I got super excited about this pose immediately. The space and shadows were just amazing from every angle. It took me a while to decide on my composition because there were just so many great options. I ended up choosing this one because I really liked the slashing diagonal shadows and the many triangles in the limbs and the negative space. For this one I also decided to work a bit larger because I wanted to be able to take full advantage of this pose. I've been working 12x12, but this one is 14x14.
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To start, I just blocked in in one flat tone for the light shapes and another for the darks.
Stage one.
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Now I've rendered more of the form, but (again) my value structure isn't too strong; the lights are all too similar. Also, my shadow edges are too uniformly hard, and the colors are all just a little too red.
Stage two.
The colors in this picture aren't quite true to life! I diversified my shadow edges, leaving cast shadows with a hard edge and softening the rest. I also refined the value structure, giving the drawing a lot more midtones which makes the lights on the shin the breast stand out more. I decided to leave the background the grey of the paper, and cooled down a lot of the darks.
Complete!