shading looks "sketchy"

I would avoid using a flat. If you don’t know what you’re doing they can chew the skin up pretty bad. Try a regular stacked mag. Also are you whip shading? If so, instead try building values with different washes. Dont get me wrong whip shading is great for certain effects but can also lead to the look I believe you are describing. Good luck! Let me know if you need more info, I’ll do my best.

Honestly bro your art isn’t terrible. And your gradients aren’t half bad either. Im not sure if that was the style you were going for or if thats just how it turned out, but I I definitely think you’d have better luck with a stacked mag. Like a 7. Also instead of dipping in water try pre mixing a couple different values in ink caps. (1 cap with say 1 drop black the rest water, 2 drops and water and 3 and water, and a solid black.) It may help you control your gradients better. Try doing circular motions going from lightest value to medium value and then go in.and lo-light with the solid black in the areas that are supposed to be darkest. My mentor taught me this method. He says you can always make the dark darker, but you can’t make the light lighter. Also take a look at how your machine is running. What works for me is a soft hitting machine with a medium stroke. I like to keep the voltage lower for black and grey. Well I really hope that helped or made any sort of sense. Also to get lighter areas try using looser circular motions and tighter ones for darker areas. Good luck!

One thing that really helped me break that habit was getting some prismacolor colored pencils for my drawings. Aside from being possibly the best colored pencils out there, you can shade the same way you tattoo. Going lightest to darkest, little circles, etc. Ive improved my art like crazy since I started using them. maybe something to look into. You can get a 12 pack for like 10-12 bucks. You won’t regret it.