First time on toned paper (digital)

Here's the image

I'd specifically like critique on my shading. I'm not super happy with the face and hands, but that's not what I'm focusing on this week.

At the moment I'm having trouble understanding lighting and midtones. I thought switching up the color of the paper would be a fun exercise in values. Are there any good tutorials or exercises for getting a good handle on values and shading?

I can't see your arquive, if there's any. Two good tutorials that I think explain shade really well is the Proko's and the one of Marco Bucci, also from Youtube. After watching the explanation, you just have to practice it. You won't get it in the first try, it takes several drawings to understand what to do with your hand once you already understand the theory in your mind.

Excellent promise in your figure shading/rendering, acharbonnet, but I've got one small idea: Take a look at this link to this book!

The reason why you could, would, and should look at this book is as a result, you might some concrete advice on light and shadow drawing fundamentals. If you ever need this, buy it or rent it now!

Hope it's been completely and positively helpful and useful.

That's a great drawing, and I particularily like how you shaded the abdomin. I think you should take a look at the clavical. The shading makes it appear like it's floating too high above their connection points. Possibly consider not so deep a shadow behind the bone. I included some drawings from Michel Lauricella book Morpho: Anatomy for Artists suggested here on LOA. It could help you visualize how the light hits that part of the body. I really think you did a great job on this peice. Hopefully, the link below works. Keep it up, you're doing well.

Drawing Practice

The shading is really good, I like the emotion you captured. The body proportions are a little off but it still looks good.

I think the figure is excellent. Looks like the light is mostly coming head-on to the figure. That is fine. In your drawing, you need to at the beginning settle on where the light source is located and then go from there. Some of the Line-of-Action Fotos have dramatic lighting. Check them out. An additional source of figures is On Air Video. This is a free source. Plus there are many "live" drawing sessions provided. Also, look for local life drawing sessions, these will help. A book you might want to investigate is "Morpho: Anatomy for Artists" by Michel Lauricella. He has a whole series of art books you might want to investigate.

Whatever you do, remember: Practice makes better. So, you need to practice, practice, and then practice some more.