>>5446250>>5446259I'm the anon you replied to, and yes I do have some useful tips to offer. Perspective Made Easy is a great book and it will serve you well.
First, get a paper with a little bit of tooth to it so that the graphite on the paper doesn't shine or look reflective as you put tones down. Sketchbook type pads by Strathmore and others should work fine. I almost never work on super smooth paper as there is a lot to be said for textured surfaces, but that's a post for another time.
Second, you want to develop a technique of uniformly hatching so that you can, in repetitive strokes, put down a more or less "flat" tone, with little variation. This is easier said than done and you have videos on YouTube explaining how to do this. It won't take too long to develop this, but you just have to go through it time and time again. The key here is to choose one angle that your wrist and your hand naturally gravitates towards, and use that. Later on, you can alternate angles and directions. When I first started to draw I would always go from bottom of the stroke towards the top, but over time I flipped the direction. Not sure why, just felt more in touch with the whole process if I'm working from real life or from a model.
Eventually you'll pick up on nice variations like moving along with the direction of the form, but try not to get fancy at first. Practice tonal control. Build up your tones in passes. You'll have to figure how hard you can press the paper with each stroke to get the right value you want from the first try, so at beginning go light and build it up without damaging the paper. Again, this is where a bit of textured paper helps. This is basic training for your sensitivity and hand movement.
That's enough blogshit. Apply it and keep drawing.
