When you draw for fun, improvement is not your goal. If you're applying your lessons or looking for a challenge, you're in your study/focus zone.

Improving through hard work is great and leads to long lasting gratification. But drawing for fun nurtures your soul, keeps your inner child alive and will sustain you through the discouragement that we inevitably face from time to time.

Many of us have to re-learn how to draw for fun. And it's an exciting discovery, but it takes time and probably you will have to force yourself to do it for a while before it takes place happily in your routine.

I think the 50/50 rule applies to what makes you happy to draw. If drawing drawabox exercises make you happy then more power to you, draw those.

For most people however, the assignments take a lot of focus and mindful practice and its very easy to get burned out on the program. I have been burnt out twice on this program and its very much due to just grinding out one homework after another.

However, I think its very important to draw things you suck at. There is a reason it looks wrong and you need to analyze it to see what your are messing up so that you can fix it. Don't be afraid to draw bad drawings. Bad drawings lead to good ones.

What are your art ambitions? Drawabox is greater for getting those technical skills but, IMO, not really what art is about. Art needs more creativity and originality etc.

Perhaps you are encountering resistance because the idea of doing something more expressive is a bit scary. I have suffered from this but you have to push through.

Perhaps just start doing some of the many other art tutorials and courses as an alternative. I am loving doing some of Aaron Blaise's animal tutorials for example. If you only learn from one source, particularly such a technical one, it can really box (:-) you in creatively.

My 2p worth.

The lessons you have learned from drawabox are applicable to most of the things you will be drawing away from the lessons. If you're not struggling, then you're not learning. Even though you might not like the results of your own drawings, keep pushing through. It doesn't look like the reference? Critique it, then draw it again.

What you can do is purchase another sketchbook entirely for completed drawings. This will encourage you to expand your breadth and possibly help you from burnout which can happen if you strictly only do drawabox lessons.

In short, yes, push through. Draw whatever you feel motivated to do on the other 50. Just try to complete a sketch once in a while so you can develop your skills. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Most of the time I feel like I pick a reference out of my weight class, and I just feel either discouraged or overwhelmed and I kinda just stop. That very small amount of non-drawabox work is basically entirely unfinished because of this.

What worked for me was to sketch and think about the drawing as sketch. You are not trying to create something valuable, you are just sketching a thing. It takes pressure off. Or the goal is to try/learn one specific thing, like a shadow or perspective. You end up with good shadow and bad perspective, but that is ok because goal was shadow and you cant be drawing whole day anyway.

The other thing that worked for me was to have a sketch done every day (I use sketch a day app for that). And you want it done to keep streak and to post it, but real life is pretty often preventing you to do something really good. So over time you become comfortable with 30 second sketch done, finished and posted. You get used to it, you stop worrying and you end up sketching/drawing more.

Start small and keep in mind that a lot of times, especially when it's drawing for fun, it's Effort over Outcome. Even if it doesn't turn out like you wanted, you tried and you can learn from it for next time. Was it fun to do? Ask yourself this. We judge our finished pieces, but rarely reflect on the experience of actually drawing the thing. To keep from getting too discouraged, maybe isolate one area and start there. I do timed drawing sessions and that helps me. I don't know what I'm going to draw when I start, but I keep reference images on my phone to draw from and for 30 min I'm drawing something. It isn't always great, but I keep trying.

As someone whos only done lesson 1 and the 250 box v=challenge, slowly over time, using them also as general excoricises for the day along with some gesture drawings, some things as references, ive found, in my experience, drawing doodles without references gives that 'middle ground' of having some improvment, knowing how your subject works, while generally, more importatnyl, being able to have fun and be creative. of course thats a goal for me, whats helped is 'letting loose' and just jotting down, basically whatever, no references, not much thought either, or effort, just as a means of relaxing, it looks terrible most of the time, but thats fine. faling first is good, and this case, your not really attempting to learn much if anything from doing low effort doodles, your main goal is to have fun, and, well, let it be as chaotic as it gets.

some pointers ive found that helped me, might help you, is when your doing 'chill' doodles, is you dont have to show them off, even to yourself. they can be as silly and broken as they may end up being

if your able to do some light construction without reference, try to find a character, or better yet, create a chracter/s thats both relatively easy to draw, while also fun to do so. if it's one someone else has, its best to ask permission

its also best to note that improvment generally comes with time. and as meta points out, the things your learn will start to seep in to even just your doodles overtime. improvment isnt about so much just impressing people, as its more of a thing that comes after learning some things and experimenting with those things for the hell of it.