If speed modeling, try going through the camera view with the guides turned on for helping your composition setup - and you can switch to ‘view’ on your widget so that you can quickly knock out a base to begin your work with.
Also, try drawing some rough ideas of forms with the grease pencil set to View, so that you can quickly work out ideas like what Modron has show there.
Hey guys, thank you very much for the valuable insights, I’m much more confident with my updated plan.
I’ve not read all the comments here but I’d highly recommend Daily3D on reddit. Everyday a new topic is put up and people just model it. I can attest to having learnt a lot by doing this alone. Making utterly random models of wheel barrows, the moon, gas boilers! Things you’d not even think to model but challenge you to think of new things and learn how to do them.
Also tutorials are great, but they become worthwhile when you break away from what they’re making and start using them to help your own original scenes. I often combine multiple tutorials I’ve gone through into one scene.
Again I’ve not read the comments so someone may have suggested this already but try and find people around you or connect with people who are doing Blender. I’ve found a couple people who I often speak to for tips and just feedback. Sharing work and ideas. It’s a great way to keep up motivation.
As a music composer, I try to listen to other artist’s crap and try to mimic it. I will then create a new piece similar to what I heard. For example, I like Far Cry 4 Soundtrack’s “The Moon’s Light” so I created my a piece similar to it and named it “The Moon’s Light 2”
I have to agree with a lot of what has already been said. Model something every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes. Last June (2014) I did a 30 day sculpting challenge to do a sculpt in 15 to 30 minutes every day for 30 days. Some of my best sculpts to date have come out of that, and the daily practice really helped to hone my skills as well as my familiarity with using them.
You mentioned taking some CG Cookie courses. One thing that I finally took to heart with Kent Trammells’ Shader Forge tutorials that I have since adopted into just about every phase when I model is using reference. Always using reference. Whether you’re modeling, texturing, posing – it doesn’t matter. Using references will make your work LOADS better. In fact, even my modeling, once I started working from references, improved. That’s why I now have a mirror and a tape measure close by my desk. The mirror is for helping with posing and other things (when I get around to learning that, anyway), but the tape measure has already helped me model my entertainment center, a coffee table, a side table, a kitchen table, and a night stand FAR more accurately and with more visual interest than I ever did before I started using them.
If you don’t have a particular object on hand to measure, doing a search for photo references is the second best thing. For example, you could just model a basic glass vase from “memory”, or you can do a search and find some antique Roman glasses and find lots of variety that, while still simple to make, will make for a much more interesting glass. Or instead of a basic wine glass, you might find inspiration from depression era glass and do a swirl pattern wine glass. (Both are examples of things I’ve done the last year.)
Really, the only limitation is your imagination, and you can create your own style based on something else, like making a Cerebrus (aka 3 headed dog) – from a Chihuahua (a recent idea that I have yet to implement).
And like Fweeb says… by implementing daily practice, there’s no need to decide between the Katana and the music box. Do both!
One last thing… Don’t limit your learning to 3D. I’ve been watching some videos on drawing, and I’ve learned some things there that are helping with my 3D, and I don’t just mean for character reference. For example, based on a style of drawing called gestural drawing (a form of quick sketching with the intent of capturing the movement within a pose), I tried doing a few gestural sculpts, something that helped me to see how you can capture movement within a quick sculpt as well. Not to mention the idea of “throw aways”… doing a particular subject over and over to increase familiarity with the object as well as improve speed and technique.
There are lots of ways to improve little by little, and even quite a few to help make a big “leap” in your quality. There are just two rules to keep in mind: 1.) Take action every day. Don’t just talk about doing it, actually do it. You can’t get better sitting on the sidelines. And 2.) HAVE FUN! Whatever you’re doing, have fun with it. It doesn’t always have to be perfect to help you improve. (Take a look at my character WIP. It has tons of accuracy flaws, but since it’s my first attempt, I’m letting a lot of those slide for the sake of getting through the project and will work on as I complete more characters.)
Good luck, and I look forward to seeing your work!
Oh, and as to what to model? Whatever interests you! There are lots of things around you to model, and lots to choose from, not just in modern day life where you’re at, but from around the world, throughout history, and literature – not to mention your own imagination. Love fantasy stories? Try modeling a dragon. Or a sword. Love sci fi flicks? Try a ray gun or a spaceship. The possibilities literally are endless!
There is only one way, overworking. At least doing this for your personal benefit for free won’t be bad. Instead of making something once, make it by ten times by default. Even if you want to play it cool and make a speed drawing session of 5 minutes, in one hour you will have the most recent version which might be much better than the first one.
Just don’t stop learning…train even more and seek advice and guidance from your superior. The most important thing, share what you know. You’ll never know, you might learn something new from someone who is just starting.