I love this thread.
I often find myself sitting down with the intention to practice sketching, but then decide that I just need to take a “quick look” online for inspiration on things to draw. An hour later, I realize that I just spent the entire time I had alotted for practice browsing other people’s portfolios. This is when I get those feelings of frustration. The internet makes it seem like everyone else in the world but you is putting out all of this really amazing work and it’s really easy to get discouraged.
However, you don’t get to see all of the other work/practice that happened before the designer posted their ten best sketches online. I find it really helpful to hear these real life anecdotes about how people spent periods of their lives sketching 30, 40, or 50 hours a week, which practice techniques they found most effective, etc… no wonder their sketches are awesome! This kind of stuff really helps me put my sketching ability into perspective, and set more reasonable goals for improving in the amount of time that I have to practice.
So… thanks to sketchie105 for asking great questions, and to the awesome Core77 community for answering honestly!