No worries haha
Yeah I felt that, I think the key is practicing them with intention. I found this tutorial from Marc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C87ZXHPQkh0 was very helpful with practicing pen control. If you have seen it on my page you can see I have done quite a lot of this - not saying my pen control is amazing or anything just that it has helped me a lot. A thing I learned from it is that when doing exercises, like the straight line drawing exercise, its quite important to not only focus on drawing good straight lines but to also practice starting and stopping your line in a set place too. I wasted a lot of time doing the exercises and I am now able to draw nicer straigher lines, however I tend to overshoot quite a lot as I didnt include that in my practice.
Another thing that helps me, which could help you. is ghosting. So moving your hand (or pen I guess) along the intended path without touching the paper—before actually making the mark. It helps improve accuracy and confidence in the stroke. And if you ghost once and dont feel great about it, just ghost a couple more times before you put pen to paper. While redoing lines and undoing bad lines can be a great part of digital art, I feel that it can also be a bit of a trap and become something a person could rely on. Maybe try a few practice sessions where you are only allowed to undo a certain number of times - like 5 or 10 - or maybe not at all. While the drawing may come out worse initially it might have a side effect where it causes you to think a bit more before you put each line down - leading to strong intention and confidence in your lines.
You don’t necessarily need specific exercises if you dont like them - just applying this mindset thoughtfully in any drawing helps in my opinion.
Sorry, this turned into a longer comment than intended. If you’re not looking for feedback, let me know and I can remove it : ) I’m still early in the course myself but want to get more involved in others’ art journeys and practice giving feedback.
