How I started in art, how I studied and survive

I took some classes which benefited me on the basics, like still life sketching, portraiture drawing, painting class. 

I also took animation in college which helped, mostly on basics animation on paper, as well as how to operate a complex program, like After effects, maya, flash, Dreamweaver,  how to animate with photoshop... now of days with youtube, I use youtube to further educate myself on 3D animation, illustration, concept art. (like most people... the way I learn is pretty boring, nothing too exciting)

I also took graphic designs, typography, photography... (while not as in depth the knowledge added to my other works.)

Animation is a more complex medium to study, for a feature film I generally watch the same animated film at least 4-6 times: 1st time: watch the whole story flow. 2nd time: watch the movement of the characters, 3rd time: watch the design of the layout. 4th time: watch timing of things for storytelling, sound, animation etc. If I really really like a certain clip, I watch the break downs. And I usually spend the money to get the bonus versions on DVD for learning.

For an animated series (usually Japanese) I watch for a whole different set of stuff all at once, (because a series take alot more time to finish) thus I don't actually like watching anime, because it's alot of work to watch one for me, 1st: story, I watch how they keep our interest, how they cut from scene to scene, what can be told, what can be skipped, for what reason.... camera movement, combination between 2D and 3D... generally the first eps is most important. I also watch for the animation, in particularly how they "cut" animation workload, because Japanese is pro at that. I generally watch how they do their short cuts and learn how to not overwork the animation. Due to this I learned a load of tricks... Thirdly I watch for production management. Like how different clips varied from one another in timing, where they managed the money shot and where they placed less budget on shots, and how they managed to make a whole eps interesting even though there are plenty of stills and loops. In anime it's pretty clear when it's low budget, but every choice is made with intentions. And I also watch for how they make the production "fun" for the people on the team, it's an extremely difficult job for any producer to do. 

For manga, I would keep mangas that matches closely to my current need and style (like either lineart, tones, or paneling) and often pick it up to just go over it once in a while to think about my mistakes and observe how others avoided it, or what they did to resolve theirs. Paneling is one of the most common thing I study, as well as storytelling, and pacing of panels. I generally look for interesting solution in panels, where they placed negative space, and what effect it created, thickness of the lines here vs there and why. And camera flow in Manga and how it relates to it's layout on the page being in a book form. etc. 

And what is more pleasant to the eye vs less pleasant, what can be left out and not drawn and still work?

I generally finish all of the things I need to do ahead, or on time, but I have a bad tendency to overbook so occasionally I get too tired to work on things that I said I would do. 

A Christian preacher Joyce Meyer once said: "I give everyday a name, like this is my work out day." 

So I give everyday a name after the task I want to do. I generally only schedule 2 tasks per day right now and that tend to take up the whole day just fine. (after cutting out time I had to set aside for family business and other things) 

I had a dream where I was passing by an animation studio in the city that I wanted to go to, but it was empty, no one was in it.

I knew then my route really is going independent, working under others wasn't really meant for me though I can do it short term, 

and I had enough presence on the web to keep going indy with constant commission requests coming in from clients.