ive said this before but cant stress enough how important it is to already have references picked out and even pulled up before you sit down to do art. while there are definitely times when its fun to sit down, find or see a random picture that inspires you, and then go create something from there, i think its best practice on a day to day to have a goal and a plan! now thats not to say that your art practice needs to be super structured and rigid. art can be so fun and gratifying when there is no end goal and you "find" what you want to create along the way. but when i don't do this (this = picking refs, doing some planning prior) i often find myself using the time ive allotted for art endlessly scrolling and picking out references that interest me. this typically ends with me having a varied assortment of references pulled up that may or may not have anything to do with what i wanted to draw or practice that day and by the end of that ive exhausted myself mentally going through a bunch of pictures on the internet and getting side tracked by tumblr, youtube, other social media, etc.
so! if you experience something similar, i recommend:
keeping a running list of things you want to create in a note somewhere
this is an excellent thing to do imo because if you ever find yourself wanting to create art but when you finally sit down you're unsure of what you actually want to make, having a list of ideas is so so helpful. the list can be very specific concepts/pieces you want to make, or it can be as broad as 'do more anatomy studies with interesting perspectives'. the entire goal of this bullet (and the rest of the list lol) is to cut down on decisions you have to make during your art practice time!
making conscious decisions or goals for what you want to create or practice the next time you sit down to make art
similar to the first bullet, the goal of this is to set intentions for the next time you sit down to create art. it can be as simple as an hour before you have time to make art you think to yourself 'i'd like to practice portrait sketches this afternoon' or 'i want to do 30 min landscape studies tomorrow'. i cannot stress enough that when you make decisions for yourself ahead of time, you will have a lot more energy to create when you next sit down to make art.
take some time BEFORE sitting down to create art to pick out references, decide color palettes, decide scope of practice (sketch? gesture drawing? fully rendered piece?)
so you've already decided what you're going to create and your goal for the next time you sit down to create art. if you have time, curate a specific set of references that you want to use prior to actually sitting down to create. and i don't mean decide that you will look through the board on your pinterest where you have all of your anatomy pose references. i mean - specifically pick out a handful of references you want to use or select from the next time you sit down to make art. you want to do anatomy studies? pick a handful of poses that you want to study beforehand. you have a specific piece in mind of your character from X media? have reference images of that character pulled up, have pose references that you want to use if you aren't just doing a portrait. doing a fully rendered portrait study? have your portrait reference pulled up and select a color palette if you can. fabric and clothes studies? pick a few you want to look at. you want to practice drawing noses? have! references! pulled! up! beforehand!
references are your friend! they really are! but sometimes they can be a hinderance to our art practice if we don't approach them with intention. i know that personally i get overwhelmed with all of the things i want to do studies of, things i want to draw, ideas i have, rendering styles i want to practice. i see other people's art online and feel inspired to create something similar. i see someone's cool outfit and want to draw my oc in it. the world is filled with so much inspiration and that's so wonderful but it can be so overwhelming. do yourself and your art practice a favor and try to approach things with intention. make decisions beforehand so that your art practice time isn't swallowed by getting sidetracked on the internet or getting overwhelmed by things you could be doing.
bottom line -> life is busy. there's a lot of information that you are inundated with every second of every day. if you can take some time prior to figure out the WHAT of your art, when you have time to make art you will have more energy to focus on HOW you will make the art
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