Build Your Art Progress Engine

Progress is one of the hardest things to manage as an aspiring artist. It's easy to get discouraged when you are in the trenches trying to get better one small step at a time.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step... the problem is all those other little steps in between.

I have found... both from my experience and from mentoring students... that you need to have a plan... or a system in place to make sure you are heading in the right direction... and you are making progress.

The 4 elements I talk about in this video are:

1 - Motivation
At some level you need to passionate about the art you are making and care about it. It's hard to use hustle or massive amounts of pressure to get better at art... as the emotional tole those things take can often affect the feeling your art has. If you are pushing through the pain and forcing yourself to draw till your fingers bleed... that emotion will come through in your art... to a degree anyway. And it's more important to stay in touch with the art you want to make and focus on positive methods of motivation.
Get in touch with why you wanted to be an artist in the first place!

2 - Creation Loop
Drawing and Art happens in a loop of creation. We start with an idea. We have a process to create that idea. We then call it done... and put it out into the world. We then take the success and failure from that process and try to do better the next time.
It's hard to truly see your progress and skill level if you are not completing these loops. Make sure to try and finish as much of your pieces as possible. And share them in some way shape or form. It helps to get clarity on where you are at. And helps the next piece.

3 - Ritual
We are what we repeatedly do. We operate mostly out of habit day to day. And the best way to rise above the struggle of creating art regularly is to make it a ritual. This tends to bypass the need to constantly push and pump yourself up to create work and stay focused. If we build the habit... then it tends to happen by itself.

4 - Tracking Progress
Often it's impossible to see actual progress. Image to image we see small changes. And the artist tends to be critical of their own work. It's only when you can step back and see some kind of measurable improvement that you can trust in the overall process. It's also important to make sure you are going in the right direction! Not all progress will serve your overall goals. So tracking is key.

In the video I elaborate on all of these issue and give some things you can implement right now to help build a framework for your progress.

If you want to learn how to develop your own simple line and color workflow check out the Quick Start Guide above! It has all the brushes and tools I use to create images like this in Photoshop.

Happy Drawing!

Tim Mcburnie

[Mr.McWatson]

Something that works shockingly well is drawing 100 of whatever it is you're trying to improve. After finding a basic formula for the object, you notice an improvement already by drawing 10. It's crazy.

[Mr.Daniel]

I’ve been through so many art YouTubers and they’ve all been awesome, but there’s something about the structure and way you go over how to actually put these concepts into practice and simplify them that’s really getting through to me.

[cory]

For me, creating a habit was absolutely key. I have a time every day I sit down and start drawing. I'm only required to draw for 20 minutes after I wake up and can call it for the day from there, however I find that those 20 minutes are usually the hardest and then I'm fine. I have no plans to do this for a living so I'm good with 20-60 minutes of drawing a day and steadily improving year over year. Persistence is key, that's how it becomes automatic.

As the habit is setting in, it becomes something I look forward to every morning. Highly recommend.

[cory]

I know meditation isn't everyone's cup of tea but its something that helped me a lot. I struggled with motivation and negative emotion around my art and my personal work for such a long time, but through a lot of meditation I was able to better see my work for what it is. Now every day I happily sit down to work to add 'experience blocks' to my 'life chain' basically. Sounds funny but once I started feeling this, working became a very obvious move. Anxiety and hesitancy largely dissipated.

[lrdalucardart]

Many have no idea how "mindset" can be a strong Gatling in to become something you wanna be.

[carltonrainey]

Your channel is my saving grace thank you for the help!

[_Morley]

Hey Tim, great topic. I've been working in the industry for 4 years and on a bunch of very different projects. So many that I did kind of lose track of what I like. But at the same time, so many different things made me happy creatively. I have decided to come back to what I enjoy doing more with my knowledge of what works in the industry and it's been really gratifying. I've shared a few of your videos in my discord server and everyone has reacted positively to them. Thanks for your work!

[foswa]

Tim, it will always be understated how awesome you are for releasing these videos !

[coyoteclockworkstudios]

Wow, some Breath of Fire 4 in your influence map. That's pretty cool and obscure, but that game really goes have amazing character designs.

[DavidMartinez-lezg]

Hi Tim! I just want to say that your channel has been a great help in motivating me to illustrate on a daily basis. Your guides have allowed me to develop both digitally and analogically and that is something I am very grateful for. Keep doing what you do, you can't find content of this quality just anywhere!

[amarisjoseph]

You are the best instructor I've ever had

[thedrawingbard]

I can’t thank you enough for the way you simplify things. You make it clear that study and progress are important, but that purpose and imagination are the focus. The last two are powered by the first ones.
I’m always in the edge of a burnout from studying too much and you way of thought helped me to breathe and get calmer.
Again, thanks a lot! ❤

[maybeeart]

In just the last 4 months I have emproved so much and your video has help me with my improvements. Thanks 😊 and love your videos

[iced_coffee_]

AMAZING video!! I've been feeling so directionless and unmotivated lately, this video is just what I needed to hear :)
Now I have an idea on how to move forward! Thanks so much!! ♡ I'm looking forward to binging more of your videos, you seem like an excellent teacher :)

[nonono]

Just when i was losing motivation, thanks

[RandomStuffses]

Sir, how come I just stumbled upon your channel now?
I've been looking for such content for years.. Thank you so much for putting it out 🙏

[slamotte]

I love the way you speak, it's exactly what I needed to begin my journey. I feel a sense of direction now which has helped more than anything.

[artwhat..]

Codex.. very informative and intelligent video, I like the way you wrapped it up with closing thoughts, covering every aspect of what you had talked about.. thanks..

[lasseel]

This notified at the perfect time, I was doing a sketch challenge and I'm really discouraged for a while now since it seems like I'm suppose to be improving as i do it but instead I got very confused.

[nicholashildenbrand]

Habit and a place to work are key. I'm lucky I have two places to sit.

One space has my PC and Playstation. The other space has books and is great for reading, writing, and drawing.

That separation from work and play is incredibly important. It cannot be understated.