How I'm suppose to sketch?... I don't know what I'm doing

Hi! First of all english isn't my first language so if I have some typo, please forgive me

A couple of months ago I started taking drawing as a serious skill so I decided to improve my sketch abilities but I feel that I'm on the same level as when I started (I know that you can't be a professional with just a couple of months of taking drawing serious, of course not!) I feel that my problem is that I don't know if the way I'm doing the sketch is the right one.

1) In this draw I spend like four minutes and looks really simple, plus I feel that some proportions are not okay.




2) Then I draw this on ten minutes, it looks better than the first one for sure, but I spend more time doing it.




3) And last but not least I draw this in eighteen minutes and of course is better than the other ones but I use a different technique.




Okey, my problem is that in the draw number one I spend less time doing it and my technique was draw like a stick man with cylinders on the limbs. On the second one I use the same technique but I kind of draw the shape of the model and add some details. And in the last one I don't do the same, instead I just draw the shape of the model and add details, shadows bla bla bla; I spend a lot of time but it looks cool.

I think that the third one is not a sketch, but I improve my skills of drawing what I see, not what I think I see. The first one is a sketch and I feel that with this technique I can draw from my imagination but when I add the cylinders and the shape of the model like in the second image, the final draw looks nothing a like as the original picture.

In resume, how I am suppose to sketch? I don't feel like I'm improving because if I use the third technique I spend a lot of time doing it and I don't think that's an actually sketch, and if I use the first technique I spend less time but the final draw is a mess.

Help me please!

I love the last one ♥ try on the fast one to capture the flow of the pose

First off, there is no right or wrong way to sketch.

But you do need to be conscious of what you want out of a sketch. Some people want or need more of a rendered sketch, and to the other extreme there are the scribblers and the tonalists. The rest of fall in the middle somewhere. Personally, I am a scribbler from way back, my sketchbooks are filled in a short hand that is only vaguely discernible by anyone else, but provides me with enough information to come back and elaborate on the subject later in a drawing or painting. Some are more elaborate than other, depends greatly on how familiar I am with the subject, and whether I am going for a study or information sketch or a more general concept sketch.

That said, if you want to practice constructive anatomy, then pick up a book by Bridgeman, Loomis,or Hogarth, and start by practicing their drawings, than apply that to life or the reference works so graciously provided here. If you want to be more organic, then step back from the construction lines, and spend hours working on the gesture. I would recommend a fluid, scribble gesture as Kimon Nicolaides discusses in his book Natural Way to Draw. Your pencil (or pen or crayon), never leaves the page, and you build up the form and the action. Your first ones will be horrible, but quickly you will develop an natural rhythm and the proportions will become second nature.

Good luck

Sketching for me is about fun, just experiment with different ways and see how you feel about them, there is no proper way to do it. I personally prefer light, wavy and floaty lines. Just take a paper and pencil and start scribbling lines, soon you'll start to see shapes in those lines and just define the shape that you see. I love doodling, just draw a few lines and see where it takes me, most of the time it's just some funny, stupid, cartoony characters but it's still fun. Just let your imagination wild and loosen your hand. They are not supposed to look good( but you can make them if you want to), just have fun with it, nobody will see it anyways. This is the way i figured it out. Also good for stress relief.