It almost feels like you're asking two separate questions here - (a) how best to improve your observational skills, and (b) what medium/tools should you optimize for. So glad you added the example of the scientific illustration - funnily enough, I strongly suspect that was made using vector illustrations which is a slightly different method than your vanilla 'draw in ink, color the shapes' mindset for mediums.

Hello! professional design manager and illustrator here. So, is it possible to learn drawing basics digitally? I don't know where the whiskers on a cat go relative to its nose, or how to draw a human nose without it looking like a Ferengi abortion. I know my way around Illustrator and Photoshop quite well, but only when it comes to manipulating 'inorganic' graphics like logos, buttons, and whatnot - i.e., skilled enough at the technical aspects of that stuff, but I couldn't draw a basic stick figure or cartoon dog from scratch if my life depended on it. In my professional life, I'm a frontend dev with some basic graphic design skills. That was before the age of automatic photo-enhancing AIs that the phones now have.

I learned (and loved) digital photography in a similar time period, where film was dying but it was possible to learn most of the same techniques in a digital SLR. Is there a learning pathway where I can jump straight into the digital era - using an iPad or a Wacom tablet or similar - still learning the basics of color, stroke, technique, etc., but skipping the part where I have to go to the art store to pick up various pencils and inks? Or is that ill-advised because of _? I would like to learn to draw/sketch as a hobby, with the eventual goal of being able to do scientific illustration, something like this:

Paint tool sai latest version 2021