Fedodika the Koala

[Fedodika]

Hey mr/mrs evening, so if youre a beginner i would lean towards not reccomending the grinding, though mileage will always give you some boost, at a low level you should prioritize good observation and knowledge, more of a macro sense of knowledge.

So... in my opinion, itd do you the most good to

0. Watch Dorien itens observation guide, or read drawing on the right side of the brain, or learn like bargue measuring techniques where the goal is to simplify lines and masses in space.
1.internalize proportion charts like from loomis till you can replicate them from memory
2. learn the major anatomical masses and their muscles by name for arms, legs, neck, torso, back, pelvis, hands, head, feet. So thats bones, joints, and muscles. Proko is great for this, just watch his videos get premium if you can, take written notes, do the examples, correct your mistakes and watch the critiques. Or get an anatomy book like hampton and draw from reference, takes notes, draw from memory, take notes on mistakes.
3. bust your butt on perspective exercises, like drawabox.com, do cubes, cyllinders, and elipses, this is extremely important and id do this before anything if you havent done it already.

I only did this to expand my visual library and shape knowledge and it worked for where im at, since i can apply these concepts like anatomy which i know, and perspective, which i know to a lesser degree, and of course train observation.

Its tough to say really, if its right for you, i can see how if you already know these concepts you could benefit greatly by a great quantity of applications like i did. Each of these im drawing like reilly rythms, wrapping cylinders, checking angles, things that a beginner probably doesnt know much about.

If youre like super objective, you can make grinding sessions very productive, but these tools i mentioned above, are what make you objective if that makes sense. Learning to see why youre wrong is more important right now for a beginner than any quantity. Then once you get those tools, yes a lot of repetition is necessary to develop a style and visual library if your goal is to do imaginative work.

Then when you make these couple hundred drawings you can say, oh i drew that head too small, i always screw up that leg line, i indicated this muscle wrong, etc. and even see mistakes in the reference and correct them yourself. Else youll just do what i did the first 50 or so pages of this sketchbook and be drawing a lot with no tool for self correction and not gaining really anything.

My approach with these was not to make them as close as possible to the reference, it was more to get the idea of the pose, try to get in the ballpark like 90% close in proportions, apply reilly rythms and anatomical landmarks, and sort of build this skeleton and mannequin in my head from that book. and it worked! i have a much better grasp on how to draw a dynamic, appealing figure with more intricate anatomy than the lumpy humanoids i used to draw. I spent about 10 minutes on each sketch, sometimes like 8 near the end as i got faster at them.

So get those tools and then get the mileage, thats my suggestion, and thanks for the interest :)