Sketching vs Drawing

If I was surprised by how much better my colored doodles looked on screen, now I'm the opposite. Maybe this is why I'm unable to focus on pencil sketching/drawing first.

But maybe that's just an excuse. My loose line drawing is still in its infancy; it can't be disguised by pretty colors, like what I've done with others.

It's time to build a good pencil drawing/sketching foundation. I plan to work through David Rankin's fast Sketching techniques and David Sanmiguel's art of drawing until I feel more comfortable with loose line drawing. But I'll continue with Jackie Simmonds's book, just because I can only stand so much grey.

Those 4 sketches range from OK to "What is THAT!?" Animal sketching is really not my thing. But since it was the first exercise in David Rankin's book, I had to do it. Copying his example was much easier than looking at the photo and sketching the deer cold. Even though I didn't do a good job with the first deer, at least it looks like a deer.

Media: pencil.