I've never before had a class where I could search for nekkid piccies of cute guys in the name of homework. Since our instructor has made a point of saying we should find things that interest us for these assignments... Well, yeah, this is from the same "The Academic Male Nude" book that I used for the first couple of master studies. Hey, at least it's tasteful; I'm pretty sure I could find more exciting imagery if I put my mind to it.  :)

Anyway, this was my next attempt at shading using blurry values. Somewhat better results than last time, I think, but I still don't like it. One thing I've pondered is that the masters all seem to make large drawings, and I make these small interpretations of them. I bet that changes a lot. I also have wondered at using a smoother paper to try to get nicer blendings with less grain.

And a harder pencil. Our instructor (heretofore known as Tom) put on the shopping list handed out with the syllibus to get various pencils from HB to 6B. I've found the mechanical 0.5 millimeter 4H pencil I use for drafting is an invaluable tool in this class. Must make another trip to the art store, see what else there is to see...

By the way, this artist had amaxingly detailed hands and feet in this drawing. It was as if those were his expertise and the rest of the body was just tacked on as an afterthought. Me, being less skilled, was more consistantly bad and everything tends to look the same.