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Feelings of Being Obligated to Finish The Course.

12:12 AM, Monday January 26th 2026

Hello,

I recently stopped following the Drawabox course. I had gotten up to about halfway through lesson 5, and completed the 250 cylinder and box challenge.I think I got through an impressive amount of what's known as an infamously rigorous course. At least via official critique. Before stopping I thought "well let me at least finish lesson 5 and submit , then I'll drop it", but I said the same thing for lesson 4.

Ultimately, I just wanted to focus on the stuff that gets me closer to the pictures I want to make. While I did get alot of value through the first few lessons, after about lesson 3 it started feeling really obligatory. After leaving, I still felt like I had failed and that this was going to hurt me going forward. That I ought to finish the course like any artist worth their salt. Especially with the example of the "1st Grader trying to read highschool level books" analogy back in lesson 0

Then at the same time I can rebuttal and say "well people have learned to draw way before this course was a thing" and I should trust my ability to learn things without external approval. I was particularly stewing on something Steven Zapata said once on a livestream "If it's stopping you from drawing, you might be going in the wrong direction" . Especially lately I have been trying to lean away from the "David Goggins-esque" mindset of rigorous art study I see online and try to enjoy the process of learning without any unnecessary struggle. Not that it won't be challenging, but less existentially so.

So I wanted to know if anyone could relate to the feeling of needing to complete the course for some arbitrary reason , as if one is "not complete" unless they go through it . And just overall discuss this aspect that I've been wrestling with.

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0 users agree
4:22 PM, Monday January 26th 2026

Having fun with art is a tricky thing. I don't find Drawabox fun at all, but I understand the importance of it. It's like the wax-on, wax-off scene in the Karate Kid. It's developing rudimentary skills in order to use those trained fundamentals to assist you in mark-making, observation, and spatial reasoning.

In one of Uncomfortable's comics https://drawabox.com/comic/5, His advice is "Pick a resource or instructor you trust, and stick with it. There will be exercises whose purpose won't be clear to you right away - but their relevance will become easier to understand once you've worked your way to the end." He goes on to say once you've finished it, you can dissect it and pick what did and what did not work for you.

His advice makes sense and I hope he's correct, but I am basically charting unknown waters and believing his map will get me where I want to go.

Ultimately it's up to you whether or not you want to continue the course. Try other resources, everyone learns differently and you need to experiment with what works for you. Drawabox is not going anywhere and you can always come back to it.

9:50 AM, Tuesday January 27th 2026

That's fair, but still- I cannot shake a lingering sense of shame for not completing it all the way through. Like I'm not a "serious enough artist" for doing so . Especially that one "tips and tricks" guy in the comic you linked

10:22 PM, Tuesday January 27th 2026

You're the only one who is holding yourself to that standard. Even if you finish Drawabox, it doesn't mean anything. You can still suck at drawing, this course will guide you but, finishing the lessons does not mean you are adept at them at all. The badges on your profile just mean you submitted work and the person grading your work determined you know enough to practice on your own.

The important thing is understanding what you want to draw and why. If you feel like you got enough out of Drawabox, try something else. You can always come back to it later if you want to. There are limitiations to Drawabox besides the material given. Having in-person interaction could help you much better than submitting work online. All the grader can do is look at your work and asses your knowledge based on that. An in-person interaction would help by asking you directly what you do and do not know to give you better advice.

There are some people who find self-teaching fun, but that's not everyone. Having more hands on guidance can greatly enhance your experience. Take a community college class or something equivalent. And when you're even just a little unsure about something, ask the teacher for help.

0 users agree
7:41 PM, Wednesday January 28th 2026

Your topic really interests me because I also quit Drawabox for a while after lesson 5. I didn't stop drawing or learning from other resources, just stopped learning here. I did it because lesson 5 works on organic shapes and 6 works more on construction of objects. I wanted to learn more about drawing people and animals. However, I recently looped back around to object construction and Drawabox is great for teaching that. What I get from this is accountability. Learning on your own is quite difficult without someone giving you feedback on your work.

Drawabox is one tool amongst many. You may simply be ready to move. No need to feel guilty. I hear what you say about Steven Zapata, I'm a fan. But remember he probably did a lot of rigorous unfun study to get to his level.

8:06 AM, Friday February 27th 2026

Thank you for your reply.

And I'll be real, honestly I think I tricked myself. I've seen art friends who started around the same time as me (or started even later than I did), who mostly just drew what they loved. Even some friends telling me they hated studies and never did them. And yet they were miles and leagues ahead of me in terms of technical skill. A common rebuttal to this is "Well they must have trained before or actually did do studies", but I literally watched them develop alongside me.

Part of me wanted to finish drawabox before the overhaul, hoping the critiques would be less strict as having to do revisions for 3 lessons already certainly didn't help my motivation for completing this. Really, all that happened was someone critiqued my line quality, reccomended drawabox and then I went down this rabbit hole for a year and a half.

Now that it's been a couple months, I wonder if I even want to finish it. Outside of FOMO, outside of watching others get cute little badges and roles in the discord server. Outside of me being able to say " I beat the dark souls of art courses" .

All I can really say is, I don't chicken scratch, and I understand form and perspective and I think Drawabox isn't as great of a course as I thought it was and I gave it my best shot. And my overall critique of the course is that certain aspects of it I do think overstep their boundaries in terms of trying to be ultra disciplined and giving badges and points distracts from the actual learning in my opinion,.

That's all. Maybe I'll finish this in the future, I'm having fun following other instruction.

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