My First Art Class: Portraits

As I mentioned yesterday, I just finished my firt ever art class - a 12 week series with 6 weeks of pencil and 6 weeks of charcoal. We focused on still life and portraits.

My 1st portrait: (again, the photos are lighter than my actual drawing) For our first two portraits, we worked on faces from magazine adds.

Portrait #2 - I don't know why this one looks kind of purple. Anyway, this one was also from a magazine. I keep getting glimpses of who this really is. Can you guess? I see it most around her mouth or nose.
Answer: Drew Berrymore

Portrait #5: (I'll share #3 & #4 on another post) This was my final portrait which I completed yesterday. It is in charcoal while the first two are in pencil. I don't know the artist's name, but this is a copy of a 'real' piece of art. I don't know what kind of hat or shirt the man has on, but I copied what was drawn.

And this is a photo of me, yesterday, after my last class. Each drawing was this size - we started with about an 8.5x11 (whether from a magazine or a photocopy) and "blew it up" to make it this size. 

Each class was 2 hours long and I struggled weekly. I'd see what I was supposed to copy and thought there was no way I could do it. I struggled for about 1.5 hours each week...and then I'd see my drawing start to come to life! As a new artist, this was an amazing feeling!