It was a little hard to keep momentum stopping and starting again days later. But here is what I ended up with. I learned from this step by step process as it forced more discipline.

Here is my light family block-in without halftones

I wasn’t sure about the area under the lower lip and extending into the shadow side of chin. I see you have left some of that in halftone, but I decided to keep it in shadow for now since the reference (on my screen, at least) seems decisively dark. Could it go either way?

Also it was easier to sit here and watch this interview instead of mixing my next set of skin tones. Lol

Great interview — thank you! I agree that it would be so helpful to see a course demonstrating different starting methods according to the total time allotment for a given sketch or painting. Also could relate to the endlessly taking classes instead of moving forward into real life art challenges. It’s easier and more fun to take a class; taking on a commission for a client is challenging and often not fun. But I have probably learned more from the latter because I am forced to put every skill into practice and be a “professional.’

Fun exercise! I had to keep checking my color values with my grayscale chart — turning my photo into black and white helped me see where I was off.

Just started this course — I loved the paper folding trick for gridding! Cannot believe I didn’t know that until now! Thanks for making another great course, Morgan. Here is my sketch…