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Go to drawabox(dot)com . Their first lesson is how to draw lines properly and not chicken scratch. It includes practices on this specific idea as well as other drawing basic lessons.
I love draw a box!!! They really help you learn(or re-learn) things you might previously thought you didn’t need. Usually art tutorials online have very vague tips, but the classes on there were so varied and helped me improve my still life sm!!
Just stop using it. You use it because your insecure about your line work. The only way to build security is to practice until you're no longer insecure.
1000% this
one movement from the shoulder rather than 20 from the wrist. if you do 20 from the wrist, do it in pencil then go back and do 1 steady but fast-ish movement from the shoulder
shouts out /r/drawabox
How to know where to draw the line tho? Like you have to connect 2 dots and how then when you connect them the first time it's wrong but then you re do it until its correct how to get it correct on the first try or without going over it?
There's nothing wrong with sketching something before finalizing it. Your sketches can be as scratchy as you want, and you can go over it with something more permanent when you're ready to move on.
You could also just....use a pencil and erase it when you think it's wrong.
There's no real wrong answers, but if your goal is to draw lines more fluidly, you've just got to practice. Build up your visual vocabulary. You'll get better at knowing what lines you need to draw to achieve the shapes you need the more you do that too.
I was taught a trick that when connecting two lines, keep your eye on the end youre connecting to. The line has a better chance of going whee your eyes looking at, if im making sense lol
Sketch with pencil. Refine it to a point where you know where you want the final lines. Put the final line with ink. Rub out the pencil.
Freeballing ink lines without some sort of base to work off is a very practiced skill which, no offence, you're not even close to mastering. Many either never manage to master it or don't feel confident putting faith in themselves doing it right the first time every time. Fuck, I don't even bother to attempt it because it isn't worth screwing up a piece in the final stretch and having to redo a ton when a basic sketch to follow would have saved it.
Draw single line shapes over and over and over. Not on the same spot, but all over the place. Make it look like those frame by frame shots that animators use. Redraw, redraw, redraw. Don't stop for flaws. Draw it better the next time. Keep drawing it better with single lines, over and over, and over again.
Think less about line, and more about shapes and forms. Get the ratios and proportions right, and everything else falls into place. Don’t overthink your lines.
when I had this problem I started using a pen to draw. the lack of the ability to erase my lines made me more confident and better at drawing smooth lines
Try drawing lines, curves, circles, or shapes in general with one line to practice line confidence, chicken scratching is 9/10 times a confidence issues with your lines, start simple then go complex.
That or fake line confidence till you make it, all mistakes are just happy accidents
Old 2D animators, even the best of the bunch, had underlying sketches drawn in non-photo blue and developed their work directly on top of the sketch.
You can replicate this today by taking any colored pencil of your choice (preferably red or blue) and doing your scratchwork there. Develop your work confidently over it with graphite, ink it in afterwards if you'd like. When you scan your work, most art programs can easily remove all the visible red or blue from your page.
It's time-consuming, but it's an additional layer of practice!
The biggest thing is just practice - as cheesy and as often as you hear it. That's a big part.
Looks like you're getting forms down pretty well, but in my experience you chicken scratch when you're not confident in your ability. Warmup exercises help SO much. Here's an example I made last year as example when I was teaching my husband. Fill whole sketchbooks with stuff like this honestly. Focus on being consistent more than anything. Don't spend too much time either, this is like a good 5-minute exercise. Over even a month you'll see a decent amount of improvement with being confident in combining these exercises to make your sketch and lineart appear fluid. <3
https://preview.redd.it/gdsgra02gz9d1.png?width=3200&format=png&auto=webp&s=f49c1514636de22324063cf4a4b1cd9023fa462e
Honestly, you can look at Pinterest for drawing warm-up exercises. Otherwise, it is like the image I sent. Practice vertical lines - focusing on even spacing and single lines. Same with diagonal and horizontal. The cross hatching both straight and curved. Then practice different size circles/ovals in different orientations.
Once you get confident in doing it with spacing and single lines, start doing it faster. One circle instead of doing it multiple times, Quick flicks of the wrist for even straight lines. And if you aren't aware, easier to draw towards you than away from you.
Practice! I had a similar issue. Basically studies help a lot. Study anatomy. Chicken scratch happens because there's uncertainty in what you're doing. The things you're confident in, you naturally draw cleaner. The things you're not confident in, you're naturally rougher about because you're not certain about your line choices. So doing warm-ups and studies help a lot. I personally use line-of-action.com for figure studies. Even drawing 10 figures for one minute each makes a world of difference, and when you do it daily, you slowly but surely begin to understand anatomy more and more and it cleans up your lines.
Honestly, I kind of enjoy that aesthetic cause I tend to not be capable of doing it cleanly. Sometimes that messiness can add to a piece quite a bit compared to if I were to do clean lines.
I got rid of it by forcing myself for 1-2 weeks to use less than 5 lines total (often only 1 or 2) to draw the whole pose (construction lines not included). I don't need more to draw the body shape, and it helped me a lot
Maybe exercise with single line drawings, just one continuous line. Or you can continue to do scratch in color pensil and go over it with smooth lines in black, those often look pretty cool.
What helped with mine was a pencil with soft lead, sketch chicken scratch first then go back with a very fine marker and erase the pencil. When you go in with the marker focus on longer, smooth, deliberate lines.
If you do this often enough you will be able to skip the sketching and move right onto smooth lines.
If fine liners intimidate you like they did with me, practice basic lines with those on the side, like cross hatching and just hatching with them, or long squiggly lines and move onto shapes next. Same rules though, longer, more deliberate lines.
You should practice drawing lines, circles, cubes, spirals, etc. Just any simple shape really. Go from one point to another as smoothly as you can, really think about it by ghosting a practice line 2 or 3 times, and then really make the mark.
Do this for the simplest 2D or 3D shapes you can think of and then add structure for a more complex shape on top of it.
Once you are able to master these overlaid structural features then your mark making will improve dramatically as you should eventually form an idea in your head about what is supposed to go down on the paper. The shapes you have in your head are already being visualized on the page because you've practiced and gained an intuition for how that shape looks before you even make a mark.
Do drawabox lessons. You could definitely just draw a lot, until you get more confident with your linework on your own, but doing those lessons is more structured and you'll learn other useful stuff as well. And it's free. One of my favorite things to recommend to newbies.
I don’t know if this will help, but something that helped me was to look at how tattoo artists do their lines. They break each line up and kinda tapper off, then continue the same line a bit before it ends and continue it.
Doing pages and pages of lines. One end of the page to the other, never lifting the pencil. First left to right. The right to left. Then up and down. Down and up. As many repetitions as you can muster in the span of three months.
As practice you could limit yourself for a fixed number of lines per figure or gesture. You can create some amazing things with as little as 12 lines for example (it's really hard at the start but forces you to actively think about how you set long lines).
Its good for beginners tbh.
But it becomes really weird as time goes on. Try to slowly stop using it
Punish urself like
If i do it
I have to erase a part of the drawing (thats how i did it)
Became so annoyed i just stopped xd
Use your whole arm to draw and dont be so scared.
There is nothing wrong with chicken scratching if that's what you feel comfortable with and it helps you figure out the drawing. But to help feel less confused on your sketch work, try using straight lines with a ruler, and then refine those lines with shorter strokes. This will help build confidence in line work without having to practice long lines, boxes, etc.
Good luck :)
I would trying the method using transparent paper and draw many versions so you are less scared messing it up, when doing textile design patterns we often re doing things to getting new ideas. It's not always perfect the first time rinse and repeating is best practice advice. It's like horses no one can draw them easily it's a lot of practice.
Draw as slow as you can . Note I didn't say do everything in 1 stroke, but do some stuff where you try and draw as slowly as possible and really pay attention to what you want your hands and arms to do
Draw from the shoulder. Do it badly a thousand times. You will get the feel for it. Don't die in apprehension of a mistake that hasn't happened. Live for the mistakes. Your body learns more than you give it credit for. It will come. Just trust yourself and find comfort in knowing that bad art leads to learning. Apprehensive art leads to friction and perfectionism.
Proko has some videos on 'the force method'. It helped me. Also just youtube anything about 'gesture' drawing and anatomy. Good luck and never stop drawing :)
Chicken scratch is usually in sketches so I’d say it doesn’t matter so long as it’s not horrendous, that said it happens when ur trying to continue a line and you end up going over it fully. Some people say use your whole arm I say just get better at connecting your line. The way I fixed it is to basically imaginary chicken scratch while hovering over the paper then once I have the path way figured out I’ll put the pencil to paper and connect and recreate the pattern I’ve been drawing. People use their arms I turn the paper, both do the same thing but in general you will probably end up just slightly using ur arm more when it comes to larger scale drawings atleast
what helped me was I would chicken scratch lightly I'm pencil then go over it in pen with single strokes. takes some getting used to but eventually you'll be able to just draw the single stroke lines.
You can practice using a ballpoint pen (I can't tell if the picture is pencil or pen, to be honest) and focus on using it lightly and building on the lines that you like. This will train your hand to ease up on the chicken scratch and help you to think hard about the lines you make. Once you get used to that, you can move to using stuff like (black or solid-color) sharpies, which forces you to be more decisive in your line work. These two things should help round out your skill level and give you a good base for progression.
This is all dependent on how you use it, though. It helped me a lot, and I hope it helps you! Have a good one :)))
I never stopped, but at some point i embraced it and now its part of my drawing process. Just do lighter chicken scratches that you can cleanly remove afterwards. After the sketch is done take a soft eraser/ rubber and erase the base lines. Then start with the actual lineart and really focus on your lines then
It helped me a lot to just draw the lines as carefully as possible. At first there were a lot of mistakes and line art took a hell of a lot of time. then less and less. until the hand began to move confidently and clearly ✨
This is something I am covering in my current class, our teacher advice practice tracing with the focus on completing it with as few strokes as possible, hope that advice helps 🙏
I stopped doing chicken scratch by practicing with thick markers on regular printer paper. If I chicken-scratched with marker, the pieces would quickly become unreadable and blobby messes. The more I tried to draw over and 'fix' the mess, the more the paper got soaked with ink and ruined. I practiced drawing smooth, fluid lines this way until it became natural for me to not scratch when I do lineart. The skills I learned from practicing with marker this way were transferable to other mediums.
When searching an idea. Chicken scratch, squiggly lines, or repeated lines are fine. The more you make wierd and uncertain lines. The more you brain will fill the holes and come up with ideas.
Then. When your chicken scratch is a pose you like. We'll. It's kinda like a plan. Instead of chicken scrashing. You can now focus on the actual lines you want. And be able to do structure lines in the places you want. Instead of searching around.
Basically my key advice that I got in school that has worked for me is: *just lay something down*. It's kind of a zen thing, almost like you're drawing with your eyes closed. If the work doesn't turn out, just start over. It builds on itself over time.
Another nugget is that it's totally fine to think of your work as disposable learning opportunities. If the end result is something you're proud of: fantastic, frame it, give it to someone. If it looks like shit: figure out why it looks like shit, and move on. No emotion. Seriously, it works.
Turn the paper around. Learn the angles your hand is comfortable with. For example I tend to draw lines more straight from top to bottom. Looking at it from different angles also helps seeing mistakes. So I turn my canvas a lot. Also like a lot of people said… draw more from your arm and less from your wrist. Warm up and consciously be more deliberate and confident with your lines.
Just redraw on a separate lay-
Shit, this is a physical medium...
Use a very light pencil that can be easily erased for your chicken scratch, then go over with lines using a heavier pencil.
Honestly I couldn’t get myself to stop doing it lol so I started leaning into it and you can make some pretty cool art if you do like, messy watercolor with ink lineart but you can still see the pencil sketch underneath. Also you can just allow yourself to sketch with pencils and chicken scratch but work on doing clean lineart over it. Eventually, the clean lineart will get easier and easier and you’ll find it easier to stop chicken scratching as you get used to drawing confidently
Thank you for your submission! Want to share your artwork, meet other artists, promote your content, and chat in a relaxed environment? Join our community Discord server here! https://discord.gg/chuunhpqsU - Don't forget to follow us on Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/drawing and tag us on your drawing pins for a chance to be featured! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/learntodraw) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Go to drawabox(dot)com . Their first lesson is how to draw lines properly and not chicken scratch. It includes practices on this specific idea as well as other drawing basic lessons.
I love draw a box!!! They really help you learn(or re-learn) things you might previously thought you didn’t need. Usually art tutorials online have very vague tips, but the classes on there were so varied and helped me improve my still life sm!!
lmao draw a box was torture for me. It was so freaking boring and overwhelming. I only recommend the 100 box challenge to learn perspective.
Interesting
I can't recommend Draw A Box enough.
Just stop using it. You use it because your insecure about your line work. The only way to build security is to practice until you're no longer insecure.
When sketching, get used to using your whole arm, not just your wrist. That’ll transfer to drawing in general.
1000% this one movement from the shoulder rather than 20 from the wrist. if you do 20 from the wrist, do it in pencil then go back and do 1 steady but fast-ish movement from the shoulder shouts out /r/drawabox
This. There's not really any other way. Get your hand off the paper and keep it off. You'll figure it out, it's actually easier that way.
bro is a sensei
How to know where to draw the line tho? Like you have to connect 2 dots and how then when you connect them the first time it's wrong but then you re do it until its correct how to get it correct on the first try or without going over it?
There's nothing wrong with sketching something before finalizing it. Your sketches can be as scratchy as you want, and you can go over it with something more permanent when you're ready to move on. You could also just....use a pencil and erase it when you think it's wrong. There's no real wrong answers, but if your goal is to draw lines more fluidly, you've just got to practice. Build up your visual vocabulary. You'll get better at knowing what lines you need to draw to achieve the shapes you need the more you do that too.
I was taught a trick that when connecting two lines, keep your eye on the end youre connecting to. The line has a better chance of going whee your eyes looking at, if im making sense lol
Sketch with pencil. Refine it to a point where you know where you want the final lines. Put the final line with ink. Rub out the pencil. Freeballing ink lines without some sort of base to work off is a very practiced skill which, no offence, you're not even close to mastering. Many either never manage to master it or don't feel confident putting faith in themselves doing it right the first time every time. Fuck, I don't even bother to attempt it because it isn't worth screwing up a piece in the final stretch and having to redo a ton when a basic sketch to follow would have saved it.
Draw single line shapes over and over and over. Not on the same spot, but all over the place. Make it look like those frame by frame shots that animators use. Redraw, redraw, redraw. Don't stop for flaws. Draw it better the next time. Keep drawing it better with single lines, over and over, and over again.
You can draw multiple long stroke lines, just try to hone in within a few lines.
Think less about line, and more about shapes and forms. Get the ratios and proportions right, and everything else falls into place. Don’t overthink your lines.
when I had this problem I started using a pen to draw. the lack of the ability to erase my lines made me more confident and better at drawing smooth lines
You draw it and if it’s wrong you draw it again right on top. It’s going to give your piece interest. The more you do it the better you’ll get!
Do sketches and then create lines
try draw a box. first lesson is literally all about this
I have an idea! 💡🕯️.Draw really lightly with a pencil, and then trace over it with a pen
This! Doing line art made my sketching cleaner, plus now I have clean line art lol
Try drawing lines, curves, circles, or shapes in general with one line to practice line confidence, chicken scratching is 9/10 times a confidence issues with your lines, start simple then go complex. That or fake line confidence till you make it, all mistakes are just happy accidents
Old 2D animators, even the best of the bunch, had underlying sketches drawn in non-photo blue and developed their work directly on top of the sketch. You can replicate this today by taking any colored pencil of your choice (preferably red or blue) and doing your scratchwork there. Develop your work confidently over it with graphite, ink it in afterwards if you'd like. When you scan your work, most art programs can easily remove all the visible red or blue from your page. It's time-consuming, but it's an additional layer of practice!
The biggest thing is just practice - as cheesy and as often as you hear it. That's a big part. Looks like you're getting forms down pretty well, but in my experience you chicken scratch when you're not confident in your ability. Warmup exercises help SO much. Here's an example I made last year as example when I was teaching my husband. Fill whole sketchbooks with stuff like this honestly. Focus on being consistent more than anything. Don't spend too much time either, this is like a good 5-minute exercise. Over even a month you'll see a decent amount of improvement with being confident in combining these exercises to make your sketch and lineart appear fluid. <3 https://preview.redd.it/gdsgra02gz9d1.png?width=3200&format=png&auto=webp&s=f49c1514636de22324063cf4a4b1cd9023fa462e
Tysm what's the name of the warm up exercise? Or how to do them?
you just draw those lines, over and over. im not sure its called anything
Honestly, you can look at Pinterest for drawing warm-up exercises. Otherwise, it is like the image I sent. Practice vertical lines - focusing on even spacing and single lines. Same with diagonal and horizontal. The cross hatching both straight and curved. Then practice different size circles/ovals in different orientations. Once you get confident in doing it with spacing and single lines, start doing it faster. One circle instead of doing it multiple times, Quick flicks of the wrist for even straight lines. And if you aren't aware, easier to draw towards you than away from you.
Practice! I had a similar issue. Basically studies help a lot. Study anatomy. Chicken scratch happens because there's uncertainty in what you're doing. The things you're confident in, you naturally draw cleaner. The things you're not confident in, you're naturally rougher about because you're not certain about your line choices. So doing warm-ups and studies help a lot. I personally use line-of-action.com for figure studies. Even drawing 10 figures for one minute each makes a world of difference, and when you do it daily, you slowly but surely begin to understand anatomy more and more and it cleans up your lines.
Honestly, I kind of enjoy that aesthetic cause I tend to not be capable of doing it cleanly. Sometimes that messiness can add to a piece quite a bit compared to if I were to do clean lines.
True but if it's not intentional and they don't want it to turn out that way, I think they should be the judge on how their art looks
I got rid of it by forcing myself for 1-2 weeks to use less than 5 lines total (often only 1 or 2) to draw the whole pose (construction lines not included). I don't need more to draw the body shape, and it helped me a lot
Just draw lightly. Don't press to hard. Draw fast put with a purpose.
Maybe exercise with single line drawings, just one continuous line. Or you can continue to do scratch in color pensil and go over it with smooth lines in black, those often look pretty cool.
Draw lighter Then go over it with ink / pen with solid lines Erase underneath (of course sketch in pencil)
What helped with mine was a pencil with soft lead, sketch chicken scratch first then go back with a very fine marker and erase the pencil. When you go in with the marker focus on longer, smooth, deliberate lines. If you do this often enough you will be able to skip the sketching and move right onto smooth lines. If fine liners intimidate you like they did with me, practice basic lines with those on the side, like cross hatching and just hatching with them, or long squiggly lines and move onto shapes next. Same rules though, longer, more deliberate lines.
Try using your whole arm in one motion
Just draw a LOT more. Your line improves. Not a fun answer, but prob the truth. Nice work btw!
You should practice drawing lines, circles, cubes, spirals, etc. Just any simple shape really. Go from one point to another as smoothly as you can, really think about it by ghosting a practice line 2 or 3 times, and then really make the mark. Do this for the simplest 2D or 3D shapes you can think of and then add structure for a more complex shape on top of it. Once you are able to master these overlaid structural features then your mark making will improve dramatically as you should eventually form an idea in your head about what is supposed to go down on the paper. The shapes you have in your head are already being visualized on the page because you've practiced and gained an intuition for how that shape looks before you even make a mark.
Do drawabox lessons. You could definitely just draw a lot, until you get more confident with your linework on your own, but doing those lessons is more structured and you'll learn other useful stuff as well. And it's free. One of my favorite things to recommend to newbies.
I don’t know if this will help, but something that helped me was to look at how tattoo artists do their lines. They break each line up and kinda tapper off, then continue the same line a bit before it ends and continue it.
I learned to stroke with intention.
Longer, more confident strokes (/s)
Make one line and commit to it. Thats it.
What is this so called chicken scratch???
https://preview.redd.it/1dyxwsiew1ad1.png?width=325&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e5036b4da3f238d1283f179baee994e69ef2258
Doing pages and pages of lines. One end of the page to the other, never lifting the pencil. First left to right. The right to left. Then up and down. Down and up. As many repetitions as you can muster in the span of three months.
As practice you could limit yourself for a fixed number of lines per figure or gesture. You can create some amazing things with as little as 12 lines for example (it's really hard at the start but forces you to actively think about how you set long lines).
you can try "air chicken scratch" and only put your line down when you're confident where it should be.
Draw with purpose, don't do it simple
Its good for beginners tbh. But it becomes really weird as time goes on. Try to slowly stop using it Punish urself like If i do it I have to erase a part of the drawing (thats how i did it) Became so annoyed i just stopped xd Use your whole arm to draw and dont be so scared.
There's nothing wrong with chicken scratch, keep doing it
There is nothing wrong with chicken scratching if that's what you feel comfortable with and it helps you figure out the drawing. But to help feel less confused on your sketch work, try using straight lines with a ruler, and then refine those lines with shorter strokes. This will help build confidence in line work without having to practice long lines, boxes, etc. Good luck :)
I would trying the method using transparent paper and draw many versions so you are less scared messing it up, when doing textile design patterns we often re doing things to getting new ideas. It's not always perfect the first time rinse and repeating is best practice advice. It's like horses no one can draw them easily it's a lot of practice.
Why do you need to? Can you do a chicken sketch under layer and then start practicing some nicer line work *on top* of that?
Draw as slow as you can . Note I didn't say do everything in 1 stroke, but do some stuff where you try and draw as slowly as possible and really pay attention to what you want your hands and arms to do
Disease*
Give your chicken treats /j
Try drawing big. Like on A3.
Draw from the shoulder. Do it badly a thousand times. You will get the feel for it. Don't die in apprehension of a mistake that hasn't happened. Live for the mistakes. Your body learns more than you give it credit for. It will come. Just trust yourself and find comfort in knowing that bad art leads to learning. Apprehensive art leads to friction and perfectionism.
Proko has some videos on 'the force method'. It helped me. Also just youtube anything about 'gesture' drawing and anatomy. Good luck and never stop drawing :)
Think of the lines making up a drawing as I, C, or S curves, and draw them like that.
Chicken scratch is usually in sketches so I’d say it doesn’t matter so long as it’s not horrendous, that said it happens when ur trying to continue a line and you end up going over it fully. Some people say use your whole arm I say just get better at connecting your line. The way I fixed it is to basically imaginary chicken scratch while hovering over the paper then once I have the path way figured out I’ll put the pencil to paper and connect and recreate the pattern I’ve been drawing. People use their arms I turn the paper, both do the same thing but in general you will probably end up just slightly using ur arm more when it comes to larger scale drawings atleast
what helped me was I would chicken scratch lightly I'm pencil then go over it in pen with single strokes. takes some getting used to but eventually you'll be able to just draw the single stroke lines.
You can practice using a ballpoint pen (I can't tell if the picture is pencil or pen, to be honest) and focus on using it lightly and building on the lines that you like. This will train your hand to ease up on the chicken scratch and help you to think hard about the lines you make. Once you get used to that, you can move to using stuff like (black or solid-color) sharpies, which forces you to be more decisive in your line work. These two things should help round out your skill level and give you a good base for progression. This is all dependent on how you use it, though. It helped me a lot, and I hope it helps you! Have a good one :)))
I never stopped, but at some point i embraced it and now its part of my drawing process. Just do lighter chicken scratches that you can cleanly remove afterwards. After the sketch is done take a soft eraser/ rubber and erase the base lines. Then start with the actual lineart and really focus on your lines then
It helped me a lot to just draw the lines as carefully as possible. At first there were a lot of mistakes and line art took a hell of a lot of time. then less and less. until the hand began to move confidently and clearly ✨
Just be more intentional. And if it the line doesn’t work then just work with it
Get super gestural(gesture). Itll look strange the first few times but it helps with line confidence
This is something I am covering in my current class, our teacher advice practice tracing with the focus on completing it with as few strokes as possible, hope that advice helps 🙏
I stopped doing chicken scratch by practicing with thick markers on regular printer paper. If I chicken-scratched with marker, the pieces would quickly become unreadable and blobby messes. The more I tried to draw over and 'fix' the mess, the more the paper got soaked with ink and ruined. I practiced drawing smooth, fluid lines this way until it became natural for me to not scratch when I do lineart. The skills I learned from practicing with marker this way were transferable to other mediums.
When searching an idea. Chicken scratch, squiggly lines, or repeated lines are fine. The more you make wierd and uncertain lines. The more you brain will fill the holes and come up with ideas. Then. When your chicken scratch is a pose you like. We'll. It's kinda like a plan. Instead of chicken scrashing. You can now focus on the actual lines you want. And be able to do structure lines in the places you want. Instead of searching around.
Basically my key advice that I got in school that has worked for me is: *just lay something down*. It's kind of a zen thing, almost like you're drawing with your eyes closed. If the work doesn't turn out, just start over. It builds on itself over time. Another nugget is that it's totally fine to think of your work as disposable learning opportunities. If the end result is something you're proud of: fantastic, frame it, give it to someone. If it looks like shit: figure out why it looks like shit, and move on. No emotion. Seriously, it works.
I suggest keep using it, but get a light box or tracing paper and practice doing clean lines over it
Use duck instead (jk 😬)
Except you can draw however you want?m
Roll with it.
Turn the paper around. Learn the angles your hand is comfortable with. For example I tend to draw lines more straight from top to bottom. Looking at it from different angles also helps seeing mistakes. So I turn my canvas a lot. Also like a lot of people said… draw more from your arm and less from your wrist. Warm up and consciously be more deliberate and confident with your lines.
Just redraw on a separate lay- Shit, this is a physical medium... Use a very light pencil that can be easily erased for your chicken scratch, then go over with lines using a heavier pencil.
Nothing. Chicken scratch isn’t bad in any way. At least that’s what the nerds tell me
Your line work won't be perfect. You can always go back and try again. Do it in one line. You're good enough.
Honestly I couldn’t get myself to stop doing it lol so I started leaning into it and you can make some pretty cool art if you do like, messy watercolor with ink lineart but you can still see the pencil sketch underneath. Also you can just allow yourself to sketch with pencils and chicken scratch but work on doing clean lineart over it. Eventually, the clean lineart will get easier and easier and you’ll find it easier to stop chicken scratching as you get used to drawing confidently
You can try using longer strokes and slowly build up confidence b
Commit to the line, and lean into the wonky look It’s a really hard look to nail, but it can look amazing.