So - I'm no expert by any means - but what strikes me is how good your light/shadow relationship is on the back of the scarf (the dangly bit), but how you have not carried this through onto the face - the shadow on the blue bit of the scarf reads ok, but you need more contrast on the shadow side of the face and around the eyes and down the nose - this will start to make the face and head look the right shape... You've done a good job with the colours though - pretty good start I would say :)

Awesome!! - Sorry I know that isn't a very helpful critique, but this is great - I love the blue light coming from the back - and the expression is really interesting - it draws you in and you wonder what he's thinking about or looking at - with that slight smile...

Hey, @Jo Sheridan, thanks for reaching out! These are great!! I knew nothing about Fechin, so I googled him and got to find the artworks you used as reference - you really did some beautiful studies! I like them all, but I’m especially amazed by this one you did in colored pencils. Since the reference was painted in oils, you went through a good deal of interpretation and adaptation to get to this result with such a different medium, and I think it looks awesome. I love the line work and how you designed the edges in order to define the facial features as the center of interest. Strong form construction and nice use of color, too! I also took a look at Fechin’s quotes on the link you suggested further below and, yeah, it’s thought-provoking! He seemed very assertive about his view of art and the importance of tradition and technical execution. It makes sense when we consider that he went to the Imperial Academy of Arts and was a pupil to Ilya Repin. But the interesting thing I noticed is that he lived around the turn of the 20th century, so this classic and more conservative point of view was going completely against the modernist vanguards that were popping at the time - in fact, he seems to make his strong criticism to the “shallow-minded novelties” very clear in one of the quotes. Anyway, from what I know, a lot of schools and artists in Russia still did maintain a more classic tradition in spite of the modernist movements at that time - at least, more so than in Europe apparently. It’s like classicism wasn’t so “obscured” by modern art in Russia as it was in more western countries, and, personally I think that could be part of what makes the “Russian approach” attractive to some art students nowadays. Or, at least, that’s my guess. :) Keep up the good work, Jo! 🙌🏻

@paper - Thought I'd have another go - this is a study of a Fechin Oil Painting - which I've just tried out in Polychromos pencils... I was actually quite surprised how forgiving they were, they mixed much more easily than I realised - a good thing as I only have a few colours. I think I'll have a go with Oil, but that will probably be a real test of this idea of "its more about the value than the colour" as I am a real novice when it comes to mixing paint - will be fun though as this is a great source to study. Hi @Liandro - be glad to get your thoughts...

Hi @Liandro I would just love to know where your inspiration comes from - your ideas are so different... I just love the contrast between the two expressions on your characters, the guy playing the floss is in a world entirely of his own - it just makes me smile to look at him

Great job on the sketch after Fechin. It looks wonderful! Is that charcoal on drawing paper?

This is fucking awesome,Fechin is an amazing artist,I'm glad you got introduced to him :D (Also did you use graphite to draw this?)

I like this a lot - its the looseness of the lines that look cool and the way you have situated this tiny piece into the background. I've been doing some sculpture/bust studies too - I'm pleased with the results but they are more constrained than yours - I'm still at the "must make it look right and finished stage

Honestly I think everyone is going to have a different answer here. I use this easel: https://www.dickblick.com/products/richeson-italian-steel-tripod-easel/. This works well for me when I'm drawing on newsprint and standing as well as painting on canvas and sitting. The easel can't take a lot of weight so I use a 3/4 inch piece of foam core board and about 20 sheets of newsprint. The foam core board keeps things really light. But if you put too much weight on the easel it shakes a bunch more. I like it the best because it can go really tall and fold up fairly small for transport. I like it because I can use it anywhere. Now that I'm talking about this I should make a video about it. There are a lot of details that go into it. Let me know if you have any questions about specific easels I"ve painted and drawn on multiple different types.