After looking at others' work here, I wanted to try applying color to mine and use what I saw to better define the shapes. Color is so informative that I found it easier to refine proportions, since it is now separating objects. Now it makes sense why many speed painters bounce around in their processes. One step can help with another and work like a puzzle. I hope to use this more to help me see where I can improve my values.

Levels 1 and 2. I worked digitally, in the same way I use charcoal, and tried my best to preserve the lights as the white of the canvas. I first rendered multi-value shadows with an overhand grip, added a posterization layer, and refined the shapes in a simplified form. This forced me to eliminate detail where possible and focus on proportion and shadow design. To go the extra mile, I pushed the values further without the posterization. Extra values help, but getting the main shadows and highlights are what really matters.

I ended up making a good pencil for this project so that I could have better control over how textured values feel. Overall, I think I was able to find great worth in being able to adjust the brush size to vary the amount of smoothness a value receives.

Level 2! I still want to return to this often. I haven't looked too much into body construction yet, as I know it will be a frequent subject in future lessons. I can see how staying loose will make this easier, as it's quality over quantity until I improve at spinning the body in my head.

This exercise was killer at first, but then it was amazing! I made it ridiculously hard on myself by staring at each thing for two minutes before trying to draw it from multiple angles. (I really want to get better!) This is an amazing project. It's nuts. For a sec, I got into the zone and felt like I could draw anything I imagined. I hope to feel this more and more as we go!

I like how you can "feel" if you are thinking in 3D when doing this. For me, it was easy to know that if I keep struggling with a pose, it is probably because I am not thinking about the object I am drawing in space. Learning to identify this in future work is an exciting prospect!

Yay! This perspective's awesome, it makes me feel so much better. I wanna master it someday so everything feels way more put-together. I totally get what you said about taking your time, and posting it online felt like the best way to make myself actually do it. Here goes nothing!

Playing around with abstract shapes led to a cool find. Getting good at contour lines will really help with the next parts, like shading and lighting. Plus, contour drawing makes you much better at seeing how a scene fits together. I have always hated doing multiple passes of line art, but now I see how another pass could really help this feel more like ginger roots or more like humans, depending on the details. I finally feel like sketching in stages has purpose!

I think I'm realizing now that I draw way too darkly from the start. I need to find a way to stay lighter in my process without sacrificing the feeling of drawing with pencil. I'll try turning the opacity down for the next one.

Dang seeing others on here is inspiring.