Here's my drawing of Morgan. I followed the demo, but focused more on the reference this time. I also paused the video often, especially in the initial layin and made sure I was happy with the placement of everything before I started designing shadow shapes. The tell tale sign for me that this was a better approach was that I didn't have the same issue with the forehead that Stan ran into. I did correct the little protruding brow on the left eye as it was pushing out too far and I also reshaped the chin slightly. I also discovered that taking a photo of my drawings helps me spot things I need to fix. Similar to stepping back to see a drawing from a distance. I've really enjoyed this course and I'm sure I will reference these lessons as I continue to work on drawing portraits!

Wasn't sure the best place to post this, so dropping it here. Wanted to do another portrait on my own before doing the last assignment in this course. Per usual, being a day or two after drawing this, there's a list of things to work on that are very clear to me, however, I spent more time on the layin making sure proportions were correct and did some additional measuring. It's not quite as accurate as I'd like, but there's improvement (if only in the intention and time doing that initial drawing!). Open to feedback if anyone has comments for me! Always interesting to see if flaws I'm aware of are what others notice. Thanks!

First Attempt, using HB 2B 4B, homemade stump and eraser. Had to change the nose near the end when I realized it was too short, changed the forehead at the end with Stan. I can see the mouth is a little off and will go back into it.

Here's my result after following the demo. Still some things I'm certainly aware of I need to work on, but open to feedback! I would say I felt confident going into this based on the foundation I've improved on throughout the course. My biggest personal critiques on this include needing to spend more time on the initial drawing (spend more time with initial measuring, be open to changing things later if they prove to be off or look off) and paying more attention to values across the entire image (some of my darks are too dark or neighboring areas not dark enough).

I preordered the course and also ordered your book in preparation! The book showed up today and I'm only 18 pages in, but already more than thrilled with the purchase...can't wait to get started! Trying to wrap up the portrait course I'm in before these lessons start to come out.

Drawing from following the demo. I find when I follow the demo, I lose sight of the reference and the basic shapes, which results in some areas that aren't clear or as defined as maybe they would be if I focused directly on reference. On other assignments, I've tended to like my own drawings from reference vs the outcome of following along. Regardless, relatively happy with this after attempting to fix a couple areas. Will do some more studies over the next couple days. I feel like I'm pretty self aware on this one, but, as always, open to feed back if anyone has thoughts for me.

After doing the portrait of Nicolai yesterday, I decided to revisit the lessons of the features. I had done them before, but never in charcoal. I had either done them digitally, or in another medium I felt a bit more comfortable in. Upon reflection, I think that was a mistake, however an understandable one. It was a mistake because getting out of our comfort zones is precisely where real learning occurs. We should lean into that feeling of being on artistic shaky ground. It was understandable because it wasn't just a lack of experience in drawing with charcoal. There were more fundamental skills I was missing that was going to make drawing with charcoal (or more precisely a charcoal pencil) endlessly frustrating. The root problem is that I didn't know how to properly sharpen a pencil. Now this is embarrassing to admit in that I've been a professional artist for decades, but when you look closer it's easy to see how such a glaring flaw in my skills could arise. Namely, I work primarily in ink or digitally. I'm more of a cartoonist than a fine artist. While this experience helps me with some fine art skills--like structure and gesture--it doesn't help me with others--like drawing with charcoal and controlling edges. Even an experienced artist needs to shore up fundamental skills when attempting something completely new. What has been helping me is the Drawing Basics Course. In that course, Stan is making the assumption that we're all at level zero. And while I'm certainly not at level zero for everything Stan is teaching in that course, it's helping me find the cracks in my foundation so that I can shore them up. I mean, I'm fifty-one and I just learned how to properly sharpen a pencil. The thing about fundamental skills is that they get used all the time. Any improvement in your foundation will ripple through the rest of your art because it gets used over and over again. It's improved my line quality as well as my enjoyment of drawing generally. Before, I didn't care about the pencil stage. It would all get erased anyway when I brushed in the ink. Now, I love the pencil stage and am am finding it immensely satisfying. The Drawing Basics Course is also making the Portrait Course more useful to me. I suspect this would be true for a lot of us. We all have different cracks in our foundations, but Stan is being very thorough in his coverage of the basics. Whatever our fundamental struggles, the Drawing Basics Course is a good place to address and conquer them. Anyway, for what it's worth, I thought I'd put it out there why I think the Drawing Basics Course is one we would all benefit from.

Followed the demo and then one from reference. Will be doing some more, but posting as a personal form of accountability.

Followed the demo. Will be doing some more practice from reference. Used a lead holder for the first time with 5mm 2B graphite vs. wood/mechanical pencils. Was fun exploring a new tool while working on this.

24th Day of Proko and counting. I had the timer sent for 20 minutes on these. After it dried, I had to go back into the first one for a few minutes to try to save it.