I'd like to see some in colour, if you don't mind?
see where your colour spectrum skills are at.
I actually do digital quite a bit - there aren't many of those I'd be comfortable showing on this website, though. That said, I did my avatar from scratch, for a quick example as to how I do when I half-bake digital artwork.
What type of art class are you doing work for? I can see they have you working with white chalk and conte as well, so I'm curious as to what they've said in terms of you blending and shading ability with the graphite or charcoal.
Just plain 'ol Drawing I. We use pencils (occasionally), bamboo brush/ink (rarely), conte crayons (black, sanguine, white), magic marker, and a whole lot of charcoal (vine charcoal, charcoal stick, charcoal pencils, etc etc). We often use a chamois with the charcoal art - and though it wasn't explicitly stated in class to do so, I use masking tape for hard black areas, as to avoid powder getting all over the place.
As far as statements go, Sensei seems to appreciate my sense of composition and my eye for detail (along with my personality????) most off. She likes my ideas, but not as often the execution. She hasn't specifically pointed out or complimented my shading and value techniques (well, she did like the range in one poor drawing I did), and most often criticizes me on anatomy, form, and proportion.
Black and white works are a great place to start, and I'm interested in what specific materials you are using. There are some techniques I might be able to help with the...well technical quality of the work.
I've actually been drawing (read: poorly sketching) for years now, but class introduced me to charcoal and different, new exciting mediums as of late. I hated charcoal at first, but it's starting to grow on me. Well, it was already growing on my hands and face before, but it's metaphysically doing so as well now. I usually sketch, sometimes go digital. I like charcoal, and sketching, and Stipling, and all that fine jazz, but I'm mostly planning on doing pixel art over the next couple of years for an overarching project of mine.
Everything said, thanks for your interest in my art - I appreciate it!
Also, a Kenya fan, huh? Interesting - the character never struck me as all that noteworthy, but I suppose different people connect to different characters in different ways.