My System

[jeremygordon89]

Rather than just drawing and painting whatever I feel like every day, I organize my goals by the month, so that each month I know what I want to study and can pace myself so that I don't get ahead of myself or whatever. An example would be:

December 2009:
Digital Painting (from tutorials and idrawgirls)
Bridgman studies
Figure Drawings / Master Studies
Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy book
ConceptArt 101
Blind Contour Drawing / Contour Drawing

Each month has goals set out like that (for the next year and a half).

MY CONCERN is: do you think that it's good to have a system like this, or is it better to just draw whatever you think you need to work on day by day and vary it up more.

I feel that having organization like this will allow me to get more done and motivate me more so.

I know that I have to also set out time to attack my weaknesses (such as spending a few days doing a hundred foreshortening drawings and studying foreshortening).

I'm just curious what everyone else is doing, and if you think there are any flaws in my system in your opinion.

[Krato]

well it cant hurt, but things may change.. you may be falling behind in one area and need to pick it up. Try it and see if you like it.

[Two Listen]

I personally don't follow such a system. I tried it once when I was younger, but it didn't feel very efficient, and was - for the most part, incredibly boring.

As for whether it will work for you, who can say?

All you can do is try it, find out if it sucks. If it sucks, admit that it sucks, and try again. Such is the life of an artist.

[ArtZealot]

I do what you described, but in a very loose sense.

Like i'll tell myself that if i pay attention to anything when i paint, i'll pay attention to composition. I think last year at this time my big thing was paying attention to color in shadows, the year before that was sort of forcing myself to use brushes in photoshop cause they seemed like they'd help me down the road.

It changes from time to time but not very often, just when i feel i can coax myself to learn whatever it is, while still enjoying what i'm doing.

[jeremygordon89]

ArtZealot, I think I need to combine what I'm doing with what you say you do.
I try to stick to my list of goals strictly enough to really learn what I need to, but I feel that I should also focus on wiping out my weaknesses when I come across them rather than putting that off.
I think that having my goals set out how they are is mainly a reminder of what I need to be working on rather than a strict list of what to do day by day I guess.