5 years of drawing progress : What I learnt on how to grow as an artist
I initially posted this as a thread on social media, last December but I think it would be worth it to share it here too in a bit of a longer form !
So here we go :
5 years ago I decided I wanted to create art like the one in DnD books. I might be not here for now but I learnt a lot, especially on how to learn. And honestly that's probably the most important things you have to learn ! Once one have good practice habit and know how to pass trough a difficulties or draw something confidently even if they never done it before, they are on the right track to learn more and grow as an artist !
The advice I share here is what worked for me, a nearly completely self taught artist (i took a couple mentorship in the last 3 years) that drew for years before taking the game seriously. They might not be the best but if they can help some starting artist I'm happy!
Learnt what you love to create, what you enjoy doing: I do a lot of commissions because I love drawing others characters but that's not the case for everyone. Keep in mind that's what you enjoy looking at is not necessarily the same that what you enjoy creating and making the difference is important. At some point I tested a lot of things, doing adopt, doing ych ect... But most of them are not for me. I don't like creating merch for instance so I will not make it the center of what I offer. For instance, the commission below was a huge challenge but I loved every part of what I had to do so it get smoothly.
Don't try to learnt everything at once, instead try to learn a small new things on each work. Maybe this time take a little more time on composition, try a new way to render wall ect... push yourself a bit out of comfort zone each time, your comfort zone will get bigger and bigger ! Your comfort zone is here for something and its important to stay in sometimes too. Also trying to improve on every point at the same time often looks discouraging and could make you feel lost. Its a good idea to focus on one things while studying : if you really love the colors in the study ref, focus on that and maybe do less effort on rendering or the opposite !
Bad news : You will have to work on your fundamentals at some point, but try to find a way that's makes it more fun and remember to allow you to do art, and to rest! When I do anatomy study I often quickly turn them into my oc at the end, so I get some nice cool art in bonus to the learning process. Sometime I do gesture drawing sessions in chat with friend, so we can work on it together. No matter the way, the point is that you don't feel it like a mandatory really boring things to do.
Use references! I don't know who told you to not do it but they are lying. use not only poses references but everything that can help: clothes folds, light references, this small things you forgot how to draw, take your own photo, create 3d models, do all you can to help your brain. The important things is to not directly copy but to understand the reference so you learn new things and you can diverge from it. A strong methods I found to create freely while using references is to first sketch my idea then create my own references either with photo or 3d. Also learn from artist you love, study their work, understand how they do these cool things you love so much !
Below is an example of a ref I've done with Daz3D and blender for a commission, took me around 2h and make everything so much easy especially in this tricky low angle shot !
If you want to look deeper in how to use references smartly and without copying Jesper Ejsing done a great blog post on that : https://www.muddycolors.com/2025/04/the-danger-of-reference/
Study! Study a tons, small pencil sketches when you have 5 minutes free, gesture studies, master studies both from historic masters and your favorite living artist, photo study, scribbles as much as you want and don't fear to fail. Your sketchbook shouldn't be perfect nor every sketch should be sharable, that's your secret experiment place, keep it safe!
Draw what you want, no matter if you feel ready or not. Sometimes you will see too big and you will fail or not be happy with the results. But you will have learnt new things and be more ready next time ! This work is from (if I remember well) 2021. By this time I was barely doing rendering, only humanoid character and nearly never background. So doing a epic shot with two characters and a dragons was definitively something too big for me and I woulds probably have done it differently today. BUT I had fun doing it, I learnt a lot and I pushed my limits. And most important I created a picture in memory for one of my ttrpg campaign finals and no own else could have done that. The picture is not perfect, but it exist and that's why art is amazing. So don't be afraid to try ! You may fail, but next time you will be stronger !
In conclusion, find way to make the learning process fun for you, the path is long but you will go further if you enjoy the journey!