/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

How am I doing? I'm a total newb pls be gentle

If I replicate enough of these drawings will I eventually get a grasp on how to originally create them from 0?

Is there any type of eraser that actually leaves a clean sheet (with no trace of what was erased)? I had issues with this one because I had to erase a bunch of stuff and in the end the paper was very dirty

Why do the colors look so murky? I cant get a solid color, whats a good brand of coloring pencils? I'm using faber castell

Whats a good way to keep track of proportions? Should I draw lines with a ruler across the drawing to guide myself?

How do I keep the shading after coloring?
And whats a good way to color the white parts? Should I just leave them without color

OK, a few things:

How's my Tracer drawing? I left plenty of details behind like the british flag but overall its very faithful to the original piece.

Now some questions:

If I replicate enough of these drawings will I eventually get a grasp on how to originally create them from 0?

Is there any type of eraser that actually leaves a clean sheet (with no trace of what was erased)? I had issues with this one because I had to erase a bunch of stuff and in the end the paper was very dirty

Why do the colors look so murky? I cant get a solid color, whats a good brand of coloring pencils? I'm using faber castell

Whats a good way to keep track of proportions? Should I draw lines with a ruler across the drawing to guide myself?

How do I keep the shading after coloring?
And whats a good way to color the white parts? Should I just leave them without color?