Are you having a rough go with your art goal? Do you see those pieces and wish you could do that style of painting?
Maybe today's topic will help you get out of your rut.

As a permanent student in life, especially in art, I consider myself to always be on the learning path.  When someone comes to me for lessons or a quick one-word piece of advice, I am happy to over-fulfill their expectations, which usually results in my own learning.

For me, art is just a part of me; I really think that it was always there, it just had to be worked to the surface.
 I realized this when I found myself explaining, to my daughter, that she could explain to people that perfect practice is the key, not just practice, but perfect practice. One of my heroes is always saying, "Perfect practice makes perfect." 
Without the trials and tribulations and hundreds of failed sketches, my daughter has become quite good at drawing and expressing herself creatively.
Now, some would say that she learned it from me- but it really isn't true. The only real influence I have given her is that she witness my art making and exposure to art happenings. She really has learned it on her own, or rather been gifted it. She is much too independent to hone in on a lesson from Mom.

Still, it isn't fair to say that it just happened. She and I, both, had to hone our skills, are honing our skills, and have tried many techniques along the way.

For most of us, art is a continual ebb and flow of good and bad creative experiences. I'm just now finding out that having a consistent body of work is a must, (regardless of how my every essence fights against the machine that says I can't paint whatever the heck I want). I have found that, finally, I am able to choose from several styles of work.
 Let me share that with you a bit more in detail;
I have artwork that is naturally rural-based cowboy culture and work that is FreeStyle. I paint landscapes, cowboys, horses, buildings, birds and other wildlife. Should I focus on my main three styles; impressionism landscapes, FreeStyle horses, or representational art- I have a quality offering.

Now , let me explain how this all works out for you... 

I have learned, that there is no one way to do anything.. Not even to drive or ride a horse, everyone has a different posture. The faster you relax and allow this information to soak in, the better, the faster you will be good at what you want to master.

Let's say you have your eye on an impressionist piece; You don't necessarily care for every way the artist carried out the piece, but you would really like to do something like it, and make it your own, and you just cannot afford those workshops.
The best advice that I can give you is to paint that picture. Yep, I said it, paint that which you want to paint like. There is no better way to learn a style than to find a good representation of it and do it. What do you think workshops are doing? You're taking a particular artist's rendition of things and applying it to your work.

The magic of this is that you can practice anyone, any art piece and find out if you are able to detract the brush strokes from it, enough to accomplish your understanding of how the piece was manifested. The beautiful result is that you will learn the way the color was lain, the brush strokes, the feel of the painting and it will be automatically instilled in your repertoire of knowledge.

Now, I wouldn't copy it exactly, sell it or put it in public viewing, I would definitely scrap it afterward- but this is just for practice's sake.

Personally, I have used this technique a time or two and have found, in most cases, that I really don't care for the style. However, I always learn something about myself and my art-ability;

1. I find that it is best to use my own artistic voice.
2. My artwork is every bit as complicated or easy as theirs.
3. I ended up not caring for the piece as much, realizing that I had confused my emotional attachment to it with a professional one.

There are many ways to help you boost your efforts, but this is one of the cheapest and easiest that I know.
I hope this article helps.