics and design herself so there's abit of a connection there, though our attitudes and thoughts and techniques are worlds apart since shes doing this as a hobby and I'm thinking of things from a proffessional sense, my brother (whos out of the house now) I think in the furture will have more of an interest since he's in...... well i have no idea specifically XD web designs a part of it though, but I want to get my work up to standard first before I show him anything :p

My friends, they know nothing of art XD they know I want to do "art" as a career (I'm actually more into graphic design and illustration, they think more oil paintings and things) everything past that goes over their heads, they don't talk about it, whci is ok, don't really appriciate it, which can be annoying and offensive at times but hey...there are a few friends that I have in my classes that I don't hang out with outside them, but are still lovely to talk to and bouce off ideas and critique and complain as we're all in the same boat. only A few people know about the digital side to my art almost no one knows about my comic ideas since then I'd have to explain it and they'd have no idea/wouldn't care what I was talking about anyway...

Even so in a year and abit I'm *fingers crossesd* leaving home for a design school so I guess my support netwrok will change drastically then XD