Good Question of the Week: How do I avoid ‘cartoony’ sketches?

Post Preamble: This is another in my very irregular series: Good Question of the Week. (which is not weekly by any means).

I have discovered there is a limit to the length of an answer on the Craftsy.com website.

Students ask questions in an email-like sidebar and I get notified when there’s something to discuss. Today, I found out the hard way there must be a character limit to the entry field. Because this (long winded) answer simply wouldn’t go through until I broke it into three replies.

Anway, enough inside baseball.

Here’s the question for anyone that might be interested:

Student Question:For sketching I think that line adds a freshness to the drawing but mine always turn out far too cartoony…which I don’t like. I Love the direct approach but I tend to leave that more for “real” paintings. How do I lose the cartoony effect?  (ed. note:…