This is a perfect level of simplicity and clarity! You're not getting bogged down by the smaller details that don't define the form, like each individual feather. Don't be afraid to experiment with your lines a bit more. I think that might touch on what you referenced about trying to recreate the image too much. I don't see many searching lines here; try to loosen up just a bit, stay light with your initial lines, and try to find the best line, focusing on the flow of the shapes rather than the contours. Don't worry so much about being messy -- looking at these drawings, which are super neat and clean, I don't think you'll get too out of control. Just keep in mind your CSI lines and try to fit each line you put down into one of those categories.

Hey Michael ! I'll try to answer from my knowledge/exp but keep in mind I'm also a student and not an instructor so those are two cents ^^ I think you're very right about this exercice and CSI being very similar, this one is basically an extension of the CSI method lesson from where I stand, maybe with more focus on identifying the flow/rhythms in the reference and really hammering down the confident lines you should aim for. When it comes to sketching vs. contouring, I'd say sketching is something you'll do almost every time when starting a new drawing, trying to nail down proportions, big shapes, flow, etc... Contouring on the other hand, is NOT something you'll keep doing as you progress in your art journey and was purely a teaching method and I'll tell you a bit about why imo. First of all, contouring requires a reference you'll be copying, so it can't be applied to drawing from imagination as opposed to sketching which is a preliminary step artists do when starting a piece. Secondly, contouring invites you to look at your reference as a 2D shape and identifying the contour of that shape you're seeing. In the future, you'll aim to leave that "2D approach" behind in favor of thinking your references in 3D, the basic shapes that compose them, how they relate to each other in space, etc... This approach is much more flexible as if you can simplify anything to basic 3D shapes (cube, cylinder, etc...) and reuse that simple structure to draw the same object from different angles. (As the same object can have wildly different contours depending on the angle you're looking at it, I believe you can see the limitations contouring bring) Hope that helps !

Both look great! Nice work. The second page feels cinematic 🤩

Cute seal! I like how big you made it's eyes