My Brother the lost artist

Robolaxen of goatbake

My brother is an amazing artist, but in the last 5 years he has gone from doing artwork 24/7 to doing zero artwork. I try and show him amazing artwork of all forms, from anime to sand castles, but i cant seem to spark an interest in him. Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to get someone back into artwork?

Afty

You can't force someone into something that they don't want to do, they'll just resist more strongly and may end up resenting you for it. Have you spoken to him about why he isn't really into it anymore?

RadicalTurnip

Yeah, a head-on conversation (try very hard to *not* make it a confrontation) about it is your best bet...not trying to manipulate him or con him into doing more art.

Bartholamue

"Wow, you were a really good artist. Why aren't you doing any more?"

Enc

You could commission him to make something for you while having this conversation, I suppose.

Ultimately, though, there really isnt anything you can do to force him to draw again. If he stopped, he probably stopped for a reason he has to work out on his own. Or not.

Wassermelone

Its a difficult situation.

The right thing could be asking him why he isn't doing anything.

The wrong thing could be asking him why he isn't doing anything and adding to the guilt of not doing anything which causes them get depressed... and not doing anything.

darkmayo

What is he doing instead of art?

rts

Is he supposed to be a professional artist? Or just a hobbyist? How serious is this problem?

NotYou

Robolaxen of goatbake wrote:

My brother is an amazing artist, but in the last 5 years he has gone from doing artwork 24/7 to doing zero artwork. I try and show him amazing artwork of all forms, from anime to sand castles, but i cant seem to spark an interest in him. Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to get someone back into artwork?

I did the same thing. Am doing the same thing. My motivation is just gone. I really try to get it going again. I'm still excited looking at art, but I can't seem to bring myself to create any. It's a bit depressing. And I'm not a hobbyist either, I worked professionally.

I will tell you this, there is no way my brother could do anything to make me get into it again like I used to be. I do expect to jump back into it soon, but I've been thinking that for a while.

Just let your brother figure it out (although there's no harm in telling him you miss seeing him making art)

Smasher

The question is why hasn't he done much/any artwork lately.

Did he have a self-driven passion before? If not he may have gotten burned out from external pressure.

Is he doing something(s) else besides art, or is he doing nothing in particular? If the former, there's probably nothing to worry about and his interests have just shifted. If the latter, he may be suffering from some sort of depression. Have there been circumstances in his life that may have triggered depression, or has there been a history of it in your family?

amateurhour

Robo, do you have any experience with web design?

My wife is a FAR more talented writer and artist than I am, but she wasn't really pursuing it, even as a hobby, anymore.

As a birthday gift about two years ago, I got her a registered domain name, and set her up with a blog/art portfolio wordpress theme and had everything ready to go and gave it to her on her birthday. Maybe even do it in secret, plug in a few stat trackers, and post some of the art in various reddit style places and let a few hundred people click on the site to build some hits as an added excitement that people are looking at his art.

Now she's been doing a twice weekly webcomic with a solid update schedule for almost a year and she's got a few fans and even sold a few prints online and she LOVES it.

I mean best case scenario he sees that people want to see his art and it motivates him, worst case scenario, you're out the cost of a domain name or time to set up a proper tumblr blog.

Robolaxen of goatbake

Thank you everyone for the replies, i am currently trying to get him to read PA comics and watch PATV to maybe spur some life into his artistic veins. the last 2 years he has just been working his balls off and just lost his passion for the arts, i think i am just going to keep commenting on how much i enjoy his artwork and support him if he starts it back up. thanks again for the responses on my first ever forum post!

AlyceInWonderland

As an artist going through this same phase, keep sending him inspiration, but it's ultimately up to him to get his ass in gear. I'm pretty sure all artists go through a "I don't want to fucking work on ANYTHING" phase every couple of years. At least every artist I've known, including me. He'll bounce back eventually.