Merry Christmas!

A friend and I were chatting about a particular drawing I made in 2018, speculating how I might do it differently if I had done it now. it started out pure speculation, but then we thought "Why not!?" Here's today's drawing:

Today I put a lot more time and effort and thought into how to draw the sandy beach, the water, and how they interact. It's really my first time doing that, so there's lots and lots of room for improvement, of course. But for a first effort, I am pleased with how that all came out.

The figure was the most intricate part of the drawing, but I have been drawing figures primarily now for several months, so that went pretty quickly and I feel like there's improvement since the original drawing. 

Here's the original, from August 2018:

Pretty much everything here but the figure was a very fast sketch-in. There are a lot of things I really like about this piece - it's simple, and I think has real energy.

The man seems to be leaning back, here, whereas in the new version he is more completely upright, truer to the photo reference. The photo comes from the Worldwide Roar again today. It depicts several guys, but in 2018 it took me a long time to get the figure to the point where I liked how it looked, and I lost steam before drawing the remaining men. However, I like the loneliness of the resulting drawing.

I wish you healthy and prosperous winter holidays! Thanks for looking at my pictures :D