The last few months have been a really difficult time for me as I am in an awkward phase of my art journey where I know there is something wrong with my work, but I can't figure it out. So, I'm doing a study binge to try and pinpoint the problem and see if there is something specific holding me back from levelling up.
Because of this, it made me wonder what all of you struggle with drawing the most. I am also eager to see if I can find a way to help you overcome this struggle with the following advice. If there is something specific that you have a problem with, for example you can't draw horses, my suggestion is to fill one or multiple sketchbooks with just horses. Study not just horses, but also all of the different breeds and how they vary, study their anatomy, learn the difference between plantigrade, digitigrade and unguligrade feet to see just why their hooves are so dang weird. However, you may find that your problem is more nuanced; perhaps you struggle with a specific fundamental preventing you from drawing horses (like anatomy or perspective), in which case you now have something new to study before you study horses at all.
If anyone is interested, here are some YouTube art tutorial channels that helped me improve over the years:
General fundamentals: Sycra.
Colour Theory and Illustration: Marco Bucci.
Anatomy: Proko.
Character Design: Brookes Eggleston.
Entering the Industry/Art Life tips: Bobby Chiu.
Developing the Improvement Mindset: Volen CK
General art tips and critique: Istebrak. (I've had my work critiqued a few times by this person. Stern but fair).
I also highly, HIGHLY recommend the books of Andrew Loomis as he is a master at drawing. The best part? You can download ALL of his books COMPLETELY FREE following this link! (Seriously, you NEED these books if you want to improve fast).
http://www.alexhays.com/loomis/
There is also a decent human anatomy course here, although this is one you need to purchase:
http://www.alienthink.com/
Now I personally cannot give much drawing advice since I am still learning myself, other than you need to learn how you learn best. Are there certain ways of drawing that make you more motivated? Are you an intuitive or analytical learner? Learning how to learn is one of the hardest things to do and it's certainly something schools won't teach. There are plenty of videos that teach different methods of absorbing information and being able to retain it.
You may also want to consider unorthodox methods or new life habits to make your brain more efficient, which includes a good diet, at least 20 minutes of meditation per day and plenty of exercise. Make sure to surround yourself with equally creative friends and try and produce a good environment for your work.
Feel free to drop any Channels/Tutorials that you found useful in the comments so that other artists are able to see them. I also recommend commenting with a tutorial on an artist's post if you see someone struggling with a specific topic and have a tutorial that can help them. Let's all help each other out!
Lastly, here is a shameless plug for my comic if anyone is interested. This is sort-of related to this topic as the comic is intended to be a giant study where I can practise any skills I have picked up recently and my intention is to make every page an improvement over the previous.