What great artists actually do (it’s boring)

If you knew how much time successful artists actually spend on their work, you’d be less impressed.

Not because their work isn’t incredible. It is. But because the secret is so boring that most people refuse to believe it. They’ve practiced so much that it became weird for them to still be bad. That’s it. No magic. No shortcuts. Just volume.

And here’s what nobody tells you: you can learn anatomy basics in 20 hours of real practice. Most people wait years. Not because it takes years, but because they keep waiting for the perfect course, the perfect moment, the perfect motivation.

So today, I’m going to walk you through what actually makes a good artist. Not the vague motivational stuff, but the real answer that works.

Let’s dive in.

The art doesn’t care about your feelings.

This is the part everyone hates hearing.

Put in the work, you get better. Skip the work, you stay the same. The craft doesn’t care if you’re busy or tired or uninspired. It just responds to volume.

But here’s the good part that makes it bearable: doing the work makes you enjoy it more. Enjoying it makes you do more work. It’s a circle. The artists you admire probably aren’t more disciplined. They just got into the circle and stayed there.

Volume builds skill. Skill makes the process more enjoyable. Enjoyment creates more volume.

That’s the whole system. Get in. Stay in.

Great artists focus on one thing, not everything.

I wanted to be good at everything. Character art, environments, concept art, animation…

Big mistake.

Going from good to great takes 5 to 10 times more work than going from beginner to good. Going from good to exceptional takes 10 to 100 times more. You physically cannot spread that much effort across multiple things and expect to be great at any of them.

When I finally focused just on anatomy and character art instead of trying to do everything, I suddenly had a clear vision for what my career could look like.

When you’re really good at a specific thing, people will notice and follow you. From then on it’s all about just continuing to get better and better.

Pick one thing. Get really good at it. Let everything else go.

Great artists never stop doing the basics.

I used to skip basic exercises because they felt boring compared to drawing complex characters.

That cost me years.

Learning the basics is quick. Getting good at them takes forever. After you understand how something works, every tiny improvement takes exponentially more work. But those tiny improvements? They make the entire difference between good work and exceptional work.

The best artists never abandon fundamentals. They just keep going deeper with them.

Here’s what changed it for me: I started turning basic studies into tutorials for beginners. Suddenly they weren’t boring anymore because they helped people. Find a way to care about the basics. Make them mean something beyond just practice.

You can’t skip them. Stop trying.

Most people quit right when they’re about to break through.

This is the cruelest part of learning anything.

People practice for weeks or months. They don’t see huge improvement. They assume it’s not working. So they quit.

But that boring plateau where nothing seems to be happening is where your brain is actually learning. The visible improvement comes after, not during. You just have to push through the part where it feels like nothing is working.

Everyone else quits here. That’s why so few people get good.

The plateau isn’t a sign you’re failing. It’s a sign you’re on the path to leveling up. But only if you keep going.

Build a routine that doesn’t need motivation.

I still care too much about likes and engagement. If a piece gets low numbers, part of me thinks it’s worse than it actually is.

I haven’t solved that problem. But I found something that helps.

Make art part of your morning routine, like making coffee. Not something you force yourself to do. Just what happens when you wake up.

When it’s automatic, you need less motivation to start. And three focused hours beats six distracted hours every single time.

The real progress signal isn’t engagement. It’s when you make something better than you thought you could. When you lose track of time because you’re so focused. When you finish a study and think “I didn’t know I could do that.”

Schedule your time. Protect it. Make it part of your day, not something you fit in when you feel inspired.

Here’s what to do right now:

Pick your thing today. Write it down. Character art? Environments? Animation? One specific thing you’re going to own.

Find a skill you can get decent at in 20 hours of real practice. Not master. Just decent enough to be useful. Then schedule those 20 hours over the next few weeks.

Build a routine that makes art automatic. Morning, evening, lunch break. Whatever works. Just make it feel wrong not to do it.

And find a way to make the basics matter to you. Maybe you post them to help beginners. Maybe you keep them private and track your progress. Maybe you just enjoy the process. Whatever makes you actually do them.

The path is simple. The work is hard. Most people quit.

Don’t be most people.