Fresh Grated Nutmeg

I think the key to a semi realistic style is to pay attention to *meaningful* details.

Personally I'm also moderately experienced at sewing aside from being an illustrator and I think that a big part of drawing semi realistically comes from getting the clothes to look right; especially knowing they cover a lot of your body (most of the time ;P )... so warning, part of this has somehow turned into a lame nerd's tutorial on how to draw clothes !

For example, adding every fold and crease to 'copy' your reference is going to make your drawing busy and cluttered. It will detract attention away from the focal point that is the face of a character. What you want instead is to pay attention to the way clothes are constructed and to the details that your audience will perceive as "realistic" (thinness/thickness of material, seams, hardware, etc). You want a smooth look but small details here and there that sell the realism.

Once you're done with your lineart, paying attention to the way clothes are made should also translate in the way you pick your colours. The material is going to get more wear and fade in some places, and your coloring should reflect that. You can also add subtle texture details on fabrics that have a visible weave (jeans, canvas). When in doubt, take the time to analyse your references.

That same logic of "meaningful details" applies to the rest of the anatomy of a character. "Less is more", so keep you shapes simple and readable, adding a few details to sell the illusion of a volume when it comes to muscles/fat or underlying bone structure. Concentrate details around the face to draw attention there ! You want people to pay attention to your character's silly noggin :)

Something else you can do is exaggerate proportions in a way that makes your work subtly less realistic. Example, if you met my Mav irl he'd be about Sabrina Carpenter sized, whereas Ice would clearly be followed around by modeling agencies scouts... they don't really have realistic proportions, but still remain mostly anatomically correct. Their respective body types just look more dramatic than they did irl for a more cartooney effect.

Finally, this is more of a general tip for anyone drawing with a lineart style, and most people probably already know about it (and if you dont id really recommend checking a more in depth tutorial on that), but omg be careful with your line weight and tangent lines !! Half of the time, if something doesn't look quite right on your drawing but you can't define what's wrong, it's gonna come from either of those factors. Especially the tangents ! A lot of the time I see beginners illustrators with an amazing style, but can't help but sigh at the tangents... It's ok if one or two are left in, honestly, sometimes you just can't figure out how to fix one and that's ok, but your work will look 193893 times better if you fix them :)

And that's about it, I think, hopefully this was helpful. Thank you for reading it all, I'm offering you a cookie if you did 🍪