hello fellow artists! here are two recent attempts at simplifcation. so far, i've really struggled with values and edges. in the lemon sketch, i ended up only with 4 values, going in with an eraser to create the highlight. for the apple, i was unsure about the mid-values between the darkest shadow and the highlight, both clearly visible. i think i could've gone simpler with the shapes for this one, too. feedback and thoughts would be greatly appreciated, esp tips on picking values and identifying the transitions between them! (i don't want to over-rely on stan's demo - i can't seem to figure out my own way of choosing values) thanks in advance!

Drew casually as a teenager and made the exact mistake mentioned in this episode about copying style instead of learning fundamentals. Of course, I wasn't actually intent on learning drawing "properly" at the time, only for fun – but, funnily enough, it was hard to do it for fun because my skills and knowledge were so limited. That's why I'm picking it back up now, and still consider myself a novice. I'm excited to immerse myself in the craft again, and to see where the journey takes me! I've got to always remind myself that it's *supposed* to be difficult - anything worth doing is worth doing badly. A hard lesson to learn, but I am trying to learn it!