Pathway to Improvement

Pathway to Improvement

Are you stuck in an art block and struggling to see any improvement in your work? Or, does the path to improvement feel overwhelming, and you’re not sure where to start?

As someone who’s been through the same experience, I know how hard it can be to figure out the right direction. But, with dedication and lots of research, I was able to drastically improve my art in little time. In this article, I’ll walk you through the methods I used to consistently improve, so you can start seeing real progress and get the results you’re looking for!

To make sure our art journey’s successful, setting measurable and realistic goals is crucial. If we set goals that are too difficult, we’ll get burned out; if they’re too easy, we won’t see the improvement we want. So, it’s important to set the right goals— ones that challenge you enough to keep growing while remaining sustainable over time.

Ask yourself: What am I comfortable with when drawing, and where do I struggle? If you’re not sure about what you need improvement on, ask for critique from peers or online forums. Once you’ve identified areas you want to develop, write them all down. Don’t worry if your list feels long . When I did this, I wrote around 15 specific areas for improvement, as you can see in my list below.

Now, look at your list and see if you can group any of these things together. For example, I could combine ‘work on portraits’ and ‘paint better backgrounds’ together, since they both fall under the “rendering” category. You can see how I grouped everything below.

After doing this, you’ll have a concise list that you can rank by priority. If you’re less comfortable with anatomy, for example, rank it higher in priority. But if you’re more familiar with composition, rank it lower. Now that you have your ‘top-level’ goals, select one to focus on. From there, we can begin building a goal hierarchy.

A goal hierarchy consists of an overarching (or top-level) goal that you ultimately want to achieve, several mid-level  goals, and achievable lower level-goals. Think of your art skills like building a house: it’s far more effective to lay a strong foundation and build steadily, layer by layer, than to construct everything at once without structure.

Once you’ve figured out the top-level goal, create a plan with mid-tier milestones based on your schedule. Set yourself a realistic time frame to achieve your chosen goal, and ask yourself: “What can I actually achieve in this time frame?”

For example, if your overarching goal is portraits and you have the free time, you might aim to draw one portrait every day. If you’re busy with other commitments, you can set a goal such as: “I will draw a portrait 3 times a week”, or “I will complete 30 portraits”. Don’t overwhelm yourself by chasing too many things at once.

In my case, there was a lot I wanted to improve on. I wanted to render portraits and backgrounds better, draw more conceptual and symbolic work, and improve my compositions. These are all top-level goals. Since I’m a student, my schedule’s often busy, so I gave myself a year to master each larger goal.

You can see my art progression in the images below. In 2023, I focused on rendering realistic portraits, followed by backgrounds in 2024.  By 2025, I began deviating from using references directly and creating my own compositions. And this year, my goal is to make my pieces more conceptually meaningful.

After setting my 2024 goal (which was to improve at backgrounds), the next step was figuring out those mid-level and low-level goals. Below, you can see how I structured my goals, but you can adjust this to your preference.

The lower level goals are where studies come into play. Art studies are quite specific to what you want to achieve, but there are two main types of studies: fundamental studies and artist studies. Fundamental studies include things such as anatomy, perspective, or value studies. In contrast, artist studies demonstrate how fundamental principles can be applied in unique, personalized styles. By doing both types of studies, you will develop the ability to create from imagination—understanding why something works—while also gaining exposure to different artistic approaches.

Since fundamental studies are very specific to your personal goals, there’s no “right” way to do them. My approach involved watching videos, taking notes, and doing studies based on what I learned. If this doesn’t work for you, that’s okay! Every artist’s process is unique, so experiment until you find out what works the best.

To improve on my backgrounds, I tackled a challenge: 30 backgrounds in 30 minutes each.  I didn’t draw a background every day and took breaks when I needed to, but the improvement in my art was still huge.  Since the time constraint led me to develop more efficient techniques,  I was able to push myself to draw a broader variety of environments.

To improve my shape language, I did timed two-value studies using the lasso tool, as you can see below. I was able to improve my forms and perception skills, since this type of study forces you to simplify complex scenes into shapes . I learned how to create stronger focal points while getting more comfortable with the lasso tool.

These are just some examples of exercises I did that suited my goals and schedule. For a deeper dive into the basics,  you can check out our beginner-level content here (or intermediate-level here). Those resources cover everything from anatomy and perspective to brushes and color, and include specific exercises to help you sharpen those skills.

Artist studies, on the other hand, can also help you improve.  As the saying goes, ’Good artists copy, but great artists steal’. This doesn't mean directly copying  someone’s work. Instead, you take aspects of what you like from their style and combine it with your own.

Start by picking a goal from the hierarchy you made before.  Then, find artists you admire who excel in that area and choose a few to study. If you’re unsure of which artists to study, check out this link.

Once you’ve identified the artists you’d like to study, it’s time to practice (Note: this is just a short explanation, you can learn more in-depth about art style studies here).

An artist I studied was Zeid Salfiti. In his background illustrations, he’s able to create an illusion of detail with a few brushstrokes. By mixing textured and smooth brushes, he builds a beautiful contrast between hard and soft edges.

When doing your studies, focus on your biggest weaknesses. Since I had a habit of over-rendering, I would limit the amount of times I zoomed in so I could view the full picture. I also used the lasso tool and large brushstrokes to keep my shapes simple. I experimented with different  textures, learning to maximize detail and saturation at the focal points while simplifying everything else . By stepping out of your comfort zone and studying other artists' works, you’ll discover new techniques and dramatically improve your skills. You can see some of my style studies below. Make sure to have fun in your studies!

Now that you’ve learned these techniques and fundamentals, it’s time to tackle the next challenge: application.

Fundamental studies pull you back to the basics, while doing art style studies reveals exactly how your favorite artists are able to make their work so appealing. After practicing both, you can blend the skills that you learned with your own techniques. This takes experimentation, so be patient with the process. Try  different brushes, rendering methods, color schemes, and compositions to see what sticks.

Going back to my background journey, I developed shortcuts for a more efficient workflow, and gained a deeper understanding of how to balance detail while rendering. Through artist studies,, I learned how to immerse characters more seamlessly into their surroundings to create a sense of atmosphere. To combine what I learned with my own style, I first practiced by drawing  from photo references.

Unlike my previous timed studies, these pieces had no time limit, allowing me the freedom to experiment with different ways of rendering. I continued working from reference while integrating  my own original elements and challenging  myself with diverse environments.

You can see my progression below. After doing several of these pieces, my art style evolved from semi-realism to more stylized work.

Once you’re comfortable combining your style with what you’re learned from the studies, take it a step further: repeat the process with a new high-level goal. . Make sure the goals you complete build on each other in difficulty. For instance, as I grew more comfortable with drawing backgrounds from reference, I began branching out into developing original compositions. Over time, as you complete more of these top-level goals, you’ll be able to see incredible progress.

Besides studying and applying, getting feedback on your work from other artists is extremely helpful. It can be hard to put yourself out there and ask for criticism, but it’s worth it! During my background challenge, I asked artists for feedback every ten studies I did. They gave me a lot of detailed advice and pointed out things that I wouldn’t have noticed on my own. As you can see in my progression below, their feedback helped me identify recurring mistakes I struggled with, giving my future studies a much clearer direction. Instead of just feeling like something was ‘off’, I finally understood the exact technical issues I needed to fix as a result of the constructive criticism I received.

Whether you’re doing studies or full-blown illustrations, ask your art friends, art teacher, or even the Internet for advice. You can fill out this form to get feedback from our team of art mentors! By asking for critique for your own work, you’ll be able to learn from others directly and implement what you’ve learned in your pieces going forward.

Art improvement isn’t linear, it’s gradual and differs between each person. Mistakes and failures are inevitable, but if you stay dedicated, you’ll learn and grow. The progress will come. When you look back at where you began, you'll be surprised at how far you've come!