I'm not a huge fan of a lot of Degas' paintings, but holy smokes, this guy could draw. MASTER study indeed. The rendering in this figure was quite difficult for me to manage, especially because I refuse to use anything lighter than a 3b pencil haha. So I messed up the head a bit and the scapula, and the natural accuracy issues that crop up irk me to no end, but overall not too bad an effort. I'm willing to chalk this in the win column, and a valuable learning experience. After figuring out I could smudge and erase in order to get those super subtle halftones, it went a bit easier. Even though in the original he clearly used hatching with a lighter grade of graphite. The edge work and control in the original is also insane. Absolutely phenomenal. So many passages dance between soft and firm, hard and nearly lost, thick line, thin line... I really tried to pay attention to the variety and replicate it. Again, hard to be subtle with a heavy hand and dark pencil, but I think I can also consider that a win. Below is my progression. Original, my block-in side-by-side for reference, a more nuanced block-in/shadow map (I actually started over with this on a second page), and the final render. Let me know what you think, Proko dot com people! How could I have done better, except be less obstinate and use proper tools haha?