A short haired lass.

I returned to the workshop on January 11th.  This time a tatooed female model with short hair.  I arrived a few minutes late.

I didn't quite get down to her feet in 10 minutes.

A nice laying pose, spending a lot of time on structure without getting all the parts.  I'm still trying to find the right middle ground between accuracy and expressive likeness.

For the longer pose I went more academic, trying to accurately capture what I was seeing.  I attempted a technique I learned from Mark Tennant where you map the proportions and shadow shapes, then filling in the core shadow with vine charcoal.  To create the transition from shadow to lit form, you brush your finger from the charcoal to the white areas of the paper.  I love the way this technique looks.  I debated coloring in her face with charcoal because I didn't want to lose the detail, but it breaks the unifying effect of the shadow.