Charcoal Princesses

My first assignment for my Advanced Drawing course was to create 12 themed charcoal drawings of whatever we wanted. The only criteria was that we spend no more than 15 minutes on each...

...yeah that didn't go over so well for me. I ended up spending at least 4 hours on them (total). I chose to draw the Sailor Moon princesses...because drawing on subjects I enjoy reeeallly helps me get assignments like this done. I'll challenge myself in other ways later. xD But for a first assignment, this worked out fine. And there are plenty of senshi to go around. :]

Below are the individual pieces and a video of me working on Moon, Mercury, and Mars. ...That would be over an hour condensed into 10 minutes... >_>

I'm not used to working on charcoal...I don't like the medium, and it was very awkward for me. But my personal favorite outcomes were Moon, Neptune, and Pluto. I s'pose I like Uni, too. :]

My art instructor let me know she really enjoyed "the one that looked like [me]." She said she valued the importance of incorporating one's essence into their artwork. One of her teacher's assistants also mentioned he noticed the likeness in my work to my appearance, and said it was a good thing - that I should continue to strive for that. And...I told them that meant a lot to me.
Recently, my best friend of 11 years cut ties with me, and one of the things she mentioned that she couldn't stand about me was Universe and how I put so much of myself into my work. She called it, "the epitome of self-absorbed behavior."
It stung because of who was saying it, but I couldn't take her seriously, partially for reasons my art instructors pointed out. I'm old enough to realize people don't always see eye-to-eye on personal issues, not even best friends. It really bothered her, but this is who I am. It's not self-absorbtion, especially as it grew out of my battle to simply believe in myself. And I do think she's completely misunderstood where I'm coming from and why I do what I do. Sailor Universe isn't inherently me despite our ties...and I'm not selling myself. I'm selling the artistic expression God gifted me with, because that was always meant to be shared.

 ~Uni