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?

Put the background in but figure it needs adjusting once I have more values in and things relate better to each other

I really like the “guardrails” of having just 4 colors to mix from. Makes things feel cohesive!!

I wanted to get some lighter tones in the background where my subject is darker so added some flesh tones and ochre. Quite enjoy the care free nature of applying the background. Squinting and the ruler aren’t new favvy tools

Ethan done with the background...color mixing is still a trial for me - I will say that my alizarin crimson which is Grumbacher brand is very oily and very transparent, but it was what I already had at home. Ear still needs correction as we move forward.

I like your teaching style. Learning a lot: like keep the lights and shadow colors separate (opposite of what I thought was expected/getting them close) And don’t use a light color as a shadow side highlight. I’m sure I’ll pick up more by going back through the course when I’m less eager to get brush to canvas. Patience is not my strong suit.

Now with background