I don't need to draw (Misleading Title)

[donm]

I feel like the suggestion I'm about to make is kind of...er...different]

Totally. I have to calm myself down before I draw or paint. I don't meditate, but I have to listen to ASMR videos on Youtube or livestreams of people I can relate to the most, like Team Awesome or Bobby Chui.

[MidgardSerpent]

*shrug*

Less competition for the rest of us.

That comment fits so well with the expression in your avatar.

[TNiznet]

I found this thread very motivating O.o,

The best advice I can give is think less and do more, when you think about assignments or doing anything in general, you will tend to procrastinate your time away which is a huge loss of valuable time. Life is limited and it is a onetime opportunity. If you have a goal, complete it. Don’t wait on another day to progress towards your goal, it might sound cliche but it’s now or never.

[Birkeley]

I feel like the suggestion I'm about to make is kind of...er...different, but maybe it would help you if you tried out meditation. Seriously, hear me out! It kind of seems like a solution that has nothing to do with the problem, but it's a really good method for dealing with unwanted or pointless stress, at least for a lot of people. Trying it out may help you calm down and clear away some of the thoughts you've been having.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/well...meditation.htm

I only skimmed most of the thread so far, but I also want to enthusiastically +1 this post! Meditation teaches you calm yourself and enjoy being in the moment, and this really improves your general happiness levels. With practice you'll find you can chill out and enjoy things which you previously found tedious, like doing the washing up, ironing and yes, doing drawing drills. When you have some studies to do, do some deep breathing and meditate to calm down and release any stress or emotional/psychological about the practice. It only takes a few minutes. Then put on some music you enjoy (I'd recommend something relaxing, just so it doesn't carry you back to where you were) and just hang out with the pencil marks.

Also, if you are really finding drawing depressing or stressful, do something else for a while. I completely understand where you are coming from - years ago I got into a big funk about drawing because I was trying to please teachers/other people and worried so much about making mistakes and having to do things I didn't enjoy to improve, and it got so bad that I began to find drawing stressful and hated it. Please don't listen to people who say "just get on with it" because forcing yourself to do something you dislike will only make you dislike it more - what you need to do is tackle the issues which are causing you to feel this way in the first place, whatever is stopping you from just relaxing and drawing (read "Art & Fear" or "The Artist's Way", they are both amazing). I'll offer you some additional advice based on something I did quite accidentally: when I went to college I studied 3D modelling, which was related to drawing but didn't carry all the issues I had attached to it. I did this for a few years and then realised I wasn't finding it fulfilling and wanted to draw again. I was surprised to return to drawing and find that, after a little warming up to get back into practice, I was far, FAR better at it than I had been before. I'd taken a break of several years so this didn't make sense to me at first - if you don't practice a skill you lose it, right? Then I worked out that working with 3D modelling for so long had given me strong 3D visualisation skills and the ability to mentally examine things from different angles and understand how to represent 3D objects on a 2D plane like I never had before. The break had enabled me to work on my confidence issues and the improvement gave me further confidence, so it was a much easier ride from there. So if you're bored or depressed, try something else! Try some sculpting (traditional or digital), some painting with a medium you haven't used before, make something with your hands, anything that will help you loosen up and learn to look at things in a way you haven't before, and just enjoy the learning process without any pressure or attachment to the outcome.

Hope this helps!

[Redystra]

Thanks to everybody for their comments, I've found most of them to be very helpful. Time to crank my pace up.