We would be sad if you stopped.
Why do you try to stop? I’m wondering if I could stop. I did give up 3D, but I’ve never tried to give up drawing. I have taken some long breaks… but I always knew it was out there, waiting for me to come back, and I never doubted that I would. Could I stop? I dunno.
I get that. The fact is, learning new things is really fun. There are a lot of things that, once I’ve learned them, I’m done. I once took all the classes and did all the dives to become a PADI certified SCUBA diver… and then never bothered to take the test to become certified. I’ve never dived since (partly this is because I don’t live anywhere near any good diving locations…)
But that sounds like I’m claiming to have learned all there is to know about diving, which is certainly not true. It is true that painting is a thing I don’t ever expect to learn completely… but neither is diving. Nor is any pursuit more complicated than tic-tac-toe, which I believe I have completely mastered. So it’s not the endless opportunities for learning that cause me to keep painting.
lots of reasons. When i was in grade school, teachers did not like the drawings all over the tests (or my homework). Though, it’s not like I had much to do if the rest of the class is still working. In higher grades (and still), i’ll draw instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Then I have to find the time and motivation to do what I was supposed to (and sometimes that’s things like eat and sleep).
Ever stare at something or someone because you’re memorizing details to draw later? Gets awkward if you’re caught - but it keeps happening. 
It just takes a lot of energy to say “not now, I’ll do that later” – sometimes i just don’t have that energy.
I dropped a letter grade in algebra because of the time I spent drawing in class. Today, staring at someone to memorize details isn’t required; I sneak pictures of them on my phone. Almost got caught at that at a restaurant recently. But it never occurred to me not to want to paint. Maybe it should have.
I’ve always been reluctant to consider myself an artist in that I placed the term on a pedestal and needed to be of a certain aptitude or skill. I realize what I was missing in my journey to accepting the title of ‘Artist’ was life experience. I paint because I lived a life that can be interpreted wholly or in part through my works. I have a strong desire to be exquisite with my art which is distinct from any other life pursuit. That is why I paint among other reasons 
I love letting my imagination have a medium to express itself.
I just enjoy it, experimenting with all the possible ways to add effects and letting my creativity flow. It can be quite therapeutic and a good way to chill if stressed. It does help me get better with patience I find that’s the one thing I need to improve to be able to complete more art.
I love using traditional mediums too and maybe even get my hands dirty from handling paint/charcoal tool. Something about being able to replicate traditional mediums with digital is satisfying too.
Well, I don’t really have a reason why I started drawing. Ever since I could remember, I could remember drawing, it’s just something I do. But after a certain point, it became very involved. I like to characterize my subconscious as a different person because it helps with organization in my head (I don’t have DID or anything, I hope). But yeah, he started planting weird ideas in my head, and words couldn’t really do them justice, plus I was terrible at expressing my thoughts with words, so I did the thing I was naturally good at (Hint: drawing). Some of his first ideas are pretty bad, but over time he got really good (according to me, at least). it’s been like 10 years now and I’ve managed to combine some of his best ideas into a cohesive narrative and started drawing it as a comic (very recently, I started the actual publication on November last year). It’s going very slowly because I also have other responsibilities, but he keeps nagging me to draw his story out (because he can’t draw it obviously), and that’s basically my entire motivation right now.
That is question I attempted to answer a few weeks back, through a few sketches and mini comics I drew. (I probably won’t ever post them)
To be fair though, I didn’t exactly come up with a good answer to this question; the first few times I asked. It felt like every answer I come up with, didn’t feel like, it’s an justified answer.
However, the main answer I always go back to is because I want to.
Even though that answer should be perfectly acceptable. The answer is always met with criticism.
That’s the best answer!
You really made me think about my whole existence as a whole with this question 
What if I’ll tell you that when I’m doing Art, I’m recouncilating myself with my inner me?
I’ll tell you that the most satisfying part of the day is the end of the workday, throughtout that I must endure every kind of threat; the indifference of my coworkers towards me, endless pressure and suffering, Art gives me a glimpse of that part of the day where I’m free to be anyone I want to be, to do everything that I want to, and just don’t care about the consequences, I’m the author of my own doings, and no one can scar me in the making, it’s my Utopia, my dream, and the Open Source Ecosystem just makes it infinitely better.
I paint because my creativity needs outlets. Painting also satisfies a strong need to learn. It fires up my brain.
Thanks for asking this great question, @Van. I’m enjoying everyone’s responses.
Yeah I’ve drawn as far back as I can remember and always felt that it was a part of my identity. Getting older and living through things has changed my perspective on why I draw and what but still, it remains a part of my identity.
I started drawing dinosaurs 
in kindergarten beacuse I’ve seen a kid who was very good at it and had many friends. I thought that if I will be good at drawing I will also find friends. Well it wasnt simple like that 
But it gave me something different. It fired me up when it made me understand stuff about… stufff… like dinos, their anatomy, personality, how light works, how pencil works how everything works. But… I think the other reason why I stuck to it back then was that I could use it… use it to get some attention from some adults, because I was emotionally neglected at home. 
That’s probably main story. Over the years my passions matured, evolved merged and twisted.
When I was growing up I was still very into creative stuff, drawing and painting but other creative activities materialized. I started creating stuff from wooden blocks, cardboard, Lego technic, carving, sculpting, even metal.
When I was in my teens I discovered GIMP and Blender I was in love 
.
“What? I can create stuff in a computer not restrained by physical boundaries and my budget?” My teenage budget was few coins, some garbage I found and a hotdog.
I fell in love with FLOSS back then. The idea of few people saying “I want to make stuff, let’s make them together and give other people full access to it!” Was so amazing to me…
Then I was introduced to Python scripting in GIMP and Blender. I really wanted the freedom that the ability of creating tools for creating stuff gives.
Along the way I stumbled on Krita, it was well suited for my digital painting needs so I stuck to it.
After some time working in game studios as a 3D and 2D artist and trying out making my own games prototypes, even contributing to Godot Engine that made me learn C++. I decided that I want to focus on something.
That THING turned out to be my first love - 2D art <3 I became a freelance 2D artist with ambition to become independent artist doing illustrations and comics some day. I started contributing to Krita and teaching digital painting in local school because it feels amazing to be able to extend and improve my favorite tool and help others in their artistic endeavours.
That’s my story, that I hope is just the beginning and will not end abruptly by some random meteorite hitting me in the head… although it would be an interesting ending 
EDIT
Lol I was typing on the phone in a train I didn’t know I wrote that much xD
Since the question is asking the individual then the answer will vary because we all come from different backgrounds. I’ll use myself as an example: Growing up I was not religious and dreamt of becoming a comic artist one day but that never worked out. I was a self-taught artist (still is) back in my boyhood and early teen years and had no direction. And so my passion quickly died shortly after high school. Long story short: I became a Christian, and inadvertently became a theologian. THAT changes the way I see the world and art. I realize that even if I’ll never be a great artist, as the world understands greatness, whatever skill I have can still be used for the glory of God. Instead of seeking and striving for greatness, I seek for ways I can use my skill, knowledge and wisdom for my King. THIS is what’s currently driving me to explore and learn more so that later I can bring biblical ideas to life and to help other self-taught artists in their learning.
My path as a self-taught artist has many twists and turns. There are seasons, and in one season, I didn’t do art for 1.5 decade. Afterward it was on and off. The last time I sat down to seriously explored more was back in 2019 for a few months, and then stopped just before the pandemic hit. And only got back to it again this year, 2023.
“Why do YOU do art” focuses on the personal. I believe if we change it to “Why do WE do art” we’ll get to the heart of the matter. John Calvin, a reformed theologian once said, “The tongue exists to reveal our hearts.” I believe that is the answer to the question: Why do we do art? Henry Ward Beecher once said, “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
That statement is absolutely spot on, because God, the Creator is the Master Artist. Just look all around you. Are they not beautiful? Do they not point us to Him? The answer is yes and no. But this is not a theology forum so I won’t get into the nuances of it. I’ll be brief.
Psalms 19:1-4 says,
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.”
Genesis 1:26-27 says,
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
We are God’s masterpiece. In all that He created, only we were made in His image. Just as Henry Ward Beecher said, “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
Why do we do art? We do art because our Creator is an Artist—the heavens and firmament declares His handiwork. Our Creator communicates, so much so that He is also known as “The Word” and that He gave us the Scriptures to speak to us. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to us who are artists, who speak and communicate through art. Art, like words, is a means to an end. There are many ways we human express ourselves and art is just one of the means to do that. So regardless of your personal reason, and to rephrase John Calvin’s words, “The canvas exists to reveal our hearts.”
I really came at it kind of sideways and unexpected. There was no art in the house I grew up in and my family had no real interest in art. I was never “artistically inclined”, I don’t even doodle, and although I developed an appreciation for art over the years, I never had any interest in making it.
Skip forward to the early 90’s, I went to Branson, mo for the construction boom, did drywall and concrete work for about a year, and then hooked a contract gig writing rip software for image setters. That didn’t pay real often so I started working cleaning theaters at night. My job at one of them was cleaning a full size numbered and signed bronze of Remington’s “coming through the rye”, 7 nights a week, for a little over a year. You get really familiar with something you hand clean that much and eventually I could kind of see and feel the way the piece was worked. I think that lit the art fuse in the back of my brain.
about a decade later in Lake Geneva, wi, my friend Chuck’s daughter had her first portraiture showing in the U.S… She had an english degree with an emphasis in 16th century english literature and a plum job as a researcher with the university library in Chicago. At 30 she walked away from that to study traditional portraiture in Italy and in 5 years came back home with some serious skills. The work really grabbed me and I thought, if she can pull off that kind of course change, why shouldn’t I give it a shot. So I called an art director I used to work with and he pointed me to a classmate of his that taught bronze sculpture, and at 42 I went to college, for the first time, as a fine art major with an emphasis in sculpture, because I realized I could
For me now, it’s as much about the process as the project, and it puts me in a creative space don’t seem to be able to access any other way.
Long and tedious, I know, but you asked 
Wow! That’s Great! Good for You!!
That is really interesting, @bubbastien. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
I did ask. Thank you for a very interesting answer.
Art because… Just for the fun and challenge of it. 
And I like gymnastics… If I can’t be a gymnast, why not draw them? 
I really enjoy painting even though sometimes i do PAINting, it’s the love for the art
as an autistic person, painting is a way to regulate all sensory overloads and deal with overstimulation, also is a special interest, moreover since I was 7 I do paint because I didn’t have any friends to play with due my neural condition and all my family was often busy to socialize, I found painting, reading encyclopedias and such nerdy things to deal with boring days, that’s why when I found the word comissions or royalties, I found it like “devil offensive words” hahahah, nowdays I respect those people and I support them but back in my teen days’s I struggled to make art for money, I prefered and still prefer other ways to work for a living,