Reddit mentions of HULYTRAAT Dot Grid Spiral Notebooks, 5.5 x 8.25 Inches A5, Kraft, 80-Page 40-Sheet Journal 2-pack (NBD2)

The importance of fundamentals cannot be understated. You wouldn't start construction on a building without understanding the underlying architecture, would you? I know it's difficult, but you really can't afford to skip the essentials when studying any field. You've already seen that taking shortcuts lowers the quality of your finished works, and if you don't change your approach, you have no expectation of changing that outcome. Discipline yourself and build good habits now, and your hard work will pay off in dividends later.

I don't mean to imply that you should banish yourself to the realm of figure drawing and line work forever; nobody should. But it's important to familiarize yourself with proportion and anatomy if only so that your particular artstyle is consistent. Even if you only learn how to make the same mistakes consistently, all your art will improve at once when you learn to correct those mistakes later. Critique is a huge part in identifying weaknesses in your technique and improving your work, but if your work is all over the place, your critique will be, too.

Consider this: what about practicing your fundamentals bores you? What can you do to make it more engaging for yourself? Have you attempted more interesting subject matter or working from more challenging references? Are there any particular perspectives or poses that you like more than others, and if so, why? Have you tried shifting the focus of your work to suit your particular tastes? There are different figure drawing approaches and techniques out there-- how many of them have you tried? Is there anything stopping you from collecting your finished sketches in order to refine them later on?

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As to where to start, you already know about the fundamentals so I'll link another comment of mine to reiterate their importance and move on.

If you're not going to be working digitally at first, I'm a huge fan of these dot notebooks. They're inexpensive, lovely quality, nondescript, and portable, and the dot pattern is convenient for measuring lengths and widths without the visual clutter that actual graph paper can sometimes give you. I carry one with me for doodling, taking down random thoughts, and drawing maps. The covers aren't super rigid, mind, so press lightly or have a firm, flat surface like a hardcover book handy.

If you want to work digitally, you'll need an entry-level tablet of some kind. The Huion Inspiroy H950P is decent for its price point; it's got a fair-sized workspace, eight programmable express buttons, workable pressure sensitivity, and its pens aren't battery-powered so if you lose them, replacements are comparatively inexpensive. My one complaint is that, because I have large hands, I find I hit the tool-swapping button on my pen by accident unless I hold it just so. I work from a laptop, so the fact that it's not wireless doesn't trouble me but is something you may want to consider. Its little brother, the H640P, is about half the price with a smaller workspace and two fewer express buttons.

Digital artists also need software to work in. I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop CC if you can afford it (or are willing to sail the high seas, so to speak) for its feature set. Photoshop is not strictly for digital illustration so making it work just so for you will take more effort than you'd experience with a more specialized tool, but having its powerful features in my back pocket has never been a disappointment. Paint Tool SAI and Krita are the only other software options I can recommend; I don't have enough experience with other tools to give them a shout-out. If you're on a budget, by the way, Krita is completely free and has a fantastic feature set. Whatever you choose, learn it and learn it well.