Help me Practice the right way

so i have been taking my shot at drawing for a while now but never really practiced out of the fear of doing it wrong. i decided just 2 days ago that i atleast want to draw 1 hour (im doing the class mode) a day but i feel like im doing it wrong and i dont want to build up any bad habits. im still pretty insecure both about my skills and myself. and i feel like i am doing pretty ok when it comes to the 30 seconds to one minute sketches. but when i have to draw the full figure i somehow cant seem to get it right. i already try to think in shapes and doing one stroke at a time but i kinda fall back into my scribbly messy drawing habits.



30 - 60 seconds :

https://imgur.com/HznIXwH

https://imgur.com/wDqpfzJ

https://imgur.com/aIpz7qk

5 minutes :

https://imgur.com/bxAFOdC

https://imgur.com/Xa6DIgj

https://imgur.com/zKfVMHj

https://imgur.com/uPcLIx1

10 minutes + :

https://imgur.com/B6PZdP1

https://imgur.com/bojtRWH

https://imgur.com/keKV76h

https://imgur.com/BN7QWxK

https://imgur.com/KhwjLn8



These are pretty much all drawings i have done in these two days.

Hey ZayneTiF, glad to see you decided to take the plunge and do a bit of drawing! I'm a total beginner as well, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt.

My first piece of advice is: don't worry so much about doing it wrong! Try a bunch of stuff, and if you like what you see, then it's right. Even if you end up going towards a different style down the road, doing what you enjoy right now will help keep your motivation up, which is SUPER important, especially when you're just starting out. Look for different techniques and styles, and go with whatever works for you. Also, remember that muscle memory is HUGE when it comes to making marks. The more marks you make, the more muscle memory you'll gain. The more muscle memory you have, the more confident and accurate your marks will be. So even if your drawings don't look how you want, that doesn't mean you're wasting your time.

Second piece of advice: set reasonable goals, and give yourself time to have fun. Becoming a great artist takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time actually spent drawing and studying, but it also takes a lot of time for your brain to absorb all that information. That means even if you study 12 hours a day, you're not gonna get the same level of improvement as if you spend an hour a day over a 1 year span. My point is, don't rush it, it's a process, and the most important thing is to not give up. It's a battle of attrition, a marathon, not a sprint etc etc. While figure drawing is a great exercise, and this site provides a great way to keep track of your practice time, there are lots of other ways to learn and practice out there. I would encourage you to set aside some time to exercise other forms of practice, such as free drawing (doodling) or drawing animals, scenes, random photos, life, etc. If you don't have the time, consider shortening your class time. While having a routine is valuable, your big improvements / breakthroughs will mostly come when you're really enjoying yourself. Our brains operate best when they're happy.

Alright, let's do a bit of analysis.

https://imgur.com/HznIXwH Good stuff here, I can see you're thinking about the spatial relationships between the points of interest, and you've got some pretty solid geometry. You could probably use some basic shape practice (boxes, cylinders, cones, pyramids, etc) to make your shapes feel a bit more solid, but it's not bad.

https://imgur.com/wDqpfzJ Same for this one, you've got some really good movement in some of these. Doesn't it feel awesome when you nail those big sweeping curves, and you're like 'woah, I can see the motion all of a sudden!'

https://imgur.com/aIpz7qk Holy... you clocked that one on the right inside of 60 secs? Very impressive stuff, definitely something ot be proud of.

https://imgur.com/bxAFOdC I wouldn't worry all that much about anatomy, just focus on getting your drawings to look the way you want them to look. That being said, the fronts of the thighs usually curve outwards to show the strong muscles you use to walk. Having them curve inwards leaves the person looking a bit emaciated. The bicep is a little higher on the arms, the neck is not quite that long, and the head is usually a little larger. Going back to your sketch and comparing it to your reference after your done (try holding your paper over your computer screen) can be a good way to spot some of these little errors.

https://imgur.com/Xa6DIgj Good proportions, clear muscle masses, it feels like you were a little bit scared on the sides of the body and the right arm. Remember, this is an exercise, not a finished artwork. If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on. Don't try to correct it by drawing a whole bunch of lines so that the shape is ambiguous and you can't tell that you were wrong. You need to know if you were wrong so you can fix your mistake.

https://imgur.com/zKfVMHj Good stuff. The torso and head feel a touch on the long/skinny side, but that might just be the reference.

https://imgur.com/uPcLIx1 Not sure exactly what happened here, but it looks like you may have skipped over that nice geometry you had in your thirty second drawings and skipped straight to the contours. Remember, just because you have extra time doesn't mean you jump right into the details. When you're going a longer sketch, you should still spend the first part getting your rough geometry down. This will help you avoid things like the forearm being twice as long as the upper arm. If you feel like you're running short on time, consider skipping the props and only focusing on the figure.

https://imgur.com/B6PZdP1 Cool sahding, once again, a few proportions seem a little off (check the length on that forearm) but in general you'll get better at that with more practice. Also, thinking about relative sizes helps a lot (you can use your own body for reference) for example, your elbow will usually be somewhere near the bottom of your ribcage, your upper leg will generally be the same length as the distance from your shoulder to your hip, etc.

https://imgur.com/bojtRWH man, if I meet this one walking down the street, imma be SHOOK. That boi needs some muscle! In all seriousness, his overall measurements and anatomy is pretty solid, his limbs just need to be a lot thicker and more shaped for him not to feel emaciated. It looks like this was earlier on for you, so if looks like you got this problem mostly solved. Good job!

https://imgur.com/keKV76h Is that... MARKER?! I... love it! Try different mediums, throw stuff out there, see what works for you. This one actually looks really good though, so great job!

https://imgur.com/BN7QWxK So this is really good, although the head is a tad small. Also, one other thing we probably need to talk about, you mentioned you (try to) think in shapes... are these 2d shapes, or 3d shapes? It looks like you're constructing your torso out of some elipses, which is cool, but makes sure that somewhere along the line you're giving them depth, and understanding the actual 3d shape of the body, not just the profile on the front.

https://imgur.com/KhwjLn8 Man I love your marker drawings, they're so clean! Doing all the geometry in pencil and then making the outline pop with the marker is an awesome style. I've always been impressed with people who can see the geometry in their head, and just mark out the contours directly, but that takes a LOT of practice. You may want to consider adding some cross sectional lines to your shapes to help both you and the observer better understand the shape and make it feel more 3d.

So yeah, I'm not an art teacher or anything, so again don't take any of this too much to heart. You're doing really great, especially for how recently you started, and it looks like you've improved a ton. Now the real battle begins, which is to not loose your motivation.

Stay creative,

--Siv

Hey :D thank you very much for your very In-Depth Analysis. i feel like you have given me even more Motivation to stick at it now. and for the one question i try to see in 3d-Shapes and translate that into 2D forms kind idk. and thank you very much on all the compliments :D . you know the embarrassing part is that i actually started drawing in 2017 but i either was unmotivated or didnt want to practice cause i feared failure (and social media was also kind frustrating).

so again thankk you really much because i feel like im going somewhere now ^^ and i wish all the best to you and your drawing journey.