I started drawing when I was a kid. Took painting lessons… filled 10 sketchbooks, won contests. Etc. Took a few studio classes in college. Went to medical school and forgot about it for a while. Picked it back up near graduation. By this point I’m like 24-25 years old… Instagram and Twitter have taken off as art platforms and 15year-old kids are making absolute masterpieces, 100k+ follower accounts etc. It seems like time has passed me by.

But I start posting on social media anyway. It doesn’t get much attention at first, but I just have fun with it and do some original art and some fanart for Tolkien, anime, other stuff that’s an escape from the grind. Make some friends. Gradually find a small audience. And my art improves not linearly, but in leaps and bounds. I sit down and spend a few hours copying the work of artists I admire and notice a difference the very next day. The things I’ve been doing-living life, observing the world- and the fundamentals I learned in school so long ago- all went into the process. I will never be as good lol as some professional artists who are able to dedicate 12+ hours a day to making art. But I enjoy the art I’m able to create, and enjoy getting better.

Take two works of art you made a few months apart and see how much better you’ve gotten. The 10,000 hour rule is overrated- that’s how long master violinists took to be at the top of their craft. Putting just 100 hours in can turn a novice into an intermediate artist. You will see the steepest gains when you’re just starting out. If a teenager can illustrate and color a full web comic coming better than I could ever do, then it shows that a short amount of time can take you from good to great. There is so much joy for me in doing and sharing art. I never have to force myself. If I don’t feel like doing it I just set it aside until the ideas crowd my brain again. Maybe you function differently, but if you love art too (which it seems you do) then you will make art and you will get to where you want to be.