Final homework for Drawing class

Battered trainers and soft hat. 
Trying to focus on contrast between texture, soft effects and hard effects.

Four versions of my hat.  Soft effects

Brushwork and charcoal.  Looks better in actual drawing.

Different soft brush effects.

Michael commented in class on Friday, that not enough people practice art.  He said there are a lot of people writing about it - but anyone can do that.  Good art needs to be practiced in order to develop a wide visual language, and quite simply, not enough people do it.  I agree that it takes a lot of effort to put in the necessary time to keep drawing, but it is often a case of the motivation to do it.  I am really impressed with my visual diary for this class, but had I not really stuck with it, I could easily have not used it at all.  And now I look back at what I have done over the last 6 weeks, some of my best work is in the sketchbook, not on the large paper.  And the sketchbook is small enough to take home, whereas the large work is likely to go in the bin, simply because it is too heavy to take home.  So the only record of my work, will be online in this blog.  But the important thing is to practice your art.  This is why I like and need art classes.  They motivate me to keep drawing.