Hi StressZits,

I'm sorry to hear that you are frustrated with your progress and skills. My advice would be: Don't worry to much about your improvement or what you think you might did wrong in the past. I myself tried to start with drawing a lot over the last couple of years (longest I stuck with it were a few weeks). Most of the time I dropped it because I wasn't satisfied with the results. That is until I saw the lesson 0 videos from Uncomfortable, in which he states the 50%-rule. That kept me thinking about that I never really did draw for the sake of just drawing, at least outside of my childhood. Now that I'm just filling pages of my sketchbook with whatever comes into my mind (most of it comes out as crap, but I don't mind it anymore because it was fun doing it) it is much easier for me to stick with drawing and dedicating some of my time to hard and deliberate practice sessions.

To answer your first question. I would pick up the lessons where you left off and do what you're already doing incorporate them in the warm ups. So a light refresher will work. If you worry about their quality you might post some of your warm up pages and see if someone is kind enough to give you a feedback on them.

Regarding your Second question:

What always helps me to stay disciplined is setting myself a date or a time of day which is reserved for practice sessions and I'm trying not to grind during the sessions. Each of my practice sessions contains an easy to reach goal. For example in my 250 Box challenge: the goal was as simple as just putting at least one box to the best of my abilities down on the page, that of course resulted in more than just one box per session most of the time. But I only spend as much time practicing as I can. If I feel that I can't focus anymore I stop the deliberate practice and recharge my batteries by doing something fun or relaxing. My tip for this is find dates for your practices which fit your schedule and set a goal for it, that's easy to reach for you. And never forget to draw for fun. ;)

And I think my mindset changed a lot, I don't think anymore that I need to improve my skills as fast as possible. It's more like I want to improve my art and am willing to put the time in needed whenever I can.

I hope this helps!