i've tryied to apply the line weight light and shadow method to an observation drawing

I did this exercise one more time after seeing the demo. I kept the lines more loose this time.

My try, but at the end I saw that perspective is lost. But how’s my friend says: our mistakes are presents

I re-did the light and shadow line weight exercise after watching the demo, and then, in a fit of madness, somehow thought it would be a fun idea to try the 'simplify from observation' exercise with this photo. But, like many foolhardy and naive a lion cub, I quickly found I had taken on more than I could handle by trying to tackle this adult rhino by myself....hey ho. It was a good way to gauge the limits of my abilities.

I know the quality of my lines are not the best. I traced the photo and then tried to use different line weight to show foreground, middleground, and background. I enjoy practicing this.

I tried doing the same exercise with another reference, but this time using a human to challenge myself. My end goal with drawing is to draw people (I want to draw my webcomic) and damn, people’s lines are way harder. I started with a red traced sketch like Proko did with the rhino, and then built on top of the photo. But once I moved to thicker lines, the person started to look weird. I guess it’s because of the shadows? Or maybe shadows can only really be handled through rendering? Honestly, I’m not sure. It looked really bad when I tried to turn the shadows into visible line work (especially on the legs), so I kept those lines very light, even though in the reference they’re really dark and by that logic, they should actually be heavier, right? When I tried that, though, it just looked strange and really bad. In the rhino you can make lines heavy that it doesn't make it look bad if that makes sense?

I don’t have a printer, so I had to step a bit outside of my comfort zone by drawing on my tablet. I also made a few attempts at some sketches, which went pretty well. I think I may have gone too dark on too many lines on the owl and probably should have chosen one area to give more priority. Any advice or tips are welcome!

Updates after demo

Light & Shadow, 1 TRY.

Light and shadow method before and after watching the demo. I think Stans point about also thinking a lot about contrast was very educational.

If you have any advice, I’d like to hear it.

After watching the demo, I tried the light and shadow method for a woman portrait. While the face portion and the shadow I want to describe aren't quite right, this method make the drawing more vivid.

I tried to draw directly from the photo for this exercise. Honestly, I’m not sure how to improve when using ink. After watching the video, I understand how to make progress with pencil because it offers a wider range of values (weight and darkness). But with ink, the only thing I can really vary is line weight—pressing lightly still gives a dark line. If anyone has a solution, I’m open to suggestions. Maybe using black watercolor could be an option.

Light and shadow line weight with Rhino. Before (left) and after (right) the demo. Before the demo, I could not make a decision on which area s/b thick , or not. The demo helped me clarify that question. Looks much better now

Pre and post demo. The second attempt felt much more natural with clarity from the demo.

Tried it after the demo again

The demo helped me pay more attention to the value of the line, and not only on its thickness and also the beauty of smoothing out the transitions. Really nice!

Light and Shadow Line Weight