Also using a folded sheet of paper for a hand rest, so I wont smudge the drawing when I put the graphite down. I work underneath an overhead lamp when I start at this stage of my drawing. Usually the lamp is hot to work under, so it is a very good idea to keep allot of drinking water around. I also have a fan blowing all the time. Put your reference close by. Pay close attention to the line work on your reference. Figure out your "thick" and "thins" in your line drawing. Usually it should get thicker in areas like under the chin and around the body. Also, when you draw your clean line, think about the form. Think how that arm turns in space. Which way is it going? Towards you? Or away from you? This is where you will have the opportunity to explain that. Worry about the overlapping lines, they will describe your form in space. I am also constantly thinking about painting it later on. You want to close off all the line areas, so your color wont leak when it comes time to paint it. Simplify your drawing if needed. If you feel there is too much detail on your blue sketch drawing and think it is going to be hell trying to paint it? Then draw only the essential (i.e. if you are drawing a schoolgirl for instance, and she has a very complicated plaid dress on, you might draw all those squares in, but find out later on that they are very difficult to paint. It will slow you down by trying to paint each and every single square.) In this case, I would just draw a few lines suggesting a plaid dress, but allowing the paint to fill in that entire area, which is her dress. Allot of these things you pretty much learn "on the job" through "trial and error". So try it out, if at first you don't succeed.....(you know the rest). For me, it sometimes takes me like a half hour to finish cleaning up a drawing. On specific drawings, like the Jetson's Family portrait I did, it sometimes takes me more than two hours. It depends on how complicated you want to go. I personally prefer less line milage.
Jab