This was a challenge! Not really happy with it, but I it's time to set it aside and move on to something else. The mouth was really challenging using straight lines only and I know the angle is off with the left side of the face. I really struggle with 3/4 views in general.

I've been studying John Singer Sargent's portrait drawings. I'm not a big fan of charcoal, so I'm forcing myself to play with it more. Seemed natural to seek out the master of charcoal portraits for a master study. I know Sargent is all about tone and so shading can't be avoided here. Sorry! This was surprisingly lots of fun! I know it doesn't exactly look like her, but I kinda like the new expression (a kind of open sweetness) that Sargent's doesn't have.

Focused so much on the shapes, I think I compromised my line quality. Still working toward considering multiple visual elements in one drawing. Also, the giraffe looks demonic. :)

I've always loved Ingres's graphite drawings, so I studied a couple of his. I enjoyed getting into the often abstract intricacies of his line work (in the fabric, for example). I realize that Anna Gounod's eye placement is off and so I would correct that in the future. Also, in my version, she looks somewhat masculine and I'm not sure why. It also seems like he was using a much harder graphite, so I couldn't replicate some of that line quality. The first two are: Anna, nee Zimmermann, wife of Charles Gounod (1859) and Portrait drawing of Alexandre Lethiere and family (1815), both by Jean August Dominique Ingres. Last four are my studies of select parts of both. This was fun! I plan to do more.

First is hierarchy of importance, second is shadows and light. I hadn't really thought about line in this way before. Interesting exercise!

Gosh, the hand was so hard for me. Tried a couple of times with regular pencil then with red just to see if I could shake my frustration and loosen up. Idk. The VR girl was really fun! I think either her hand is oversized or the head isn't big enough. She should also be leaning back more whereas mine is more upright.

Post demo sketches. Really tried to simplify the skull and resist the temptation to add detail. Also another shoe sketch to get a better grasp of the laces, etc.

Got overwhelmed by the prospect of doing two boots (all those laces!) and I didn't position it properly on the page to fully deal with the other boot. So, there's just one. The wooden beam helped when determining the placement and size of the snail. The camel is proportionally wrong, but it was fun to draw all of those long curves. The more I practiced, the more confident I became drawing the contours and not picking up my pencil as much. All done before watching demo.

Hello, here is my first try. Please, I would be appreciated for any advice or critique!

It was quite difficult to draw with only straight lines, hard edges and limited values, but a great exercise. I think I needed more dramatic shadows on my pear as I caught myself getting lost in the nuances of value and overthinking that part. It also needs to be a bit skinnier at the top, more pear shaped (ha!) Lots of issues I see with both, especially that ear in the portrait (lordy! :)). Still, I enjoyed myself. It's all about the process, right? Any suggestions are welcome.

Couple of attempts at this. Would love critique :)

I'm revisiting the older classes and redoing all the assignments. I feel like these are fundamentals that should be reviewed and practiced over and over. With this one, I went for three shadow values and 2 light. Only after finishing and photographing the drawing, I noticed that I got the proportions of the lower part of her face (below the eyes) wrong. Also, I don't really like how I designed the underside of the chin and the neck. Any other critique or suggestions always welcome :)