Proportions and sketching

[Hemske]

So hi thar fellow hivers.

I have been on and off drawing since i was, no fucking idea, but at least since I was quite little. Maybe 5-7 years old.
I currently mostly draw by hand, or sometimes by mouse, but I am training with my tablet so be able to draw with that, which I intend to keep on doing for the rest of my drawing-life.
I think, by being honest towards myself, that I am quite decent in the art of drawing by now. But I falter at some points. And I am in need of some advice.

-Proportions/Poses, on humanoids mostly, but on creatures as well. On objects it usually turns out pretty well. But arms on humans and shit can really be fucked up. Like big time.

I do not sketch with stickmans/tubes/whatsoever. If I am to draw a pony, then I directly start to sketch the pony, with nothing between ponylooking tingy and blank paper. If you get what I mean.

My question is, Would my proportions likely be better if I began to sketch with tubes/stickmans?; or should I just practice drawing more anatomy/whatever?

I have seen that many artists nowdays just draw rough shapes with big brushes in ps, and then paint in the details. Have yet to try this way, is it a good way, or only for proffesionals? If it is a good way to use, do you think I should keep practice drawing regular as I do now, or is it dumb, because then I will have to re-learn my way of drawing when I have been familiar with my tablet?

I am too lazy to re-read this to check for grammarfails or such, bear with me.
Thanks.

 

[Chudy]

Well I dont have much experience with digital drawing either, i bought intuos played with it for a while and now its been lying somewhere for past few months, but at least for me it was more convenient to scan, or make a photo of a linework and then paint it over - no matter how good the tablet is its nothing like a paper and a pencil, as for the anatomy (it works at least for me) try to picture yourself the character in 3d think of it rather as an construction composed of muscles (a little anatomic knowledge comes in handy) than an actual human being, if it helps draw some lines f.e. a straight line going from one arm to another so it doesnt accidentially come out crooked. or stand in the mirror in exact the same pose as you're drawing and observe how does the body behave, how big are the perspective shortcuts etc. I tell you it doesnt require much effort and it helps alot.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

You like ponies.

I think it's all down to the individual in question - I was never (and arguably still aren't) that good at art but I have definitely improved but similarly anatomy especially in humanoids always proves a problem.

There are two things I tend to do to try and minimise my f ups'

First and foremost use reference pictures, find a picture in a pose similar to the one your planning to draw and put it as a semi-transparent layer beneath your drawing.

The other one is pretty common and self-explanatory, section off the canvas vertically/horizontally into a 'grid' where each body section should be;

Torso, Head and Shoulders, Left arm, Right arm, legs, feet etc.

That's the beauty of digital drawing once your done just delete the grid layer

Hope this helps somewhat anyhow ^^