1nd attempt,tried to make a goomba and a others forms.

This was fun - and I think I will keep drawing these as warmups and just for fun. I really enjoy ellipses, but have never tried emphasizing one side and de-emphasizing the other. Here's what I learned that might help others: I do a lot better when the part of the ellipse that's meant to be darker is on the top (i.e. facing away from me, so when I lay it down, I'm pressing down when I'm pushing the pencil away from myself). Hopefully that makes sense to people. I figured out near the end that rotating the sketchbook so that the part of the ellipse that was supposed to be visible was farthest from me, I was able to ghost the invisible half much more easily. Try it yourself! Or try the opposite - you might prefer to draw darker when bringing your pencil back toward you!

Darkened my values a bit (and took a better photo in better light - that's a whole skill on its own!) I'm thinking I need to go up to a 6B in my lead library. 4B doesn't quite cut it for those core and cast shadows.

It took me a few days to work up the courage to even try this one. I'm very new to the whole values thing. Please help!

I have a whole case of 2mm 2B refills. I now clearly see the value (ha!) in getting more of these lead holders and a range of leads!

I've always enjoyed drawing and wish I'd gone to art school. Figured it was time to apply a little rigor to my creative practice so here I am! For this assignment I drew a sloth and a YETI.