I haven't draw in over a week, almost two weeks! I was fretting about trying to find something to draw that had all the elements I am working on - fabric, shading, hands and feet, making it look as much as I can like the source image. (I know the last item is, in the long run, not that important, because it will be all about my style and whatnot. But if a butter dish in my style looks to most people like a lobster, then something has gone fundamentally wrong, so I am still working on realistic mimesis in my drawings.)

In any case, I had trouble thinking of just the right thing to draw next, especially after the last drawing, which I was so happy with. I was afraid to be disappointed, so I drew nothing. This was obviously a silly thing to do, and today I was like "pick something you like and draw it."

Here's what I drew:

As I was drawing the ears I realized that I had an opportunity to imply a fantasy genre with a simple modification to the original image, simply by giving a dramatic point to his ear. I am pretty happy with the effect.

I was worried about the water, and how to make it distinct from the tiled surfaces. I'm pretty happy with how that worked, too. I just added layers of shadow to imply ripples, and extended the shadow between tiles jaggedly past the water line, like when you look at something in a pool and it's not QUITE a straight line in your eye anymore.

I believe I could do more and better work shading his actual body. In particular, looking at this photo, I see that I have completely neglected to shade his weight-bearing leg, and maybe the shadows on his shoulder are too abrupt and inappropriately darker than the shadows elsewhere on him.

On the whole, I am very pleased with this piece. I will certainly go back in and work on the shading next time I'm drawing.

Thanks for looking at my pictures!