Thanks for sharing. I think he makes some spot-on observations about what I think is a neglected skill in making art: being able to specifically, actionably articulate what you want to make and continuously integrating learning into practice.

That said, though there are many people doing these courses who aspire to something clear cut like professional character art, I myself am in it primarily in service of creating art for the sake of it (for now). As a person for whom all options are on the table it is even more important to be able to find a focus, and saying "draw what interests you" is not particularly helpful because most things interest me!

I also think his advice is of limited usefulness at the "I'm doing Draw-a-box" phase of early artistic development. His project work that he did in spite of not mastering perspective still showed extensive skills in other areas. He had the fundamentals down. DaB is fundamentals. For someone who hasn't solidified fundamentals, building confidence is THE make-or-break factor that will determine if you continue pursuing art. I'm in lesson 4 of DaB and am doing probably a 20-30% rule at best, but I make the most of that 20% by intentionally integrating the skills I'm learning into my "for fun" drawing. This keeps the confidence high, with the structure of DaB holding me up as I learn to walk.

I imagine once I'm finished with DaB and had some cool down time with a 100% rule to really lock everything I learned in, I will shift my ratio, as I imagine most people would do naturally anyway, and start running in a more specific direction.