Thoughts on my first Inktober52 drawing?

[lpetiti]

Happy New Year!

I decided to participate in Inktober52 this year to help build more healthy drawing habits and give my self-confidence a boost. Although I've posted this to my social media already, I'd also like to take the drawings I do this year further and really start improving my skills.

What do you think? Where could I improve?

Thanks!

[mag]

@lpetiti hi!
I think it’s a great habit to draw regularly and it definitely will help you a ton
Regarding this particular drawing, may I ask you - did you sketched the illustration first? I like the idea, the image looks a bit stiff to me though. I remember when I was learning to draw and had a similar problem, it was all because I skipped (or didn’t enough) of preparation work. Especially with ink, the line work might get too heavy and uneasy, when you don’t have the pencil sketch underneath to guide you.
When doing the sketch, I would try to really loosen up my hand...
I did a quick little drawing to show you what I mean

[lpetiti]

@mag Actually yeah I always sketch out my ink drawings before inking, because I've never been confident in directly starting with ink. I've heard a lot about my drawings being stiff, ever since art school. My boyfriend says he can tell when I'm upset or anxious when I draw because of the line work, I just don't know how to...turn that off(?)

[mag]

@lpetiti oh, sorry about implying you don’t sketch - that was just my first idea. When you draw, maybe try to draw from your elbow, loosen the wrist and try to draw multiple lines to choose from when sketching? But if that’s what you already do, maybe you just need to get the “mileage”. So the remedy for this would be just draw and draw and draw, until the pencil and your hand feels like one.
I also highly suggest you to look on the draw everything lecture, and the creative composition.

[mag]

@lpetiti sooo... I looked on your other stuff you posted here on the forum - and in your paintings, there’s so much more confidence and they are not as “stiff” as this drawing. I really liked the one with the Phoenix, the colours are amazing on this one and the lady looks beautiful. maybe when you get more confident with drawing, you turn the stiffness off
I’m sorry I’m not more useful...

[lpetiti]

@mag on the contrary, this helps a lot! I really appreciate you taking the time to look at my other work and give such good insight. Your words definitely inspire me to want to work at building up my confidence in drawing overall. I remember a professor once said that people tend to favor either line drawing or rendering...I think in the past I’ve definitely favored rendering more, so line work and bringing more life to my drawings is definitely going to be a goal this year!

[doro_thea]

@lpetiti Hi, I also think it looks a bit stiff. do you look at reference first? I try to always remind me to do so and in addition I always try to exaggerate the pose. most of the time, it doesn't even exaggerated in the and at all but just nice. and if it looks exaggerated, it is easier to deal it back, than to add more life into a stiff pose, i think. hope that helps...

[lpetiti]

@doro_thea Yep, I do that too! These comments are really eye opening...I do sketches underneath my ink and always look at reference, so if those are the first questions I keep getting asked, then obviously, even after practicing art and illustration for 10ish years I’m still not where I should be. Which is a whole different conversation because it seems like no matter how much I keep going back to basics, there’s still some sort of road block for me!

I’m hoping this year I can start loosening up.