Portrait critique

Hello,

I'd love some advice / critique on this portrait. How can I improve, what should I work on - in general and in this specific drawing?

https://imgur.com/gallery/H6PI1PA

Thank you very much.

Lilika

Good morning, Lilikamasha, and welcome aboard. How do you do this morning? Greatest job on your perseptions of edges, spaces, relationships, tones, and the gestalt on your most realistic face and expression rendering in graphite, really. Yet, I'm not getting enough of your most caricatured life in your face gesture. How would you like to take a whack at 5 minutes of 30 second scribbles of facial expressions. As a result, your understanding of faces will be the least stiffest and the most dynamic, energetic and vital. For furthest info and inspiration, please check out this link right here, and it can totally help you.

Have the happiest newer year.

This piece looks great! You can clearly see the expression and emotion of the figure. The biggest thing I am noticing is the blending and contrast. It feels like this image only has three different shades when there should be a smooth transition between shadows and highlights. I would recommend trying to carefully use a pencil to shade without the use of any kind of blending tool, and if the shading is still too dark, use an eraser to lightly lift some of the graphite off of the paper. You can use a blending tool, but you should not overdo it, because there are naturally sharp shadows that are not always blended out. The portrait looks great and have fun drawing!