Looking at your gallery, I think you already improved C:
But maybe you should try drawing persons from different angles and in more dynamic positions, not always the.. errr xD... portrait-ish way. You could experiment with different shading techniques, too.
I always enjoy trying new stuff :9
And about that burnout... i know what you mean xD When i don`t feel inspired I always play video games or walk around. reading books helps too : D
And to regain the joy of drawing you could also switch from digital media to traditional ones.
I didn`t know how much I missed the good old paintbrush until i decided to decorate my room with some pictures. V///V Traditional medias are more exciting I think, but I love digital art too!

Drawing in a number of different styles seems like it could only be beneficial to me, as you have to opportunity to master a number of different skills rather than just one or two, and it never hurts to be more versatile. Although, going just off what's in your gallery, I don't see a lot of variation in style or subject matter. I would actually say to try experimenting more and do something totally different from time to time if you really want to improve, as simply drawing something you already know you can draw over and over again isn't nearly as beneficial. Of course, there's always room for more refinement in what you've already got, but at the same time, you'll never reach a higher level if you make no effort to move beyond the one you're at.

As far as getting burned out goes, like with anything, you just have to pace yourself. If you start to get really bored or annoyed while coloring a picture, step away for a few hours-maybe even the rest of the day- and return once you can look at the picture and feel excited about trying to finish it again. The brush is going to show when you're painting with boredom or frustration, so unless you've got a deadline to meet, you're really not going to get much out of marathoning a painting halfheartedly. Try to make sure your art is always something you want to do rather than something you feel obligated to continue. Otherwise, you really will burn yourself out, and I can speak from experience when I say it can take way too long to recover from something like that.

try new ways to do things, I tried a new way to paint and I got alot better

--
________________________________
if you like my work please watch me XD
THX in advance
check out acg at [link]

new styles are good, it means you are still looking for the one that fits you

--
________________________________
if you like my work please watch me XD
THX in advance
check out acg at [link]

Old art tells you what mistakes are okay, so you can relax when trying too hard. If all your old art was lost, you would notice a huge improment, that is too hard to keep up with, as if you are over stretching yourself. I use to burn my old art and when I started keeping my art, I stopped improving. I know it made me relax from always doing my best ever with each new art, and it also made me give up and start over a lot, because I didn't like what I saw. So, there is times old art can help and make you feel good, but it can hold you back.

try ventureing into the world of realism all artist no matter what style they practice can't go very far without a alittle touch of realism.

--
Вы украли мою сдобу !!!

I suggest trying to draw more from real-life---Not that I'm saying that anime is not a very proffessional art style, infact I also draw anime, too...But my point is is that once you have mastered a more realistic persective, drawing other things becomes much easier, and then you will feel much more fullfilled when drawing anime, and THEN you will notice change, and improvement. Of coarse this techniqe is not a one-night thing that becomes easy to master, but if you are dedicated, im sure you will see sure improvement, when looking back at your previous art.

Honestly, looking at your gallery I'm seeing one style, not many. I see several different techniques, but for the most part, you could pick any two characters and stick them next to each other and they'd look like they came from the same manga. *You're* seeing different styles because you're close to the images, and you know what was in your head at the time you were drawing them, and you're sensitive to small differences that aren't apparent to the casual viewer.

I think you're not improving as fast as you'd like because you're not challenging yourself. As I scroll through your gallery, I see a lot of portraits, mostly women, torso or bust, posing as if for a camera, with little or no background, with soft, pastel coloring, and for goodness' sake, they're usually facing to the left. But you're good at that. Perhaps you've gotten as far as you're going to get with that right now and you need to try something new.

And by "trying something new" I mean drastically different, to kick yourself out of the rut. When my grandmother was taking painting classes, at one point her teacher had her throw away all her brushes and use only a palette knife to paint with for a year. *That's* the sort of drastic I'm talking about. You don't necessarily need to change for a full year, just long enough to stretch your brain, get it thinking and seeing in new ways, and to kick yourself out of the rut you're in. Switching things up a lot forces your brain to grow in different ways, which drastically improves your art - I can spot improvements in my art and tie them into periods where I stopped drawing and took lots of photos, or took an oil painting class, or took life drawing, or learned a completely different technique and applied it.

And don't be like the person who tried one thing I suggested once, didn't like the result, and went back to her same way of drawing, continuing to complain that she couldn't improve. Of course you won't be better the first time you try something different! You need to practice at it like you practice at anything.

What to change? Could be anything.

Try a new CG program.

Switch to B&W.

Limit your palette to three contrasting colors.

Draw still lifes. (If you think a regular still life is boring, pick one of your characters and assemble a still life out of objects that have meaning to them. You can draw a portrait of a person without the person even being in the picture.)

Pick up a camera and try photography.

Draw all your characters as chibi.

Try life drawing for a while.

Draw a manga page.

Pick an Old Master painting and copy it. Then try it again, in manga style.

Use a random prompts generator to come up with prompts (I wrote this one to get myself out of artists' block).

Announce on your DA journal that you'll draw the characters of the first three people who reply.

Draw each of your characters eating their favorite food. Or in their bedroom. Or at work. Or living their ultimate fantasy.

Draw a character and do a background where every single item has some personal meaning to the character.

Look through the Daily Deviations, find one you like, and analyze it to figure out what you like (the colors? the composition?) and try to incorporate those elements into a picture of your own.

Do a portrait of a character that tells you that character's personality ... by drawing only their feet.

=======

These are things I came up with in about five minutes, although I admit that I can only do that when I'm thinking of things for other people to draw. XD But you get the idea - find soemthing drastically different than what you do every day, and do it for a while. When you come back to your old techniques, you'll probably find that it's changed a bit, for the better.

Good luck!

--
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. -- Mark Twain

1) Changing styles frequently does not hurt you- indeed, it broadens your horizons and force you to utilize skills and knowledge that you would never have developed working with the same old style all the time, giving you a better understanding of art rather than simply of that one style. As a matter of fact, I don’t think you change styles enough (actually, looking through your gallery, I don’t see this “all different styles” you’re talking about- I’ll discuss more a little later) and could stand to try reaching out… basically as far as you can reach. You should always be trying to push the borders of your skills and abilities, and learn as many new things (and styles) as you can.
2) Yes, art block is real, and it happens to everybody. It does not, however, keep them from improving in the long turn, indeed, artists’ block often helps artists improve, as the lack of any better ideas can force an artist to go back to still lives and polish their basics—which is exactly what you should do. If you can’t think very well of any good ideas for art, then set up a still life, do a self-portrait, or start working away on things that you’ve had trouble drawing in the past; art block is an excellent opportunity to slow down and start doing the foundation work that you otherwise would have been tempted to skip.
3) Again, it’s real, and happens to most of us. Being an artist is, if you will, like being married; if you want to keep it fun an exciting, you’ve got to challenge the monotony. You should always be trying new things- you should always be paying attention to other artists for ideas of new things you’d like to try; keep a notebook full of pictures and artists’ magazine clippings with styles, techniques, or compositional features that you are itching to try for yourself. Let your desire for the new and exciting drive you to create your next work of art.
4) Aren’t we all? To be honest, a lot of artists, even artists who love drawing with a passion, won’t get off their asses and do any serious art unless they have to. But, I find that, as careers progress, and as artists start getting projects that they have to do, for an education or for a living, or whyever else, they gladly rise to the challenge. In the mean time, take baby steps. Challenge yourself to work a little more each day, until sitting down with your art for an hour or two or five every day becomes habit.

Looking at your gallery, the problem I see is that you’re just not challenging yourself- at all, really. Literally your entire gallery – everything from four years ago to now – is the exact same style (it may have grown more detailed as your skills improve, but the style itself is still basically the same), all of the exact same thing; a headshot, usually in three quarters view (all facing to the left, even) or a pretty young woman. There’s the occasional waist-up shot, maybe three pairs of legs, no feet. There might be a few men in your gallery, but it’s rather difficult to tell, since their faces are about the same as the ladies’, and their bodies are always cropped out of the picture. If I looked at one picture in your gallery, I might as well have seen the whole thing.
You’re not learning anything new because you’re not trying anything new. I’d also go so far as to say that you’ve got artist’s burnout because the part of you that cares about art is sick of drawing left-facing three-quarter female headshots, and you’ve got artists’ block because you’ve exhausted every idea for a left-facing three-quarter female headshot known to man. Try something different, and I promise you’ll see improvement

--
This might be catastrophic.