My shading exercise. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks.

I decided that I wasn't satisfied with doing this exercise with graphite, charcoal, pastel, and conté, so I did three more in gouache after trying a few in watercolours. The first gouache isn't quite right: the casht shadow is too large and the terminator is too high. On the second, I got better transition with the midtones. The highlight is all wrong but meh. And on the third, I'm generally happy. The watercolours were fun, but much more challenging but I started with the wrong base colour for the cast shadow anyway, so I at last just tried with black and that came out better.

Was going to say I was surprised at how few comments are here on Feet and Hands, but then, I realized, oh yeah, they are dreaded. Best way to over-come fear? Face em! These bonus lessons on hands and feet have really upped my confidence and ability. Plus they are giving me good indications of what a solid routine of daily practice of hands, feet, figures, heads. Do that for a month or so and evaluate what to add then. My notes on feet

Good times.

Wow, where are all the people? Anyway, great breakdown. And I'm glad you named the mathematical analysis that gives us an analytical description of the fall off in light as we approach the terminator. . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert%27s_cosine_law

Some preliminary heads before going deep... More later

draw-alongs

Fantastic stuff! It's really great to start to see more complete picture of where this sort of thinking is meant to take us. I especially enjoyed the leg breakdown into anatomy-by-overlap-wrap. Having started with the figure construction class before this one was released, it really helps cement the lessons from there. Another comment, I notice some Force Drawing acolytes in the mix of this critique/preview lesson. That last one was definitely using the Force Gesture brush if I'm not mistaken. Mike also really emphasizes that shape comes AFTER understanding what you're looking at from a structural and force-rhythm point of view because it tends to push towards contours rather than the function and structure of what you're looking at. I try my best to incorporate forceful lines to define the gestures here, as it helps push the references from what is given and helps ensure story really comes across strong. With the little rubric for self-critique, I think I can see where I'm successful and where I'm not.

Great explanation of your process after the gesture drawing @Michael Hampton. I found it extremely enlightening. I really enjoy your analytical approach. I can't wait to learn more from your figure construction course which I will be taking after this one.

I used your initial construction just to get to the meat and potatoes of the drawing and then realized I forgot how to do the lips. :-8 Time to go back and review before doing the project...