I find that I really love learning how to improve in art. It brings me unrivaled joy to figure out things like how a hand looks doing this, or how to draw a head doing that.
However, I’m wondering if any of you like the process of art studies? I know that I tend to put them off because I’d rather be drawing cute characters doing cute things than doing a figure study for an hour. I like art studies as much as the next person does, I just find it more fun to draw personal projects and incorporate references as a way of studying.
In my experience, it depends a lot on the course and the instructor. I’ve had art history classes that were literally just “memorize the artist, title, and year for the test”. And I’ve had drawing and painting classes with instructors that were absolutely convinced that the best way was to force not just fundamental techniques but subject and theme - like “do a version of Magritte’s Lovers”. These all sucked, and I love Magritte.
On the other hand, I’ve had courses where the instructors were focused on the bigger picture as it were - art history through the lens of local context in time and place, drawing and painting classes where it didn’t matter so much what came out, as long as the fundamentals were there. These were much more informative and useful - discussions were much more lively in the history classes, and the critique sessions in the skills courses tended to have more eager participation and more opportunities to be inspired by other students.