Title:           Draft 1
Author:          Rat_Chieftain
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/yzeE9hz1
First Edit:      Saturday 21st of February 2015 12:10:18 AM CDT
Last Edit:       Last edit on: Wednesday 17th of June 2015 03:01:19 AM CDT

(I've written a lot of /ic/'s sticky. This was a draft that was never put in.)
 
Learn Photoshop as well as Zbrush and either 3ds max or maya. Things like Modo and Sketch-Up are optional. For photoshop learn as much as you can in regards to photomanipulation and start customizing your own brushes to suit your needs and workflow. If you don’t have a workflow start with a hard round, soft round and a rectangular or square brush. Also, pick up a sketchbook from time to time.
 
Make sure you have your battle station set up nicely. Ideally you want to keep the tablet as close to your pelvis as possible to avoid gripping too hard and you want to sit straight. Also, try and adjust the pressure sensitivity on your tablet, if any.
 
Discipline yourself. Have at least an hour or so, maybe even 40 minutes of uninterrupted time a day. If your environment isn’t good for it, make it as such. Go to a park with your sketchbook or get rid of everything in your room aside from your workstation if you have to. If you wait for motivation and keep making excuses, you’ll never make it.
 
Learn perspective and get into a habit of doing gestural drawings for fun no matter where you are. These 2 are the basic foundations for everything else. If anything ever gets frustrating, go back to these.
 
When you feel comfortable and can say, “I’m good at these.” Move on to value and such as seen in the fundamentals page.
 
Learn to see, observe, learn, and evaluate what’s in front of you. Not every answer is going to be in a book. On the other spectrum, read everything and learn as much as you can. Talk to other artists to learn from them as well. Creativity never happens in a vacuum.
 
Draw what you like and enjoy yourself, preferably from imagination, then learn to use reference to fix things. At the same time don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and refer to step 5. You might just find something else you like drawing along the way.
 
Remember to do some personal work. 10 good paintings are better than 50 mediocre ones.
 
Join forums and make your portfolio in your off time. Don’t be an asshole and put yourself out there. If you wait “until you’re good enough-” Well, you’ll never be good enough in your own eyes.
 
Learn how to differentiate useful from useless criticism. AND LEARN HOW TO USE IT, (that doesn’t mean just being able to take it.)