Robaato's Corner • You always get questions from people asking advice and I favorite every one of those that you answer. So if you choose to respond this, thank you very much. My question goes is: You always say practice is important to improve, its the one advice that every accomplished artist gives. However, how do you practice? What do you do to improve your skill, do you always push the extreme, try to imitate they ways of other artists, try others styles? What do you do to evolve your skill, to push yourself.

Q:You always get questions from people asking advice and I favorite every one of those that you answer. So if you choose to respond this, thank you very much. My question goes is: You always say practice is important to improve, its the one advice that every accomplished artist gives. However, how do you practice? What do you do to improve your skill, do you always push the extreme, try to imitate they ways of other artists, try others styles? What do you do to evolve your skill, to push yourself.

Hmm. Interesting question.

Don’t draw just to draw. Try to understand what you’re drawing.

A lot of people come to me saying “Man, Rob! I don’t know what it is I’m not doing right! I’m filling a ton of sketchbooks up and I feel as if I’m not even getting any better.” Well, my typical answer will be “it’s because you’re just drawing for the heck of it. And not breaking things down or observing whatever deeply”. You have to understand what you’re filling up in your sketchbook, or else it’s no bueno.

There are so many ways to push oneself. I still have some things on my list to try, heck, we all do. No matter how you’re studying or what you’re trying to work on to improve, these key things will always be a factor:

Level of Observation
Persistence
Motivation

Seriously, it all comes down to those three things and I usually tell people “you have to be a madman to get better.” Some people are adept at understanding things faster than others, but “talent” is such a vague word in my opinion, when it really all comes down to hard work and effort.

So in short, just find ways to push yourself. Everyone has their own way. As long as you keep those three aforementioned things in mind, you shouldn’t have an issue. :)