Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне важно жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя. - It is important for me to live in the present and sometimes draw small landscapes for myself.

Мне важно… literally means “(It is) important to me…”
Мне is in the dative case, because it marks the person to whom something is important / interesting / necessary.

You cannot say Я важно here, because важно is not describing me as a person; it’s describing the situation from my point of view:

Мне важно жить в настоящем. – It is important for me to live in the present.
Для меня важно жить в настоящем. – Also possible, literally “For me, it is important…”, more emphatic or contrastive.

So the pattern to remember is:

Мне / тебе / ему / ей / нам / вам / им + важно / нужно / интересно + infinitive

Where is the verb “to be” in Мне важно жить…? Why is there no есть?

In the present tense, Russian usually omits “to be” (есть) in sentences like this.

Full underlying idea: Мне (есть) важно жить…
Natural Russian: Мне важно жить… (the есть is dropped)

This is completely normal with:

Это важно. – This is important.
Мне интересно читать. – It is interesting for me to read.
Тебе трудно говорить по-русски? – Is it hard for you to speak Russian?

So you just memorize that in the present, you don’t say есть in such sentences.

What exactly does жить в настоящем mean? Why в настоящем, and what case is that?

Жить в настоящем is a set expression: “to live in the present (moment)”.

Grammatically:

в
- настоящем (prepositional singular)
настоящем is the prepositional form of the adjective настоящий used as a noun meaning “the present (time)”.

So the full, more explicit version would be:

жить в настоящем времени – literally “to live in the present time”.

In everyday speech время is often dropped and people just say жить в настоящем.

Why is it жить в настоящем, not жить настоящим?

Both exist, but they are slightly different idioms:

Жить в настоящем
- Focus: Be mentally in the current moment, not in the past/future.
- Closer to “live in the present”.
Жить настоящим (instrumental case)
- Focus: The present is what you live by / what you live with; you are fully absorbed by what is happening now.
- Closer to “live by the present / live for the present”.

In your sentence, в настоящем is the more neutral “live in the present (moment)”.

Why are жить and рисовать both infinitives? Could I say …жить в настоящем и иногда рисую… instead?

They are infinitives because they both depend on важно:

Мне важно что делать? – жить, рисовать
So: Мне важно жить… и (мне важно) рисовать…

This is a single impersonal structure:

Мне важно [жить в настоящем] и [иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя].

If you say:

Мне важно жить в настоящем, и иногда я рисую маленькие пейзажи для себя.

this is a different meaning:

First clause: “It is important for me to live in the present,”
Second clause: “…and sometimes I paint small landscapes for myself.” (a separate fact about what I do)

Your original sentence says both activities (living in the present and sometimes painting) are parts of what is important to you.

Why is there no comma before и: …жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать…?

No comma is needed because both verbs:

жить
(иногда) рисовать

are two infinitives sharing the same predicate важно:

Мне важно [жить…] и [рисовать…].

In Russian, when you have two or more homogeneous parts (like two infinitives) joined by и, да (=и), или, либо and they belong to the same grammatical function, you don’t put a comma:

Он любит читать и писать.
Мне нужно купить хлеб и молоко.

Same pattern here.

What does иногда modify here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Иногда means “sometimes” and it modifies рисовать (“to paint”).

In your sentence:

…жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи…

it is right before the verb it modifies, which is very natural.

Possible positions:

Мне важно жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя.
– Neutral; “and sometimes to paint…”
Мне важно жить в настоящем и рисовать иногда маленькие пейзажи для себя.
– Slight emphasis that the painting happens “from time to time”.
Мне важно иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя и жить в настоящем.
– Now иногда is more strongly attached to the whole “painting small landscapes for myself” piece.

The meaning stays similar, but word order shifts emphasis.

Why is маленькие пейзажи in that form? What case and number is it?

Маленькие пейзажи is:

пейзажи – nominative/accusative plural of пейзаж (masc.)
маленькие – adjective in plural, agreeing with пейзажи

Here it is the direct object of рисовать (“to paint”), so it is in the accusative plural:

рисовать что? – маленькие пейзажи

Agreement:

Masc. sg.: маленький пейзаж
Plural: маленькие пейзажи

Since пейзаж is inanimate, its accusative plural = nominative plural, so the form is the same.

What is the difference between рисовать and нарисовать? Could I use нарисовать here?

Рисовать and нарисовать are imperfective vs perfective aspects:

рисовать (imperfective): to draw/paint in general; process; repeated action
- Я люблю рисовать. – I like to draw (in general).
- Он рисовал час. – He was drawing for an hour.
нарисовать (perfective): to draw/paint and finish it; a completed result
- Он нарисовал пейзаж. – He painted (and finished) a landscape.
- Я хочу нарисовать пейзаж. – I want to paint (one specific, completed) landscape.

In your sentence:

Мне важно … иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя.

You are talking about a regular, habitual activity that is part of your life and values, not about completing a particular painting. For such general, repeated actions, Russian uses the imperfective:

So рисовать is correct and natural.
Нарисовать would sound like you’re focusing on finishing specific paintings, which doesn’t fit the “habit/way of life” meaning as well.

What does для себя mean exactly? How is it different from себе?

Для себя literally means “for myself” in the sense of for my own benefit/pleasure, not for others.

рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя – to paint small landscapes for myself (not to sell, not as a commission, just because I enjoy it).

Difference:

для себя – emphasizes purpose / benefit (“for one’s own sake”).
себе – dative case; often used with verbs like купить себе, приготовить себе, etc., in the sense “for oneself” but grammatically linked to the verb:
- Я рисую себе пейзажи. – “I paint landscapes for myself.” (colloquial; “for myself” is strongly tied to the verb.)

In your sentence, для себя is the standard, neutral way to say that the paintings are intended for you, not for others.

Why is it для себя and not для меня?

Both are possible but they feel different:

для себя uses the reflexive pronoun себя, which usually refers back to the subject/experiencer of the sentence, even in impersonal constructions.
It has a more “inner”, personal flavor: “for myself, for my own soul”.

Compare:

Мне важно рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя.
– Feels introspective: painting for my own inner needs.
Мне важно рисовать маленькие пейзажи для меня.
– Grammatically possible, but less natural here and can sound a bit clunky or too literal.

In such “personal growth / self-care” contexts, для себя is the idiomatic choice.

Why is it пейзажи, not something like пейзажы? Is there a spelling rule?

Yes, пейзажи follows regular Russian spelling rules:

Stem: пейзаж-
Nominative plural ending for masculine hard-stem nouns: -и
So: пейзаж + и → пейзажи

In standard Russian, after the consonants ж, ч, ш, щ, you normally write -и, not -ы:

нож – ножи (not ножы)
муж – мужи (archaic plural)
мяч – мячи (not мячы)

So пейзажи is the only correct spelling.

Is the word order Мне важно жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя fixed, or can I rearrange it?

Russian word order is fairly flexible, but changes in order can shift emphasis. Some natural variants:

Original (neutral focus on both activities):
- Мне важно жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя.
Emphasizing that it is important to me, putting мне later:
- Жить в настоящем и иногда рисовать маленькие пейзажи для себя важно мне.
  – More poetic or contrastive; sounds less neutral.
Emphasizing “for myself”:
- Мне важно жить в настоящем и иногда для себя рисовать маленькие пейзажи.

The original order is the most natural, conversational version. Use that as your default.