Hello Deel, Do you have any tips on how to get the most out of your practice sessions? Also, do you have any tips on creating exercises that would help you improve the skill you are trying to work on?
okay, i stalled out on answering this one because my answer seemed to change every time i took another look at it. also it’s pretty long.
i’ll refrain from going into specifics because, well, it’s a bit hard to in reply to an anonymous question. anyway…
※ i’ll be using a lot of videogame analogies here so bear with me.
don’t think of drawing as a single, monolithic ‘thing’ to be good at. think of it more like, say, skills in a RPG - there’s many little things you should get good at in order to get stronger.
now, what happens when you level up skills? well, they’ll need more experience to hit the next level. training skills you’re already good at doesn’t help as much as leveling those that are weaker.
think about those diminishing returns.
on top of that, it’s worth less to train skills that won’t offer me any benefit - if i’m aiming to be a spellcaster, it doesn’t quite make sense for me to level my archery. unless that’s your thing.
in other words, getting the most out of practice starts before you even start practicing.
figuring out what you should be practicing
this is the hardest bit. can’t practice if you don’t know what to practice.
first things first - be honest with yourself about what you’re good at, and what you’re not. there’s no point bluffing yourself on these things. you want your status screen to be as accurate as possible.
※ do note that this applies both ways. don’t overestimate, but at the same time, don’t underestimate your own ability! think about it as grinding way too much for a boss cos you think you’re too weak, and realizing that you just steamrolled it afterwards. i mean, yes, it’s fun the first time, but then you realize that you’ve wasted time just, well, grinding, and missed out on a good challenge and the fun that comes with it.
secondly, figure out or double confirm what you want to do. if you want to make comics, plan around things that will help you do comics. if you want to draw characters, things that lead there will naturally take center-stage. in other words, plan your character build.
※ if you don’t know what you wanna do, just go with whatever you think seems fun. you can always respec later.
a good way to start off with both is to try drawing something you want to draw for real.
by ‘something you want’ i mean ‘something that, at the end of the day, you’d like to be able to achieve’ - a character in a dynamic pose, a spread for a comic, stuff like that.
by ‘for real’ i mean try having a go at it as best as you can.
now, if you do this, basically one of three things will happen:
you don’t know where to start.
this is probably the easiest one to deal with - go look up someone else’s process on say youtube, or check out someone’s stream for how they go about it. try again after you’ve gotten some idea about what to do.
you run into a wall halfway.
well, you now know what to practice next. whatever stopped you dead in your tracks, get to it. raise those stats that got you killed.
you manage to make something
while drawing it, you’d probably notice where you’re not performing up to par. parts that you found yourself struggling at are areas for improvement, as are flaws that you start spotting after finishing the piece.
※ do note that spotting mistakes after you’re done is a skill of it’s own! correcting them is yet another. try a round of self-critique or self-analysis. it’s a really useful skill to have.
take note of wherever you decided on a change of plans, ‘this pose isn’t working’, ‘i need to change the composition’, ‘i don’t think this design works out’, etc. consider whether these decisions were made because you thought there was a better way, or because you felt you couldn’t make it work.
things that you avoided because you couldn’t make them work (say, changing the pose because you don’t know how the legs work at that angle)? there you have it, things to be worked on.
now that you know what you gotta do, we can move onto the next step.
figuring out how to practice what you should be practicing
to be frank, there’s a high chance by this point that it should be relatively simple to figure it out.
can’t draw poses? look them up on pinterest or something and try drawing some. play around with a figma or designdoll and draw those. do gestures, quick figure drawings…
composition giving you a hard time? watch a movie or tv show or anime, take screenshots when you think it’s got that feeling. look up cool photos, make a scrapbook of art pieces you think have nice compositions.
color? color pick by eyedropper to get the general idea, then try to color pick by sight. find photos with nice colors, go outside (or inside) and have a good look at everything.
anatomy? check out books, learn how spooky skeletons work, look up diagrams, draw them out, and so on.
read FAQs or look it up on the wiki. check playthroughs, guides… well, you get the general idea. if it doesn’t seem to be working after a bit, look up and try something else.
my advice here would be to seek help or more specific advice from people who have gone ahead of you. think of it like consulting a more experienced player for advice on where to hunt for stuff, what to look out for ahead, and all that.
for most of the way, you’ll be basically retreading where others have gone before. don’t be afraid to seek help or try new things.
how to get the most out of your practice
this’ll honestly just be a bullet point list because i don’t actually know how to, but there are a few things that seem to work (and i often don’t follow because i’m silly):
try to be well rested or otherwise be in a good state before you start practicing. being tired is a double whammy - you remember and learn less, and on top of that you don’t perform as well.
don’t grind mindlessly! make sure to think about what it is you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it. for example, if you’re reading a tutorial, stop and think about why things are done that way, and whether it makes sense.
stop and reflect on things. this is basically the above point but i’m saying this again for emphasis.
write your own notes as you go along. everyone’s playstyle drawing style is different, and what’s most important is finding out what works for you. remember to save them, too! it’s too easy to be all ‘yep i get it’, then six months later you check back and can’t quite figure out how you managed it back then. going through other people’s tutorials and stuff is like reading the lecture notes your friend took - it’s pretty good alright, but not quite as easy to understand as the ones you wrote.
supplement, not supplant. the best way to go about things is to add to what you already have, not replace it altogether. it’ll save you a lot of time, grief and backtracking. when you find and try new ways of doing things, or new methods, processes, take some time to figure out how to make them work with what you’re already doing.
don’t spend too much time practicing. it’s easy to just keep practicing away and forget to do things that aren’t practice (god knows i do that too much already). not only that, but you can only really absorb so much per day. it’s like a rested EXP bonus - spend the double exp period grinding those high value mobs, but once that’s done just go do what’s fun instead.
do your dailies. a small bit of practice each day adds up to a lot more than a day spent entirely on it. also after a month or two you can be all like hey check this out
don’t work behind closed doors. it’s always good to seek another opinion on things.
don’t forget your end goal. you’re practicing for a reason, aren’t you? don’t lose sight of it. don’t get too distracted by sidequests and forget about the main story!
take a break if you need it. no sense burning out, especially over something you like.
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