Copy Fail

"Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success." -Napoleon Hill (I'm currently reading his book called Outwitting the Devil, and it's bizarrely interesting. He claims to have forced the devil himself into a lengthy interview, which seems (to me) to be an interesting angle for presenting the author's personal views on the forces at work in the universe ;). However, I do like the idea that with each failure comes an opportunity to learn, and possibly to find a path to success in the future.

So here's my fail. Do me a favor and don't look up the original of this drawing--just don't. Blaaaaaaaah. I'm a little embarrassed to post this, but in the interest of sharing the breadth of the learning experience, I'll go ahead and share my flops (you're welcome :P).

The drawing is off. But aside from that, I am learning some things from copying this artist (whose technique is clearly WAY over my head). She adjusts the pressure on her pencil, like you would a paintbrush while painting, which makes for some really nice variety in the line. Much of the drawing seems to be done more in masses than in lines. And she's pretty careful about the direction of her lines, following the form in a way that (if I'm being honest) doesn't make a lot of sense to me yet (like why she follows the form this way and not that). 

The original is so soft and subtle in the way it expresses the form, and probably a little bigger than what I chose here. I was experimenting with some brown colored pencil (non-eraseable), and didn't draw a plumb line--both of which were probably not the best of decisions ;) Also, I find it pretty hard to see the drawing on this grainy surface. I don't know why, but it's just a little distracting. And I need to practice drawing some eyes--probably a lot of them. I'm having a hard time orienting myself to all the different components of the eye--not just in this drawing, but the last one as well.