LD2 Week 4 - Skulls and critique 2

This week, we continued working on the five drawings for our second drawing project, and we then critiqued said project. Below are my five drawings. The views are: 10-minute top (Cross-Contour and Long-Axis lines only), 3/4 front (only CC and LA), 3/4 back (CC, LA, as well as value on the side plane), profile (all value) and back (all value).







Overall, I think I'm making good progress. I'm very happy with my value drawings, and I think that they show an obvious improvement from previous drawings. I'm happy with how I used shading and value to create the bone under the cranium in the back drawing, and think it has a certain quality of realism and beauty. I could have exaggerated the shapes of the form to really portray a sense of it, but I'm happy with the subtle shading I used to depict the depth of the planes.
The cross-contour drawings are getting better, but have a bit more room to grow than the value drawings. The front 3/4 skull looks like a helmet (which I gather is a good thing), so that's a plus. I understand the form and plane changes of the whole skull better now than I did in the past, and I think that it's starting to show in the drawings. One key critique I received is to work on the spacing of the contour lines so it doesn't create the checkerboard-style pattern than is apparent on the side plane of the front 3/4 drawing. Once I start to work on that, I think my drawings will develop a new sense of life and movement.