This page attempts to list some of the things I used while learning art and how they affected my artmaking. The page was started in January of 2025 so everything before that is done from memory.

The purpose of this page is twofold:

• Record this for myself before I forget too much of it.
• Provide an easy way for me to tell others what I did to learn art.

Pre-2022

I had several very weak attempts to do art before 2022. This would usually be doing the very first lesson of drawabox. I never committed to anything so I can hardly count it as it being worthy of note.

My only artistic accomplishments were two pieces I did for school art classes. I won an art contest in fourth grade that my school had us participate in. I don't consider that piece to be very good by modern standards. Later, one of my middle school art assignments was selected for the district art show. I consider it to be a good piece for the time but very simple.

I had multiple times in my life that I'd become very bitter and angry from jealousy of seeing those around me be able to create things I considered artistic - drawings, paintings, 3d models, music, etc.. I didn't actually do anything about this until 2022.

2022

In mid-2022, I saw the anime Blue Period. Something about the anime struck a chord with me. I decided to start learning - more seriously this time. I started over with Drawabox and would continue working on it on and off for several months. Unfortunately, I didn't follow the 50% rule and burned out.
What it gave me: A basic understanding of form and perspective.

I also bought the figure drawing and portrait drawing courses from Proko. I primarily worked on the figure drawing course, though I continued to focus entirely on studies in a way that led to burn out and irregular practice.
What it gave me: A basic understanding of figure.

At some point, I also started collecting art books. The few of note that I can remember being useful are Andrew Loomis's Figure Drawing for All It's Worth and Scott Robertson's How to Draw. Loomis was especially useful because of his simplified skeleton.

I attempted Inktober but didn't make it very far.

Another equally important event: I started commissioning artists and joining the Discord servers for some of the artists I loved.

2023

The first significant event for me in 2023 was joining a specific artist's server. Within a few days of joining, I decided to hop into the VC with the artist and his friend (another artist). Over the next few months I ended up becoming very good friends with both of them and several other server members. This was a good environment for learning since I had people I could ask for advice.

A large portion of the year was plagued by issues in my non-art life. Once these issues were resolved, I found myself with very little energy to draw anything. Still, I would draw on and off for a good part of the year.

I attempted Inktober again but stopped after my friends got very into Satisfactory.

In December, started Proko's Drawing Basics course. Unfortunately, the issues stated previously led to me not completing much of it before stopping art entirely for several months.

2024

In early 2024, I started a small, private server with some friends with one focus: artmaking. I only invited a few people, only artists, and organized the server in a way to encourage more focus on art and less on things that would distract us like video games. I called the server "Art School".

I started Steven Zapata's Form From Imagination course around July of 2024. Unfortunately, as plagued me previously, I didn't follow the 50% rule. Additionally, I hit a hard block at the textured sphere assignment. I couldn't wrap my head around the shading of the more complex forms. I would restart it later in the year with the same result. What it gave me: A stronger understanding of form and how it affects light.

Around this time was also then the non-art issues causing me to have little energy for drawing were finally resolved.

Some time around November, I started a book club in the Art School server to read Atomic Habits.

Inktober 2024 was a success for me. Arguably, it was the biggest success for me in terms of artistic development because of what it showed me: that my previous attempts at artmaking were unsustainable. This partially came from struggling to keep up with each day's prompt, and partially from thinking about what the book club was discussing. All of my art goals were too big and vague and I would easily burn out. The most successful part of Inktober was, perhaps ironically, when I stopped caring about the prompts and started drawing Absols using pet photos from r/AccidentalRenaissance.

Starting November 2nd, I started something new: I made a Tumblr blog that I would post to once a day with something I had drawn in the past 24 hours. As I write this section on 2025-01-18, I have only missed a few days. Most of the drawings are bad: half-completed heads, simply-shaded cylinders, etc.. One day only had a few boxes and a pyramid! I feel no fear uploading there because nobody knows the URL except me. (Well, one person does but he doesn't check that often.)

Around this time I also started using Simple Time Tracker to track my time in three categories:

• Drawing time spent learning: any drawings made specifically for studying, be it courses or drills or master studies
• Drawing time spent for fun: drawings made because I wanted to
• Non-drawing art study: Time spent on learning art without actually drawing (like watching course videos or reading) The benefit of this was that I could make sure I was spending at least half my time on doing things for fun instead of for "class", and that I was encouraged to focus more on art during the times I was making it so that my time tracking would be more accurate.

The book club also started on a new book: Art and Fear.

In late December, I spent my holiday PTO doing Marshall Vandruff's Bridgman Bootcamp. I made it up to episode 9 before life got in the way.