Portrait and Surrealism

My artistic skills have greatly improved in these first few weeks of art class. My goal in the class was to learn to draw people, and I did! I learned about proportion and how to properly shade facial features.

I don't use anything in particular to help me generate ideas for my work. I often use pictures to help me do the work (almost like a model). When I'm given a topic to do a piece on I think about what comes into my mind when I think of the topic and think of a few ideas. I then pick one that I like and then start working! I typically figure out how to approach the work best, sketch, then add value or paint. 

I think that I've had major success in learning how to draw faces/people. My first photo of a portrait looked nothing like the person I was trying to draw, but by using the grid method I was able to achieve a drawing that looked extremely close to the picture I used as a model. My challenge was definitely creating value with paint. I've definitely had trouble with it and still haven't mastered it, but I am building up by using pencil and paint together.