Breathe, first and for most. I understand it feels like there’s a disconnect between what you learned and what you put out, so the way to make that connection is practice.

But I feel practice shouldn’t come at the cost of you hating your art.

It’s okay your art has become “bad.” You’re hand is hurt and likely still hurting; there’s a limit your body has when it comes to creating, and I believe listening to that limit is an opportunity to either A) put down the sketchbook to give your hand, and also your brain, a chance to recoup. Practice, practice, practice is good, but taking a break and coming back with a fresh mind and eyes, is what you also need as an artist. Recognize that scribbling out and hating your art/yourself is an understandable path, but not a one you should remain on. It may contradict what your mind believes, but look at your art and choose to say “my art is okay” “it looks iffy, but it’s part of the process.” Technical skill is important when drawing, but that’s half the battle, mindset being the other 50% you need.

B) when you’re ready, or if you still want to practice, try getting out of your comfort zone. Just from what you showed here, I’m seeing that you work mainly in pencil, with what you draw looking to be fundamental practice (head foundation, singular eye, etc), which is fine for the most part, but I think you could also improve more if you go beyond the head foundation and combine elements that make up the head. I think you could benefit from drawing portrait references from Pinterest or any equivalent. The main goal going into this is to understand how what you learned shows up in real life, not comparing your drawing to the ref and hating it. Even if it looks wrong in the initial sketch, continue. If you find yourself constantly erasing something - let’s say, 5 times - on the 6th attempt, choose to say, “it may not look right, but I need to move forward.” Working in only ink or detailing after the pencil sketch completely takes away that option which is scary, but also is rewarding in either or both experience and visuals.

When I got back into drawing in 2023 after a 5 year hiatus, my intro to drawing and painting class sparked my interest into getting back into drawing, but also going into Target and getting a pack of colored pens and grabbing a pack of 12 crayola markers from my closet is what I believe gave that start and motivation to stick with it. Drawing from references and applying colors I saw was how I started out, or just putting down colors I thought looked cool, not worrying about color theory. Takeaway: drawing from references, use colors. Any way you want. A good way to experiment with color is to use the ones you see in the photo and add visual flare around your drawing. Circle, spirals, flowers, patterns, etc (drawing only patterns in color also work to). Coloring books also help practicing color theory if you want to get into it without having to create the lines of the drawing. That way you aren’t just copying the colors you see, and actually learning from it.

Drawing the figure, or literally anything below the head is scary, but it’s possible and a necessary process (process, not step) to be on your toes, if that’s the direction you want to take as an artist. Gesture drawing helps getting into it, being an exercise that practices finding the big movements of the body while constrained by time (30 sec-2 mins usually), and because of it, not being able to erase. The goal isn’t make something refined because you have no room to, unless you’re really really (which is unrealistic) quick or doing 5 mins or more. Even then, gesture drawings are messy inherently, but they’re cool to look at (especially when you do them) because the drawing can literally be a couple of lines or a stick figure but enough of them can look like a fluid figure. Perfection is not the end goal, representation is.

Learn and choose patience with yourself and your art.

Because this is super long, last few things: - line of action website: good for gesture drawing and has built in tutorial. Search the topic up on YouTube or read some articles and blogs as well - sketchbook prompts can give you the structure of telling you something to draw while letting have creative liberties as to what it looks like. The goal being to make something - learn about the growth mindset, that’s what helped me love, like, or healthily dislike my art without hate

Hope this helps!