I adore your work Nadya, you're always one of my favourites on Instagram.
I can't offer much help really I don't think, as I'm still very much at the start of my lil journey, but I do 100% agree with @ShannonBiondi … chunk it up!
I chunk my time up too, and I would say, if you really want to improve your skills, do that first. In other words, say you decide on 2 hours to practice new skills … do that first before anything else that day. When the timer hits 2 hours, do the other stuff you need to do. I say that, because, at least for me, if I don't do the study first, I've found everything else will overrun and I'll end up not finding the time.
One of my personal battles for a while was trying to study every day, but I realised it wasn't possible at the moment as on a Sunday/Monday/Tuesday I work two part time jobs and so I ended up accepting on those days, I just sketch if I can and that will be good enough. So I would imagine you will have to play with it a bit, you may think, I can do a 2 hour chunk every day, but when you start doing it you realise it's not possible.
Just play with the chunks, rearranging them until they fit into your life nicely allowing you to level up, while still producing the income work. You can than start sprinkling into your feeds what you're working on, and before you know it, it will all come together
I feel like I want to add ... you said
@nadyart said :
Although I do create my own art, without taking a lot of directive, I am mainly creating the things that people like to see and purchase. This is partly why I feel stuck at a certain level. I feel I cannot develop a whole lot, since I need to keep my business running and make an income with the stuff people like to purchase.
than asked
• Do you think I could show my work to a publisher at this stage or should I make critical improvements first?
Maybe I'm confused, but I would say wait, only because, if you go to them with your current work, won't that result in you doing more of the same work that you say you want to start moving away from?