Hey Vera- I don't think they look ugly at all, but I don't think you've fully followed the assignment. You're supposed to be simplifying these down to no more than 10 simple shapes. I think you're still just trying to "draw" the animals using your usual skills, from observation. This assignment is (I think) much more about learning to design, using shape.

that's a great solution to the hippo

I really get a sense of the depth of that glass on the oil lamp- great job.

Good effort! I think you need to think more clearly about dividing the portrait into the light and dark portions. Only then, once you have that blocked in, should you think about sub-dividing them into first and second shadow, half tones and highlights. To summarise- you're using similar values on the left and right side of the face, but if you look at the reference the right side is much darker- squint and you can see there is a big block of shadow on the right and a big block of light shades on the left. Block those in as large groups- then think about breaking them up into smaller shapes. I think if you try to think in big groups first you might find you get the proportions more accurate too.

I think it's pretty good! You've missed the shadows on the right side of his lips though, which flattens the portrait and spoils the 3D effect somewhat.

I like it! Interesting shapes in the first one. I think you need to spread out your values more- the darks are too close to the light values. I’m particular you’ve got a plane change along the centre right of the first pear and I can’t see any value difference between the left and right plane.