Hair shading practice

I'd like to take a minute to go over a sketch I did a couple of days ago.
I was looking at the tutorials for anime and manga that I found and realized that I needed to work on my hair shading. The thing about shading with a pen is that instead of blending or something like that you just need to place highlights of color.
What I've found in the past is that finding the placement of those highlights is very difficult and takes a lot of time.
This time I think I've got it. The way that I shaded took me a while, but the result makes me feel proud.
I'll probably end up going over the tutorials that I found more thoroughly soon, but I haven't found time over the break. I'd also like to read both books that I found and then move on to new things after investigating techniques.
When looking forward I'd like to be thinking about the differences between chibis, shoujo, bishoujo, and shonen styles and how they effect the anime or manga as a whole. I'd also like to look at gender and racial stereotypes within anime and manga.
Here is the drawing that I did.
More to come soon.

How to draw

I currently have two how to draw manga books.
First is 'The Complete Book of Drawing Manga' by Peter Gray, and second is 'Manga for the Beginner, Shoujo' by Christopher Hart.
Personally I have used the second one more than the first, mostly because I tend to have less trouble with the shoujo style.
I'd like to use them to improve my drawing and compare styles.

Anime Art Links

Here I have a few anime and digital art tutorials. I'll be reviewing the links soon.

http://www.graphicmania.net/35-tutorials-about-how-to-draw-anime/
http://www.graphicmania.net/how-to-draw-anime-complete-guide/
http://www.graphicmania.net/the-big-guide-to-drawing-manga/
http://www.animecubed.com/howtodraw/
http://drawsketch.about.com/od/cartooning/Drawing_Cartoons_Comics_Manga_and_Anime.htm

Character Drawing- Roger Parks

Here we have the (not so) lovely Roger Parks.
I honestly think that he's the worst of the sketches.
I must apologize for his head shape, I was told his head was too big and had to rearrange everything to fix it.
I don't know... I just don't like the style of this one. He doesn't look how he was supposed to.
This is the last of the characters.. so that's the end of that. Hopefully now I can actually do some research for this blog.
I'll try and update tonight if I can find the time. I have a chorus concert.
Otherwise I'll definitely work on it this weekend.
Thanks for your patience.
~Shannon

Shading practice

Though this is not directly related to anime I've decided to post.
This is a sketch I did for shading practice.
Nothing too fancy.
I think I did an okay job. It could definitely be better but oh well
Yeah. Practicing often.
~Shannon

Blog Change

I would just like to comment on a change I made to the blog moments ago.
I just removed the youtube link and the video gadget. This is because I cannot see myself posting videos for this channel. I thought that I would but I've found that I prefer typing to filming for a variety of reasons.
That's it for now.
~Shannon

Character Drawing- Alex Taylor

Here is a drawing of the character Alex Taylor. I like the way he turned out. Though I'm not a fan of his hair I do like the way that his face turned out.
Here he is: