Upgrading My Art #4 - Practice & Character Reference

Over the last week or two I've been practicing drawing different poses to better understand the proportions and get used to drawing characters.  Most of these have been simple sketches, and my current level still isn't there yet.  Through this practice however, I've realised I really still need to focus on drawing faces.  Faces looking up, down, left, right and any combination of directions.

For drawing faces there are so many different guides and tutorials.  From drawing circles, to boxes, to tracing the drawings of others where the character is looking in the direction you want.  The most beneficial approach I've come across so far is a distorted box approach, but even then drawing a face that looks reasonable can still be a challenge.  I might get a shape that works, but where I seem to be struggling is the placement of the facial features.  I don't seem to be able to draw them in a way that fits the face around them.  Part of me thinks this might be a lack of experience, or it could be that in my attempts I'm missing some fundamental concept.

For now I think it will need a bit of research and more practice.

Another little project I've been working on as well is creating a character reference sheet I can use for creating a 3D model of a character.  For now I am basing the reference on the witch from last challenge submission.  If I can create a half decent reference sheet, I'll try creating a model of the character.  If it works, the body could become a base for modelling other characters more easily.  Also, if I can create the 3D model sufficiently well, and rig it, I might create a small game using it.  While I've not explored animation outside of games, there might also be the potential to try making short videos as well, who knows.

Another benefit of having a 3D model, if detailed enough, is that it would also allow me to use it as a reference for further practice drawing.  By posing the model, it might help me to better understand the different perspectives for drawing characters.

The picture below is what I've managed so far for the reference sheet, I've only got so far as the line art.  For the reference sheet I've decided not to include the hat or cloak for now.  If I can create the character model, creating these items should be relatively simple.

Thanks for reading!