How Do I Know I'm Making Progress in Art?

And here's a question I get asked all the time, usually quietly, near the end of a session. "Am I actually getting any better at this?"

You are. I promise you are. But the way you're probably trying to measure that is the wrong way, and that's exactly why it doesn't feel true yet.

How I Actually Spot Progress in a Beginner's Work

I don't look for a masterpiece. I look for small, specific things, and I compare them to what came before.

A circle drawn more accurately than the one from three weeks ago. A better understanding of where the light falls on an object, so the shading actually holds it in place. Colours blended so they read as the object in front of you, rather than sitting on the page as separate patches of paint.

None of that shows up if you're only looking at one drawing at a time and asking "is this good?" It shows up when you put two drawings side by side, weeks apart, and ask "what's different?"

That's the whole trick. Compare the work, not the day.

I also look at confidence in the line itself. A nervous, scratchy line that's been gone over ten times becomes one clean, decisive stroke. That change alone tells me more about someone's progress than whether the drawing looks "finished."

The Day J Turned His Head

I had a student, J, who'd been stuck on figure drawing for a while. Something about his person just wasn't working, and he knew it, which made it worse.

One session, we made one small change. He turned the angle of the head slightly and added a bit more hair. That's it. That's the whole adjustment.

And it worked. Properly worked. His figure suddenly held together in a way it hadn't before, because that tiny shift meant he was actually observing the head in front of him rather than drawing the head he expected to see. His observational skills had been building for weeks. That one small tweak is where they finally showed up on the page.

He didn't believe he'd improved until I put his old figure work next to the new one. Then he saw it. You could watch his confidence change in real time.

Why It's So Hard to See if You Are Making Progress in Art

There's a reason this is genuinely difficult to judge for yourself, and it's not a lack of ability. Researchers who study habits talk about something called the "OK plateau," the point where a skill becomes automatic and your brain quietly stops working to improve it, because it's already good enough to get by.

Here's the good news buried in that. As a beginner, you're nowhere near that plateau. Your brain is still wide awake for this, still adjusting, still filing away every small correction. That's exactly why beginners can improve so fast when they're paying attention, and exactly why it's worth building in a moment to actually notice it happening.

How to Track Your Own Progress at Home

Most of you aren't in my art group every week. You're working alone, at your kitchen table, with no one there to notice the small wins. So here's what I'd tell you to do instead.

Draw the same object again. Not tomorrow. Give it a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, then come back to it and draw it again from scratch. Don't look at your first attempt while you do it.

Then put them side by side.

Your brain is already doing some of this work for you without being asked. When you make a mistake, whether that's a proportion that's off or a colour that's too flat, your brain quietly files it away. Next time you draw something similar, you'll often remember exactly where you went wrong last time, and that's your cue to slow down and really look at that part. That's not luck. That's your observation skills doing their job.

If you want to make it easier to see, keep everything in one sketchbook rather than loose pages, and treat every "wrong" attempt as useful evidence rather than something to hide. Future you will thank present you for that.

Why You're Judging Your Progress Unfairly

Here's where most beginners trip themselves up. They compare their drawing to the photo, or the object, or the person sitting in front of them, and they expect it to match.

It won't. Not for a long time, and that's fine.

What you're making is your interpretation of that object, not a copy of it. In the early stages, that interpretation is going to be simple. A bit rough round the edges. That's not a sign you're bad at this. That's what stage one looks like for absolutely everyone, including the person whose work you're admiring on Instagram right now.

Give it years of practice and that interpretation gets more sophisticated. It doesn't happen by demanding photographic accuracy from yourself in week three.

One Small Step at a Time

I want you to close this post with you feeling ready to try again. Properly ready, not just nodding along.

So here's your one small action. Go and find something you drew a few weeks ago. Have another go at it today. Then put the two side by side and look for the small stuff, not the finished, framed, Instagram-worthy stuff. A better line. A more accurate curve. A colour that sits right for once.

This is a one small step at a time kind of journey. No rushing here. Small steps are still steps.

Ready to Keep Going?

If you'd like feedback on your own progress from someone who's watched hundreds of beginners find their way, come and join one of my art groups, in person or through Create, my online art community. It's exactly what it's built for, and I'd love to see how far you've come.

Fancy getting a group of friends together instead? I also run private art sessions.

You can also find Cygnini Creative on Google here.

Debbie x