Traditional Media
Although I'm passionately in love with MS Paint, I'll always prefer traditional media.
With biros, it's possible to get a much more gradated effect with minimal effort. (I will try to upload some clear examples in the future) Pencils are similar, although I try to avoid them, as over the years, pages drawn in pencil fade and rub away.
I've kept drawing pads since I was 12 (just supermarket things); I currently have two A3 pads in an attempt to learn to draw big (and from the elbow) and get better at lineart. So far, I'm finding I just draw small pictures with a lot of space around them...
I used to want to buy 'how to draw' books constantly; I think I've got better at remembering adages about bad workmen and tools. Perhaps others are familiar with that experience.
I rarely colour; monochrome tends to look nicer to me. That, and there's the omnipresent worry that I'LL RUIN EVERYTHING. There's so much choice! And I always get it wrong! But I have strong positive feelings for burnt orange paired with turquoise (or navy at a pinch). When I dare, I use pencil crayons, or sometimes watercolour pencils. I don't really know how to get the most out of them yet. So I use them much like regular colours, but that can be blended if rubbed.
I don't have a scanner in my house at the moment. I should change that.
Misc. old drawing pad pages. These are several years old; I haven't really improved in ages, and haven't uploaded pictures for a while. :( 3 are just biro, one is pencil
I used to use fashion magazines lying around the house for reference. Now I've moved out, I don't have any fashion magazines lying around.
Some yellow lilies. Drawn Summer 2016 in water colour pencils that I just treated like regular colour pencils... I've since cut it out and put it on my wall.
Sometimes things go wrong. For example...
The whole 'taking a photo of a painting on mobile' thing isn't amazing. This was done with watercolour pencils, several years ago. Final Fantasy fans might recognise it.
Adding shading...
Water added! Just to the hair and torso at this point. I should have stopped here.
Things started to go wrong. I splashed a bunch and blotted things.
Aaand I ruined it. After smudging the pupils, I tried to fix it by making the eyes lightless, but there was no saving it.
This always happens. Eventually, you get used to your inevitable failure (and remember to take photos along the way)
The most annoying thing is that there's no correlation between time-spent and quality-of-end-result. This Buffy doodle took 20 mins, and I'm not sure I've drawn anything better before or since:
Portraits are my thing. And trying to draw 'realistically', even though pros find that boring. I like to obsess over the details.
I used to feel bad that I only ever wanted to draw faces, and try to force myself to draw other things. I've now stopped caring. I'll draw what I like.
I'd like to be good at landscapes but I am absymal.
And I paint like a five year old, as 12-year-old me did not resolve to paint every day, and had the natural artistic skill of a five year old.
Currently Learning...
I'm working through Loomis' 'drawing the head and hands' at the moment. At some point, I'll upload some of my attempts at the plates, with commentary.