Still new at this art thing

[Secun]

I've drawn throughout my life, but I've never really drawn anything that could amount to much in the long run because it has always been on notebook paper, but now I'm taking an art class in school, so I thought I should go ahead and post what I'm currently working on so I could possibly get advice.

Currently my first assignment is to draw a face in order to get the hang of gridding, and my teacher let me choose one, so I chose Phil Collins' face from the album art of Face Value.

Album Cover

My work thus far

I've gotten some advice from classmates and my sister, who is much better at this stuff than I am.

I intend for the stubble to get a putty eraser, press it down on those shaded areas along the cheeks, and lift it up so I can get an uneven look to the shading.

NOTE: It's not that I was always exactly bad at drawing, it's just I've never really refined my "style" or what have you, so getting all this down is still kinda hard for me, but I think I'm doing OK so far.

[Tay]

Helpful tip that I always keep in mind to make things stand out; push the contrast. Make the extremely dark areas so dark like extremely dark but at the same time keep light areas as light as possible. The camera might have messed with how your piece looks, but definitely push the contrast a lot more especially around creases.

Looking fantastic so far!

[icephoenix21]

It's a very nice start.
My word of advice would be don't be afraid to push your dark shades.
The darkest part of the drawing should reflect the same shade of darkness as the photo.

[Secun]

Helpful tip that I always keep in mind to make things stand out; push the contrast. Make the extremely dark areas so dark like extremely dark but at the same time keep light areas as light as possible. The camera might have messed with how your piece looks, but definitely push the contrast a lot more especially around creases.

Looking fantastic so far!

Yeah, my teacher told me the same thing. Although I hadn't started with the charcoal yet either, so I've touched the creases up and the shading in general around the brows and eyelids. Another thing I've also done is blended the end of the nose into the shadow on the upper lip so it's not as noticeable.