20 Feb 2019, 21:10

I want to get my main question out of the way. I haven't been drawing as much as I should so I'm rusty and not where I want to be skill-wise. Over the past week I've been talking with my art teachers and peers asking how to improve in drawing. I came up with the fact that no matter how hard I look, Its just about thhe self-discipline to draw and challenge myself everyday. But I still feel lost. the back of my mind keeps asking for direction or maybe even "permission" or "certification" on what to draw in order to truly grow my skills. I don't want to get stuck drawing the same crap, and I don't want to get trapped in chasing the "magic pill" for art which doesn't exist. So I want to ask if it ever gets easier, or does it just take the self-discipline to challenge and dedicate to see improvement? Also, how do you see your succesess and failures in self-discipline and what helps you stay on top of improvement?

What I've personally found:
First, @Will-Terry's video "How to Improve Your Art Skills Faster" had excelent points. the main ones I noted as...

  • Commit to draw everyday in Sketchbook
  • Challenge yourself "Mix it Up"
  • Copy others work
  • Know your Mentors (Heroes)

From experience, When I commit myself to draw I can learn something. When ever I try to draw from imagination though and don't get it right, I get incredibly frustrated. I tell myself I need to practice more anatomy when I do figures, or I have horrible design when creating forms for vehicles, or I have horrible environments.

I guess my real question is if the frustration gets easier to cope with or is the key to just stay strong and keep going to see improvment overtime?

Noah Bradley in his essay on how he became an artist mentioned how he became an incredible environment painter despite his hate for environments because he made effort to practice creating environments everyday. In his career he is one of the best environment painters for Magic cards. So CONSISTENT PRACTICE has a large part to do with improvement. So another question is if the direction of what I practice should be managed often or should I just draw what ever I want and challenge myself when I notice something wrong?

Thanks for reading this far if you did, and I'm excited for feed back. Also, It's been a while. Year's been hectic, but I'm in a better place now to create more again.