Before & after watching demo & critique video

First pass before watching the demo or critiques

I find it challenging to find the rhythm - even though I can see it - for 2 main reasons. A) Because I’m trying to learn to hold the pencil differently, but also B) because I don’t yet have the skill to assess distances, sizes & proportions on the fly, so I have to measure all the time which doesn’t help a lot with ‘flow’. Unless I have the wrong idea … I feel like there are some gaps in knowledge here between the project & execution. Or maybe I just missed something.

Honestly, I'm not too happy with these. I tried drawing using overhand grip but I still can't control the pencil that well. I also struggled trying to draw the figure quickly. Any tips/critiques on how to improve are welcome. Would love some feedback.

I think I’m overdoing these

Second round of seals - maybe. they’re a bit better

I think I’m overdoing these

I tried again with an image I liked better - it was fun even with the misjudgements revealed with the overlay. Centred the overlay on the eyes because otherwise it looks like they are too far apart & they aren’t! Learning ...

I don't feel great about this but I find that it is really hard to eyeball proportion without looking at shadows. This breaks the idea that we should be looking out for better shapes like in the last few lessons and isn't great for drawing the same subject later.