An older video of Proko interviewing artists at convention. Their answers are different but fall along similar lines. Things that held people back, or that they wish they knew sooner:
Technique: Form before rendering. Drawing through. Finding a mentor, or finding a community for feedback, or discovering a school or an atelier with knowledgeable professionals with the skills necessary to share.
Anxiety: Getting frozen with fear about not being able to produce worthy work, such that you don’t gain milage and experience (being too precious with the work). Being afraid to share work. Being afraid no one else is going to understand your vision or style. Not believing in yourself. Need to fail up, make more mistakes, and get free of fear.
Follow your passion: Getting caught up in what’s cool, or what’s salable distracting from own style, ability and capacity. Mistaking glamour, career, money for direction and desire. Be dedicated to making art.
For myself? I’m in a sort of limbo. I’m not complaining. It helped me a lot actually to just acknowledge my situation, actually! I’m able to invest in hobby level art and writing, but I am scribbling with intention: my hope is to prepare myself for a time when the kids fly the nest, and I can make at least a regular part time go at a pseudo creative profession. I’m just having fun with it.
Still, learning what helped these artists and others like them is also important to me as I share art with the kids in my life. I might not have a master level atelier skill to impart, but I can at least point the way and put them ahead of where I began.
Nikki Dreamer Illustration 
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