Do you avoid sketches because they feel pointless?
Do you also watch tutorials and nod along. Then you draw and realize you retained nothing. You start illustrations and hit parts you can’t draw. You find references that look close enough. You trace or heavily copy them. Months pass and you’re still stuck on the same fundamentals. Still avoiding hands. Still tracing ears. Still envious of artists who sketch freely and improve consistently.
So today, I’m going to share the mindset shift that changed how I learn.
Let’s walk through it.
I tied my identity to finished work for 4 years
Every drawing had to become something real. Something I could post. Something that proved I was a real artist.
Sketches felt like a waste. Studies felt like busywork. I wanted polished illustrations that took two weeks to finish.
So I spent hours perfecting one piece instead of building repeatable skills.
Four years of this and I barely improved.
Then I learned what deliberate practice actually means
Last year I went through an anatomy course that forced me to focus on one specific thing. Just one body part. Not everything at once.
I gathered references. I drew it over and over. I didn’t try to make it pretty. I just tried to understand it.
That was the first breakthrough. Focus. One weakness at a time. Deep work instead of scattered effort.
The second breakthrough was this month. I call it overwhelming reference.
I was studying hands. Instead of finding 5-10 references like usual, I spent two hours gathering 100 images. Photos, diagrams, other artists’ work, different angles, different styles.
I put them all on a board (I recommend PureRef) while drawing. Something clicked.
When you have overwhelming reference, you stop guessing
I stopped inventing details I didn’t understand. I just looked and copied what I saw.
When you copy 20-30 different versions of the same thing, your brain starts extracting patterns. You notice what stays the same across all the references. Those are the rules.
One reference teaches you that one specific hand. A hundred references teach you what a hand IS. The underlying structure.
Then when you draw later without reference, you’re pulling from your internal library instead of inventing from scratch.
Studies aren’t about making good drawings
Studies are about building your visual library. They’re about training your brain to see structure instead of surface details. They’re about creating neural pathways that make drawing easier next time.
Most people do quick gesture drawings for five minutes and call it studying. That’s just warming up.
Real studying is focused. You pick one specific weakness. You gather overwhelming amounts of reference. You draw it repeatedly until you understand the form. You test yourself by drawing from memory.
That takes time. Hours, not minutes. A week, not a day.
The time investment is the same but the return is different
I used to spend weeks on one illustration. I’d struggle the whole time. I’d learn little I could reuse in the next piece.
Now I spend a a couple days or a week on focused studies and learn a skill I can use in every future piece.
And here’s what surprised me most: my studies get 10-30 times more engagement than my polished work.
People learn from my process. They see my rough sketches and think “I can try that too.” The thing I thought was worthless turned out to be the most valuable.
You don’t need permission to make throwaway art
For years I thought I was only valuable if I made finished, polished work. That belief kept me from actually learning.
Now I post studies constantly. Rough sketches. Things that took 30 minutes instead of 30 hours.
Not everything needs to take two weeks to finish. Most drawings should be training. Practice that builds skills for later.
The artists you admire studied obsessively
You’re seeing their output. You’re usually not seeing the hundreds of studies that built their skill.
They got good by studying deliberately. By building their visual library. By practicing the boring fundamentals until they weren’t boring anymore.
The artists who post regularly and improve consistently aren’t talented (everyone starts at the same skill level). They just approach learning differently.
They don’t treat every drawing like a performance. They treat most drawings like training.
Here’s what changes when you shift your mindset
The old way: stare at blank canvas, feel anxious, don’t know where to start, Google for references, copy one image closely, hope it looks right.
The new way: I already studied this, I know the basic structure, I can start with confident shapes, I only need references to check details.
The old way: every drawing is a performance that has to be good enough to post, that pressure kills motivation.
The new way: most drawings are training, they’re throwaway, I’m building skills for later, no pressure to make it perfect.
The old way: I improve randomly, sometimes a piece turns out good, I don’t know why, I can’t repeat it.
The new way: I improve systematically, I pick what I’m bad at, I study it deliberately, next week I’m measurably better at that thing.
You know you’re learning when drawing gets easier
When you can start a sketch without anxiety because you know the basic forms.
When you can draw something from memory because you studied it properly.
When you stop spending hours searching for the perfect reference because you understand the structure well enough to invent it.
When your finished pieces improve not because you tried harder, but because your baseline skill increased.
Start with one thing you can’t draw
Stop treating every drawing like a product. Start treating most drawings like training.
Stop trying to improve everything at once. Pick one weakness. Study it deliberately. Move on.
Stop avoiding studies because they’re “not real art.” Studies build the skills that make real art possible.
Pick one thing you can’t draw. Gather more references than you think you need. Draw it repeatedly. Focus on understanding the form, not making it pretty.
Do this for a week. Then pick the next thing.
I wasted four years avoiding this. Don’t waste yours.
