it all depends on what type of style you're trying to aim for.

Work on a big canvas and shrink it up towards the end. A big canvas helps with the line art and deceives people into thinking it's clean when you shrink it up lol
Practice, practice, practice like usual.

KanataxYuki will always remain in my heart...
Their love is so profound~!
CrangolaFango

Quote from MangomyTango

it all depends on what type of style you're trying to aim for.

Work on a big canvas and shrink it up towards the end. A big canvas helps with the line art and deceives people into thinking it's clean when you shrink it up lol
Practice, practice, practice like usual.

I'll keep that in mind. Thank you! 🙂

(Also on another note, if anybody's interested, here is my second attempt at soft-shading. Please ignore any awkward anatomy since it's an old drawing!)

Try to paint with a lot of different styles. If you draw manga influenced stuff only, you'll get stuck and gain no detailed practice on areas that manga style neglects, such as tendons, facial shapes, realistic shadows, proportions, feet and hair. When drawing people, draw both genders. I used to only draw men before, but eventually I started to draw women too, as I thought I didn't have enough practice with drawing delicate things and I wanted to learn how to give something a gender without explicitly forcing one, like heavy make up, caricature jawlines and other stuff they use in cartoons to make something male or female. Sketching is fine too. You don't need to create complete works to practice. I myself am really lazy when it comes to long projects, spare me the pain of painting scenery etc.

After observing both of your drawings,

1. Be tidy. Delete any stray lines, keep the color inside the lines, etc. People will take notice the effort you put into the drawing. Of course, this is very relative to your style, but since I don't think you're aiming for the messy look, keep it clean.
2. Since you mention you has a tablet, turn on the pressure sensitivity. What's the point of owning graphic tablet if you're not going to use it to the fullest?
3. Just as Mamsmilk said, practice a lot of different style

Quote from Arleea

Haha if anyone knows of a way to save the animation in a format that doesn't make it all pixelated I'm all ears. XD Especially the edges. There is no background to her.

This isn't too helpful to you now, but for future reference, you're probably better off using Flash to animate haha. Photoshop isn't too great at cramming animation into nice quality, not-huge GIFs.

Anyway, back to OP...
This probably isn't too appealing, but I think the best way to improve is to run away from drawing people and anime for awhile and concentrate on drawing real things. Those boring exercises where you draw shaded spheres and boxes. Going back to the basics will help you a lot and will help you develop an eye for form. Drawing anime puts a lot of people in the same traps of flat, stilted looking drawings.

If doing that sounds too boring, you can keep drawing in anime what you want. There's more than one way to improve. However, what's important in improving is to challenge yourself. Meaning, you should up the ante and draw something more challenging than a frontal standing person. 🙂

Quote from Mamsmilk

Try to paint with a lot of different styles. If you draw manga influenced stuff only, you'll get stuck and gain no detailed practice on areas that manga style neglects, such as tendons, facial shapes, realistic shadows, proportions, feet and hair. When drawing people, draw both genders. I used to on ...

Thank you for the reply! Ah, I know what you mean. I almost always draw only females because I'm too afraid/no good at drawing males. I've been meaning to practice drawing guys more. I'm especially well-aware my proportions need work, which is why I'm planning to take up some art classes when I have time.
(I also have a lot of unfinished drawings lying around my house too 🤣 )

Quote from Sorcha

After observing both of your drawings,

1. Be tidy. Delete any stray lines, keep the color inside the lines, etc. People will take notice the effort you put into the drawing. Of course, this is very relative to your style, but since I don't think you're aiming for the messy look, keep it clean.
2. S ...

Thank you for the critique! Yes, I'm dislike inking which is why the vectoring lines look so messy OTL And I've already have my pen pressure on my tablet turned on. 😃

Quote from Fawkes

This isn't too helpful to you now, but for future reference, you're probably better off using Flash to animate haha. Photoshop isn't too great at cramming animation into nice quality, not-huge GIFs.

Anyway, back to OP...
This probably isn't too appealing, but I think the best way to improve is to ...

Drawing people are probably my most favourite subjects. 😛 I agree, for my next art project, I'll probably try drawing a more realistic image in a wide arrange of poses. Thanks!