let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

My art history teacher assigned a "theme sheet" for this week; essentially, a piece of paper with doodles representing a person's main interests. He wanted it to focus mostly on academic interests. Here's what I came up with:

( Brains, games, and puzzles )

I am not an artist. I've drawn a few things, but nothing I'm really proud of. I don't draw often, and I don't draw particularly well.

I am astounded at this.

It's not perfect. I know that. The eyes aren't exactly right, I pretty much copied the neck muscles off a Metanoia sketch, and I really haven't a clue how to shade. But... this is, I think, the first time I've used Photoshop to make something totally from scratch, and I honestly am proud of it.

That doesn't mean you can't tear it apart. kat_nano already gave me some suggestions, and I'm totally welcome to others, particularly anatomy- and shading-related ones. I would seriously like to get better at this.

By the way, that's Michael, a character from the book I'll be writing for sweaty_nano. I've tried drawing a few of my characters on paper, but they've never turned out anything like how I picture them. This picture looks almost exactly like the Michael in my head. Maybe his hair is a bit thinner, but that's all. I am very pleased with myself.