That was then, this is now

[Echarin]

I've only just recently absorbed the fact that unless I draw every single day I won't progress. Before that happened I had pretty much been at a complete standstill for several years, only drawing occasionally and usually just quick doodles on printer paper. But I've been going strong for three weeks now and am having more fun than I had imagined I would before I started. I intend to hold onto this newfound habit with these going-wrinkly hands of mine and who knows, maybe some years down the line I'll look back over the course of my art in this thread and think I think I've improved a bit since then.
What follows is a summary of the past three weeks:

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[Echarin]

Been over a week now since my first post, but I've kept at it.

[daestwen]

Keep at it! Just a couple questions/suggestions...

What kind of pencil are you using? If you get a set of drawing pencils, with a few of the darker and lighter ones, you can get a little stronger tones and variations with your drawings.

As for the drawings themselves: When you're doing life drawing/studies of life drawing, try this - instead of drawing outlines, try drawing from the inside out. Aka, draw the volume of the object vs. the lines that you think you see. Humans don't actually have lines, they are made up of shapes (which I think you are starting to get the idea of with some of the volume-lines for your head shots), so don't draw lines. Force yourself to just draw shadow/values. It'll help make your drawings more three dimensional, rather than flat.

[Echarin]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep it in mind.

I mostly use 4B and 5B pencils for these sketches. I can see how using a varied selection would help, with the softer pencils being good for shading and the harder ones great for finer details.

[Echarin]

Apparently I drew stuff this past week.

Reference for that last one: link (http://redletterstock.deviantart.com/art/Fuji-0005-40469794)

[Echarin]

Not much today, but I like it. Finally something I can look at and say (and know it to be true): "I'm getting better."
It's not much, but I'm not shooting for the moon. I'll get there eventually, but right now I'm just trying to get off the ground.

[Echarin]

Some new stuff. Haven't done too much for the past month, but I mean to change that. I'm going off photographs for a while (stupid things are too flat, can't see the shapes well enough). Sitting myself in front of a mirror next time I draw something for some self portraits.

[Echarin]

Yikes! Haven't stopped by in a long time.
Haven't drawn anything in a while, but I have been painting: