I know I can’t be alone in this; I’d love to hear from some other artists with aphantasia. Maybe we can share tips and advice about how we cope, or just commisserate with one another. I kind of feel like a bit of a fraud, you know?
I didn’t even learn about aphantasia until after I started selling art. It’s by no means my primary source of income, not at all unusual for an artist, but I definitely feel like I’ve chosen the wrong profession to get into! I also can’t imagine sounds but I play several musical instruments. It’s like I’m most interested in doing things I arguably have zero talent for.
I tried to be an artist. I spent my whole time in general education drawing and trying to get better. It was very discouraging when it felt like it took a whole year to improve even the most minor aspects. I stopped after I graduated and haven’t really tried since. I’ve been feeling an itch to try again though, I just feel like I need to relearn everything from scratch. Cause I spent all this time teaching myself from a normal person’s perspective. And yeah, I feel like I’ve fooled everyone into thinking I’m a decent artist. Thing is my hand-eye coordination is real strong. So I’d ‘trace’ art from games I played in any attempt to learn and cause it looked good people thought I was good