I can do all the shading in the world but I'm not so good at that Initial Sketch phase and it's been really getting at me lately, are there any hardline practice methods, exercises or drills I can do to really target that specific part of drawing?
Been trying to rapid fire out sketches but it hasn't really been working out for me.
Oof, I know the feeling. Have you tried doing a lot of gesture drawings/studies? Not only is it good to do just in general, but the quickness of it might help you efficiently get your ideas out on paper.
You have a general idea what you want in your head but drawing out basic shapes takes up time and is boring and you might forget what it was. So you have to fall back to using just lines to express the sihloutte, surface, and the form of what you want.
Imagine your drawing arm being a printer as you skim it up and down a page only dropping lines exactly where they need to be just because you trusted your gut. Sure it may be sloppy but at least you successfully got gist of it out. You can always correct it later or find reference.
