#it was ages since last I regularly kept that up and it's noticable x'p

[dahtwitchi]

Hello there! I absolutely adore your art style, it's clear enough that even when scribbly you can tell who everyone is and simple enough that you probably don't need to spend hours doing a single pose. Any tips for how to speed up how long it takes to draw characters? Or just drawings tips in general? Thank you for your time and for getting me thoroughly on the MadaTobi bandwagon, I've been coloring some of your coloring pages for them and they're always adorable.

When it comes to speed, there is only one way. Do it over and over and over again. Get familiar with the character, draw them in different situations, different clothes, different moods. Sometimes to hit just the right expression, I have drawn (when it's eluding me the most) upward twenty versions of the same expression and then still picked attempt #2. I've drawn Tobirama and Madara well over a thousand times by now. Doodle doodle doodle away without intent to make grand images, sketches you can be ready pick out one or two and throw the rest away, because they were just training for your hand and brain for when you actually do make those drawings you want to be the more refined ones.

(unrefined babbling under cut)

When I make sketch studies I often do so with a timer, and, important to me personally, a pen that can't be erased. What ends up on the paper ends up on the paper (spending too much time with digital tend to slow me down overall, way too easy to stop to fiddle with everything and make it into a habit x'3 for example go in and change the angle of an arm individually for half an hour, instead of having to draw the image all over again). Trying to get sketches down under five minutes, three, single minute, is a horror, but oh so useful and can be a real fun challange. The feeling when you finally manage more than just a head and an arm during the time is such a reward! I spent six very stubborn months a couple years back making speed studies every day. I barely had energy for any other arting, but built skill in a way that make me grumpy about not having done it again, but it is so exhausting and a chore... :p (I mostly made not humans, though. I chose weird things, objects placed together that weren't usual, emptied a penbox on the table, and so on, no pre-concieved ideas how it should look when you have some potatoes on a glass jar.)

Things like inktober or huevember or dogaust are good, too. To within a contained timeframe sit down every day with a very focused theme or excersise make a good difference. If one has little time, just make sure to pick something small enough to focus on that you can do it as many days as possible. A five minute sketch every day for example. Or just doodling, but always with the same tool. Or, as you mentioned characters, make something with the same character over a month. Drawing patterns help the penmanship, drawing dogs or cats every day will make a difference over a month. Arting a big full drawing everyday because a few fulltime or very very experienced artists do, when oneself tend to take a week or at least a cuple days and rarely make one on top of another? That's setting oneself up for failure. Set yourself up for success, it's more fun and better for the mental health <3 All the small repeated things matter a lot in the long run for putting tools in your skill toolbox for when you want to level up :3

The only times I spend hours on a pose, is sometimes for the elaborate full colour drawings. But, with those, I'm usually refining a sketch by redrawing it with small iterations of changes many times over before having a basis I'm pleased with.

Complete rambles, hope some made sense, and it wasn't too tiring hearing the same old omg DO EEET AGAIN AND AGAIIIINNNNNN x'p