This isn't something that you do overnight. That left drawing is amazing. Was it done by Stephen?

Good try.

 People, have already made some of the observations that I had for you, so I will try to mostly stick to things not yet stated. First of all, for only starting to learn to draw a few months ago this is a nice attempt. I know what you mean when you say that you are out of your league, but at the same time, it’s also not really a thing, try whatever interest you as long as it’s not frustrating you more to do so. I don’t know if you are taking Proko’s “Drawing Basics” course, but if not I highly recommend it. Also, you can use different level of hardness graphite pencils, to get lighter and darker values easier. I like to use an HB and then use a 4B for the darkest parts. One thing to keep in mind when rendering is that contrast really attracts the eye, so try not to use too much contrast in places that you don’t want the viewer to want to look at the most. First you have to know where you want the viewer to look, in a portrait that is probably the eyes, mouth, and then maybe the nose, in importance, because these are the things we find most important as far as recognizing how a person is feeling as they show expressions. We don’t tend to focus on something like their ear. Notice how in the Bauman’s drawing you only see the ear as an after thought, but you don’t focus on it. But in yours that is the number one thing I’m drawn to looking at. Why? Because it has a lot of contrast. What you could do to fix that is to lessen the light of the ear, meaning to dark it in just a little bit on the lighter spots, and that should help “push down the ear more.” I also think it would be better if you didn’t go darker than the hair for the inner dark parts of the ear. Notice how in Bauman’s drawing in the lower part of the jaw it’s lighter? That’s because of bounce light that is literally from light that has hit something else like, her shoulder and chest, and reflected back into the shadow, lighting it that way. The direct light source is not hitting there, that is in fact still in shadow. That reflected light is almost always darker than anything in the light parts of her face, including dark halftones, but it often appears brighter than it is because we compare it to the dark shadow that is next to it. It’s an illusion, that can trick us into thinking it’s much brighter than it is. To render successfully, it helps to think of the planes of the face, meaning the 3d forms of it. That part of the jaw that is getting the bounce light at the bottom, is only getting that bounce light, to that degree, because it is both close enough to the source of reflection, and that the planes of the jaw are turning inward where the skin will travel across an under plane and then reach the neck. Now all of that bounce light needs to be on the jaw, and none of it should be on the neck at the top, like you have it. That contour line of the face at the bottom represents the jaw, so all that bonce light should be above that line. Under that line, is the neck where it should be the darkest. When you but the bounce light at the top of the neck there, like you have it, it makes it look like the head is disconnected from the neck. So fill that in with dark shadow, below that jaw line, and above it there should be a bit more bounce light. As far as the shadows under the eye goes, well, first if you look at his, he gave her just as much darkness there as he did in the parts that go up to the eyebrow, which are caused by the depth of the noes, and brow. When you just make it dark on the lower parts and light above it makes the lower parts, under the eye look more like makeup or something because the lighting isn’t consistent and therefor our brains struggle to understand the reason for the heightened darkness there. It also makes it distract our gaze from the eyes to the bottom eyelids. Also look at the lower eyelid on our right for her. In his you can see that as it turns to the right, that lower eyelid shadow gets lighter. That is because the direction of the planes are turning. I think it might be receiving some of the light from the light source. If not then it is all bounce light. Either way the whole thing is not just one dark graphic shape of shadow, but instead it has a gradient because it represents the turning of those planes. Adding that will help make things look more rounded in 3d form. Without it things will look more flat. I hope some of this helps. It’s a lot to absorb. Everything that I mentioned can be learned from the classes on the Proko site. Keep at it, and you will get it.

please, i start with saying i am on the autism spectrum and my words may come as annoying or even offensive to some., and I've been described as socially inept, which i agree with, because it does feel like it so I am only commenting to what I observe, and only from my own eyes: not enough but at the same time too much shadows. By that I mean, really darken the dark areas, it seems like you are using graphite pencils, I know graphite pencils can only go so dark, i know though that the blackwing pencil in matte, can go darker than this. Also, look at how dark you have drawn the eyes, and the inner ear, match that with the hair. now, what i meant by too much shadows, is that the shadows are way too long, especially the one going down her neck, you have extended it at least an inch and a half longer. that isn't as important as the one on her forehead, from the corner of the model's hair fringe, the shadows going down to her eyebrow is shorter than what you have on your work. Changing that can be important as it looks like the tilt of her head has changed from the original, which then throws off the rest of the portrait. i hope this come across as helpful, if not, just think of my reply as the ramblings of barely intelligible troll. my intentions were good. goodluck! p.s. really good drawing though, all in all

A few notes: -the center line of the face got very flattened out on yours, making her nose and mouth further to the right than they should be. Draw a vertical line from the tip of the nose to the eye, and you'll see what I mean. -the left eye is too high. On the original, the brow line tilts down to the right. On yours, it tilts down to the left. -Your mouth is drawn almost as if it is head on. I'd study up on the 3d forms of the mouth. -The left shoulder needs to slope down more -The ear is too small and looks more like it would in a profile view than a 3/4 view. If you'd like, try doing a tracing on top of your reference, in the simplified style of a Loomis head, then compare it to yours. In general, you are doing what everyone does, which is to make the pose more head on and more symmetrical. Look for assymmetry and focus on keeping it a 3/4 view, even though your brain wants to drag it into a straight-on, front view.

Hi, Thanks for your kind comments. You are right indeed, the left eye is not looking where it should. With a bit more observation (patience may be), I could have seen it before posting 🙂

Hi Creasofie, Thanks for your comment, it is very much appreciated. I totally agree with you, I absolutely need to practice that a lot. Varying the weight of my lines is key but also learning to vary it at the right moment while maintaining a smooth motion. At the moment, I feel that if I focus on weight, my gestures are becoming slow and my lines are getting shaky. Not easy. Besides, if you don’t mind, I have a question. I’m working with graphite and getting dark areas really dark isn’t easy. How would you suggest improving that? Is it purely linked to my weight control or is it more a question of tool (Type of pencils used)? Thanks in advance.

Hey Eric, I think the reason this seemed kind of hard is because you were trying to draw the actual animal instead of the shapes. I did a quick diagram to show you how you can approach this assignment so that it will be easier. I hope this helps :)

What I do to help me with proportions is to lay out a line before drawing anything and dividing it into fourths, then laying out which parts of the drawing will be placed in the specific part of the line.

I absolutely love this one. Even if it wasn't part of the exercise, I see some fantastic stylization in the way you simplified the shapes. You did get them all, but they look exaggerated and appealing. The thing that could help your next attempt is increasing the contrast in your values. Let the darks go darker! As Proko always says, your lightest dark should be darker than your darkest light. And focus more on those values and the general shapes they create rather than the contours (those will come in handy when you get to the line section).

Nice one! For points of improvement I think you can maybe define each plane more, I mean each shadow plane within each segment of the pear. Right now each segment is clearly defined but the shadow planes within them are blurred. Also I think it would help to use more straight lines :)