/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>4988792
The decade was literally a waste of time when it came to actual drawing skills. I only refined my taste, basic tool control and composition, the actual act of drawing is totally different from copying and enhancing references, as I found out to much surprise and disappointment - you gotta get the mileage in, you gotta start thinking in 3D, you need to be able to see form to draw! It’s a language designed by humans to trick each other into thinking they are looking into a window to a reality you have created

With that in mind, don’t waste time tracing. Look up the shrimp learning method. Find Pete han’s dynamic sketching on online-courses.club (free). >>4988871
Anon, you are absolutely going in the right direction, dO not give up.
Here’s a critical tip: look at a contour around a cylinder. See how the very edges of the curve turn very quickly compared to the lazy, long turn in the front (perpendicular with your eye)? That sudden speed in turning, a result of compressing of form and seeing lots of it squished into a small area, is actually a key to a lot of advanced techniques like fresnel effect in speculars, subsurface scatter etc. It is fundamental you understand it. Take a sharpie and a loo roll tube or a cup and draw a contour line around its edge. Go and draw 30 cylinders referencing your actual object. Nail that ring. “Draw through” - do the complete ellipse, not just the visible part of the contour.
Then do your organic using this principle

Good luck!