It's no secret that winter is really hard for me. I should really invest in one of those special lamps. Instead of that, today I worked on a sketch of a couple guys horsing around at a lake. The reference photo for this drawing is from Worldwide Roar. 

I got to practice my wood drawing for that little bit of dock in the lower right corner, which was fun. At this point, I will continue practicing figures, but my main challenge there is just refining stuff, I think.

I feel like the expressions on the guys' faces are a little angrier than is appropriate - in the reference they are clearly having fun. That's a hard emotion to capture: having fun while expressing aggression or shock (depending which guy you are). So, lots of room for improvement in the faces, but that's not news at this point. I do think these faces are proportioned correctly, with the features in the right places, and I like how their hair came out, in both cases. 

The parts of this drawing that I expected to be most difficult were the water of the lake and the wild growth in the background. I'm still not 100% sure how to go about the greenery. It's meant to be grassy on the left, and layers of bushes on the right. I started out by just drawing in the shadows, and that got me pretty far, but if a stranger looked at the "bushes" they might not be confident I had not intended a giant boulder. Color would obviously help a little, but it's not like there are no green rocks. Bush drawing is something I need to learn how to do - really, a new skill.

I like how the grassy area came out a little bit better. 

I am half pleased and half not with the water. I think I have the basic shading under control, but I need to go in and add ripples. After uploading this picture and seeing it on the screen, I went back in and drew some lines in the water to sort of imply the water rippling, and that didn't really achieve what the effect I hoped for. I think I probably have to add fewer lines and add shadows to those that remain. Water drawing is another new skill I need to learn. Maybe I can find a couple tutorials on the web.

Thanks, always, for looking at my pictures. Any advice you have would be more than welcome.