After watching demos and critiques, this is a second attempt at one of my level 1 notans. I did it the day after watching the critiques so it is not a "copy" of Stan's version. Just based on his input. I do like the decision to make the hat white in Stan's version.

Level 2. My backyard at three different times of the day.

My first attempt at level 1. Digital blurring helped. But I can still simplify more than I did. Struggled with the railing in the Norman Rockwell. Finally went with the lightest value.

level 1. This was difficult. Did it twice. Once with rougher paper and once with smoother paper. My first attempt looks better to me. I tried to start very light on the second attempt but still ran out of dark as I moved up the scale.

With a little help from my friend, @mcminnjesse , I have made a little progress. I followed the same process I had been using for the first two drawings. 1. glance at the reference and then draw 2. look at the reference for one minute and then draw. But the third attempt from memory (rather than just look at the reference for two minutes) was after breaking down the forms (physical and mental effort) and then trying to draw from memory.

Is there a prize for being the worst at this game? This is level 1 game 1.

Wow. That was hard. This is embarrassing and a bit funny. Also interesting that I got the angle (perspective) better on my second try as opposed to my third. I guess because I was thinking less about detail. (This is level 1, game 1 - draw from memory)

Round one of attempting to apply the lessons from the critique. Specifically: 1. Light construction lines 2. More straights 3. My lines are too wobbly. Hopefully will do more when time permits.

I'm reposting my submission along with a description of what I was going for. I'm doing this because of a comment @Stan Prokopenko made in the critique but also, because it will do me good to relate visual art to prose. Something I'm not good at. I've labeled the pictures from one to four if for some reason they get mixed up when I post them. My goal in all this was to play around with different architectural gestures like bloating and twisting. But at the same time I wanted a reason for these gestures. First thing I did was simplify a castle. There are five characters (the five towers). I made each of them unique. I used windows to infer eyes to anthropomorphize them. There are two main characters and three subordinate characters. The main characters are the Captain and the Sergeant. The Captain is the one in the middle. He is young, promising, but somewhat inexperienced. The Sergeant is next to him on his right, our left. He has a flag. And he takes this duty seriously. He is strong in character, he has the square personality. The first scene shows them at attention in a calm peaceful situation. It is the base architecture. The second scene is a very windy day. You can see this by the flag and the gesture of the towers (along with the gesture of the leaves flying and the clouds). The subordinate towers (the foils) are buffeted by the wind and appear helpless, the Captain is fighting the wind (somewhat unsuccessfully). The Sergeant is not backing down. He is leaning in to the wind. The only evidence that this is a challenge for him is the squint in his eyes. The third scene was conceived so I could experiment with the twist. I wanted to give the towers something to look at. A person has snuck up on the Sergeant tower and burned the flag. You can see the reaction of the Sergeant again in his eyes. Not so much in his body (although he is red with embarrassment). The other towers are all looking at the burning flag, except the Captain who is looking at the perpetrator who is diving into the moat. In the fourth scene the flag has been restored and there are additional signs of pageantry. Including a man with a trumpet. Perhaps the perpetrator was captured or some further devilry was thwarted. At any rate, all the towers are proud and are bursting at the seams. The Sergeant, of course, shows his pride with his bearing, but still retains his dignity and his manly square shape. I took on a fairly simple set of shapes to deform. But being a level one student, I feel like simplification is my friend. It still allowed me to play with various gestures and it was fun.

Interesting how much you don't see until you attempt to reproduce.