Do master studies of Studio Ghibli’s backgrounds or scenes! Copying masters is a great way to learn, and it doesn’t mean the rest of your work has to be 100% like theirs. But it allows you to really understand what makes the art you like and then you can use elements of that style in your own work. You could make a list of elements to study if copying an entire painting is too much. If a painting is overwhelming for me I break it into a line drawing (focusing on shapes), a value study, and a color study.

Great job adding a tone in the background to set the light of the pear against! Nice shape design in the shadow side too.

I haven’t seen the video this assignment is from, but that said, good job keeping everything intentional and defined! I like the simplified chiseled edges too.

Hey AJ! That’s great that you have both long and short term goals (: My practice really took off once I had a big picture idea of where I wanted to go and monthly or even yearly goals that would take me in that direction. And cheers to you for sticking with traditional in the start. I’m sure you’ll be rewarded for it. As far as self motivation, I suppose we need to do it for the process and not the end product for our practice to be sustainable. So whatever that means for you, something that makes you WANT to sit down each day (even for a couple minutes) and draw something. For me, music really helps.

I like your line quality and that you’re using the side of the pencil. Great job simplifying those pesky feet too. I think that including some cross contour lines might help you think in terms of the form instead of the contour. Think about the roundness of the form, and if it’s coming towards you or going away, and then show it with the cross contour.

This is my own weird theory but basically I only listen to music when I make art. Just because I don’t do many other activities that I can listen to music while doing. And I love music, so if I want to listen to it I’m not going to just sit and do nothing… I’m going to draw! Some days I draw and put on music, and some days I put on music and draw. So, my theory is having something you really enjoy, that doesn’t require your full attention to do, while making art can help you stay motivated. It also helps with doing it for the process instead of the end result, which is more sustainable (:

Hi Morphex. I understand how you are feeling. When there doesnt seem to be any improvement despite a lot of practice. But there are a few things that help me to keep going. The first thing that really helps me is to have some kind of routine. When I dont have a lot of time (right now I have a lot to do for university) I try to get up early and draw for thirty minutes. When I have a lot of time I write a plan for one week. eg. monday 7.30-8.00: practice straight lines and ellipses, 8.05-8.35:anatomy, 8.40-9.20figures in perspective.... Use a timer for your drawing sessions. I recommend 30 and than take a break for a few minutes I used to do 5. But I think I will do longer break in my next vacation. When timer stops take the break and dont continue even if you want to keep going, if you stop while its fun you will want to come back to drawing. If you feel stuck with something eg. the proportions of the face stop practicing that and go to something that is more exiting. There are many different fundamentals. You could study composition, perspective, construction (which is basically a subset of perspective), color, gesture, handcontrol (drawing straight lines, circles, ellipses etc), visual library (studying the anatomy of different things), and probably some more. In many online courses one thing seems to built on top of another, and thats true to some extend, but its also true that all topics "help" each other. You dont study proportions for a few months, and than your a master at it and than you move on. Its more like studying proportions for a few days or maybe for a week or two and than you move on to the next thing (if you have a lot of time you should definetely study multiple fundamentals simultanously). But you are not done with proportions, but you will go back to it again and again. Rotating through the different art skills, continuing to perfect them I hope this helps. Im by no means an expert, but I thought Id share what works for me.

Hey there. Sorry to hear you’re facing such struggles. Honestly I think the learning curve with art is horribly long. The people you see that are improving and learning faster than you most likely were already drawing a LOT more before even starting a course. Not to say you shouldn’t take a course, but that the people you see doing so well probably developed hand eye coordination, line quality, and observation skills on their own a bit. This is my own personal experience, but sometimes as course or path just isn’t right at the moment. I’ve gotten in a rut trying to follow the process of an artist and eventually realizing it wasn’t for me. Either it didn’t make sense or their teaching didn’t click with me. Maybe check out some other instructional videos and see if they make more sense to you. I feel like master copies could potentially be beneficial for you. When I was little I would copy cartoon panels and it really helped my observation skills. Finding simple but good head drawings to copy might help things to click. Changing it up might help too. Are there other things you like to draw? Drawing flowers from life doesn’t directly help my art skills but I really enjoy it so I do it when I feel like it. For me, drawing the same thing day after day would be upsetting. Everyone is different but that could be what contributed to you feeling down. I’m working on figure drawing right now, but I still draw whatever random things I enjoy.

Oh neat! I’m excited to try this. I’m happy with my grip but maybe it could be better.

What I see when I look at your drawing is a lack of edge width. There is edge width to the top part that is tilted up, but not on the bottom part it rests on when down. I did a quick draw over to show you how I would do it, I hope it helps :)