I'm jealous of my friend's art?

Without seeing both pieces of art, I think it’s hard for us to say if you’re overreacting or not. Is there any chance that, even though she frequents the website less than you do, that she interacts with people to a higher degree? If she’s more outgoing there than you are, despite how little she visits, that could also have something to do with it. It could also also be that she posted her picture sooner than you posted yours, so by the time people saw your drawing, they may have had a kind of “been there, done that” mentality. Really no way to know.

There’s also the possibility that she’s just slightly better than you are at this point, but that isn’t a bad thing, and she is right. The more you practice, the better you get. Everyone has varying levels of talent in all things. It’s not important which of you got more likes. It matters that you love drawing and continue to do it for that reason alone. If you really want us to critique the images, though, we would need to see them.

@DrasticDreamer Okay, here is her piece: http://maikoforev5674.tumblr.com/post/100702609875/just-a-little-grey-toned-sucy-sketch#notes And here is mine: http://lonelyjewishboyonchristmas.tumblr.com/post/101894768569/i-watched-little-witch-academia-and-i-fell-in-love And I guess that’s true. She is more outgoing than me, I’m pretty shy and I’m a little scared of talking to people 0.0 Her picture was like, a day before mine. Hers has 150 notes now and mine has 7. And yeah, I still love to draw, it just hurts to see that people like others more than mine.

It seems to me it is more about 1st come 1st serve and that by the time you posted your drawing it was passe, already seen and commented on, especially since it is the same character, only in color.
I think you are over reacting, more than likely others may have assumed you were copying her. It’s just one of those things, don’t take it personally and ruin your friendship over petty competitiveness. If it makes you feel any better I think your drawing is the better of the two, not just because it is in color but the clarity and quality is neater and less sloppy than the other.

@Coloma That’s true. I’m not gonna ruin our relationship, she’s still really nice and awesome, but now it’s just hard not to compare myself to her. And thank you!!!

Feelings are always “valid” in the sense that they are physical feelings and reactions that exist, and denying them or invalidating them just makes the effect worse. And, they often aren’t really about anything other than something in yourself, for you to listen to and process. I would just keep practicing drawing and developing my own style, and listen to my feelings and notice that they aren’t really about my friend.

In this case it may also just boil down to stylistic preference for people. I don’t know anything about the anime character, but she seems to be somewhat gloomy. Because of that, that seems to be the tone your friend drew the character in. She used darker colors to convey the overall mood of the character. Which doesn’t mean it’s better, by any means, just different.

I’d draw a line under it if I were you.

I believe you’re drawing the wrong lessons from this incident. I’m not competent to judge either her talent or yours. The one thing I will say is that I think her rendering is more likely to appeal to the emotions. The fact that there are more comments regarding her work, might merely be a reflection of the fact that she rarely appears on the site and thus reaps the benefits associated with something “new”. But all of this is irrelevant. You must come to realize (and the sooner the better) that in any endeavor there are going to be people more capable or to be precise, more popular than yourself. Whether or not your friend is “better” than you is not for me to say. Your rendering of that character is very good, but the face is absolutely expressionless. This in itself is to me quite remarkable, and a talent unto itself. It’s good that you recognize your jealousy of your friend. Try to get past it and appreciate her good nature and sensible advice. She sounds like a keeper. And work on that shy thing. Join up with her and put yourself out there.

Not going to sugar coat this…

Your friend’s drawing shows much more self expression and technique than yours. Her choice of medium, shading and perspective gives her piece a unique/interesting look on the character. While yours looks more like something that would be in a coloring book.

Seems like you need to work a bit more on your shading and light source perspective. For instance, the hat on your character, the right side seems to tuck down and quickly swoop behind the head while the left side flips upwards and outwards, yet the colors are exactly the same on both sides. In order to give the hat more depth, try making the right side darker than the left size.

Also, on your piece the character’s left arm has some darkness/shadowing on the top portion of the arm, while the right arm shows darkness/shadow on the under side. Why is this? Where is the light source suppose to be coming from? etc. These are things you should be thinking about when planning perspective and shading.

Here is a video that shows some shading techniques for pencil, but you can use this method similarly across difference mediums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc_QdFmM9Zo

Keep up the good work, don’t let my critique get you down, use it as a way to improve your skills. Also, you will probably secretly build a grudge and try to compete against your friend in your mind (perfectly normal thing to do as an artist, lol), just try not to let it affect your friendship.

@Silence04‘s got the right idea. Which drawing do you like better, @Misspegasister28 ??

Just because you drew the same character, doesn’t mean you’ve done the same quality of work. Just because you use more colors, doesn’t make your art piece better or equal in quality to another with less color. Many circumstances to consider such as your timing. These things have an impact.. but others have already mentioned this.

Anyway, I think your question title was accurate: You’re jealous of her art, not her popularity. You mentioned how her piece got more attention than yours but that was simply an effect of the quality of work. I don’t think you would like your piece any more or less if you had more “notes”... hmm.. actually, there may be another way to examine that.. You’re probably VERY interested in figuring out what the majority of the public wants to see in a piece of art. You’re probably interested in creating whatever might gain the popular vote.

Nothing wrong with that but I might suggest a more scientific approach: Trial and error.

Make a new drawing of a different character. Don’t bother telling your friend about it. Make 3 or 4 of them, actually. But make sure each has the same subject and pose but with different styles/coloring/techniques. Post them all and ask the public on the forum which style they like best. This will give you some idea of which direction the masses would love for you to go.

I would call this “crowd pleasing” and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just one direction you could approach your continuing art education. Another way to approach art is to simply do what you love and wait patiently, possibly forever, for an audience who is looking for just your unique spin on things.

Many an artist has starved following either path.

Art is always about preference, no right or wrong only dependent on individual perception.
I like color and clarity, so IMO the colored piece is more eye catching and cleanly drawn.

It is no use feeling jealous. Your friend is talented but you gave her the idea. Don’t get discouraged. Art isn’t about numbers.

Jealousy is a negative emotion which will do more damage to you than anything you could (legally) do to the focus of your jealousy.
Plus, it is sort of the sign of loser, whether that comment actually applies to you or not.
Get over it, and see what you can learn from it in order to improve yourself.

No offense, but I kinda think your friend’s art is better. I mean, your art it good too, waaaaaaaay better that MY art, I suck at art. Your friend’s art has a bit more detail than yours, with the shading, shining, and fading. It doesn’t matter if its colored or not, but both are really good, they look like the real Sucy. As some people said, this isn’t about the numbers you get. It matters when it comes to effort, and confidence. You can get better with practice, and remember, have confidence in yourself, and you will get more likes or whatever its called. Remember, shade and fade!! Oh and don’t forget to shine!!!

Her art is a little better, there’s nothing wrong with that practice makes perfect, I had a friend I used to compete with who was the better singer when I was little and everyone always liked her better, I was so jealous it made me so mad, because it was almost like she is natural and I always had to try so hard, but it pushed me to do so much better now I am older and I took voice classes and everything I really improved she pursued a different path in real estate because it was my passion I am not a singer in a group and our band is pretty popular :) so it is all about passion and drive, (p.s she can still sing better than me ;) ) but it’s ok! because I am doing what i want to do now! Someone will always be better than you but as long as you keep doing what you love and use them to improve yourself you will find your way!

By the way I use tumblr a lot, it’s possible she does a lot of things in the small amount of times she spends there that just gives her more followers than you anyway. She might have different humor to you, or be friendlier or do art requests for people, it could be anything, but her community would be more active than your community it possibly might not have anything to do with your actual art at all, just the content of your tumblrs and the types of people who follow you.