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TUTORIAL // a roadmap for artistic growth (Patreon)

Published:
2023-02-08 13:54:56
Edited:
2026-01-04 15:56:39
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Here it is: this month’s tutorial! It’s actually more of a lecture, since it doesn’t demonstrate any drawing techniques. It’s about artistic growth and it lays out a roadmap for artistic improvement. Thanks to Brandi for suggesting this one in the discord server!

This tutorial breaks down artistic improvement into 5 main stages. For each stage, I talk about which exercises you can do to improve in that area. At the end (40:11 minutes in), I talk about how you can troubleshoot your art to figure out which stage you could focus on at this moment in your growth process. Hopefully it will be a helpful guide for those of you who are not sure where to start, and also for those of you who are not sure which tutorials you should follow after signing up to this patreon!

As always, here is a cheat sheet with the most important info from the tutorial! You can also find it as a PDF below, along with a handy worksheet to help you narrow down your artistic goals.

Below is a list of tutorials referenced in the video. Some are available to all patrons, some only for flame members - those are indicated with a little flame emoji. The cheat sheet PDF attached at the end also has clickable links in it if you want to access them that way!

01 // COMFORT ZONE

My workflow in Procreate

Sculpting with color 🔥

02 // LEARNING TO OBSERVE

Exercises for improving your skills

Drawing environments in Procreate 🔥

03 // BUILDING SKILLS

Constructing a pose

Constructing faces & expressions 🔥

Creating light & flowy sketches 🔥

Choosing colors

Simple tricks for lighting & mood 🔥

Making your sketch presentable 🔥

Elevating your sketch by adding color 🔥

Finalizing without over-rendering 🔥

Making your digital portraits more interesting 🔥

04 // MAXIMIZING EFFICIENCY

Environment essentials🔥

05 // CULTIVATING YOUR VOICE

Creating interesting & flowy shapes 🔥

Using your creative spark for ideas 🔥

Stylizing trees & plants 🔥

I also mentioned that I have some process videos for finished paintings that you can reference as a resource for elevating the detail in your art. Here are a few that I can recommend:

Ice process: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Abundance process: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Flow process: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

I hope you find this helpful! Please let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for future tutorials, feel free to share them with me! ❤

Files

Comments

Adrian Doran

this is amazing - thanks so much for being so generous with your knowledge.

EJ McColl

This is a really good pick-me-up. Thank you so much!! 💖

Brandi Renee Art

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I was the one who’d suggested it, and this was even better than I’d imagined!! It’s so well thought-out and super helpful!! Thank you again!❤️

Brittani Harris

Thanks for listing all of the tutorials you referenced. I’m a spark member, but I have them all saved.

erikathegoober

This was such a great video! I loved your analogy about driving! I really resonated with the negative thoughts/anxiety part. Back in 2020/2021 I burnt myself out pretty bad and had to step away from art for a few months. One of the main culprits was me constantly judging my art negatively while I was making it, causing me to no longer enjoy the process. I basically scared myself away from making art because I was so mean to myself when I tried to do it. 🥲 A mindset shift that helped me was to think of your mind as having 2 voices in your creative process- your artist voice and your editor voice. Your artist voice relies more on intuition, trusts the process, and explores. Your editor voice makes judgements, corrections, and is outcome focused. There is a time and place for each of them, but trying to do both at the same time (especially when the editor voice is overly negative) can prevent you from enjoying the process or even attempting to make anything in the first place. A little of your editor voice may pop in when you’re drawing to help you make decisions but letting your artistic, more process driven voice trust your intuition will help to quiet that judgement.

Kathryn Cook

You put so much time and effort into this!!!! I am so appreciative!!!! ❤

Anska

I completely forgot to say thank you for the reflection sheet. I haven't filled it out for last year, but use it to keep track of this year. It's a nice way to evaluate what one has actually achieved in week or month, which can be so helpful for that positive mindset you mentioned in this video. :)

Anton Egorov

You're nailing it with "self-help" recourses. I love the Troubleshooting chart in the end of the video. It immediately helped me to point a finger on what I should focus.

Loish
>>101477257

i'm glad you like it! I've found such worksheets to be really helpful in the past, I generally really like breaking my thoughts down into separate themes/topics so that i can make more sense of them.

Loish
>>101455606

that is such a good way of looking at it! it's generally always helpful to basically label negative voices so that we separate them from "realitity". feelings of inadequacy always feel so urgent and therefore feel like "the truth" but in actual fact it's just one of many voices that are always speaking up during our daily lives. thanks for your insights!

Fernanda F

I learn so much from you, it's crazy! Thank you so much for all this material!

Niels Westerneng

Great stuff, once again. You are such a good teacher. Right after watching this video I filled my calendar with concrete ideas on what to do to get to my next level.

Casey Gerber

This is fantastic, thank you so much Lois! I have always wanted a tutorial like this, where technical skill is not the only focus in the artistic journey. There is this huge piece of the puzzle that a lot of folks simplify down to "style", but it's more than that, it's knowing who you are and what kind of art you want to make. Thank you for including discussion of this in the tutorial, it was really helpful!!

Anonymous

I LOVE this tutorial. I almost feel like it was pure luck to run into this tutorial since it came out a few months ago but I’m so glad that I did. Incredibly helpful.

Emma Gudrian

I'm so glad I've been snooping around since I've subscribed! THIS is what I needed for my art rut! Thank you for this much needed discussion.

Chitra Mathivanan

Thank you so much for this excellent video 🙏🏼

Liz Jones

Thank you so much for this. I am coming back to art at age 35 after giving up on it in my late teens. I didn't believe in myself and I had no patience for the process. Now I'm back with the benefit of maturity and perseverance. I'm starting over at the beginning but I'm excited. This lecture helped me think of some goals to focus on.

Loish
>>143359901

glad you found it helpful Liz! It's never too late to get back to doing what you love, although I can imagine it's overwhelming to suddenly get back into it after a long break. Setting goals is truly half the work!

IronDad

Thank you for creating this tutorial. I really resonated with the part when you shared your experience about the driving anxiety you had in the past and how the headspace can change over time. Getting familiar with the digital painting softwares gives me similar feelings to trying to figure out the different controls of a car. My head space is often occupied by it. Do you think making one tutorial about the most important tools for you in procreate and photoshop would be a good idea?

Loish
>>148551876

So glad you liked it! Feeling comfortable and familiar with something is the best way to really grow your skills! That sounds like a great idea for a video, although I'm not sure I would do it as a tutorial video - maybe more like a bonus video about my workflow and tools! For now, I can definitely recommend my FAQ, it's got the most info about all the tools I use: https://loish.net/topic_category/tools/

Nan

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I’ve been struggling with determining where to go next and this tutorial helps me a lot to get that clearer. It’s also very different from the “usual” learn-to-draw tutorials (those that just focus on skills like you mention) which makes it extra useful.

Jamie Seroogy

This is such a helpful list, I too have tried so many different things and feel completely lost. I used to draw a lot off and on growing up but never took it seriously and now its all I want to do. I am impatient for the growth that I need to achieve in my drawings lol thank you for this roadmap, I hope my procrastination problems won't prevent me from sticking to it!

Loish
>>150974467

wishing you the best of luck Jamie! I'm glad you found the tutorial helpful!

Lenore Verdi

Hi there Loish, Thank you for such a well spoken & deeply thought out self reflective tutorial. I am a new patron, long time admirer. I find how you describe a process, be it drawing/painting or how to approach artistic goals, imposter syndrome and the like, to be done in such an Articulate(ha didn’t realize what I did there til after I typed the word 😅) manner. Your choice of words & tone flow in a masterly way that facilitates comprehension in others. Which is truly an art form all its own. I feel extremely grateful to have the opportunity to experience your art in all of its forms; characters, environments, & videos alike!

Loish
>>157558897

thanks so much Lenore! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I love thinking about processes in general, not just creative ones but also psychological / emotional ones! I'm glad this type of content resonates with you :)

Shubhangi

This video has been incredibly helpful to me in my artistic development. I previously felt uncertain about my direction and what aspects needed improvement. Your clear and concise explanation has provided much-needed clarity, allowing me to better understand my current artistic standing. Thank you very much!

Shruthi L

Your tutorial, notes and references are very helpful! Thank you so much!

Ann

Good evening Loish, Thank you for this video! It is incredible made, well spoken, easy to understand, and you gave me clarity This roadmap is a new perspective to me. The importance of having fun, enjoying the journey, taking care of the mental space & physical body, learning a new topic; letting that spark of imagination grow as the flame of a fire. All of these, and your notes that have space to read and see the illustration, have helped me immensely I’ve completed the worksheet & I’ve gained clarity of where I want to go. I’ll see the differences of drawing with my dominant hand vs non-dominant hand, since I want to teach my non-dominant hand to draw with both ¡Muchas gracias! (Thank you very much!) 🤍🙌🏻