I am a very chaotic artist and i often do these practices when I have an artblock, but it is more important for me to draw consistently even if they are very rough! But I do enjoy the draftmanship exercises to help me warm up, and combining shapes have been very helpful before i start practicing gesture. I do know I need to slow down a lot of my practices, but it is a mental state thing.

Does it matter what type of pencil we use? I heard that beginner artist subconsciously try to hide bad quality lines and curves with normal sketch pencils. It's better to use ink pens when practicing because it exposes and makes it clear to the eyes every flaw in line making when self critiquing. Hopes with question makes sense. Thanks.

This is a great intro to get back into drawing after a burnout hiatus. Let's get educated and practicing! It's reviving my art spirit learning art fundamentals.

One day Marshall, I will be able to afford your classes. Living in a 3rd world country and having art dreams sucks (but not impossible).

I can't say colour is my strong point (yet hehe) but the darker image on the left caught my eye immediately. I think because the focal point is stronger on the angel as oppose to the image on the right? Lovely painting, I could never do something like this!

My most recent value study featuring Grimes. This is only my second digital painting value study, I think I made big improvements by drawing quite loose. Lot of texture and materials, as well as the cool back lighting.

Well, there are a number of things you could do so by no means are my suggestions the only ways. First I’d always recommend drawing from life. Any life drawing will help you draw from imagination later on when you’re inventing poses or working out ideas. It creates a giant vault in your brain of all the things you’ve seen and worked out for yourself, things that were right in front of you. It’s always a good test to try something from imagination, it will be quick to point out your weaknesses (and there always seems to be something to understand better in my opinion). Drawing from life isn’t always an option, especially for anatomy (however, mirrors can help in that case). Draw from references, whether on Proko or other sites, I am sure there are a number of places people can refer you to. Doing wire-frame drawings can help a lot too. These will without a doubt point out how well you get the structure of something. Along with this, drop the shading if your really unsure about something. It’s really easy to add shading in and we have done it but sometimes deliberately saying “these studies are about form by NOT shading” can help you further understand the thing your trying to draw. Also, look at your muscles in the mirror. Find the skeletal points. See if you can identify one deltoid head from the others as you move your arm around. Flex, extend, rotate. Our bodies are an amazing thing to look at! Draw BIGGER. I don’t mean like gigantic or anything, but using one page for one or two bigger example instead of one page for 4 tiny drawings. Working small limits you. Can you really know where the attachments are and how the muscles lay overtop the skeleton when confined so small? Sometimes it’s nice to dedicate a whole page to a more worked out study. Last, it’s always a good idea to revisit the skeletal structure. Knowing where origins and attachments are can only help you. Plus, if you find yourself confused on how a bone actually looks or works, you’ll never be able to figure out how the muscle works on top of that...I’ve had many days where tears swelled in my eyes as I frustratingly muttered to myself over and over...HOW DOES THIS PELVIS WORK!! Sometimes it can drive you to the edge of insanity, but pushing through this to get a better idea of the skeleton will for sure help. Anyways, sorry for the lengthy reply if you were looking for short and sweet. This is all general advice as I am not specifically critiquing your drawings but just answering the question your posted. Best of luck!

Hi there! Also new, but also want to be more involved :D these are STUNNING and honestly...I'm a bigger fan of loose sketches, especially ink sketches. Something about ink is just so lovely to me. But if you do want advise on cleaner line work, a tip I received from my tattoo mentor is to use the thinnest possible micron (0.003 is the thinnest I've seen) and ink your work with it to help improve line stability. If that makes sense? so maybe to practice clean line work, line over old pencil sketches as another layer of practice :) I hope that's useful - I kind of have to practice that since I want to be a tattoo artist :).

Hi Jon and hi everyone, totally excited about this art community thing. I really struggle with color, value and rendering to a specific level. Any advice, Tipp, Tutorial or whatever are totally welcome, please help, kiss kiss and much love!