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Noses, low key, scare the shit out of me: because they are so unforgiving...! I haven't rendered full faces in a minute, so, I actually crashed; I couldn't remember how to render a nose!!!

I ended up just doing a light core shadow to imply the angle break from the tip, with a bright spot just to give the base highlight some heat. I've been looking at makeup tutorial, so I also played around with shading her cheekbones to make her face juuust that much fuller and round and youthful. (I did, however, neglect to shape the upper lip using the drop shadow under the nose.)

Initially I just added an ocean blue background, using Kyle's #1 brush with pressure sensitivity to add noise to the background color; buuuut something interesting happened: the bright flecks of blue, contrasted with the second coat with more pressure, made it look like she was drowning. I mean, that's edgy and all, but it really wasn't the intent of this exercise, just to study this artist, aaaan artist whose name, quite frankly, eludes me. (I don't know who did this sketch, I just copy-pasta'd this reference straight from Pinterest because I was captivated by how they stylized the eyes.) Plus, I just wanted to be more spontaneous, let my workflow be more about passion than strictly practice.

It's vital for me to be able to instantly hit the gas when inspiration strikes. Drawing needs to be a more casual impulse; it needs to be less ritualized. If every art project is equated to hours obsessive compulsively shrimping over a tablet, that stigmatizes my passion for art; at least it does in my head, someone else's mileage may vary. If I have 30 minutes to do a study, it's been the case, to my perpetual shock and awe, that I will retain more insight accrued in half an hour than any information gleaned over half a day. I'm sure there's some neuroscience behind that, but I'm more concerned that it actually works.

After two months of render studies--only apportioning 30 minutes to each study-- I went from this--

to this--

It's taken me 37 years to realize that steady, incremental effort is more impressive than food-and-sleep-depriving bursts of hyper productivity, but, better late than never, I guess!