Hi Dan B, Your post is full of universal challenges that all creators face throughout our lives and I would like to give you some super practical advice on how to get clarity on what you love so you can set meaningful and long lasting goals. Goals are the end of the process, the target we're shooting for, the place where the arrow stops. They tell us exactly where we want to go, but they're not the most potent fuel to get us there. They provide some motivation, but not enough to sustain us along the journey. The reason why goals don’t provide a lot of motivation is because the connection between effort today and a goal that takes years is tenuous at best. The wrong goals can kill your motivation also. Let's say your goal is to be a financially stable artist, like most of us here, there are many ways to get there but most of those paths we would hate because they don't align with what we're interested in. The path would be full of more rocks than smooth road. The key is to love the journey while making progress towards our goals. We can do this by cultivating, aligning and amplifying our curiosities into passion and eventually purpose. Time for the practical part. Let's start with your curiosities, you have a bunch. "I love insects, creatures, comics, robots, sci-fi, fantasy, cyberpunk, birds, dinosaurs, anti-heroes, landscapes, nature, video game characters/worlds and more." Here is a secret, you don't have to choose one. It's infinitely more motivating to pick several and play within the intersections between them. This is how we cultivate curiosities into the fire of purpose. "The point is that curiosity, by itself, is not enough to create true passion. There’s just not enough neurochemistry being produced for the motivation you require." ~ Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible (amazing book if you want to dive into the neurochemistry on why this works) Stacking your curiosities is where it all starts and I'm writing from experience. I've done art every single day for almost 9 years straight (chrisbeaven.com). Only after getting clarity on my curiosities, finding the intersections and organizing my life around those intersections did I finally feel true passion. My production this past year has gone through the roof! Here is the first step I took to get there. Write down 25 things you're curious about. When I say curious I mean anything you would have fun doing and are willing to put effort into. Such as reading a book on the subject, researching, talking to experts, drawing daily, etc... You want to be detailed with each curiosity on the list. Insects, creatures, comics, etc... are too broad. For example you could clarify comics into. A dark cyberpunk fantasy crossover with a strong female protagonist with figures drawn similar to Barry Windsor-Smith and striking compositions like Sir Frank Brangwyn. "The specificity gives your brain’s pattern recognition system the raw materials it needs to make connections between ideas. The more detailed the information, the better." Says Steven Kotler who's done a couple decades of research on the science of this. Take your time with this list. It took me about two weeks to create all 25. At first it will seem easy but the last few will be difficult and any repeat curiosities will need to be merged. Put in the effort and do all 25, even if you feel that you've exhausted all that you're curious about. If you put in the effort I promise you will learn something about yourself. Lastly, the fun part, find the intersections and begin playing in those intersections. With this new found understanding of what you truly enjoy and what really fires you up you can begin setting goals. At the risk of leaving you wanting more details but not wanting this post to get too crazy long I'm going to leave it there for now. If what I've said resonated with you and you want to learn more I have a lot more practical tools that I’m happy to share with you. Either reply here or send me a personal email chris@createquest.net. Thanks for reading!

Thank you so much for sharing this, I don’t have any advice but I struggle with the same things almost exactly. Nice to know I’m not alone.

Hmm…If I may, the way it is for me is that there are intrinsic goals and extrinsic goals. Intrinsic goals are things that come from inside you, like a love or passion for something. Extrinsic goals, on the other hand, are sources of motivation from outside you, such as money. Most people value intrinsic goal over extrinsic, and I do understand that there is a reason for that. After all, with intrinsic goal, you can keep doing the things that you like even if you face hurdles, and you derive more pleasure from it than if you’re doing it purely for money. Plus, art is a field that’s deeply tied to one’s passions and interest, so if you don’t have a love for art, then it doesn’t make much sense to study it seriously, no? That said, I think having an extrinsic goal can be useful too. It’s like… Imagine that you’re on the road. Your intrinsic motivator (i.e. your love for art), is the fuel that keeps your car moving. If you only have that intrinsic motivation (i.e. love), then you’re bound to go somewhere, but you probably won’t know where you’re heading until you get there. That, it seems to me, is your problem. You have a lot of passion for art, and that’s really great! It means that you have an endless fuel for your ‘car’. The problem is that you don’t have a destination in mind, so it feels like you’re driving aimlessly on and on… My advice is that perhaps you can pick an extrinsic goal. It doesn’t have to be anything grand like ‘I want to have a million followers on Instagram’ or ‘I want to create something that can change someone’s life’. It can be something small like ‘I want to make enough money with my art to live comfortably’, or even something like ‘I want to earn enough to clear my debts’. This goal also doesn’t have to be permanent. If you feel like that extrinsic goal no longer fits or you’ve already achieved it, then feel free to change it to another one. Like, if you’re on a journey and you decide to change destination while on the road. For example, my extrinsic goal is very simple: I want to earn enough to get a certain character I like from a gacha game. It is, admittedly, a shallow and childish reason… but what does it matter? It doesn’t harm myself or others, and in fact it’s what keeps me going and doing my daily Art Diary. The reason itself may be small and meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but that’s okay. It’s enough to have a reason; any reason. Intrinsic goals/motivators such as love for art is very important (because you can’t really do much in this field without it), but it’s also helpful to have an extrinsic goal too. Having an extrinsic goal (at least to me), is like having a destination for your journey, while your intrinsic motivator is the endless fuel for your car. Once you have both, then I’m sure you can reach new heights! ^_^ So is there something that you want? Like a job you want to get, or a sort of life that you envision? Or maybe it can be material things, like getting enough money for a game or a house? It may help to think about things you desire outside of art too. One exercise I found helpful is to think of yourself 10 or 20 years from now. What sort of life do you think you’ll be living then? What sort of life do you WANT to live by that time? Um, anyway, sorry if it’s a bit too long. I hope this helps! Hope you have a nice day, and good luck! :D

Hi Dan :) We've definately all been there! I'm going to recommend you watch two videos I found recently which are all about NOT leaving your comfort zone, and the practical ways in which you can still improve within that comfort zone: Learn to Draw Better Faster: NEVER leave your comfort zone!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZhb5hRs5g AngryMikko - Comfort zone is not the opposite of growth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkf3Vza1rfE You already know that you love to draw, and you enjoy drawing insects, so you could start there within your comfort zone and slowly build from there. Something else I'm reading in all your posts in this thread is how disheartened you feel when you see other artists work and compare your own to theirs, and again we've all been there - it's hard not to compare our skills to others. However it's not healthy or helpful. You are you, your artwork is unique to you, and you'd be much better off putting that time and energy you spend comparing your work to other artists into improving and enjoying your own artwork. Another thing I'd suggest is to take joy in the process! e.g. do you like to draw, then ink the drawing, then paint over the top? If yes you know you can apply that process to every artwork you create and then you can get into the "flow" state faster because you're not worrying about the process - basically your tools and methods are getting OUT of the way of your creativity which is the ideal approach. Figure out a process that works for you, document it step by step, and then follow it until it becomes second nature. Something else that has really helped me has been learning about my subjects. So for example I love to paint animals, and I also love studying them, learning about them, and writing all that down, then I can add that information along with my drawings and paintings of that animal. Pick a new animal, rinse, repeat :) So you could do this with all different kinds of wasps, bees, crickets, moths, whatever interests you. Sketch them in different poses and under different light. Sketch their body parts close up and jot down the latin names for them (very Natural History approach without the crazy attention to detail). If you aren't already doing so try to draw every single day, for at least 45 mins if possible. There is something weird that happens in our brains when we do that, I don't understand it, but it's like the more we practice something the more we want to practice it, and vice versa. So try to make at least 45 to 60 mins a day, and more time on weekends, if you can just to sit down and sketch. You could also use this time to work on a larger piece. I do this all the time, I get up every day at 6am and I draw/paint on my ipad until around 7am and each day I do a little bit more work on a larger artwork so with a bit of extra time added on the weekend I can have a good quality finished piece completed almost every week. Another idea is to keep a digital scrapbook of ideas that inspire you. They may be other people's work, reference photos, images with interesting light shapes or shadows, then when you feel stuck go to your scrapbook and pick something that jumps out at you and maybe create your own version or use it as the starting point for a new piece. You may never publish that piece, but that's fine, it's kept you drawing and it's provided you with important practice time to improve your skills. And finally, try not to worry so much about posting your work online or especially about what others think. There's a ton of negative pressure in doing that and it can lead to toxic productivity. Do any of these ideas help?

You don't need to have a goal at this point in your training, you draw what you want, how you want. Whether an interest will be predominant time will tell but there is absolutely no reason to focus on one thing, in fact it is better to be able to do several things rather than just one. Gallerists always ask for the same thing but, right now, are you interested in what a gallerist wants? By the way, if you are starting to work digitally you are out of their league. Don't worry, drawing should be a pleasure rather than a burden. :)

Yeah, my guess is you're missing a sense of purpose. You don't know why you're doing art. For example: I'm a teacher, and my purpose is inspiring and educating my students. In order to do that, I need a deep understanding of the concepts I intend to teach them. So what's your purpose? What's the impact you want to have had on the world when you are lying on your deathbed? I'd recommend finding some Brendan Burchard youtube videos on purpose and seeking clarity. His book "High Performance Habits" is also great

Hi Dan... I think we are facing the same problem, which is kinda like "I think I can do this but I can also do that and doing any one of them doesn't really full fill a desire" kid of stage... I'm not a very structural learner, mostly I'm all over the place. In my opinion if you are not in a place where you have to get to a certain level for job or any that kind of thing, it's cool to jump around, that's how you make new discoveries. Currently, my mindset is more towards a kind of "observer", this is not to draw in a strictly observational way, but to approach a drawing (e.g. a design of a composition, or structure) in an "observer" kind of viewpoint or attitude. This may not quite describe it but think it as if you are trying to "capture" a moment instead of trying to "describe". The difference is subtle but also quite substantial if you think about it. I'm not fully converted my mind over this, but I now categorize my drawing into two separate categories, one is for "I really want to capture what the feel a specific scenario provides", and another is for "sensational stimulation", which includes all the traditionally "cool" stuff like mecha, porn, whatever stuff. This way I can work better without one disturbing another. About the "finished" thing... Well if you find yourself out of things to do, maybe draw bigger, and try to capture as many details as you can LOL. You can never run out of it XD. And it's not necessary to sit and do it in one go, in fact a lot of drawings can't be done that way or your eyes are gonna quit half way. A good thing about doing some bigger practices is that you can do it in stages spread across several days, then each time you approach it you get a fresher view. The down side of this is that you get fewer "times of doing a piece", which when you are trying to do a study of some kind of colour or composition may not be a good thing, those might require you to adjust and start over quickly. I like your insects... You can do some bigger and more detailed ones, I'm sure you can do a lot of great work as you can use your own photo references for them.