Final self-portrait charcoal drawing

After receiving feedback from my teacher and peers, I changed a few things. First of all, my lips were completely off at first. I couldn't get the size and shape just right and had to redo it about 20 times. I finally landed on something I liked using techniques we learned in class about shape, dimension, and knowing where to add shadows and highlights, I also kept on drawing my hair too light but learned that the darker I make it, the more it will stand out. Finally, I never learned about how to accurately draw a nose until this unit. some things that helped were understanding that there should be no harsh lines, no extreme highlights, and the nostrils should be one of the darkest parts of your face. three main concepts that I learned about were: lights and darks, proportioning, and shading. The first thing I did before beginning my drawings was find out where the darkest parts of my face were. I noticed my nostrils, my pupils, and my eyelashes. I thought about lights and darks throughout my whole drawing. Shading and proportions are what have made it so hard to draw realistically in the past. Shading is tricky for me because I can't always see it and I don't know how to do it without over-doing it. noticing things like the amount of space between the nose and mouth, and mouth and chin is what helped me with proportioning. Also measuring some lengths like the length of my mouth or ears.