Its interesting to see the progression especially in the figure drawings.... these are arranged from oldest to new... the work below is a span of two weeks or so spread out.

there is a methodology beginning to be developed with crosshatching

further crosshatching mixed with scribbling. this is where i started to realize how much white space i had been leaving on the previous images...

not a very good scan, but this is continuing the scribble/crosshatch method.

after some critiques i started to remove the intentional outlines which are false edges. most edges are not black. i already knew this, but as an artist who's more of a contour drawer, its hard to remain cognitive that there are usually no edges, just changes in value.

i love the rat with his heart, maybe a future speedpaint...

i really like the look of the young man. still... i need to push the limits on the values to make it punch more... i have been considering using toned paper, that way, i can drop in highlights as well as not have to put in mid tones.

this is more of a figure drawing practice than shading.... before this, i had several crappy sketches i refuse to show.