Here are my attemps on level 1 and 2 assignments. With the face I found it difficult to decide which shape is dark shadow, light shadow or dark halftone.

I feel like my block in turned into mush in the face.

I went with a pear that was more to my liking, but damn, I could have chosen a simpler one. ^^' I must say I was totally understimating this exercise. For me, who has plenty of bad drawing habits, it's much more difficult than what was asked in the anatomy course. XD No, seriously, it's terrifying how unable I am to clearly mark and define the 5 values without anything blending at some point. I was so busy making their border clear (and also forcing myself to use straight lines for round things) that I just lost sight of my construction lines, and messed up proportions a lot. Now that I put the drawing and the reference together, it looks even more off. The only part I like is the top of the pear, which is surprisingly accurate, and has decent clarity of volumes and tones.

Level 2 attempts. I’m having a bit of trouble removing detail. The first attempt looked more like a mosaic of many many value areas before I started shading. Any advice on figuring out what is unnecessary in a simplification assignment and how to work more with values and less with shapes? Note: A bit of distortion in the images because iPad heavy and noodle arm wobbly.

here’s my pear