I feel you on this. I don’t think I’m the best out there with my art but definitely not the worse and will forever improve. So will you. However, it’s a very long and enduring path to success. One that many people may end up having to leave throughout their lives for any variety of reasons. However, what you, and of course everyone else in the world, want to know boils down to one single question. A question I ask myself everyday. How do you get good?
This opens up a whole new world of questions though. Does practice really make perfect? How should you practice? What’s the best way to go about something? Etc… We all have questions and tutorials seem to be the best way to go about answering them. Watch the pros at work and it’ll rub off on you, right? You’ll gain some technical knowledge and whatnot but there is only so much someone can tell you. For example, the concept of a backflip is very simple. Jump, rotate back, then land. We all ‘know’ how to do one. However, can you actually ‘do’ it? Without previous training and experience, probably not. So where does this lead? Now, this depends on what your goals are but in relation to the CG it means you need to take that knowledge you’ve gained from tutorials and learn how to apply it to what you do. In other words, practice. Tutorials are great in the beginning but as you advance you’ll want to tackle your own projects. Tutorials at this point should be mostly used for learning new software or as an aid. Not something you should follow to the letter like a recipe. Even still, tutorials are not bad and I encourage you to watch them and continue to read from time to time but mostly as something to aid your learning.
When you tackle your projects I want you to really think about what you’re doing. Think about the overall design or why you decided to apply that texture there or why are you setting up your nodes like this or that. There are tedious parts in CG but ask yourself periodically just what it is you’re doing. Practice doesn’t make perfect so much as it makes habits. Be active when you practice. Change up your formula and see if there are better ways of doing things. Be like a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as you can and then apply it in different ways til you find something that works. I will say again though, don’t just passively practice, I have fallen into this trap and you will not improve. You can draw for 20+ years and still have it look the same as when you began by just practicing passively. You gotta really strive for it to make a difference.
Also, I want to add one last thing. Studying traditional art, using reference, examining color theory, design principles, etc… may all very help assist you. However, using REFERENCE IMAGES and working on DESIGN is essential. I know, I abused caps there but I can’t stretch this enough. How can you model/sculpt/draw/anything a bird if you’ve never seen one before? You’ll need something to go off of. Every made up creature in the world shows likeness to the real world in someway or else no one would ever believe it. Also, it doesn’t matter if you are a godly painter if your design has flaws like lines clearly out of perspective. Design and scene composition is important.
This was a pretty long post but something I think about quite a lot. Best of luck to you and remember, there is no set in stone way of doing things. It is up to you to discern what you should practice and what methods to use. This comes over time. Good luck!
A great website I’ve been using to help me learn is this:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/
It’s 60 dollars monthly though or 500 a year but I have found it very useful. Once you feel up to it and have some spare cash I would definitely recommend it.