So 99% is practice, and the 1% real work is horrible despite that much practice 😭. The only other thing is my sketchbook. Which is an assault to the eyes.

Don't be too harsh on yourself. My handwriting is 100% trash, like it really is. Back in school, I was driving every single one of my teachers crazy just because I could not write. Did not prevent me from earning a living writing, and to write daily ;)

As for my own sketches, well, let's just say I won't win any art competition. That, I can tell you confidently. But I can also tell you I enjoy sketching tremendously. So, I'm fine with my lack of prize-winning perspective ;)

Sketching sounds like a short form activity but it takes me surprisingly long to do a simple drawing.

If you're anything like me, it's not a surprise: I need time for everything new... not to learn the stuff itself but to assimilate it and to make it some kind of a second nature, something I just do without worrying or thinking too much about it.

I don't know if this may help you, but that's helping me, so here it is: recently, I decided to add daily sketches in my journal and since I journal almost every single day, I notice any page/spread where I have not added at least one sketch. And I mean sketching absolutely anything provided that it grabs my attention (be it IRL or on the Internet, like this mushroom whose picture I saw that day on Lemmy) — I blurred the journal parts ;)