Jesus Christ, There's So Much to Learn About Drawing · 7:22am Nov 18th, 2021
Yeah, yeah, I know this should've been common sense 
Seriously, though, it is incredibly annoying to learn every aspect of a skill at once from scratch. Last November, I could barely draw a stick figure and smiley face, and my goal was to draw a full comic. This meant I had to learn 1) All aspects of gesture 2) All aspects of character expression 3) All aspects of environments (natural and man-made) 4) Drawing all types of objects 5) The perspective knowledge to do all this from any rotation and camera angle 6) Shading, color, lighting, texture, etc.
All at once 
The best analogy really is MMA/fighting. Most artists start drawing as kids or teens, and usually do characters with some basic environments. This is similar to how most MMA fighters start with wrestling as a teen, or they do some other martial art for years first. I'm doing the equivalent of learning how to wrestle, grapple, box, kick, knee/elbow all at once, while also gaining muscle, strength and cardio from scratch.
Anyway, here's the run down of the current plan:
* For all of these, the goal is to do them in any viewing angle, camera angle, tilt, rotation, crazy foreshortening, and other manipulation. No matter how difficult the perspective, I have to be a pro at it.
1. Gesture
A. Eyes
B. Ears
C. Snout/Mouth
D. Body
E. Hooves
F. Wings (closed and open)
G. Mane/Tail
2. Expressions
A. How various expressions alter the mouth and snout
B. How these expressions alter the eyes, cheeks, and other parts of the face
C. How various expressions alter the body in a cartoony way (such as certain cartoony expressions stretching the body like this, or even alterations like this)
3. Objects
A. Ponies holding objects (cups, glasses, clothes, a goddamn shotgun lol, etc).
B. Ponies in objects (buildings, vehicles, etc)
4. Environments
A. Ponies in natural environments (+ objects)
B. Ponies in man-made objects (+ some nature thrown in there + some objects)
5. Light/Texture
A. Lighting/Shading on all the above
B. Texture on all the above
C. Color on all the above
As you can see, they all build on one another. Also, for the record, I can already do all of these minus the Light/Texture section. My issues are 1) I want to be able to do them FAST 2) I need to do these while manipulating every and all aspects of perspective. For example, I can do gestures like these now, each in 45 seconds while being to break down the gesture and manipulate it if I want.
Back in April, each of these would have taken me 20+ minutes, and I would've been copying without truly understanding the perspective and vanishing points of each part of the gesture. Perspective is awesome, I'm even able to rotate gestures like these into different viewing angles while keeping the gesture intact.
.............
Anyway, as a "final exam" of sorts, here's my punishment to myself:
1. 100 gesture/expression challenge
- Nearly all will be as challenging as possible!
- 20 or so of them will be redrawn in different viewing angles, crazy camera angles, or with crazy foreshortening for an added challenge. So 80 or so originals (with 20 redrawn = 100).
2. 100 objects challenge
- Goal is super challenging objects! I'm talking anime mechs, vehicles, fighter jets, weird anime weapons, beautiful clothes, etc.
- Once again, 80 or so original with 20 being redrawn in another way for added challenge).
3. 50 environments challenge
- I hate environments, so only 50 and I'll pick simpler ones
I'll also see if I can use my shading and coloring skills to change the genres for certain gestures and environments. For example, having one gesture be like this:
Then again, I do wonder if I'm doing too much. For example, the IDW comics have panels like this:
Other than the shading and coloring (because I've barely focused on it)... I could literally draw that right now. What do you all think?
drawing is hard. painting is harder.
I find sketching and shading easier. Perspective is still messing me up.
keep up the practice and you'll become better than my sister.
I personally think you're going a little Twilinanas about this, sure pushing yourself is important but from your extensive list you won't be happy until you are 120% perfect and Fausticorn help you if you fall behind schedule by a single day.
I'm a doodler, I may never get the same recognition as some of the fandom's "greatest artists" but I CAN say that over time I have gradually improved and I can look back at earlier doodles and be like okay yeah I could have done 'X' better.
5608642
Dude, shading is impossible for me lol. Perspective is easy for me, though, probably because unlike most artists, I started with it. I was rotating cubes and cylinders in all sorts of crazy ways before moving on to gestures, so complicated gestures are easy for me now.
5608682
Twilight is my favorite G4 pony and the one I relate to the most for a reason
Funny enough, I'm actually quite lazy with my drawing. I'd probably die if I followed a schedule haha.
5608797
Lol, I don't remember if I said it before but pony reignited my artistic muse, I don't draw all the time or anything and I am a far cry from being a well known artist, but if I showed you a before and after comparison...well the results would speak for themselves XD.