I took things a bit more slowly with the piece for today, so I haven’t finished the shading and coloring phases yet, but I think the initial sketch came out better than my previous efforts. It probably helps that I was actually working off of a model this time around.
I followed up with my own advice from yesterday and went with a 3d model reference off of sketchfab to drive the practice, and I think it’s working out pretty well. I like the idea of being able to do the same face from multiple angles, and the lack of hair helps at this stage, since it isn’t getting in the way of facial features or throwing off the size of the head.
I’m also pretty stoked that I managed to get the sketch as close to the reference as I did, so far any time I’ve tried to work from reference the end result has always come out looking nothing remotely like it was supposed to, but this one needed far fewer alterations than normal. Still needed some, of course, I’m still learning, but the whole process seemed smoother than normal.