I signed up for the Jeff Watts Atelier on-line classes. I very much like his these thorough courses. These are my exercises from the 'Portrait Phase I' class.
The Jeff Watts Aterlier can be found here http://www.wattsatelier.com/. He starts with the very fundamentals of drawing and shows you how to sharpen a charcoal pencil. This may sound trivial, but it is extremely useful to know. At the Swedish Academy of Realist Art, it was essential and drilled into us that the charcoal needs to be sharpened with a long thin point. And this is just the very first step.
Profile Skull, Burnt Umber pick out
Asaro Head, Burnt Umber Pickout
3/4 Skull, Burnt Umber and Titanium white
Asaro Head, burnt umber and titanium white
3/4 view cast, burnt umber and titanium white
3/4 view cast, burnt umber and titanium white
front view skull, phylo blue, black, titanium white
front view Asago, phylo blue, black, titanium white
#770 Oil on canvas