I think the most important thing is enjoying the process rather than the end product. I’m not a master at art, but I like to do the following things, in no particular order:

1. Copy from people more experienced than me and/or use references.
2. Describe in words specific things that I want to draw before actually drawing.
3. Have strong fundamentals of art (there’s a lot of guides online on how to do this. DrawABox is one of them, if you are interested)

The second point helps me keep a focused picture in my head instead of constantly figuring out what I want to add.

I like to draw rooms, so I write down stuff that I want to draw in the room: chairs, tables etc. then I draw the layout of the placement of the objects, and finally I draw the actual room.

I also look up old Soviet apartment rooms and other types of room so then I can grab what I think looks neat and add to my own drawings.

the final drawing always looks like crap for me, but I like the process.

1. Copy the drawings you like in the style you want to emulate
2. drawabox.com
3. How to draw by Robertson
4. Come to the understanding that a lot of the skill of drawing comes in the form of thinking how to and where to place a line, that you’ve just got good at copying things and not drawing, and maybe should have spent some time in local community college learning how to draw in between jobs and that would been a better use of spare time when you were younger.
5. Keep trying anyway

Signed, someone who has not earned the title of “artist”

how did you guys find motivation to keep drawing even when you felt things looked terrible?

usually i criticize myself “would i use this drawing as a wallpaper for my pc or cellphone?” can i see sexy this drawing? if the answer is no, try to watch some ideas and think: “what makes this drawing of another artist good or sexy for me?” maybe the anatomy, maybe the use of colors and with that idea i try to make something that makes me feel better

I’m pretty crap at drawing

you just get good at drawing…making drawings and making self-critique

Did u guys do like studies

in my case just wanted to draw, and keep learning watching tutorials, honing my anatomy and stuff, every drawing kinda gets better imo

Following my last comment, I did a search and found these:

1. Making Comics (comics, manga and graphic novels) - Scott Mcloud
2. Figure drawing for all it’s worth - Loomis (lots of folks have found Loomis’ books have helped them significantly)

https://archive.org/details/MakingComics-StorytellingSecretsOfComics

Hope it helps!

(You have an aim; it makes a world of difference in actually getting good at something. Go for it)

As a professional artist of 10 years who started drawing only after they left school. Draw what you want, as often as possible. Study and output is most important to improvement. Look at styles you love and try breaking them down. Study books related to your goals and test them out. And make smaller goals. If you shoot for a 1000 page comic when you just start drawing you may never feel like youre accomplishing anything. But making minicomics help work you up to the larger goal. You can even do them on the side. Something I did was I made fanart for other creators or fans often. People always appreciate fanart, and it gives you a wider skillset when you have to jump from drawing a cat from a childrens book to a mech from a revolutionary anime.

But with most skills, you have to make it fun to keep motivating yourself. Otherwise you will distract yourself with other things, and only focus on the failures. There’s not a cheat code that will make you better instantly, just trail, error, study, and output, output, output.

I am in this boat as well. I’m told some artists do regular conference calls online, hosting a virtual co-working space in which everyone provides a silent peer pressure to stay focused for the duration. I have yet to try it, out of an irrational fear of bothering people mostly, but I suspect it would be highly effective in my case.

Start with learning how to properly translate 3D forms into a 2D plane. It’s the most important fundamental of drawing. Drawabox was already mentioned and it’s a solid resource. If you are experienced at sailing the high seas and finding stuff, the better option is Dynamic Sketching by Peter Han. Drawabox draws inspiration from it.

There’s also an ongoing perspective course by Marshall Vandruff on proko.com if you can afford the price. I’ve looked at the free samples from it and it seems great and you will absolutely perspective for a visual novel. It’s new so I don’t know if you can find it from alternate sources, but if you can’t and don’t have the money, Dynamic Sketching or drawabox will still give you a great base.

Next up, human anatomy. Analytical Figure Drawing by Michael Hampton is a great resource. It shows you the form and placement of the major muscles you need to know as an artist one area of the body at a time. Another great teacher for anatomy is Steve Huston, try them both and see what sticks. I also like the Morpho anatomy books.

Feel free to message me if you need help tracking these down.

Focus on one thing to improve on at a time (like colors, proportions, perspective, etc.), and judge your improvement based on if you were able to accomplish that rather than the whole drawing being “good”. It’s a lot of trial and error in my experience, and it helps if you like experimentation.

Here is an example of using the method above: Only focusing on drawing the proportions of the human face correctly, and studying different ways to get proportions right (such as the grid method or measuring the distances between each feature.) This can also train your eye to see what is working or not working in past and future pieces.

Some resources: For color and lighting I recommend Marco Bucci and James Gurney on YouTube! I think it’s something that isn’t focused on as much as it should be.

also ngl caffeine helps with motivation for me but that won’t work for everyone