Well it's been an interesting semester taking my first of 3 traditional drawing classes & returning to college at 31. I was so nervous to go back but am so glad I did! The whole semester has been a roller coaster of feeling confident, then having my confidence drop like a rock. And I knew a few weeks into class that we'd have to do a self portrait our last week and damn was I unhappy about that! Class is 2 days a week. When we went on Tuesday she started by doing a demo and then we had about an hour to work on our self portraits. (She allowed us to work from photos). She said she didn't care so much about it resembling us to a "T", but wanted us to start getting a feel for human anatomy. (Life drawing is next semester when we'll dive deep into that). So I was really grumpy about having to do this damn portrait and only having an hour in class to work on it Tuesday. Didn't have time to touch it Wednesday or today before class, so when I got to class I had this horrid looking start to my image. I finally just set aside all my aggrivation with having to draw myself & just worked and I'm not terribly unhappy with how it turned out. So, for 3 hours of work, this isn't half bad. She was going around the class at the end and grading us and I got an A-. I'll take it! Again, I know it's far from perfect, but I'm happy with the results and feeling confident enough to dive into the life drawing class next semester. I also think, looking at this compaired to the one I did for the hell of it a few weeks into class that I have improved as an artist. Yes, still a long way to go, but I do feel I am on my way. Wishing you all a wonderful end to 2008 and happiness in 2009! Send some luck my way as well =) Charcoal on drawing paper (I didn't use Canson paper for this because I'm still not too comfortable working with paper with a tooth to it.)