I'm a newcomer here, but I've been practicing art for a few years, so take this with a grain of salt.

The 50/50 rule is something that attempts to give you freedom to draw what you want, as opposed to strictly following the course all the time. It may seem like it's frustrating to draw something of your own, but if you think of it like your judgment free zone, I think it'll be a lot better. Just putting random stuff on paper, anything at all, is good. Draw literally anything. Doodle small 2d shapes if bigger 3d forms are confusing and make you feel bad. You'll practice them in the course anyway and be better at them in due time. Drawing, especially at the start, is about patience. Give yourself the grace to fail, again and again, so it doesn't frustrate you anymore.

As for feeling satisfied, I think that is also quite subjective. A good, straight line is often satisfying. It doesn't have to be a full body sketch, or even a head. As you get further in your art journey, the smaller things will always bring you more satisfaction, because those are the things you draw thousands of times everyday.

This course can often times be hard and frustrating, but it's you who sets most of the terms. Perfectionism is in our veins as creators, and often gets in the way of accepting the mistakes we think we made. Don't worry, is what I'll say. Take it easy and at your own pace, even take a break if you want. It always gets easier.

DrawABox newbie here. I've taken a few college art classes and felt like things never really clicked until I started DrawABox. I'm working through the last section of homework in Lesson 1, too.

I understand how you are feeling because I'm going through the same thing here. Having a specific task to do feels like I am accomplishing something. I'm at the point where I must force myself to do the 50% drawings. But the other day, I saw something extremely important: I am improving. And I am sure that if you are paying attention to what you are doing, you are too!

We can practice lines and boxes all day and not realize that these things translate to usable skills in our non-exercise drawings. My line quality and spatial reasoning have noticeably improved since I started. And the crazy part is that I wouldn't have noticed without the 50% drawings. Shape has started to become form. For me, it was cartoon eyes and mouths that suddenly started to make sense in 3D.

But did improving skills make it any easier for me to do those 50% drawings? To be honest... no. Or, at least, not yet. I am excited to see what has improved. But at the same time, I am nervous that it was a fluke, and this next set of drawings will prove that. But, if we stick with it and put in the time, I am certain that we will continue to see improvement and start to look forward to drawing for fun.

admittedly, I like drawing boxes. as I look to implement the 50/50 rule in own process, it's fun take what I have learned thus far and experiment with other people's ideas. it may be helpful to look at other students work and try the exercises from a different 'perspective' while exercising your own creativity.