I’m a full-time UX/UI designer

I work in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA.

I don’t have any art/design background outside of my job

I never went to art or design school (I’m also self-taught in UX). So I often lack some basic concepts that other artists are aware of.

What I’ve learned so far

So far, I’ve been learning to “draw what I see”.

• Drawing objects using a combination of basic shapes like spheres and cubes

• Drawing figures heavily based on a live, photographed, or 3D model reference

• Drawing and painting portraits

• Basic digital painting

• Creating an illustration with a basic focal point (simple rule of thirds grid)

What I haven’t learned yet (but am learning):

• Perspective

• Drawing from imagination

• Composition

• Intermediate to advanced anatomy

• Basic environments, such as interiors, exteriors, and landscapes

I struggle with combining skills into full illustrations

It seems easy enough to keep learning separate skills and advancing things that way, but I have trouble combining everything into a full illustration. For example, I felt like I made a lot of progress in drawing figures, objects, and faces by themselves as a study, but I struggled with making a balanced and interesting composition out of those same elements.

I believe there are two main problems - lack of technical skill when it comes to perspective, and knowledge about how to design a pleasing composition.

I have 3 goals

1. Improve my technical skills so I can render things as I imagine them.

2. Produce sequential art that can tell a story (storyboarding, graphic novels, comics).

3. Produce art that informs a world or narrative (concept art).