/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>Draw a pretty nice portrait at the beginning of the month through pure observation
>Study measurements and enveloping
>Draw another portrait and it's worse than stuff I did over a year ago

People say that thoughtless drawing is bad but when I try to draw using any kind of technique it ruins my drawings and I don't want to have to use a ruler to measure everything because it's one step away from using a grid.

It's like I can't get into drawing mode when I try to use methods, I can't get that focused gesture drawing or hand wrinkles contour drawing feeling.

This picture isn't the one I drew because it was in my sketchbook but it shows my problem. The first was done kinda half using measuring the second was trying my hardest to measure and the third was not measuring and just kinda painting, while the 3rd looks the most polished I spent the longest on the 2nd by miles.