If someone told you they were going to play sports at a professional level by the end of the year but they don't even practice regularly, would you believe them? This is how Art careers work as well, there is a surprising amount of crossover between Art skill and Sports skill. Both are physical activities that are a coordination exercise between hand and mind, both are using the mind to see beyond what is happening in the present but what will happen next and how is the current action affecting the whole. It is better to treat the journey of learning art as a marathon rather than a sprint and accept that it will likely take you quite a while to get to the "professional" level.
Studies done by Me (Redvirus) in 2019 (Digitally w/ Procreate)
Souls Series Weapon Poster done by Me (Redvirus) in 2025 (Traditionally w/ Marker, Watercolor, Ink)
That's not to say there aren't more efficient paths however! I've spent the last decade trying Art (Drawing and painting specifically) and bouncing off, only to find myself drifting back. Over the last three years however I've started making substantial progress, and in the last year really hit my stride for consistent improvement. I want to be clear this is not a "Follow these steps and go from Zero to Hero in a year." type of pitch, people who make those promises are lying or trying to sell you something and lying. The following tips are the most impactful changes that I made to how I practice, and I hope they can help you too:
Tip 1: JIT Practice
Just in Time or JIT in the concept of learning something as needed to solve a problem instead of learning it ahead of time and just hoping you remember, also known as Just in Case (JIC) learning. For years when I started out (and occasionally still) I focused on learning things just because I thought they were good to know. "I should learn anatomy!" or "Learning how to draw clouds would be cool!" would be my primary driver to draw and if you had come back a few days later and asked me to draw those things, ...well I probably wouldn't have been able too.
The reason for this (in my non-expert understanding) is that when you learn something new it makes a new neural pathway associated with that knowledge. If that new connection is not associated with an existing 'memory' it is harder to recall that information so it is more likely to be 'forgotten'. JIT practice alleviates this issue by making sure you are only learning things when you need them, which creates a connection between the project you are working on and the knowledge itself, meaning it is easier to recall! Realistically I think everyone has experienced this first hand in other aspects of our lives; doing something at work and get stuck, get some help from a coworker then proceed to keep doing that thing, that kind of knowledge embeds itself deep because it makes strong connections to other existing memories.
So what does this look like in practice? It looks like setting aside your tutorials, and How-to's and instead focusing on a piece. This could be a sketch, a life study, or a bigger finished piece you are working on. As you work on that piece keep an eye out and as soon as you notice that you don't know how to do something, stop and go grab your tutorial associated with that topic and spend 30 minutes practicing it. The next step is the most important part though! After you have completed that study GO BACK TO THE PIECE AND TRY IT AGAIN! This helps associate that practiced learning with the project and helps embed that deep in your brain.
The wonderful Marc Brunet beat me to this topic, so if you want to hear more on this and my next point check out his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8S_mno1SCA
Tip 2: Project Based Learning
Project based learning is generally considered one of the best ways to learn anything. As i mentioned in Tip 1 being able to learn something and immediately apply it helps ingrain that knowledge into your brain. Working on a project long term helps you consistently strengthen those neural pathways by having you review what you've already done and reapply that knowledge to new parts of the project. This project is also motivation to come back and keep practicing, but there is a fine line here. The project needs to be difficult enough to not be completed in one sitting but not so daunting as too be overwhelming. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by a project idea it typically means one of two things: it is beyond your current capacity for a project (that's okay, we can work up to it), or you haven't divided the project into small enough chunks yet.
Lets say you want to paint a whole Tarot card series, which is a massive undertaking. We can get a better idea of the scope of the project by dividing it into the following:
- Minor and Major Arcana,
- Suits,
- Key components:
- Card frame,
- Card Back,
- Thematic representation of the suit,
- Actual core image.
Now when we want to do some art we always know what to work on, and when we run into something we don't know how to do we can refer back to Tip 1 and follow the JIT principal. This is why personally I have found project based learning has basically entirely eliminated my art block, I always know what to work on.
Tip 3: 70/30 Fun vs Practice
This is one I've had to learn the hard way multiple times across both Art and Software Development. When I would typically want to learn something new I would go all into learning it, 100% of my drawing/coding time dedicated to improving my skills. This would always, inevitably lead to burnout, some times would take longer but I would always end up there. After a particularly bad burnout from coding that impacted every aspect of my life I stepped back and with some therapy was able to get a better handle on practice and finally establish a sustainable balance. That balance for me looks like 70/30 split between fun drawings for me and focused practice.
However that split would not work without a project to apply it to. Most of my 100% ALL IN practice I remember almost nothing of. It felt like cramming for a test at school, last second cram and try to remember enough for the test, and immediately forget it after. The test never came though and I just stressed myself out until I broke. This might have meant I put in 3 hours of practice a day for two weeks during my hyper focus totaling 42 hours of Art/Code being done (usually it was much less than this). After that I'd burnout and stop doing it for a month sometimes longer (outside of work, which my quality suffered there as well). However now if I want to put 3 hours into Art/Code 2 hours of that is going to be on my projects or just fun stuff I want to do and only 1 hour will be practice (at most).
Over the course of a month or two I'll far surpass that 42 hours of hyper focus due to not burning out and I'll actually remember what it was I practiced because I'm not just cramming as much as I can. Most importantly though, I will be healthier and have a better relationship with my art/code and actually want to do them and not resent myself for not achieving my hyper practice goals. Which leads me into a bonus tip.
Bonus Tip: Prioritize yourself
Art is sometimes fun goofy stuff you make for your friends, or work that you do for a client, or a hyper-fixated need to breathe life into your O.C.'s. Regardless of what type of Art you are doing, goofy, work, obsession, or something else, it is a part of you. Part of your being is instilled into each piece you do, the specific way you see things, the way your hand works, the things you decide to accentuate, all of it is a manifestation of who YOU are. If you are sick or stressed your art will suffer, I've seen it with my pieces and I've heard other artists talk about it too. That doesn't mean that your art will be bad if you're chronic ill or something, just that when you aren't putting yourself first your art suffers. I have Chronic illnesses and there are sketchbooks I can look back through and see the difference that my mental health and physical health make on my work. Put yourself first, take rest days, turn off the phone and just sleep. Go walk through nature, laugh with friends, remember what being human means, these things recharge the art batteries and make it so we can put more of ourselves into our work.
Remember put yourself first, it matters. The first image below took twice as long as the second, and was 10 times more frustrating to do.
A Sketch I did during the height of a Flair up by Me (Redvirus) in December 2025 (Digital, Procreate)
A Doodle done after taking time to recover from a flair up by Me (Redvirus) in 2026 (Digital, Krita)
