At the end of the demo video, Stan mentions how "you" probably want to do this exercise again after watching and he was absolutely right. In my first three attempts, pre-watching the demo video, I realize now I was really just doing the CSI approach again. So while I am happy with the effort, it wasn't really good practice in terms of using some searching lines to practice my rough sketching from observation. Stan had a lot good tips in the demo, and for my second attempt with Squirtle and the shakka I focused in on these three in particular: 1) Using some big shapes to plot out the overall shape -- Squirtle was relatively straight forward with him being primarily a circle, and then two other ellipses. Well one ellipse and one ellipse-ish shape. Plotting those down first, really helped provide a good foundation and the rest of the drawing flowed out much easier than any of them in my initial attempt. For the wrist, the main shape I used was a rectangle for the wrist. Just having that there let me easily approximate where everything else on the hand should go. 2) Grouping together smaller details before breaking them up -- I really only used this in the shakka. I used a rectangle for the three folded fingers, and it was such a game changer as compared to how I approached those similar fingers in the spider-hand. 3) "Thinking lines" - I leaned on this strategy for Squirtle's face and tail. Not to sound too hyperbolic, but it was slightly shocking how much easier that made keeping his face symmetrical and get his ending tail shape correct just by having two simple reference lines down first. They really helped anchor all the other lines I was trying to make as I worked through his shapes. The tips from the demo were immediately useful. I did both of these drawings much looser and faster than I did any of my first three attempts, and actually had a lot of fun doing so. Looking forward to incorporating this approach into my drawing moving forward. I ordered some of those red and blue col erase pencils as I am buying what Stan is selling when he mentions they help him when doing these kinds of sketches in particular.

The proportions are completely off but I think I did a somewhat good enough. I decided to use a stronger brush for the last two since if I left the previous it made pretty hard to see I don't know why but every time I tried exporting the penguin img it kept doing it mirrored

Biggest challenge for me is keeping these “sketchy”. On the girl I used a blue Col-Erase underneath.

I challenged myself to move quickly on this one. Finished in ~15 minutes. This was fun!

First crack at the assignment. I think I'll take a couple of goes as this overall to get some more practice in. I'm finding the tapered strokes challenging and visualising a line prior to putting it down is something that doesn't come naturally. Happy to keep trying though.

Was actually pretty happy with how these came out. Didn't spend more than 5 minutes on one. Didn't leave enough height for the vr girl's head

Tried to use tapered strokes as best as I can. Very difficult to keep control over lines.

Tried drawing the penguin. There's so much to improve, and I feel like I'm just drawing scribbles when drawing the "fur". Also I feel like I'm not doing well on the feet. Any tips on those or even other things to improve are appreciated!

After watching the video Critique – Learning to Sketch from Observation, I felt like I got a bucket of cold water poured over me when I realized I wasn't putting into practice any of the things Proko was explaining. I went back and redrew the penguin, then drew a spider as well, to see how much I was actually applying what I had truly learned from this assignment.

Great assignment, I loved it. Confident lines are not that easy though. But this assignment was not even close to the difficulty of the boots (I'm still traumatized)

I'm vary proud of these drawings

Hands are hard guys, haha. I feel ok with this assignment, I think im assuming details where I need to be more focused on what im observing. Feeling better with line confidence and tapering my strokes though!

Proportions not the greatest. I honestly thought the penguin would be the easiest, but I think it is the toughest lol. Also I am being stingy with my sketchbook paper and did them all on the same page.

My first attempt at the VR Girl. Still working on those confident lines, lol.

Really nice assignment, I feel that I'm getting more confident with my lines. Lots of room for improvement though!

Messed up my proportions a fair amount on each, but feeling more confident with my lines compared to when I started a couple of days ago.

I finished the task. Now I'm ready for level two so I can put what I've learned into practice.