It means so much to me that I can inspire you to create art!!! If anything that is one of my sole goals as an artist and its… agh..;; Thank you;;;
One excellent book for this is Anatomy for Sculptors, as it describes how each part of the human body is built up from simpler shapes; as sculpting boils down to that. A lot of artists recommend it too, and I wish I could show you snippets in this post but I cannot.* You will be able to utilize what you already know like this about shapes!
Now how can you study from this? I usually go through a segment of the book, such as faces, draw what I see and try to add little notes. Once I do that, I take any other art/picture, and attempt to put everything in that guideline I’ve learned by drawing over it. Alternatively, you can put the drawing and, next to it, leave an empty space, then try to recreate it from scratch.
You can also redline what you did wrong once you put the drawing back up to the picture and see what you did right or wrong. This will help you build intuition for what is correct!
Also, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback! But keep in mind that non-artist friends won’t always provide good advice. If you don’t have artist friends and if you can, I recommend joining a community made for this… although be careful. Some people who want to criticize/give advice can be quite deconstructive rather than constructive. A good teacher is someone who keeps up your motivation, understands what you personally try to achieve and helps you get there, regardless of what their style or preference is. What matters is, when you walk away, you shouldn’t feel insecure/embarassed/hurt/etc. at all when you try your best to keep an open mind.
However, learning does take a lot of time I admit. What matters is that you don’t beat yourself up about it, I personally spent years refining my art to reach this level, and there’s still a tremendous amount of things to learn and improve upon.
Also please do not push yourself in that manner too much, it is okay to rest too sometimes so that the knowledge you acquired can sit and fester like a petri dish. Eurekas happen in moments of mundanity after all! Spending all your time learning can be counterproductive; balance is key. Therefore, spending all your time learning can be counterproductive; balance is key. (Although I’m not implying you should sit back and do nothing, I’m wanting to say that you should take it easy– at least that is what I conclude when I read your mentality, as I used to think the same way. You have the drive, but you need to give yourself grace too before you inevitably burn out.)
Study smart and not hard! And, of course, leave time for personal fun pieces too. As long as at the end of the day you knew you learned something small, you’ve done well.
*Since I believe knowledge shouldn’t be gatekept, browse through the r/piracy subreddit to find the book. (I’ve linked this directly to their books megathread.) Unfortunely the original site I downloaded it form got shut down (Liber3). If you send me a DM, I can send my own copy! (This applies to anyone!)
