Gimme a head with hair ♬♫♪ (Sketches of the Week for Week 1 of 2026)

I spent the tail end of 2025 trying to bridge the gap between sketching and portraiture—little of which I shared, because every inch of progress uncovered miles and miles of deficit. Get a lip right, and realize you have no idea how to communicate the junction of nose and eyes; get the features right, and you realize you’re clueless on how to capture hair. Maybe you nail the expression and hair, but ferfucksake your little girl looks like a 50-year-old man!

…and so on.

Anyway, here are two sketches from the first week of the year that my son thought came out nicely. I agree that I got what I wanted with the hair with both, and that the tiniest victory is still a victory. 🏆

A pencil sketch of a fierce young woman with plenty of curls. Grrrrl with crrrrl!

A pencil sketch of a bearded older gent looking like a somewhat dubious Santa