Okay, for starters, I have no idea who Rick is. His photo was provided by France Van Stone, the artist instructing the online video course I’m taking. ”Showing Up At The Page” is the name of the course and its only $22.50. A bargain for a bunch of videos by France which all focus on the philosophy of completing a sketching session in 20-30 minutes. Perfect for those with busy lives and people like me, who prefer to learn faster, more expressive, sketching techniques. Granted, this “sketch” took me a little over an hour! However, I’m learning. Thats why I bought the video👍.

France subtly increases the level of challenge in the subject matter with each video. That’s a good thing because it’s a progressive means to learning and it increases your muscle memory and observation skills with each new video exercise.

Ol’ Rick’s left eye, for instance, has a lot of creases, folds and subtle value changes from dark to light. I shaded the white of the eye to dark unfortunately. Had I simply let it be, it would have worked much better. That mistake alone taught me that I must focus on value observations more closely. Particularly on complicated images like this. And so it goes, on to the next lesson…