I’ve spent hundreds of hours watching YouTube tutorials on how to draw hands, faces, anatomy, shading, all of it. And came out the other side with nothing to show. Not a sketch, not a finished page. Just playlists stacked with lessons I swore I’d revisit, but never did.
It felt like progress. My brain tricked me into believing I was learning, when in reality, my skills were quietly getting worse from lack of practice. Watching a tutorial gave me the same hit as drawing, without the discomfort of actually doing the work.
Breaking out of that loop didn’t happen overnight. But over time I stumbled into a few habits that shifted me from endless watching to actually improving.
Today I want to share the 5 strategies that finally pulled me out of tutorial hell.
You’re just chasing the dopamine hits
This hit me hard when I realized it. Every time I clicked on another “11 Steps to Great Gesture Drawing” video, my brain acted like I’ve indeed mastered gesture drawing by the time I finished watching. It’s the same kind of satisfaction you get from watching a cooking video without ever stepping foot in the kitchen, except worse, because we’re talking about our creative dreams here.
Your lizard brain, the core part of the brain that has stayed the same for the last 200-300 million years, sees the consumption as progress. It’s seeking the quick fix mentality that our modern society is so obsessed with. But mastery doesn’t work that way, and deep down, we know it.
The more important a skill is to your growth as an artist, the more resistance you’ll feel toward actually practicing it. So if you’re endlessly watching figure drawing tutorials instead of drawing figures, that’s actually a good sign, it means those skills matter to you.
You just need to change your approach.
If you don’t use it within 48 hours, you lose it
This rule changed everything for me. Before I even click play on a tutorial, I commit to using what I learn in my current project within two days. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
Suddenly, binge-watching ten gesture drawing tutorials becomes way less appealing when you know you’ll have to actually draw gestures afterward. Your brain starts naturally filtering for the tutorials you’ll actually use instead of the ones that just feel good to consume.
Now when I’m going through a course I’m always committed to doing all the assignments. I no longer consume the tutorials that the algorithm suggests. I deliberately seek out what I need when I’m struggling with something, and apply it right away.
Let projects guide your learning
Instead of randomly watching tutorials, start a project that genuinely excites you. Something ambitious enough that you’ll hit multiple skill barriers. Then let those roadblocks guide your learning.
When I was creating Venjiro, my fursona, I faced obstacle after obstacle. First time writing character lore – had to figure that out. Never drawn fluffy dragons before – needed tutorials on their anatomy. Didn’t know how to structure a reference sheet – researched character design layouts. Wasn’t confident with colors – dove into color theory. And that wasn’t even everything.
Each roadblock pointed me to exactly what I needed to learn next. No more guessing, no more random skill-hopping. My project became my curriculum.
Accept that this approach takes time. Venjiro took around 3 months to complete. But I wasn’t just creating one piece of art. I was using it as a vehicle to systematically level up my skills with immediate, practical application. Now I’m designing Venjiro v2 and can build on all that knowledge while learning even more advanced techniques.
Choose one weakness and obsess over it for a month
Here’s the question that cuts through all the noise: “What’s the one thing I could learn this month that would make everything else easier?”
For me, it was construction. I couldn’t draw a figure without reference and kept getting lost in surface details before understanding basic forms.
I found a comprehensive figure construction course and went all-in for 30 days. Every lesson, every assignment, applied to every sketch.
Here’s my Day 1 attempt at a basic pose:
And here’s the another pose after a month of obsessive practice:
The transformation was wild. I stopped seeing drawing as “making pretty outlines” and started seeing it as building 3D forms in space. Every line suddenly had a reason to exist.
Embrace looking foolish while you learn
This one’s brutal, but you have to be willing to suck at something new. When I started seriously studying construction, my figures looked worse for weeks. I went from decent-looking (but structurally wrong) drawings to more correct (but stiff and blocky) ones.
Committing to studying construction meant that I couldn’t spend hours on making pretty-looking illustrations for now. That means I’d go from getting upwards of 1k likes on my illustrations to around maybe 15 for those construction drawings.
Real learning means temporarily giving up your current skill level to reach something higher. Your ego will hate this. You’ll want to go back to drawing the same comfortable stuff. But beginners who won’t let go of their dignity become rigid and defensive. The learning can’t get through.
Your next steps start right now
Go to your YouTube history right now. Find the tutorial you bookmarked but never tried, the one that makes you slightly uncomfortable because you know it’ll require actual effort.
Set a timer for 25 minutes and follow along. Don’t aim for perfection, aim for understanding.
Then create something with what you learned. Post it online, show it to friends, add it to your portfolio. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to exist.
Because at the end of the day we’re artists. And artists make things, even when we’re scared, even when our skills aren’t perfect yet.
The resources you need are probably already in your watch history. The question is how deeply you’re willing to engage with what you already have.
You’ve got this. Now go make something.
