Since my last question was locked for being too bold and creepy, I'll just take it down a notch. If this question still counts as creepy and/or TMI, then kindly lock this thread and I'll either ask somewhere else or drop the subject matter.

Since this question is timely for "No-Fap November", and it's for motivational purposes, how does one resist the urge to get aroused when drawing mature-themed art, be it studying nudes in art class or drawing explicit content?

Be honest with your answers, but at the same time, no creepy answers, please.

I wouldn't call this creepy in any way and seems like a perfectly valid question. I'm not an artist that uploads work myself, but I have edited images I've found before while not feeling aroused. This is probably due to simply concentrating on something other than the overall theme.

I think that the best way to attain self-control would be to develop a sense of refinement when it comes to working. Don't necessarily think of explicit pieces as pornography, but a study of shape and anatomy. Most of the time an artist will be focused on individual details, so they probably aren't thinking of their work as porn, even if people go on to treat it that way.

Alternatively, there might be artists out there that make their art with a raging boner going on. Who knows? Of course this would be inappropriate in an art class, but if you're in the privacy of your own home, I don't really think it matters.

The same way bakers don't eat all the donuts, and GameStop guys don't sit there playing games all shift.

You get used to it.

drawing itself takes all my focus.

Trying to get anything out of your own porn is sorta like trying to tickle yourself

To me, at least

Every time I look at my own NSFW art all I can see are MISTAKES MISTAKES MISTAKES and it ruins all the fun.

Drawing porn is more like screaming angrily into a brick wall for 3 hours rather than anything exciting, honestly.

At one point it was exciting in a "teehee I'm drawin bad stuff and breaking taboos" way but that went away extremely fast.

wolftacos said:
Every time I look at my own NSFW art all I can see are MISTAKES MISTAKES MISTAKES

Same.

Random said:
The same way bakers don't eat all the donuts, and GameStop guys don't sit there playing games all shift.

You get used to it.

When you are doing work, you focus on doing the work.
Pretty sure there's gamestop employees who play games when they get home. Similarly even though I don't do art, I do have switch on my head that turns on when I do work on e621.

Also as for getting used to it, I would imagine once past puberty you kinda stop having akward arousals whenever you so much as think of genitals, to point where seeing penis is "yeah, that's penis".

mabit said:
Trying to get anything out of your own porn is sorta like trying to tickle yourself

To me, at least

I would imagine it's like taking nudes and then trying to fap to those. You'd have to be extremely narcissist person to have that work out.

There's nothing wrong with managing to elicit certain emotions or reactions from your own art. That's often the best stuff. But developing a wide range is also good, to be able to do that with more than just eroticness.

Maybe use the month to try focusing on other evoking other emotions. General art maybe. But even nudity isn't always just erotic. Nude characters can be showing sadness or be drawn as frightening...any emotion you can think of actually. Or even just casual_nudity where they just happen to be nude and don't think anything sexy about it.

And if you're busy channeling a different non-sexual emotion while you're drawing them, then that can help distract you from wanting to take it in an erotic direction for this month. Even a normally sexy pose can convey a completely different emotion, depending on how the artist chose to draw it. Just like if you're thinking "sexy" then everything leans toward that direction before you know it. But if you're focused on another strong emotion then all your lines and details will start to lean towards that emotion instead. Drawing is very expressive, and whatever you're feeling as you work can easily bleed through onto the page in the little details. So use that to your advantage to keep your focus on other strong experiences/ideas/emotions that are not sexual. It's good practice. And later on (after this month) you can blend them with eroticism to get more bang for your buck. Expressive porn can be really amazing stuff to get good at.

There is also technical tricks, like flipping your work upside down or holding it up to a window light with the page backwards (or if you work with digital, flipping it horizontally). All of which will interrupt how your brain got used to seeing the image, forcing your brain to reinterpret everything again. It's used to spot problems in a picture that your brain stopped noticing so you can fix them. But it also works to interrupt a train of thought about the content, and make your brain look at it on a technical level again. Which might be useful if you find you're partway through the drawing process and your brain won't stop thinking about it sexually. A way to interrupt that, catch your breath, and reboot what you're thinking about.

Also breaks. If you start feeling that way, go and get up, walk around, drink some water, do some pushups. All ways to trick your body into switching gears or to release the pent up energy in other ways. Exercise is great for that when it gets harder.

And even just switching which part of the picture you're working in. Say you're drawing breasts and after a few minutes your thoughts are wandering towards sexual. Switch to drawing the background. That coffee mug and tree are not going to be as tempting to draw in sexy ways. (unless you're into that, I mean I'm not going to judge).

But you start to get the idea. It won't be easy, but tips like this should help. And best of luck!

Answer: https://d.facdn.net/art/blitzdrachin/1510289448/1510289448.blitzdrachin_newcanvas2.png

blitzdrachin said:
Answer: https://d.facdn.net/art/blitzdrachin/1510289448/1510289448.blitzdrachin_newcanvas2.png

Thank you for posting this because it was the very exact thing I was thinking about earlier, but didn't know how to search for!

During the few figure drawing classes I took most of the models were un-appealing so it wasn't a problem I just focused on my work. Then the last model we got for our class was actually attractive and I'll admit that that was the first time I ever saw a naked woman in real life.
Initially it was very distracting and yes arousing, but when I started my drawings and focusing on the work I quickly got used to it and it was like drawing a still life. Although I do think having an attractive model helped to improve my drawings, because I wanted to recreate what I was looking at more than I would if I was drawing a chair, I was more motivated.

Later when I started drawing porn I'm usually to busy working on the drawing as a whole to be aroused really, like drawing the hands, or getting a subtle tilt to the head, sometimes I get distracted when I need to find a reference picture but this is all for fun anyway. Lastly when drawing the naughty bits I get over critical and focused on making them look good, I feel like it's the main event of the drawing and I want it to be perfect, so again I'm more distracted with the work then I am with the subject.

Seems like a lot of us are on the same page : art is complex and there's not really time to think of anything else if you're trying to do it right, so the thing is to take it more seriously, and then any horniness becomes an ignorable background event.

Personally I'd add to that that there's a time limit element IME, you have to keep the whole idea firmly fixed in your mind (this stops you from shooting yourself in the foot too badly) and part of the way to do that is to keep working constantly. So it's necessary to be quite calculated about taking breaks.

Sometimes, when I don't get too aroused from continuting drawing erotic art, I get too frustrated in drawing erotic art due to the complex anatomical structures, the learning curve I have (My skills on drawing in perspective and foreshortening are still basic), and learning from memory is pretty challenging in my case; even then, I have to depend on references.

blitzdrachin said:
Answer: https://d.facdn.net/art/blitzdrachin/1510289448/1510289448.blitzdrachin_newcanvas2.png

Also, kinda the same boat.

Mairo said:
When you are doing work, you focus on doing the work.
Pretty sure there's gamestop employees who play games when they get home. Similarly even though I don't do art, I do have switch on my head that turns on when I do work on e621.

Also as for getting used to it, I would imagine once past puberty you kinda stop having akward arousals whenever you so much as think of genitals, to point where seeing penis is "yeah, that's penis".

I would imagine it's like taking nudes and then trying to fap to those. You'd have to be extremely narcissist person to have that work out.

Oh yeah, that's what I meant by "all shift".