Relaxing drawing session, felt comfortable most of the time other than some times where my pencil control was off. Heavy critiquing appreciated

Feel myself getting faster, still sometimes need to go back after finishing 2 min session and add line variation. Any tips for adding line variation while on the 2 min limit? Also, how do you block out curly hair that feels like it adds to the gesture (particularly when the hair is hanging off the model's head? Any tips on keeping pencil sharpened from naturally using the side? I notice I still end up with uneven pencil with blunted tip.

Beans are kind of fun, Gets difficult with twisting + tilting First set is Marcia as ref second is Chanon

Looking for more gesture critique

2 min gesture practice

2 min gesture + ~2 min polish. Last one gesture shading practice Open to critique

Hey folks, I was doing a bit of a study on noses and reluctantly some on shading. I was wondering if I could get some tips on how to improve my shading workflow. I understand the concept of establishing your value range and shadows early on but I guess I get a bit lost in regards to working with the different value ranges (ex. light skin, dark shirt) in correlation with shadows and the core shadow along with establishing the object's smoothness or roughness and specularity in this medium (graphite/charcoal).

Why yes, I do hate shading. How could you tell?

I've been off and on taking these courses but got busy with school and work so here I am restarting the portrait drawing course. I drew what a knew to see where I'm starting so I'm essentially just looking for some tips of what I did right and wrong so that I can foster the good habits and funnel out the bad ones early on.