The Answer to the Meaning of Practice

Pick a hard thing to draw and reduce it to simple shapes. Put it aside, then repeat from a different angle. Repeat the process again; eventually the item will become easier to capture.

Draw a quick self-portrait every night for a week. Do it from the same angle each time and see how your approach and the results change. [IMO, drawing a portrait of any kind works too. I think drawing heads in your style and figuring out your errors every night is also an excellent approach.]

Draw your favourite animal doing something in a human way. This forces you to think about its anatomy to make the action look possible.

Change things about: try drawing with your left hand (or right, if you're left-handed). This forces your brain to focus in a different way on how it places lines.

Have a sketch-off: with a friend, pick and object and do a 10 minute drawing of it. Swap drawing and critique -- it's surprising how many tricks you'll pick up.

On the topic of Drawing Hands

Stop drawing them in anime style where they're tiny and have few details. Draw them large on the paper, use your own as reference and draw them bonier than usual. Get all the portions of the hand, where they bend and do them in different positions. Hands aren't meant to look like little plastic dolls.

Also, a lot of people draw hands with only two of the joints drawn. STOP IT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD. Fingers have three joints, please draw them! I cringe every time I see people not do this.

Tips from Gemma Correll, Andy Macgregor, Oliver Barrett and others...

These are some tips from me to keep on track and motivated:

On days where you are motivated and most excited about drawing, try and keep a record of what provokes these creative moments to spark. Mine are primarily music, influential art and certain colour schemes. Warm colour schemes, especially those containing yellow, really tend to lift my mood. This of course varies between person to person so experiment.

Keep a folder of art that motivates you and keep the original artist's name as reference in case you want to check their art again. I know a lot of people feel guilty when they forget the name of an artist and their website and cannot return to it. There are a few image searches, including Google, that allow you to track where the original image originated from.

Find ways to correct your mistakes and ask for input from people that know how to critique properly. By critique properly, I mean people that don't just point out your flaws and leave it at that. Those that know how to critique properly know how to correct your flaws and point you in the right direction. These people can be Art instructors. They studied the subject for a reason, so make use of them. In High School, my art instructor was practically my second Dad. He gave me valuable tips and critique that I am still thankful for.

Keep a record of the times of day where you are most likely to be productive. For me, it is the first few hours of sunlight. I know more than half of you are night owls, but the bad side of being a night owl is the fact that sleep is usually considered your worst enemy. Pulling an all-nighter everyday is not good for your health.

Stop repeating your mistakes. A lot of people are notorious for working long hours on a piece of art without taking a break. STOP. Take a break and come back a few minutes later to take a look at your work with fresh eyes. Errors tend to pop out right away. Of course you won't spot them all, but that's what you have other artists for! If you're a bit over sensitive, take critique from close friends that understand how you feel but won't sugarcoat your critique.

Experiment! Try not to do things over and over again. One of the many reasons I started a webcomic was to step out of my comfort zone and experiment with new techniques. A lot of people are put off by webcomics [and other things in general] because they can't draw a certain thing like backgrounds or perspective. The truth is you're only stunting your own growth. At some point you need to overcome it if you wish to grow as an artist. This isn't restricted to webcomics but art in general.