Do you have any art guides/books you would recommend?

rema-rin:

There’s a lot out there on very specific subjects, so I’d first recommend sitting down and breaking down what it is exactly you’re wanting to focus on into smaller subjects - anatomy? proportions? sketching itself? - color, environments, composition, rendering- you name it and chances are someone has made a book on it.

Like, I could tell you “How to render” - by Scott Robertson, was very impactful in helping me understand how vital light and texture-rendering can be in terms of how shadows look - but if you don’t feel ready to tackle realistic rendering yet - or hell, aren’t planning on trying realistic styles in the first place, but more so wanting to specialize in more stylized and cartoony art - then that wouldn’t be a very useful recommendation for your journey at this stage.

If you aren’t sure what may be out there, I’d recommend watching stuff like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHU91rRkFQ

And tbh, I’d, in general, recommend Proko’s whole series “asking the pros” - there are a bunch of videos of him going around asking professional artists different kinds of questions and topics - it might help you get a better idea of how methodical this whole vague concept of “getting better at art” can actually be!