Getting even more desperate. Unable to even study right now. What do I do?

I've made two previous threads regarding a spatial reasoning issue I've been having, and am now at the point where it's impeding me so much that I can't find it in me to practice / study. I did these practices daily for a year, but almost nothing changed where I needed to most, and now it can takes weeks to do simple pieces because I'm just so frustrated with being unable to actually see what I'm doing.

I've asked here and a number of other places and people here have been lovely, but I still don't have an answer, and I'm pretty much at my breaking point. Now what?

Some reminders / important points from those previous threads:
1. I am not a new or beginner artist. I have an art education and years of experience. Statements like "it takes time" or "practice more", or telling me to try a different subject / medium because people are too difficult, are well-intended but ultimately pretty hurtful.
2. Repetitive practice simply hasn't worked, and has instead reinforced bad habits / barely improved over a year.
3. I have already tried Draw A Box, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, many, many practices from here (figure/gesture, portrait, and still life), and a variety of YouTube videos.

Honestly, I don't know what else I could say. Please ask Kim or Sanne. Maybe they'll know what to do with your spatial reasoning problem.

P.S. Can you please show us some samples of your first sketches, that would demonstrate your sense of spatial reasoning that you're talking about?

Let's hope you feel all better like never before. Cheers!🥂😘😘😘

Aww, thanks. I'm hesitant to share examples because people tend to just critique them instead of focusing on the question I asked (it's been a consistent problem; I'll say "hey, I'm having trouble with the length of the legs, I know they're too long but they become too short when I fix them, and they don't look right no matter what I do" and share examples, and people will reply with "well they're too long here, so draw them shorter"), but there were some in my very first thread I believe (they may be a bit hard to find, though).

To be honest I don't know if I will be of help, but I'll try. I do not completely understand what you can and can't see and how your brain translates it to your hands. I don't know what you want to accomplish. Do you want to find your own style or do you want to draw a photolike image? For my answer it does not really matter, but it could be that I'm not helpfull at all.

Last week I saw an excerpt of a bbc documentary about Sargy Mann. He is blind and he paints. Before he became blind he was a landscape painter. Now he paints people and reinvented his way of painting. He makes large paintings so he can use his wife as reference for people. Something happened and he kept painting but in a different way.

We all know how Picasso changed his way of painting throughout the years. For him it was a choice to change his style and he found a new one.

If I read your threads I see an artist who wants to accomplish something. You are willing to practice till you drop and you do so. Have you ever stopped practicing and looked at your drawings and maybe even shared them with friends or other artists and asked them what they liked about your drawings? It could be that your new way of drawing and painting has it's own charm like Sargy Mann, or you find a new style like Picasso. By looking at it like an outsider or asking outsiders you could see beauty in what you do. At the moment I follow many artists on instagram and I've always loved painters in the past. They all have/had their unique style. I love the dreamyness of Monet or the streaks in the works of Van Gogh.

So my advice would be: Look at your drawings and paintings from a new perspective and own it. Learn to love it and make it your own style. Practice your style and be your new you.

Sorry, this isn't really what I'm looking for. The previous threads not only have answers to your questions, but do state quite clearly that I'm looking for practical advice rather than mindset / motivational advice, and while this is sweet, it's just not what I need (and honestly, I've had a few people answer my threads like this; it's a bit tiring as I feel like I'm not being understood). As mentioned in those threads, I have a clear goal, and this issue is getting in the way of my acheiving it.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 7, 2023 10:48pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 7, 2023 10:51pm.

Yes, we understand, Icouldntthinkofaname, but we gotta go to bed now. Good night.

Sorry, what are you talking about?? I was responding to the other person.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 8, 2023 2:05pm.

I might be late, but what exactly do you want to improve? If you are struggling with proportions, focus only on that, until you will be satisfied, don't try to improve everything at once. Set smaller goals to you bigger goal. And your mindset is not something just spiritual, if you don't believe that you are gonna make it, your brain will do everything in its power to stop you from making useless efforts. It's straight up logical

I really don't want to be rude and appreciate the attempt, and I want to be clear about that. I am very frustrated and I promise it's not personal, the attempt really is appreciated.

But your advice was what I was doing pretty much until this post. I have that spatial issue I mentioned that makes my path to improvement not quite the same as people who don't experience this problem's, and just focusing on improving those specific things hasn't helped - it's what got me here in the first place. In my other threads I'm now looking for exercises to train spatial reasoning / depth perception specifically as these other, more specific problems tie back to that.

My other threads go a lot more in-depth, but if you don't want to read pages and pages (which tbf I wouldn't either): it's very specifically faces (feature placement, symmetry, and head structure specifically) and proportions (specifically sizing and feeling less "flat" - I find myself making heads and legs too large or too small, or struggling to figure out how an arm or leg should bend even with photo references and deliberate practice / study, since my issue isn't just inexperience or not knowing the "correct" thing). I have an illustration degree that I'm a few years out from, and while I studied before, I spent the last year or so going especially hard on studies (daily practice, very much focusing on my specific goals - there's more detail about what I've tried already in those threads), with few results - there's some general improvement, but still not where I'm actually trying to improve, and the flaws I'm trying to iron out are still present.

I acknowledge that my mindset has flaws, but I also have a very real problem that advice like "practice more / focus on improvement / just try harder" isn't helpful for; it makes me feel like my problem still isn't being understood.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 16, 2023 8:50pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 16, 2023 8:51pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 16, 2023 8:52pm.

I don't want to be rude, but I have been very clear about my frustrations and what responses just aren't helpful. This is unhelpful and frankly just ignores a lot of what I've said - I've made all of my points as clear as I possibly can and feel that you haven't really read or understood them.

If I was "reducing myself to a diagnosis", I would not be looking for help solving the problem. Those dozens of answers were either things I'd tried already over lengthy periods of time, or things that weren't relevant or that I'd asked people to not do, which includes things like the exact advice you've offered here.

I tried, at length, to solve the problem myself before asking for help. That issue that you're so fixated on me "reducing myself to" is one that has a direct effect on my art and my daily life, and is one I recently discovered. I am not making excuses, but looking for accommodations, and reaching out in hopes that other people have overcome their similar issues, as mentioned in my initial post.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 27, 2023 3:53pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 27, 2023 3:53pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 27, 2023 5:12pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 27, 2023 5:14pm.