that ain't smooth skin

Done as part of a practice session with poses of 10 minutes in length. Forgot to up the session length, so I used the repeat button. About 40 minutes in, when I aborted. My current goal is: Develop my own signature drawing style (advanced) Same old problem, more challenging subject.... When I want to indicate different values of shades purely via hatching and crosshatching with ink, I need lots and lots of lines. And lots of lines have a tendency to look random and chaotic, unless they appear in a clearly controlled and concise pattern. Old male faces are a bit more forgiving, as no one expects their skin to look smooth and spotless, but young pretty females are the end boss for the kind of technique I try to develop. Those scribbles don't look like smooth skin at all. I am also aware, that I am juggling with a lot of balls here. I would rate my skill level in foundation of the human face, defining areas of shadows, and controlling my ink brush all three as somewhat advanced, but not far from beginner. When my brain keeps jumping from tackling problems in all of those three separate areas at once, the results are still incredibly random... Yeah, art skills... We don't practice, because they are easy, but because we want to make them look easy.