"Pushing because it's already broken"

Remember a few days ago, I showed you this awful drawing I made. It was only a week without sketching but boy did it show! Well, I have plenty more drawings and paintings to show - yes, I am quite prolific these days. But I thought I'd jump right to this one:

Does it remind you of something? No? It's the same drawing! Hard to believe, isn't it? I was (more than a little) inspired by Roz Stendahl's post "Pushing, Because it's Already Broken". And I decided to follow her advice. I had nothing to lose, so I went for it. 

I decided I liked the eyes, so I wanted to keep them. The overall shape of the head with the hair was more or less all right, but the shape of the face and the rest of the features were completely wrong, so I had to erase them. Out comes the gouache tube. Yes, gouache is opaque. What I didn't realise of course is that my water-soluble black ink would mix with the white gouache to give this dark grey mass. So, OK, still nothing to lose! Let's let it dry and apply another layer of white gouache to define the shape of the face, more or less

I then used my black uni-ball pen (waterproof) to reshape the face and redraw the features. Added a bit of hatching for shading. Then a dash of colours with my Neocolor II (Caran d'Ache watersoluble pencils).

I still haven't achieved a likeness, but that face is not so scary any more! And if you don't believe me, this here on the left is a collage showing the three stages.

And again, Roz Stendahl's blog is an invaluable source of inspiration, practical tips, and, well, challenging challenges. I particularly like her "Project Friday" series of assignments!