New pen. I'm very glad to be finally done with the old one. This one also has the issue where a lighter touch results in an interrupted line as opposed to one of a lighter shade but it is much easier to execute. This one was a super fast and impulsive draw but with a pretty good result imo so I'm optimistic.

the initial idea was to draw a kind of air deity but then she became a mermaid, more or less

Ref photo taken by Robert Haggins

I drew this in class. Pretty proud of myself.

Your help will be incredibly appreciated

A homage to an absolute classic! Here is my A4 portrait of Brandon Lee as Eric Draven in *The Crow*. 
For this drawing, I challenged myself to use **only ONE pencil**—the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black 2B—on Strathmore Vellum paper. The carbon-based graphite in the Lumograph Black allowed me to push for those deep, matte darks on his outfit while still keeping smooth control over the subtle face highlights. 

I started studying drawing a month ago, and this week I started getting into black and gray realism, but I always darken it too much to get some contrast that I like, and then I regret it.My reference was a white mug, so it was supposed to be much lighter, and it ended up like this. I also get lost in the gradient; help me improve.