Hey there, @aheneha! I'm glad to see that @paper has already given you some helpful feedback. I’ll share my take on your questions too - but since your post addresses many things, I just hope I’ll manage to be objective. :) ——- YOUR DRAWING Yeah! I think you did a good job capturing the pose. Proportion and structure look nicely handled to me. I’m not bothered by the arm you thought was too tucked in, and, majorly, I don’t notice any incorrectly placed features. I find it a pretty good sketch overall. As to little stuff that maybe could be adjusted, two things do pop out to me: 1) The weight of the elbow on the knee could feel stronger. I feel as if the elbow is barely touching the knee in the drawing, while, in the pose, she’s putting some body weight there. Maybe try thinking that area in terms of a bit of pressure and gravity force, and see how you could convey that visually. 2) The hand resting on the ground seems a bit off perspective to me. I get that the hand is supposed to be touching the ground a bit far back behind the body, but maybe it seems to be going too far back, and since there’s no indication of the ground plane in the sketch, it feels as if her arm is a bit too short. To change this, I think I’d bring the hand lines downward a bit, closer to the side of her body (instead of going back), maybe even with the forearm overlapping the hip a tiny bit. If you’re very used to drawing just from reference, this adjustment can be a challenge in particular because it seems the hand is not showing in your friend’s photo (or is it? I notice the image you posted here looks cropped on the right side, so maybe there’s a part of the photo I’m not seeing). An extra thing to point out about your drawing is how important the facial expression would be in case you’d want to take the drawing further. In the photo and in the drawing, the body language is the same: slightly tense and contracted (which is great, it shows you really captured the gesture); but the fact that she’s smiling in the photo gives away the impression that she’s amused, although just a bit shy or embarrassed, while, in the drawing, just the body alone, without the smile, could be seen as worry or introspection. If this is just a body pose study, no problem! Just keep in mind how the body expression communicates ideas and feelings about the figure, and how its dynamics with the face can affect how that idea or feeling is being communicated. ——- STEPS IN FIGURE DRAWING  When you do full figure drawings like this, yes, it can help to follow gesture - structure - mannequin as steps in your process, not exactly to be more accurate, but because it can give some clarity and control over how you’re handling the drawing process, and it also helps you better remember and associate concepts and techniques you learned before to the actual practice of it. Over time, these different “steps” can start to naturally blend into another, and you may find yourself doing a “gestural mannequin”, or sketching gesture while also visualizing 3D forms in your mind - that would be great, it would likely mean that you’re getting more comfortable with the basics and using a more intuitive thinking to draw. But no need to worry, speed it or force it in any way though - as long as it helps you, feel free to stick with the separated “steps” for as much time as you need. ——- COLORING A LINE DRAWING Perhaps it’s important to set a distinction between “coloring a drawing” and “painting”, since each one can involve different techniques, methods and mindsets. Just for the sake of this explanation, here’s how I’m considering it: if you have a fully done line drawing (pencil or ink, for example) and want to add color and shading for extra layers of visual information, that would be “coloring” (something like what people do in superhero comics); and if you have a line drawing that should serve mostly as a guide for you to construct your developed image on top by using light and color (and, eventually, the line drawing would not show in the final work), that would be “painting”. Based on the example you shared (very nice work, by the way!) and because you mention you’re aiming at a realistic look for your work, it seems to me that what you’re going for is the latter. Now the steps you say you’re using (flat colors; shading; rendering) can definitely work for coloring even if your knowledge about color is not advanced, but, for it to work in painting the way I’m assuming you would like, you also need solid knowledge of how light works and skills on managing values and edges in a painting. In other words, if I interpreted your goals correctly, my take is that you might like to take some lessons on basic painting techniques and fundamentals of light. I’ll paste below a list with some courses I know of and believe could help - I listed them somewhat in a suggested order from simpler to more complex in my perception, although one is not necessarily a pre-requisite of the previous. Also, feel free to look for other resources to study from in case you prefer. . The “Basic rendering” series by CtrlPaint - https://ctrlpaint.myshopify.com/collections/foundation-skills . Dorian Iten’s Shading Course - The Shading Course – Fundamentals of Realism, Light & Shadow . Fundamentals of lighting with Sam Nielson at Schoolism - https://schoolism.com/courses/art/fundamentals-of-lighting-sam-nielson . “Digital realism” series by CtrlPaint - https://ctrlpaint.myshopify.com/collections/intermediate-techniques . Painting with light and color with Dice Tsutsumi at Schoolism - https://schoolism.com/courses/painting/painting-with-light-and-color-dice-tsutsumi . James Gurney’s books - https://www.amazon.com/-/pt/dp/B094YPF4QT/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=color+and+light+by+james+gurney&qid=1645486916&sprefix=color+and+light%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-2 —— OTHER THINGS Yeah! As you mentioned yourself, you can feel free to invent, design and create based off a reference, whether by adding elements that represent or express feelings, abstract ideas or storytelling, or by reducing the clutter, simplifying, stylizing. Either way, you certainly don’t need to feel attached to copying everything exactly as you see (unless, of course, this is a deliberate choice, which then is fine too!) Your artwork certainly gives away that you’re not a complete beginner, however, if you feel you still lack skills or information to make the kind of work you want to make, it’s awesome that you’re aware of it, since having this kind of clarity is the first step towards growing. Really, my major recommendation to sum this up would be that you consider taking some lessons on painting, either by any of the resources listed above, or by any other of your choice. Well, this ended up becoming a tsunami of text 😆 But indeed there was a lot to talk about. Thanks for reading and hope it helps! Feel free to pop questions or discuss anything else if you’d like. Best of luck in your studies!

Honestly I think your proportion and structure is pretty good,I do agree on the arm being tucked in,so I guess I advised studying the arm in different perspective For the "I am too faithfull to my reference" The most effective solution to that I know is try to study from life,since with a photo you just need to copy the shapes,life is always changing so you need to always reinterpreted it(It is also good exercise to look at the big things since you only have a certain amount of time before the reference change) If you do not have life model,I advised just doing more 10-30 second gesture studies. As for color,I'm guessing you haven't learned of warm and cool light ?If so I advised watching Marco Bucci series on color harmony and color temperature (There's also a section on how warm and co effecr human skin in his character design series,it's in no 2 if I remember correctly) (Also I forgot to mention here but the second picture actually have decent color,I think I actually advised you to learn about edges more since it seemed very repetitive) As for what has helped me understand color. watching marco bucci color harmony series (as mention.above) and painting the skin on an egg,meaning I ignored human anatomy and structure and just draw an egg as if it was human skin by either warm or cool light (I would look at different artist for how they handle skin tone too and try to replicate them on this egg) Well that turned to be a long tangent,again I'm sorry that it took too long,and may have overexplained some concept,but I hope there was something in there that's useful.