Learning sketching foundations

I'm just completing Liz Steel's Foundations course, having taken twice as long as intended to finish it! Even then, by "finished" I mean that I've watched the main videos and attempted each of the assignments. There's a whole lot of bonus material and livestream recordings for each lesson that I have barely scratched yet. Liz says this course is intended to be done multiple times, and now I can see why - there's far too much content to properly absorb in a single run through.

The final lesson is reviewing your work and reflecting on three big takeaways from the course. Here's mine:

1. Investing in learning to make art was a huge leap for me, but so worth it. It took me years after learning of this course to fork out the money for it. I agonised ages over buying artist-grade watercolours, decent sketchbooks and quality inks. Even investing my meagre free time time in this hobby took time to come to. I have no regrets (and have signed up for more courses).
2. I think I started the course leaning more towards thinking in shapes, and ended it leaning more towards thinking in edges. I'm still learning how to choose and mix the different ways of seeing to suit the subject or the vibe I'm going for. I feel like my sketching in ink has overall gotten much stronger after doing this course, as well as my general confidence in art.
3. Just the right amount of abstraction or simplification can make for a more powerful story than photorealism. I'm still learning how to find this balance and not overcompensate by trying to draw all the things.

It was a great course and I'm looking forward to starting the watercolour one next!

Here are some of my favourite assignments from this course: