So lately, my friends have been telling me what to do. Without launching into a “stop bossing me around!!!” rant, here’s where I take issue with this particular string of events:
1) They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
This one’s way too common. I have several non-artist friends who will occasionally take swings at my preference for digital art. They’ll say things like “Why don’t you paint?” or “Why are you limiting yourself?”
Okay. Back up. First off, I’ve tried painting. I was bad at it, and I didn’t like it, and no, I don’t want to practice. I’m not giving up. I just don’t like it. I don’t understand how people don’t get that. I don’t like something they enjoy, so I must be wrong and am just chickening out.
As for limiting myself, I don’t care. I enjoy what I do. Life is short. So let me enjoy it.
2) They insist that everything must be done for profit.
What? No. This one barely deserves a response. Countless friends have told me that my work is pointless because I don’t get paid for it. I actually did take commissions for a while. I hated it because of the stress involved in trying to make something perfect. I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for personal satisfaction.
3) They tailor their suggestions to fit their own desires.
This is the worst one. The tailored suggestion comes off as a sincere gesture of encouragement, but eventually degrades into a cleverly disguised request. And it’s fairly common. “Your blog should be about [insert subject here]. I’d like to read a blog about that.”
Some people also claim that my posts are too short. They want to read something over a thousand words. Well, 90% of the internet has an attention span of about twenty seconds, and every time I see TL;DR, I want to punch someone in the neck.
Who knows? Maybe these guys are secretly experts in the field. Wait…
No. They’re just being dicks. Their arguments are invalid.
