Today my subject is about the many great artists who simply give up and leave due to silly problems.

My first type of artist leaving is the one who leaves because of art theft. If you are a good artist, it is MORE than likely someone will claim your art as their own. Why? Because they want attention, they probably can't draw worth 2 shits, and they think your art is awesome and worth stealing. But who is it really hurting? It's not hurting you, it's not hurting your reputation, the only one who is really coming to any form of harm is the art thief. The art thief is humiliating themselves by posting things that are obviously not their own, THEY look like the jackass and idiot when they are pointed out for their thievery, THEY are the ones showing they don't have the talent to actually make their own art. Some artists argue, "Oh but it happens so much, I'm tired of it" Yeah it might get annoying, but if you have fans they will gladly report the person, and you can report them too. Honestly you should feel better that you caught a thief And even more better because someone out there thought what you had was actually good enough to be worth stealing. If you leave, THEY WIN! You take off all your art from the internet, and anyone who has it posted up claiming it there own will no longer be able to be disproven as a thief, because guess what? The art they posted will be up earlier than your own. If you took your art down to keep people from stealing it, someone out there is bound to still have a copy saved to their computer. Watermark your work, people who steal it are revealed much quicker. Unless the person stealing is selling your art and getting money for it, you really should not get so pissed over it. You posted it for free, they post it for free, you get rid of them or let someone else get rid of them.

The second reason for artists to leave: Harassment. People flaming them, telling them they suck, making fun of them on Encyclopedia Dramatica. These people WANT you to give up or make a highly erratic response that they can laugh at. So don;t give them what they want. Ignore them, report them, don't over react, and DON'T LEAVE! You would only be proving yourself to be unable to handle bullies that can't even touch you. And most likely the ones insulting you are 14 years old or younger! Yeah, they get annoying, it's up to you to take it maturely and realize you are above them. Do not give in to what they want, don't whine, don't overreact and get pissed off at them, simply laugh at them because they can't get to you. If they try to hack you, change your password, report it, etc.

Number 3: Artists leaving due to depression. Now, I can understand wanting to take a break if something bad happens, and depending on what happened, this is ok, but it shouldn't be perminant.If you have friends to support you, and you have a decent life where you can afford to live, where you have a family who doesn't beat the crap out of you, where you have friends and have been fairly protected, any of those things you should be thankful for. If you are being abused at home, don;t be afraid to call the police or child protection, because mental and physical abuse are both abuse and you can be helped if you try. But people who leave because a boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with them, flamers bothering them, a pet dying, don't leave. Take a small break, vent into your art. Don't post up a journal entry about how your whole life is ruined and over, as tempting as it may be. Think things over, take things into your art, and think logically about if it really is so horrible that you'll let yourself destroy your dreams and your life over the thing you're depressed over. Think of those who have it worse than you.

Number 4: Quitting for attention. Well there's not much I can say about this, because people who post "I'M GOING TO LEAVE FOREVER!" just to get a "No, please don;t go!!" reaction from their fans are most likely not going to change. They get the reaction, they later post an "ok, I wont leave, sorry guys" and if they don;t get a response, they probably still wont leave, they'll think people hate them for saying they leave so they... post another "I'm sorry" journal. Some people take it as far as to fake being depressed and that they'll end their life, and once they get tons of people saying "Nooo don;t do it!" they get what they want and stick around, most likely to post some weird happy crap afterwords like nothing happened. It's hard to sort out these people from the rest, but it gets easier if they do this more than one time. If it happens often, it's most likely they simply do it for the attention.


Now I know there are people who have good reasons to quit, personal reasons, injury, moderators too hard to deal with, pursuit of a different dream... But when someone quits for silly reasons that many people experience and can move on with, well... Those people need to stop and think before they post that "I'm leaving" journal.