Want to know a secret about art? That's simple Don't Be An Idealist

By idealist I don't mean mystic. That kind of idealist is perfectly okay. 

But don't be over idealistic about how you draw. NEVER FANTASIZE ABOUT SUCCESS IN JAPAN OR AMERICA WHEN THE SECRET TO ATTAINING SUCH SUCCESS IS THE WORK YOU'RE NEGLECTING TO PURSUE NOW, RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT. I fell into that same trap years ago.

Don't fix your eyes on the prize. How you draw NOW, AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME ON THE SPOT (yes, even if your work sucks) is how you WILL DRAW 10 to 20 years from now. There's no reason to think you'll ever get better at art if you don't realize how you draw now is the best you'll ever do. Sure you CAN improve, but the more you fantasize about improving at drawing a comic book page or illustration in the future, automatically means you're NOT DRAWING NOW and ACCEPTING HOW YOU REALLY DRAW NOW. I've learned people don't judge you as an artist based on how you WANT TO draw. Editors, Fans, and Other artists (automatically and unconsciously, often without knowing) will only judge you by what level your at now. Don't assume things are MAGICALLY going to rectify themselves 5 or 10 YEARS from now, "When someone hires me, when I get published" or "When I finally go to art school". 

If you really want to be a good artist, you have to accept how you draw NOW, TODAY, THIS MONTH, WEEK, DAY, HOUR, AND MINUTE Because starting now is the only thing that's going to carry you through to tomorrow.

To be Good in the future, you have to learn to accept the present, even if and when you or anyone else thinks it sucks. And even if it does suck, at least you're doing something about it now, which is more than most beginning or intermediate artists can say. 

You won't see results unless you learn to stop procrastinating today and have the patience to deal with developing your art style now.

Too many people REJECT the Present and the People, Things, Circumstances, and Resources of the present in favor of longing for or fantasizing on an ideal situation that's just out of reach. It's a Zen thing. NOW is where the real POWER OF ACTION is. NOT the FUTURE. We can of course keep the future in mind, but we're not living in the FUTURE. WE LIVE HERE AND NOW. NO OTHER TIME.