Hello everyone, i'm trying to improve my skills in art so that I can draw my own furry characters however I feel like my skills are aren't improving, mainly when I try to go without a template.

Any tips to help me better myself? Please and thanks.

what you mean by template?

Lord_Eggplant said:
what you mean by template?

He probably means a reference, at least that is what I interpreted that as.

It helps to watch videos or streams of how other people draw and try to mimic them (like The Joy of Painting by Bob Ross). Then later on draw by yourself to develop your own art style so people won't criticize you of copying from another artist.

if its references you are talking about:
using references is not a bad habit you are supposed to learn out of to become better artist. you are supposed to use references to become good artist. professional artists use reference. all the greatest artists in history used references. drawing without references is comparable to cooking without recipes.

if its actual templates / bases you are talking about:
templates are p much training wheels or lazy shortcut. use references instead.

if you are talking about copying other people's art:
use references instead (like.. look at tutorials and pictures of real animals and people). though its fine if you are doing it for personal practice purpose. reverse engineering someone's art can be great help for learning how to draw.

Practice, study anatomy, and practice some more

No shame about using reference, i've talked to about that very issue with a furry artist, and he said to use reference shamelessly (but not tracing, mind you!).

Also, learn basic body shapes and features (by features i mean knee lines, hip lines etc.), something like these:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/b7/eb/87b7ebb8492df1cfa69b42dc5da678a3.png

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/b7/eb/87b7ebb8492df1cfa69b42dc5da678a3.png

It wouldn't hurt to go to a drawing course or two if time and money allow it, nothing like getting a first-hand tips and advice from experienced artists.

But most importantly - practice as much and as often as you can, i doodle something quite often so as to keep the eye-hand coordination in shape.

Thanks for the replies guys if i get some free time i'll try the tips out

When it comes to furry characters, using referemces is a must. You need to somehow get the anatomy and stuff right. I mean, yeah you are supposed to have your own style, but you need to learn the core things and copy them more or less. Once you learn anatomy and what where belongs, you can begin adding whatever you want to your art.

And as it has been mentioned already, just practice. Every artist basically started off as a complete noob. If you get frustrated, just take a break and go back at it once you are in mood again. For me, drawing while nervous and angry is hardcore.

Show your work. Because you haven't shown your work, most advice given so far is generic. Because art is a gigantic subject, generic advice is difficult to do anything very useful with.
There are at least a dozen important aspects of art that you are bad at, you can pretty much count on that.

For example, "you just plain don't draw enough; practice more": Practice what things, in what manner, for how long?

The specifics are important, and we really have no hope of being specific without an understanding of your work.