In my opinion, you're not matching the techniques to the size of the easel properly. The equipment you have is perfect for large formats. I find it most comfortable to use it standing up, although I've seen people who sit on a tall bar stool while using it. Try changing the format to a larger one (100x70cm ~ 40x27inch) and draw using your whole arm, not just your wrist. Only when detailing, change your grip and finish the drawing.

Not a bad first attempt. Let me help you with some tips. Try to focus more on values. See how the selected places correspond with each other. Try to compare them, sometimes this is made easier by partially covering part of the drawing with a piece of paper or your hand. Look at my reference. I suggest reducing the number of values to 4 and repeating the exercise.

I tried to avoid as drawing many flat surfaces to things which has volumes, as possible, to give the drawing more depth, keeping in mind @Martha Muniz 's feedback. Also I tried to use line weight as a tool to divide my drawing into 3 image planes for added depth. Finally tried to render this Akira Fanart a little for fun. Hope that doesn't violate the guidelines mention. Your feedbacks and critiques are highly appreciated. Feel free to share your views.

Values are wrong. Look at my example, it was enough to darken some places to make the drawing read better. Try it yourself on your works. Just use a free graphics program (such as Krita).

I like your style. This is a good direction. The pear looks solid. In a portrait you should do the same thing - adjust the values first and push the contrasts. This will make the drawing less flat.

To help make the portrait more believable you can check the directions of the larger mases. Also campare negative shapes.

First try of the pear. Would love any sort of feed back!

Looks good. Be careful where you put the highlights.

Then watched the demo but didn’t copy. I tried to do it from what I learned. I tried to keep two shadow values and three lights. I found it very difficult to create the two light Half-tones. It’s hard to create simplified shapes without drawing darker outlines. I’ll keep practicing.

This is a good start, try to follow these steps and finish your work: 1. Carefully examine the references. The value of the fabric, lips, and eye whites is not the same. Often compare the tones of different elements and ask yourself questions about what is brighter and what is darker. Also, try not to use white color to lighten painting. 2. Find a simplified model of face lighting reference that closely matches the photo. Try to apply this lighting scheme to your work.

To improve gestures you can use negative shapes. This will help locate the main masses of the object.

Hi @silentmoonss portraits are super hard. First, practice drawing and shading simple 3D forms: sphere, cone, cylinder, etc. If you want to jump deeper, I suggest this exercise - set yourself three values and draw several portraits using only this range. Look at my quick sketch. Pay attention to the light in the references. To make your task easier, you can adjust the highlights and shadows of your reference in the application. Don't worry so much about the eyes, I think they look quite good at this stage.

The cat is very cool. I think that instead of going into details, you should think about the primitives and add light. A good exercise is to work from dark to light. Cover the paper with graphite and then use a kneaded eraser to bring out the light.

Reworked after taking some of @Martha Muniz suggestions. Also reworked some of the fingers on both hands as they looked a little wonky . Of course still happy to get any critiques/suggestions :)

Here are my submission for critique. I felt the first couple were not very good trying to follow along and maintain a painterly style. On the later ones I mixed some techniques to help paint the portraits better. I also decided to render them just a little more other than a rough painterly style. I wouldn’t mind trying to figure out how to design and paint the shapes so they have more appeal. Any critiques are welcome.