While that one guy with the tall head was intentionally silly, I think I’m struggling most with proportions. I’m using a reference image for most of these, but none of the end results look much like the people in the photos. I’m also not using a grid as I’m doing this all with pen. I know I’ll eventually get it with practice, but is there anything specific I could try?
I’m very much learning as well but 2 pieces of advice that have been helpful:
When practicing from references or life, draw what you see. This is harder than you think, it takes lots of concentration to avoid drawing what your brain thinks is the real world.
Look at the negative space, that is, the space in between the forms of what you are drawing. This helps establish relationships between the elements of your drawings.
Some exercises that can help:
Drawing without looking at the paper (helps switching your focus from the paper to what you are seeing, the results are strange and funny)
Put your reference upside down (helps with drawing what you see instead of your mental model because the brain is not use to seeing the objects upside down)
Take a house plant and draw it using only negative space. Your goal is to not draw the plant but what is not the plant.
Have fun!
This is the best advice I ever got when it comes to realistic drawing. And it is hard! Seeing is different than knowing. And a two dimensional page is different than the 3D space that we live in. Drawing is like a translation between brain, eyes, and the paper.
If you draw what you know, you end up with some weird shit, like those medieval cat drawings. It may be recognizable as a cat, but doesn’t look like you’re seeing a cat.