I feel like for most kinds of art, getting the sketch down right is one of the most important things. The way you plot and design your sketch would be the guideline you use when working on and making the final piece, even if its an unreadable mess to many. That made me curious. Since I know theres at least a few other artists on here I've got to ask: how sketchy are your sketches? Like do you start with the most scribbly figure and then slowly nail down the details in subsequent sketches before starting on the linework proper? Do you just make the base shape of your artwork on the sketch and go to town? Or do you not bother with the sketch at all? Personally I do two sketches in my digital work. The first is usually a messy figure meant to plot down where all the limbs and sides and proportions are. The second is a refined sketch, where I draw the actual details and features of that character over the first sketch. If the figure is very detailed or the previous two attempts were still too messy I try again with a third. Once thats all done I actually start on the linework.
I never really sketch. I just semi-lightly start drawing the picture, and then go back and change it should I need to. It can make some of my pictures look really rough, where the erase lines are obvious, but making the lines of the finished product more solid and adding color can hide almost all of that. And lately I've been drawing things out completely in my sketchbook before taking a picture of that and using it as a base for my digital drawings. I can completely get rid of any erase marks and signs of fixed mistakes, because I already completed the picture.
