erasing the outlines afterward is a good idea, will try that in the future; the problem though is that my erasers aren't very good so they often leave visible marks even after erasing (will need to draw lighter outlines to fix that probably)
i plan on using different media in the future, not all 1000 will be pencil; i plan on trying charcoal/ink/pastels/color pencils/watercolors/acrylic too as i go through the 1000
i haven't studied art except self-study through a few books and youtube tutorials, although my parents have both studied art (they are artists themselves so i picked up a few things here and there over the years, but i never took a class in it or anything); but this does mean they have a ton of art supplies laying around so that's what i've been using (their old pencils and stuff)
actually at one point my father was going to illustrate these for me, but he doesn't have all that much time (or the knowledge of the game that i have) and it looked like he was never going to get them done (it has been a year and he's done like 2 out of the 150~200 required ones that the game needs (it's a very long game), although those 2 are very nice), so i decided to learn how to do it myself
the illustrations for the game will only be used to illustrate cutscenes, i'm not adding more sprites or anything, so i don't really need to worry that much about consistency with the rest of the game's graphics (though it'd be good to at least have a similar color scheme, etc.) -- basically i want to do something like the phantasy star 4 cutscenes, e.g. something like:
those are sort of low-res manga style, which isn't really what i'm going for, but i want the same type of thing in the sense of small scenes that illustrate what's going on in the text. i was thinking of doing them in watercolor to match the title screen, which was also created in watercolor by a friend of mine:
but that depends on how well i learn the different medias and what i think looks the best for the game; i'll probably decide that after i've tried out the different media. i will probably at least pick one that's in color though (e.g. probably acrylic or watercolor). the learning of drawing with pencil is just sort of preparation for doing those, because i've been told / heard that being able to draw with pencil is the basis of knowledge of the other media too, and useful in creating first drafts for those, so that's why i started there, but the final drawings in the game probably won't be pencil (although color pencil is a possibility if that looks nice enough)
my plan for the remaining 1000 is basically:
marine invertebrates
plants/flowers
landscapes/scenery (including waterscapes, skies, clouds, mountains, forests)
land invertebrates
vertebrates
people (including faces, expressions, anatomy, poses, etc.)
technology (including machines, vehicles, buildings, robots, etc., basically anything people build)
i will focus more on the types of specific types of things that will need to be in the game's illustrations, but will try to do a little bit of everything just for variety (e.g. there are no cats in the game but i'll probably draw a cat or two in the 1000, since indirectly it'd help with being able to draw stuff like fur and so on which would be in the game in some form)
i will also be during this time reading many books and watching various tutorials that people recommend; e.g. i've been going through a book on lighting, and have books on perspective and anatomy and so on prepared for later. at each stage in the list above i may focus more on one than another; e.g. perhaps when i do flowers i'd also focus on learning color, or perhaps when i do landscapes or buildings i'd focus on learning perspective, etc.