Leg Day for Artists: Why Focusing on One Skill at a Time Builds Real Strength

When you're making art, it's tempting to try and solve everything at once: composition, anatomy, values, color, storytelling, design... all packed into a single piece.

That ambition is good, but it can also be what holds you back.

Think of it like training at the gym. You wouldn’t try to do leg day, chest day, cardio, and flexibility all at the same time. You isolate. You focus. You build strength, one area at a time.

The same applies to your art practice.

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Narrow Your Focus, Accelerate Your Growth

Trying to improve everything at once usually leads to frustration and burnout. Instead, isolate one aspect of your craft, and dedicate a session or even a full week to it.

Want to improve your composition?

• Grab a marker or a single soft pencil.

• Set a timer for 10-15 minutes.

• Fill a page with thumbnails. Don't worry about detail or finish, just focus on flow, balance, and rhythm.

I often make this quick 1 value thumbnail to help me focus on composition. Notan Study

Want to improve color composition?

• Trace a portrait or photo, if you need a quick composition (yes, tracing is fine when you're focusing on something else).

• Then dive into color. Focus on getting the temperature, harmony, and contrast right.

• Ignore rendering. Ignore linework. Just push paint around.

Here, I just grabbed my iPad and directly painted with colors, not caring about accuracy

Want to sharpen your anatomy?

• Do 30-second gesture drawings with a timer.

• Spend a whole sketch session just drawing hands. Or shoulders. Or feet.

Studying masters for anatomy is a good idea as they have already solved many visual problems and cleared the composition. You just have to focus on understanding what matters to you.

Want to get better at lighting?

• Take a simple bust model or head sketch and draw it under five different lighting scenarios.

• Stick to grayscale. Don't distract yourself with color.

I often use an Asaro Head (very simplified low poly model) to do quick lifhting studies.

Want to work on materials and surfaces?

• Paint studies of just metal. Then just skin. Then just fabric.

• Don't worry about the character. You're just learning how each material reacts to light.

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The Power of Constraint

Focusing on a single area forces you to solve problems more deeply. It removes the noise and lets you listen to the part of the process you're trying to train. Like doing slow reps at the gym, you're building muscle memory and confidence where it counts.

Even professionals train like this. Behind every "polished" piece are dozens of focused studies: hands, rocks, values, brushstrokes.

So next time you sit down to draw, ask yourself: What's today’s leg day?

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