Hey Anita! I'll try to help if I can. I'm going to start off by saying you're very much headed in the right direction. This is a very good effort! The proportions are good, and your boldness with the blacks is very well done. And I commend your intelligent questions! Now, the critiques, based on your concerns. This is all love and respect, my friend. 1. Edge control. Honestly, and I think you've spotted this yourself, it needs some work. But that's okay! This is how we learn! I'm going to base what I say on the assumption that you are going for an accurate representation of your reference and not a cartooned version (which is perfectly fine, BTW, if that's the style you're after). There are a lot of very hard edges and outlines throughout your drawing. In realism, one needs to be careful with their hard edges because the more there are, the less realistic the art becomes. Just look at a Velasquez, or the king of chiaroscuro himself, Caravaggio. There are almost no hard edges at all in their work, except in a few select places, and some of those paintings look like they could come alive; they're so realistic. This is the number one difference-maker for high realism, IMO. The fewer hard edges, usually, the better. For example. The shadows along the sternocleidomastoid, the lowest part of the cast shadow under the chin, and all the edges of the hair and beard in your drawing are far too hard. My tip here would be to loosen your grip and squint your eyes to see the reference better. You're spotting the shapes well, and your values are not far off, so keep up the hard work here! It is hard work! 2. Mid-tones of the face towards the light. I don't say this to be harsh... There are virtually no shadow edges at all to define the structures, making your mid-tones feel muddy. It's all mid-tones! I can see very definite firm and soft-edged shadows around the zygomatic arch and the orbital socket in the reference that are missing in your drawing. And where you have defined highlight shapes, I would almost say you're being too subtle compared to the prominent light shapes in the reference. You can go a lot darker in area from the cheek's hollow to the whole side of the temporal plane, and then a lot lighter in the forward facing planes, which will give you the high-contrast look you're after while also "cleaning up" the areas of perceived muddiness. I really hope this helps. And keep asking these kinds of questions! You're going to go far if you do, I promise!