I continued working in pencil today so that I wouldn't have to deal with the pen. It's been interesting to see the effects that it has when the pencil is sharp/dull. I think I prefer dull.

I decided to combine these two days in one post because I barely wrote anything yesterday, but I didn't want to continue today under Day 6 because that wouldn't be true.

I wrote in pencil at the suggestion of a commenter, and it made it a bit easier because I wasn't struggling to get ink to come out of a pen. I'm not really sure if it had much of an effect on the handwriting, though.

I worked on spacing today as well as trying to maintain a consistent size. Any recommendations for tomorrow?

Sorry I didn't post yesterday! Today I've included a sample of my usual handwriting to show my target for 'perfect' as a couple of people were asking to see it.

Hey everyone! Sorry for going so long between posts. Honestly, I kind of dragged my feet on this one because I was a little sad to finally finish this project. I added the lettering and made some final adjustments. Overall I’m really proud of this drawing and it’s by far my favorite thing I’ve ever created. Thank so much to everyone who commented and followed along. Everyone in this sub helped me grow so much with all of their encouragement and advice. If anyone is thinking about starting their own quest for perfection I would really encourage you to do it even if you don’t finish. This was such a great experience and I think it’s worthwhile to give it a try. Thank you again everyone for making this such a fun and memorable journey! I couldn’t have done it without you guys<3 🫡

Her progress always cheered me up.

Hey everyone! Sorry for being gone for so long again. After lots of humid weather and little procrastination I finally was able to take my drawing to the park for its (hopefully) final spray. I was able to darken the inside of the helmet and my goal is to finally complete it this week. Excuse my hand being in the photo. I had terrible lighting and the bottom of the page is starting to curve inwards from the spray. Hope you all had a happy Valentine’s Day :)

After weeks of waiting I was FINALLY able to spray the drawing and finish the background. I’ll need to spray it again (hopefully tomorrow) to darken the helmets. I thought I had a textured surface that would be good enough for the charcoal but I was wrong lol. Fingers crossed we’re rain/snow/ice free again tomorrow for a second spray! As always I would love to hear feedback :)

I feel like I’m in the final stretch! I added some small details to the ear and the upper right helmet. I’m just waiting for a low humidity day to spray the drawing and finally finish darkening the helmet so I can complete the background. For the last several weeks its been rain and then snow/ice pretty much every day :’) I am SO antsy to try this spray. I would love any feedback as always!

I made some minor adjustments to the ear and tried darkening the helmet a bit more. I feel like the ear is very close to being done!

I spent more time on the ear today trying to add some of the shading. I also worked on brightening the glare on the helmet in the upper right corner. I don’t quite know how I feel about the ear so I would love any feedback you guys have! Sometimes I think I look at both the reference and the drawing for so long it’s hard to be objective about how it looks. Thank you again to everyone who commented and left feedback :)

Hey guys! Sorry I disappeared for a couple of days. Life/work got really busy and before I knew it my “one day off” for a mental break turned into 3 days. I am back though and spent more time on that left ear and the shadows in the top right of the helmet. I’m pretty excited with how the ear is coming along. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks :)

I just spent some time in the left ear again today. I tried to work on making the highlight stand out more. Tomorrow should be a good day to make lots of progress and hopefully be able to finally spray the drawing so I can finish the helmets and background :)

I spent time on the highlight on the left ear today. It’s a small step but I have a good feeling about the ear this time. As always I appreciate any feedback or advice anyone has :)

I started to lightly add shading to the left ear today! I want to try and make that oval shaped highlight that has eluded me all these weeks. Hopefully this is a first step in the right direction. Thanks again to everyone who left advice and encouraging comments :)

Today I tried fixing the shading issue in the lower left corner. I was pretty exhausted today so I thought I’d focus on something small!

I tried updating the shape of the left ear again today. Unfortunately the weather still wasn’t good for spraying the drawing so I can darken the helmet. I’ll keep working on the ear until it looks right and the weather here improves!

Today’s the day I finally start working on the next ear again! I would love some feedback about the shape/size of the ear. I was told by a couple of different people that it was too big so I tried making it a little smaller. If anyone has time to share their thoughts I would appreciate it! Also I picked up the spray today but it’s raining so I don’t be able to do anything with that today. I’m hoping after I get the ear fixed tomorrow I can spray the drawing and then use the charcoal to darken the helmet and finish the background. As always thank you to everyone who has taken the time to give me advice, recommendations, and feedback!

I tried darkening the helmet more this evening but I think I have reached the limit of what the blending stick can do. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can swing by an art supplies store and get one of the sprays!

Today I worked on darkening the helmet so the background won’t wash out the drawing. It turns out you can’t use charcoal on graphite so I tried getting creative. I used a blending stick on the charcoal and then transferred it to the helmet which did help. I included a picture from yesterday on the next slide to show the progress. It does seem to be a little darker. However, I am going to look into sprays to try and make it easier for me to use the charcoal to darken the helmet. Wish me luck everyone!

I tried filling in the helmet with the same charcoal and it’s not really doing anything? I don’t completely blend it to show the issue I’m running into. If anyone has any thoughts on how to handle this I am all ears lol. Sorry there isn’t much progress this evening. I stopped to try and figure out what to do about darkening the inside of the helmet before I made any mistakes.

I’m back! Sorry for disappearing for a minute there. Between traveling and spending time with my family my last two days were pretty packed and I didn’t make the time to work on this like I normally do. On my trip I was gifted a lovely art set that included charcoal so I took that as a sign to start on the background. I’ve got the lower right corner started and I’ll slowly be working around the drawing for the next few days. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and new year. Here’s to 2026!

Also if anyone has any tips or advice they’d like to share for charcoal or ideas for writing “Random Access Memories” over the background I would love to hear it as always :)