So, this is my first drawing in 4 years. I'm going to take a crack at a self-critique and would love it if anyone could spot anything I've missed. For starters, some context. I did this drawing PRIOR to watching the demo and the critiques, but am writing this AFTER having watched those. The whole piece was done using only a plain ol' #2 pencil, which I feel like might have increased the difficulty of this exercise unnecessarily (I've since picked up a set of drawing pencils). It's also the reason why I didn't do the hair, and focused solely on the skin (I didn't want to lay in that much of a dark value using just my #2). Onto the self-critique: - First, I now understand what Stan was talking about when he mentioned using fuzzy mashed potato lines to hide mistakes, and realized through this project that I do that a LOT. I found it surprisingly difficult to simplify curves into hard lines and shapes, which I would have thought would be easier. - Also, I clearly cheated on the contour of the jaw by putting down a hard line to cover the fact that my transitions between values could have been sharper. - While I think I did okay figuring out the separation between light and shadow, I found myself struggling to see the different dark and light halftones. - After watching the demo, I see a major difference between what I did and what Stan did. I "drew" the features of the face, and then just added values on top of them, whereas Stan "built" the features out of basic shapes. - Also, after watching the critiques I now see two more major flaws with my project: 1. I definitely didn't simplify NEARLY enough. 2. I used the side of the pencil liberally, which contributed to the fuzziness of my values and edges (ironically, this last habit of using the side of the pencil is something I picked up from the last drawing course I took that made drawing with the tip of a pencil sound evil...) So, what else did I miss?