Thank you Mike for your valuable and detailed advice. I chose the graphite powder because of the blurry black ground in the photo I used. I thought applying it with a small makeup brush would result in a blurry background. It was another try with graphite powder. I've never perceived it as looking ...

Well, that's good to keep in mind. I often struggle with the background because I often want to set everything perfectly and then fail with a background that I want to make too perfect. I'll try to keep the background simple yet carefully drawn. I think that's a good way for me at the moment. So I ...

Hi Pog, thank you so much for this wonderful compliment - and I know exactly what you wanted do describe. Yes, the values at the bottom are far too light. Furthermore in my opinion the rather simple drawing of the leaves competes with the bird and misleads the eye.

Hi Laurene, thank you so much for your thoughts. I will take them into my consideration, very helpful!

I'm posting a picture here for the first time and I'm happy about any critique :idea: . I'm a beginner without a drawing course, just Youtube videos and recently Mike's book :D .

Materials used: wood-cased pencils (Faber Castell 2H, HB, 2B), Polychronos black (for the darks on the bird), kneaded ...

Thank you Mike, for your detailed reply. Such valuable information for keeping me drawing. With these in mind it will be easier for me and let me be less discouraged.

First of all: I was fascinated by your explanation and point of view to draw something :D . Don't draw impersonal shapes and values. Logical for my mind, but hard to put in practise. For a beginner like me it's seems easier to draw values and shapes to creat my drawings. To imagine how something is ...