Howdy! Sorry to hear you feel like you're floundering. It's a feeling that all artists experience. The important thing is to keep going! Having studied both at Watts and here on Proko I can speak a little to what Jeff probably meant by setting goals. Jeff speaks pretty regularly about systematically eliminating your weaknesses. This means identifying what isn't working in your regular practice/finished works and specifically targeting those issues with deliberate, mindful practice. For example, let's say you've been following along with these lessons and you've been constructing simple objects around your house. You notice after completing your practice that your proportions are all over the place. In your next study session you'd prioritize (over other skills) ensuring your proportions are as accurate as possible. Other areas of the drawing (shading, line weight, etc) may suffer because you're really focusing on your proportions. Rinse and repeat for all these different areas of study (line weight, edges, values). This also applies to specific forms/objects. For example, hands can be really difficult. If you're drawing a lot of figures and keep struggling with hands that probably means you don't understand the form of the hand (or you've forgotten the information, which will happen if you don't regularly revisit complex topics). You'd set a goal to sit down and study hand anatomy or drawings of hands from other artists. The idea is to be mindful, be honest with yourself about what is and isn't working, and purposefully execute and study. It's also important to draw for yourself and not make everything an exercise. Invention and creativity are separate skill sets from the technical science of drawing/painting. Sorry for the novel! I feel you with the frustration. Just know that literally everyone here in this forum, and every teacher you'll study with has experienced these same struggles. The importance lies in accepting where your skills are and moving forward. Cheers!

Hey Christina, great attempt! I really enjoy the texture that came through the paper, you also committed to clear shapes! I think that your shadow values are competing with your light values. Specifically, if you examine the shadow cast by the pear on the table, the lightest value in that shadow is darker than the darkest value in the light. You may try defining the shadow (on the pear and on the table), filling it with the lightest shadow value, and then pushing the darkest parts of the shadow after. I hope that makes sense. Good stuff! Keep drawing =)