Julius Caesar drawing progression

He took about 30 hours to draw, but I'm finally finished with my charcoal drawing of Julius Caesar. Although there were a couple times I was a little tired of gazing at him, all in all I never got bored of working on this drawing. Here's the picture progression from the block-in phase all the way to the final modeling stage. I'm pretty pleased with the results considering it's only my third drawing in classical drawing style.

I was so happy to put in the background so he would stand out a bit more.

 

He got a little googly-eyed at this stage.

Eventually, I got the eye to the right spot on his head.

 

The final version...I shot this at home with different lighting, hence the color shift.

Seven weeks on one drawing

I just finished the Spring drawing session at Tacoma Academy of Fine Arts. I'm not naturally good at drawing and lack much of patience and steely-purpose required of classical drawing. However, I thought I should try it. The first sessions were rough...I was working on a vase and it seemed to take forever (which it did...9 hours on a vase that wasn't exactly high art by the time I finished it).

After the vase, I drew a cast of a female torso. I spent 7 or 8 weeks on this drawing (3 hours per session). I finally finished it last week. Here are the progress pictures (the photos aren't very good since I was shooting in odd light with my iPhone):

After a while, the drawing practice became somewhat meditative for me. It calmed me down and allowed me to work on my looking skills. I think it turned out pretty good considering where I started from. It tells me that if I keep working at it I'll continue improving.