Here are some of my random sketches of things I have easy access to. The elephant on the bottom of the second page came out cuter than I thought it would.

I'm a perfectionist and often don't start things because I can't decide the best way to go about it or the best thing to draw or whatever. One reason I wanted to take this course is to draw more things without my own restrictions on whether or not it's a "good" subject, or if it's going to make a "good" finished piece. I used to work in an art museum and I did drawings and wrote in sketchbooks a lot over those years, and I have gotten away from it and want to get back. 

I really had to force myself to relax. I found that once I did relax, things went much better. I like the shading process.

I found this hard - it takes patience to observe the nuances of the light. Something I am trying to develop.

Sort of ok. Needs tabletop for context, so it isn’t  floating in space like the ghost of tomatoes past.

It was fun trying to get the lights and darks right. As I was drawing the light started changing and the highlights started shifting around. More practice would be good! I liked the explanation of how to look for the lights and darks and where you may expect to see them.

Taking the photo of my drawing made me realize that I would like to practice getting more definition in the middle values. I like the way you pointed out that when you squint you may be surprised by some of the bright and dark spots. I also kept smearing the pencil marks as I was drawing (haha...accidentally blending where I didn't want blending).

I keep forgetting about using stippling and I love the daisy technique you showed us. I still want to work on ALL of them!

First try at chiaroscuro.  More successful in pencil than colored pencil, I think.  The contrasts on the pepper were much more dramatic and yet I had trouble capturing that.  Maybe because it needs more blending?  I like to look at what others have done and I saw some comments that others felt their own drawings suffered in comparison to others.  When I feel that way, I remind myself that comparison is the thief of joy.  We will all improve and as someone else pointed out, we are not all starting from the same place on the path.  I am enjoying re-discovering this part of myself.

Representing Lights and Darks: the Squint Test I continue to have to make conscious choice each time I set out to draw: discouragement and frustration, or discovery and curiosity. It is not easy, but is a valuable skill. Drawing is completely new to me, and I find it more than a little difficult to make accurate representations of shapes and proportions.  I can see where and how they are wrong, but can not replicate them. It is an interesting look into the brain.  Meanwhile, I have now dedicated a full sized new eraser to my drawing box! I am also very slow. It would take several more sessions to "finish" my stick (which is how I did my "Jump Right In" warbler), but sometimes I don't want to spend repeated sessions on one drawing.  If you are slow and outdoors, the light changes faster than you can capture it. However, the squint test really works! Sometimes squinting helps me "find" the shape, as well. I added a scribbly background of a tree trunk, palo verde sapling, brush pile, and bird boxes, which is not actually behind my "value stick" but was to my right. You can do that when drawing, unlike photography! (Photoshop not withstanding.) I hope my skills improve on shapes and proportions. Next up: chiaroscuro.

(Still haven't been able to upload images) It wasn't difficult to see where each could be applied and I'm starting to feel more comfortable doing anything!  Unfortunately, I think I chose natural items that were too complicated for my initial practice.  The areas of light/dark were too small for me to really distinguish the different effects - kind of frustrating but interesting - so instead I applied different shadings to a stuffed toy penguin to build confidence.  Better. It is still tough to maintain proportions, even with short pencil strokes.  I use the eraser a lot.  I expect everyone comes up with their own process - where to start, what comes next, etc.  My question - are there guidelines about this for starting out? I am really enjoying this course.

Actually, I don't feel comfortable putting marks on the page. The chiaroscuro is not really clear to me and i feel rubbish about it. I have seen the others are they are really good, while mine is a bit ugly 

I began with the pear, using a 5” circular fluorescent bulb for illumination, which gave a strange shape highlight. I then moved on to the juggling ball with the same lamp. The Roku pot was illuminated with an LED point source and the texture of the pot resulted in a second shadow below the reflected light.

This was an excellent exercise and the video clips are great. Thank you for the mention of the blending tool. I had forgotten the existence of it and after a search, I found one in a box of drawing odds and ends. I love it for making smooth lights and darks.

I have been working with pictures, trying to  improve my skills.  I think I am improving.

Having difficulty following through with posting. Finally figured it out. Will get back to drawing again.   Don’t know if I’m posting on someone else’s page or mine

I I really enjoy watching the instructional videos - thank you, Liz! And the exercises are great, so helpful.  Getting the texture and the lighting and shadow are ALL so challenging, but I realize it takes LOTS of practice.  Very inspiring to read and see everyone’s posts!

Such a good “looking” exercise!

I'm definitely starting to feel more comfortable, but I'm working hard on chiaroscuro because I still feel that is quite hard to distinguish the lights and darks on an object or composition