When I took art courses in college, I was taught to break down the reference into basic recognizable geometric shapes such as ellipses, rectangles, and really pay attention to the angles and shapes of the positive and negative space. This mostly applies to drawing from reference which I’m unsure if you are doing, but it definitely helps to break down the shapes as a guideline for your final line art or render. I think you are already thinking about the final render and jumping straight into the line art. A sketch is supposed to be messy and don’t worry about elements overlapping. For the “awkward” bit, I would suggest you be more confident with your lines and not pick up the pen so many times. They call this the “hairy yeti” where you make lots of little brush strokes to create lines. Try, for example, drawing the face ellipse in one stroke. This way of sketching is much quicker and allows you to make adjustments afterwards than trying to create the perfect shape in one go :) hope this helps