I experienced the same thing. After my second attempt it looked like a completely different person. Good job!

this is so nice of a step up, u really figured out what he meant by the figure out where the curves are haha

Nice work! always good to try to push yourself beyond what you think you are capable of. There are two parts I find really hard on assignments like this: 1) Simplifying. Just knowing what to group together, and what not to group together is tricky. It's one of those skills that does not come naturally to us. Our brains always want to add more detail! But the secret to a lot of great art is learning what should and shouldn't be simplified. Take the figures left eye for example. I can hardly make that eye out at all! it kind of just blends in with the other dark shapes there. But our mind WANTS to draw the eye. This is the tendency we have to fight, which leads me to the second hard thing. 2) We often draw what we think we are seeing. Similarly to not seeing large shapes, we often add things that aren't there. We think we know what an eye looks like. We think we know what a nose looks like, etc. We end up drawing what we think, and not what we see. This can be useful for inventing, but when trying to capture a likeness, it can slow us down. You actually do a pretty good job of drawing what you see, but it is still something to keep in mind. Keep at this! You've clearly got an eye for drawing, and will only improve as you work through this and other corses. Cheers!