Very nice! You captured the texture quite beautifully and I love the motion of the tail XD

The bottom version looks good, I like what you did with the shadow color which make the hair look attached to the character's head.

Hi Marco! They look great! Since this is marked as "Asked for help" I think it's okay to give some feedback? I like the short hair version very much :) For the one with the long hair I think you can push the direction of the hair a little bit more. The long strands in your drawing are going all in the same direction. But when you look at the photo, the hair flows in different directions. Like on her back of the head, the hair flowes away from the foint of view. In your drawing it flows to the right (I put a little arrot at the spot where I mean it). I think when you follow the flow of the hair more like in the reference picture it will look more natural :) (sorry for the wobbly lines in my drawing, tendinitis got me good)

Hey Marco, Lets look at the top example. The bottom plane of the nose is barely visible on the model compared to the shadow indicated in your drawing. Tightening that up would really give the drawing more of a likeness. Looking at the left shoulder you can see that there is quite some distance from the pink shirt (almost parallel) to the where the hair falls behind her. Stretch out that shoulder a bit. A common question i ask myself is: Does this look like my subject? we typically lean to a yes or no rather quickly. Among all the things everyone tell us, i find distance relationships really helpful. ie. Does the ear line up to where the shoulder is? does the center line match? etc Often times when we see photos...the photos make things look a bit..off. Looking at photo of the model. i cant help to think how large the neck just looks in the photo which is fine...that's where artistic decisions are made. I like how you did this on the bottom reference. in me eyes..the way you shaped the back muscles are more pleasing. Good job there.

Hey Alex :) You're breaking down the hair into separate groups, which is good, but then it seems like you're diving into rendering with a small brush meant for detail, which can be very time-consuming and difficult to organize. Try to have more of an in-between step--first breaking the hair into the large groups, then further separating into smaller groups based on value, which can start to have soft edges or blend in together. Only until the very end, and try to reserve this mostly for focal areas, will small fine lines for individual strands come into play. You're on the right track, though, it's just a matter of organization.

Beautiful!

Yea I have the same issues with my kneaded eraser. Here are some factors: 1. The paper matters. Kneaded erasers have some trouble being crisp on cheap sketch paper. 2. Too dirty. Over time the eraser builds up charcoal and you get mushy marks leftover when trying to erase 3. Oil build up. Our skin produces natural oils that mess with graphite and charcoal. The more you touch your kneaded eraser the more oils you'll get into it which also affect erasing.

Beautiful hair studies!

Nice! - The features feel quite 3D to me, but the head feels a little flat. I think it would help to show that the face has a front and a side plane more clearly. It might help to first draw the construction of the head lightly, before rendering. - Richard Schmid mentioned something interesting in his book Alla Prima II. In chapter 5, on values, there is an image of a painting of some dolls. Schimd mentions how the hair was human like, and that he could see every strand of hair if he kept his eyes wide open. But if he squinted, the hair grouped into a single shape, with specific edges. That's what he painted, since it's much more manageable then thousands of hair strands. And since he put down the correct shape with correct edges, it looked like hair. This might be a topic that would be interesting for you to explore. In your drawing you seem to be showing the hair by drawing indivudal strands of hair, and it looks like hair to me, but it could be good to widen your toolkit of how you can portray hair by studying hair thinking more like Schmid, maybe by first doing a value studie; grouping the hair into a few values and shapes, then modify the edges of the shapes to give it a hair like feel. I did an attempt at this (though I used my imagination since I don't know what reference you used). If you're new to value studies, feel free to reach out if you need some tips. (or maybe this post suffices https://www.proko.com/s/PX9q ) Hope this helps :)

this looks really good!

I really like it but I feel that the hair isn't as curly as the reference, but amazing drawing

wow Daniel ! these look really impressive. I think the next step would be able to master different hair textures. Right now everyone seems to have silky, glossy hair; but I notice that for some of the more dramatic lighting you prioritise the hair detail / gloss over the shadows. (c.f. the upper black and white ones on photo 3). It's ok if it's a conscious choice or if you are selling shampoo, but make sure it doesn't limit your range as an artist. Ditto for the guy with the beard on fifth photo - I wonder, now that you have mastered dimensionality + gloss in hair, how you can create the hair texture in his beard. Anyone have good ideas on how this might be achieved ?