New artists do well following the advice “just draw more”. However, what’s next?

During the first few years of my art career, I thought that more drawing = more improvement. While this does help build your visual library and improve your art overall, it’s not what helped me improve the most.

Enter art studies. Any artist worth their salt knows the value of these exercises. Whether you’re drawing from life or copying an artist you look up to, there’s a much faster improvement in purposeful studies.

Any artist worth their salt knows the value of art studies. Here's some advice for doing them effectively. Click To Tweet

After finishing my foundation studies, here’s the advice I’d tell younger me on how to do art studies effectively for faster improvement.

Decide on one thing to study

I used to charge headfirst into studies, determined to learn and make great finished artwork. You’ve probably felt disappointed when it was anything but finished.

That’s a mindset you’ll want to dispense with immediately. Studies are for learning, not finishing.

I recommend starting with a single goal (or problem) in mind. Were you unable to capture a pose the other day? Maybe you want to practice your body construction.

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Starting with what keeps you focused on a shortcoming. Instead of spreading yourself thin obsessing with details and ‘correctness’, you hone in on your problems and start fixing them.

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Use Good Reference

Whenever choosing material to study, make sure it helps you rather than work against you. Try to avoid:

• Using low-quality images
• Studying overly-identical references
• Using images irrelevant to your study focus
• Staying stuck to one type of reference

If possible, draw from life. Otherwise, try to find high-quality images from sites with a variety of content. I talk about that in my article on finding good NSFW references.

You could also study other artists. So-called master studies are foundational for traditional art education. Even if you only draw NSFW, I highly recommend studying from the masters occasionally. Otherwise, you could study your NSFW art inspirations.

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Whenever you do master studies, I recommend writing down why you like them. What are they doing successfully? How do you think they’re pulling it off? Is it the line-making, the use of color theory?

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Again, it goes back to purposeful studying. Visual copying isn’t enough; you have to use both your thinking and creative sides of the brain.

 Switch up your medium

Some artists swear by digital, others traditional. But a good artist knows there’s something to learn from both media, regardless of their preference.

Traditional pencil on paper drawing doesn’t have an undo button, but that’s precisely its strength. It forces you to become aware of your line-making.

• How heavy is your line weight? Are you “chicken-scratching” or unconfident of your lines?
• What texture does your pencil or material make?
• Is your mark-making intentional? Are you communicating a story through your lines?

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On the other hand, digital art opens up a world of fundamentals to someone without proper materials.

• If you make your drawing black and white, are the values clashing or unified?
• Are you using the color picker to get colors from other artworks, or are you training yourself to pick colors visually?
• Are you doing reference draw-overs to figure out the exact proportions and learn?

Digital art also allows you to problem solve and fix your mistakes, an issue I had with traditional media. Just remember not to get too dependent on those tools!

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Regardless of what you choose, every step out of your comfort zone will lead to your overall improvement. Rather than seeing different media as competitors, think of them as parts of the whole. Drawing in traditional should inform and improve your digital art decisions, and vice versa.

Draw it more than once

Drawing is incredibly complex, yet we put ourselves down when we don’t get it right the first time. After a failed study, I would be dejected and quickly move on to the next thing.

Remember advice #1? Study what you find difficult.

Isn’t this the perfect opportunity for that?

Draw it again. Build on what you learned from the previous drawing. Determine what will make it look better (remember, purposeful improvement), then redraw.  

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The more drawings you shit out, the more you’ll go from “I need to get it right” to “I need to problem-solve”. Each mistake is an opportunity for you to make a weakness into a strength.

Be open to different materials, tools, and techniques

I’ve always been resistant to using 3d models as basis for my poses. I thought doing so would hinder my growth.  

Similar to advice #3, using different tools and techniques isn’t a zero-sum game. You don’t become a weaker artist if you use them appropriately.

What are the tools and materials you’ve been hesitating to try? Why are you holding yourself back from them? For me, it’s an emotional block that keeps me from using models and pre-generated poses. I reasoned that coming up with a pose from scratch was the only way I’d get better.

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That mindset is problematic. It stops me from using posers as a tool. There are some NSFW poses that are near impossible to find good reference for, and sometimes setting up the pose yourself will be more helpful.

• I won’t improve if I use that tool –> I can learn something new and different using it
• I’m shit at that material anyway –> I haven’t used it much, I’ll learn different techniques and how to problem solve
• That technique looks too complicated –. What does each step accomplish? How can I break this down and use it in my next artwork?

Avoiding them can actually hinder your growth, given different techniques force you to focus on different fundamentals.

Fancy yourself a line artist? Try finishing a drawing with only digital painting. Never done a realistic style? Try drawing the same thing in your usual style, then a style you’ve never done.

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Conclusion

To summarize:

1. Decide on one thing to study so you don’t overwhelm yourself. Focus on improving the weak areas of your art.
2. Use good reference, both in quality and variety. Draw from life, from 3d models, and study inspirations.
3. Switch up your medium, focus on improvement as an artist overall when doing studies.
4. Draw it more than once, especially if you don’t get it right the first time.
5. Practice using different tools and techniques.

Though it seems overwhelming just how much there is you can do, remember that each study will make you a better artist. Though the progress might be unnoticeable at first, it will stack up.

Keep going and don’t forget to have fun 🙂

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