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9:07 AM, Saturday July 17th 2021

I work full time and have a spouse; time is not on my side for this.

But what can be done? I want to draw, and I want to get better - I won't do either if I don't make this enjoyable. So I let go of the expectation that every drawing will be better than thet last, because that goal-minded mentality is the enemy; we all want to be "there" making amazing art, but the journey is what matters.

in practical terms, I do lessons one day, draw for fun the next day, and post feedback whenever I can in between because by explaining lessons to someone else, I'm teaching myself. And if I need a break for a couple days, I let that happen.

8:41 AM, Thursday August 26th 2021

You're completely right, it's all about the journey. I think that's a great lesson this course and doing art in general has to give. A book you might find interesting that writes about this is Mastery by George Leonard.

I'm glad you found your rythm. Take it easy.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
PureRef

PureRef

This is another one of those things that aren't sold through Amazon, so I don't get a commission on it - but it's just too good to leave out. PureRef is a fantastic piece of software that is both Windows and Mac compatible. It's used for collecting reference and compiling them into a moodboard. You can move them around freely, have them automatically arranged, zoom in/out and even scale/flip/rotate images as you please. If needed, you can also add little text notes.

When starting on a project, I'll often open it up and start dragging reference images off the internet onto the board. When I'm done, I'll save out a '.pur' file, which embeds all the images. They can get pretty big, but are way more convenient than hauling around folders full of separate images.

Did I mention you can get it for free? The developer allows you to pay whatever amount you want for it. They recommend $5, but they'll allow you to take it for nothing. Really though, with software this versatile and polished, you really should throw them a few bucks if you pick it up. It's more than worth it.

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