I feel similar to you, I think part of improving is to push out of the comfort zone and to make mistakes a million times until you get it.
I search for tutorials and guides, reference pictures, figure drawings. I look at stuff that's inspiring and try to wonder how they did it (like your stuff hot damn!)

I actually am trying to figure out how to loosen up, because I am so rigid when drawing. I am incapable of painting because my mind is so incredibly set on what it wants it to look like so I just do the old sketch/lines/color over and over again.

Experimenting and trying new things, drawing different themes and overall expanding in perspective is probably the best way to learn, at least in my experience.

Maybe you should try painting without drawing any kind of lines or sketch? D: When I do tight line-arts it also kind of makes me rigid, wanting to follow them, so I only do some very rough sketching for big artworks. That would be a big out-of-comfort thing since your line-arts seems to be your greatest strength :3

Oooh that's scary! But you are very much right. This year I didn't focus in improving and just in producing and I realize it's giving me things I am not 100% pleased with. I will definitely try that in the future.
(also thank you for watching me it's such a huge honor aaaaah)

For me, the biggest things are reading and experimenting.

I have pretty much learned most of subtractive synthesis purely by experimentation.

On the other hand, there are some really huge topics in music (like harmony or mixing) which are just so vast that I wouldn't even have an idea where to start trying. In such cases, my growing library of books about music production is my best friend. When I first jump into a topic, I don't really try to get deep right from the beginning though. I would rather just read the entire book as fast as I can, so I have an image in my head about what to start experimenting with and try as much as I can in practice... and then go back and dive more into the details, by re-reading the book slower and practicing the techniques separately.

Online courses are great in ways that they give me inspiration and through the assignments a sort of measure about how much I managed to learn. Sometimes I pick up an online course and do only the exams and assignments, without checking any of the course materials up front. This gives me a good idea on which areas I still have to work on.

On a different note, I always prefer a kind of learning that gives me some sort of instant gratification. That makes all the inevitable grind waaay easier. On the guitar, one of the first things I learned was improvising with a very simple pattern of 4 notes... just to make very simple melodies. And I was having fun with that for a while... but then it became boring, so I learned the scale around those 4 notes... then I learned that scale over the entire neck, step by step... but with each step, I could pull out more and more fun from playing. It was still sort of a grind, where I had to practice every day and keep adding more and more stuff in progressively... but the kind of grind where you have more and more fun as you progress and see yourself progressing.

Practicing on paper is an important part of the learning process I think :> Beside the new techniques, doing observation sketches outside helps a lot (for poses, expressions and attitudes, even outfits, scenery etc...). Also, if you can attend to affordable life model classes it , would be a big plus :3 if you don't find any I found a nice site regrouping thousands of poses with different model (male and female, but there are a lot more female models), here's the link http://www.artmodeltips.com/poses/

Lately I started to reproduce some poses directly with ink, and sometimes by keeping the point of the pen on the paper. It's very frustrating if you can't stand failing even a sketch (it's my case saldy u_u) but it remains a good exercice. A friend does it and the way she draws charcaters in direct inking is astonishing, in my opinion.

And you probably already do it, but taking influences in artists you're interested in, and whose graphic universe is completely different than what you're used to do/see is also a good way to improve ^^

A lot of the time I will go and read and/or watch tutorials. Just gather up a bunch on the subject and go. For me, thats really helpful. That and trying new things, trying to push what I do and how I do it. Pick something I don't do often, like in my case painting style, and focus on that. For me it helps to draw my attention away from my usual things and give me a break. Which sometimes can really help things improve. Or right now- where I'm using paper because my tablet is broken.

Draw. When I just keep drawing/practicing I suddenly notice myself getting better.

Any way I can! I've learned a lot this year. Maybe just as much as the previous 7 years combined! Some of those concepts I now understand, I'm not yet good enough to apply. Others will be very evident in the next few artworks to be released!

I usually don't notice art progress if it is steady and gradual. But there are always points in time where suddenly there is a huge spike of improvement at once. More like a pokemon evolution than a level up for me :P

My main way is to watch thousands of artists over different websites (particularly 1300 on FA). As I look at other people's artworks, I deconstruct it and mentally ask myself why does it look good, what works, how did they achieve that effect, what could I use in the future. It isn't always the supreme artists with 15 years professional experience. Sometimes I learn something amazing from someone who has been drawing for 2-3 years and has just got a handle on shading.

I frequent livestreams while doing things. Ask questions and watch on. Try to work out the thought processes. Ask questions as needed.

Advice. I throw WIPs around like an old man feeding ducks. Sometimes people have some really instructive feedback, other times they may just drop an art-changing idea. Don't do it as much as I should, but I sometimes ask for redlines/paintovers if I believe the person would have valuable input and be able to drastically improve the work. I like to continue painting over someone's redline or paintover. That way I will see every detail they changed closely and intimately. And it is something slightly different to render over.

Playing with as many resources as possible. I like to become at least mildly versed in a wide range of different media and styles. I download hundreds of brushes, make my own brushes, view tutorials (and attempt a few), attempt masters studies, take photos of random things that could be used, eat paint, download PDFs and buy art books etc.

Study. Whether it is a 6 week freehand drawing workshop with a 30 year veteran or staring at youtube videos for half a day, it is always a huge help hearing the advice you didn't know you needed.

Things I should do:
-practice sketching speed and economy of brush strokes
-daily art journal which could be a sketch or a little speedpaint
-keep layers to a minimum (or single layer)
-learn to rest xD
-redraw some older artwork
-stop commenting on akitary's posts and continue drawing

I guess practice every day, then you see drawings of 2 or more months old and notice you improved a bit.
Testing new ways or things, so you learn something new.

I watch tutorials, but it's difficult to fit much in around a full time job and baby daughter.

The recent drawings from photos worked really well.

definitely my favorite way to learn is by paying for a shared studio space if i draw with others i can learn from the techniques that can help me and they can learn from mine as well sadly I've been pretty broke :( i also like tutorials workshops and bugging psudo for opinions

The only tip I can give is always try out new things. Be it shading, a style, anatomy. Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone.

Something I've noticed a lot is that a lot of artists get stale by not trying new things and sticking with 'what works', slowly their art degrades and they start overlooking grave errors.
Ad the same time I've also seen artists who don't give a damn, try new styles, and somehow manage to integrate it into their current style to make it look even more awesome. And I absolutely love it when I'm able to notice these things.

I cry, hate myself, and then draw for furries so that I don't starve.

.......Okay fine I also tend to observe things in reality by habit and remember shapes, accenting lines, folds, etc. I don't practice anywhere near how much I should, so I don't think I would improve as much if I didn't do things like that. I don't think it works for everyone, but it works for me. I pay attention more to the design aspects and stuff when I watch movies than the actual stories, too. I just pick apart my visuals a lot and it somehow helps me later when I'm drawing.

I do feel hella stagnant, though. Practice is always a good idea, I suppose.

There are a lot of things that one can do. it depends what you are trying to learn and improve on.

Doing some realism studies will help or even redrawing another artist's piece as a study of their style is a very good thing to do. Many professional artists who went to some art school have had to effectively recreate the masterpieces of old. By reproducing a work you learn something from that artist and it gives you new skills to add to your repertoire.

Tutorials will help, so will actual classes, doing studies on your own, getting some instruction books. All of these can be big helps in improving as an artist overall.

This might be a good playlist to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li.....S6YO3NSC-aYc1i