Legend's Sketchbook_001

[Lunatique]

The hair looked better before because it had a better sense of volume. What I always tell my students is to draw and paint hair the way sculptors do--in masses and layers, because if you don't simply hair into that type of structure you'll end up with the "spaghetti" hair looks with way too much visual noise.

My advice on studies of people for artists who don't have a firm grasp on faces and figures yet, is to focus on doing faithful studies from references and don't try to make up shit. The reason why I say that is because at that stage of artistic development, the person is missing so much knowledge that when they try to make shit up, it always looks wrong/bad, and because they're missing so much knowledge and insights, they need to focus on fidelity/accuracy until they know enough to be able to start making things up (with the addition of studies of structures like anatomy and understanding of surface properties).

I would also advise to not over-render. Focus on general structure and go light on micro details that don't really contribute much to the overall feel of the piece. Take a look at these examples from artists I like in my pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/roblunachang/portraits/