Self-portrait and an Upside-down practice sketch

Both of these were done as exercises back in 2005 when I was trying to get back into art after a thirty-year break.

Both exercises came from a great book for beginners, called "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards.

And here's a link to her website:

https://www.drawright.com/

Drawing number 1 was a pretty fair attempt at a self-portrait, I thought. (You will notice that I still had a little bit of hair around my ears and the back of my neck in those days!)

Number 2, the "upside-down" drawing was a particular revelation for me! Basically, you had to turn the book upside-down, (thus confusing the right side of the brain,) and then copy the drawing just like that. Finally, having cheated the right side of your brain out of its tendency to make you draw things in its own stylized images and just copy what was in front of you, I was quite surprised by the results... Never mind... Betty Edwards can explain it a whole lot better than I can!