Creating a fool proof, simple schedule...?!

[gerbenpasjes]

Hi Jyonny! I've done my best to compile some thoughts into a response, take everything with a grain of salt!

Hi guys! Reaching out for advice, opinions and thoughts from you daggers!
 
About every 6 months or so, I assess just wtf I'm doing with my time, look at where I want to be and realise I need to be doing things differently to get there. 
 
I spend a few days with a couple of whiteboards figuring out what I want my art to look like, dividing up all the skills I need to get it there, exercises to practice them all, then try and fit it all into the available hours I have. The longer I spend on it, the more detailed the plans and steps, the more I have to cull, and the more complex the ‘action’ part of it becomes.
 

I feel you there Jyonny! Although I myself am a big fan of whiteboarding and detailed plans and steps, I've started to learn recently that it's just not getting me anywhere. At least, it's not getting me where the plan is supposed to take me. 
Making a plan, especially a detailed one, comes with a lot of assumptions that you could (unwittingly) have:
- Life will not throw a wrench in my perfectly planned schedule this time!
- If I do X then I will get Y
- Person A & B did this so I must too

Time and again I've been amazed by my ability to believe what I'm telling myself when I make these plans. The last time I did anything as detailed as I think you're telling me (2 years ago) I completely broke down after 3 months and was out of the game for 6 months after. 
That time it sorta sunk in that what I was doing was in fact not helping but hurting my artistic progress, because I was forcing myself through something. I believed (and continue to believe) in the power of discipline to get me through the rough 

For someone who has a grasp on the fundamentals. By no means mastered them, but has enough understanding to benefit more from studying pro artwork directly, rather than going through drawabox or Hampton anatomy again, what are some ways to get the most out your practice time?

I don't have any specific pointers for you here but what I've found is that focus really is the name of the game. Whatever you do, you should do with full mental attention. That is, if you're sitting down to improve because there's also a time for drawing for the sake of drawing, relaxing, etc. 

How do you guys study from pro’s? Is there a simple, foolproof method like a ‘Do this, then do this’ type of approach - that won’t cover everything - but will get a lot of it covered, so I can free myself up from thinking about [i]what[/i] I am going to do, and just get on and do stuff, churning out those studies and drawings/paintings and making those sick gains!

I don't think there is a single fool-proof method to be had anywhere in art-land. The only two advices that come to me know is
1. never quit
2. this image. 
 

I thought about some kind of mentorship or consulting session with some kind of pro artist, but my notes and plans are so long and complicated and my thoughts so unformulated I don’t think I’d be able to provide them with the right info to get the right advice back, and don’t want to just dump pages of disconnected notes on anyone >.<
 

Perhaps you got the reason for getting a mentorship/consultant mixed up; like a psychologist, he or she's not there to answer your questions, but instead to make you see the things you didn't know how to see!

This year, I have decided to devote all my time to my personal project "The Secret Valley" to become better in all aspects of Game Art. It has forced me to study a lot of subjects and software that I am not familiar with, and it has been very rewarding to break down this huge project into many, many small tasks that all come together into one solid product.

As a counter-perspective on this I would say that from my personal experience I've gotten stuck many times on these big projects because I
1. expect too much of them
2. they become too big to grasp
3. when the to-do list far, far outweighs the done list, I get discouraged.

I've had much more luck with the smaller projects, 5-piece painting projects, or 1-month daily drawing w/ a topic projects. I am able to focus on one shortcoming or software I want to learn, as opposed to having to learn 5 softwares, 3 techniques, and 2 years of work.

There might be a middle way where you do enough small, tiny projects and they eventually add up to something big! But that should, in my opinion, never be the plan from the start.


As for your original titular question.......

The only thing that's fool-proof is something that's flexible. 

When the storm was over the oak tree through its stubbornness and defiance was lying uprooted on the ground. The reeds were standing tall. Lesson learned: When a storm comes often learning to bend will help you survive. 

To strike a balance between ad-hoc focussed working and having a very specific goal in mind is the key in my opinion. I am reminded of Aristotle's lesson to Alexander. It goes a little something like this (extreme paraphrasing):

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Too little of it as well.
Consider courage. A lack of courage is cowardice. But too much courage is overconfidence or even stupidity. 

I don't know if this gave you any useful info, I hope you find something worthwhile in it!