Observation is more important than practice.
- No one
Well, I can say for me, it is. After starting studying Computer Science, I wasn’t really practicing drawing much. I didn’t have enough time to complete complex pieces and most of the times, I was finishing something once in a month or so.
But, strangely enough, those were the years that I saw the most significant improvements in my art. Even though, I have stopped drawing, I continued observing little details on objects in my daily life.
For instance, let’s say you are commuting for university classes. You start the courses early in the morning and finish around late afternoon when the sun starts to set. While being bored at the bus, you can observe how the lighting interacts with the clothing of different materials of the passengers and how the overall palette of the atmosphere changes. It may be rude sometimes to stare at people, so try to be discreet! You can also follow the same practice when you go for a walk.
Observing has to be something you do constantly. According to many non scientific sources, they say that perception fully develops at your initial adult years. If I see a backed up explanation on this claim, I may believe it. What is true though, is that observing requires a percentage of your mental capacity.
And if people grow up observing, they may potentially be better at translating the details they have absorbed into paper. If you give a task to draw a house or a human portrait to a teenager and an adult, there is a higher chance for the adult to make a more photo-realistic piece than the teenager. The adult probably had more years in their life to observe the world…