Having spent the last 10 years or so refining my photography skills. And, having reached a point where I am fairly pleased with the photos I am able to take, I have begun a new endeavor: drawing and painting.

While this experience has been a tremendous amount of fun, it hasn’t been without its difficulties and frustrations. In fact, something became very clear in my early art attempts.

Art is very hard.

And that difficulty can be discouraging, especially in the beginning. I think this experience is probably pretty common for new artists because artists are the kinds of people who appreciate… uh… art. So, making art that you know is bad (because you are not yet good at making art) isn’t exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world.

So, I thought I would take a moment here to talk about one way I am working to improve my skills and still enjoy the process.

Immediate Feedback

Something I find difficult about learning, uh, anything—is the ratio of effort to results. In other words, I spend a lot of time and energy trying to improve at something, but the improvements are slow and not very rewarding to the part of my brain that wants a payoff. This has been especially true for me with art; many hours spent with a pen or pencil—without much to show for my efforts.

However, I found a shortcut to help me deal with this problem. Instead of spending hours of my life laboring in my sketchbook with nothing but disappointment to show for it, I began copying the techniques of other artists. Not copying their exact work, but trying to emulate the way in which they create it. This has unlocked so many doors of progress for me.

I won’t record an account of every instance in which this has been useful, but most recently, I’ve been watching a YouTube channel called InkRebellion. He has a video on drawing with markers and pens that I found intriguing, so I gave it a go. And I was floored by how quickly I was able to produce something with some visual interest. Sure, I can still see that my skills are not where I want them to be. The drawings aren’t perfect. However, part of his methodology is simply to go straight to marker and pen. No thumbnails, no pencil. Nothing. You just jump right into the thing.

This has worked very well for me as a process because it has increased the volume of art I am making. Which, I know from my photography endeavors will help me improve faster. And it has given me something to show for my efforts after only an hour or so of work. Instead of spending days at a time wondering if the thing I am drawing will end up being any good.

I’m sure this process isn’t for all artists. You, of course, will have to decide who you want to emulate and what of their techniques are useful to you. But for me, this strategy has produced a lot of leaps forward in my art.

Hopefully, it’s something that could work for you, too.