>>5961857Developing a project-minded approach is very useful.
1)Find a practical application for your pieces: illustrations for a book; environment designs for a videogame; character designs for an animated short film. They can be pretend projects if necessary but try and fit in something related to an interest of yours that you could set in motion with the appropriate help (or better yet, on your own).
2)If you're of a "higher" artistic mind, this can also work. Don't do single pieces: work in series with a theme and an intention. This is also guaranteed to enhance the general interest of your work. Develop a small manifesto for the "work", which can be as simple as a single statement in your head: something that will let you generally know whether you've failed or succeeded.
3)Only do "sketches" and "studies" as preparatory pieces tailored to the scope of their application: If you want to practice animal anatomy, set a project for yourself in which you need to apply animal anatomy. And FOCUS: if it's anatomy you're practicing, maybe you don't need shading or color in your study. If it's shading or color you're practicing, maybe you don't need to obsess about anatomy for the sketch.
4)In general you should set up your projects to involve a healthy ratio of stuff you're already proficient at and stuff you want to practice: the ratio can be tweaked depending on your current physical and emotional stamina, but should never be completely unbalanced towards either extreme.
In short: you don't need to know where you're going or count every step, but you should a general idea of how will you know if you've arrived.
Also:
4)It's fine to consume media to build your visual literacy and know what standards to aim for, but don't get all your inspiration FROM media: live a little and go outside to do non-art-related things. Find things that interest you outside art, including people
