Oh, how cool! I love self-teaching ... it's a triumph every time you find something new to click

What you could try is putting a new empty layer overtop the actual picture and doing a rough sketch with reduced opacity, using the picture beneath as a reference. Then, when you go to paint, most of your lines will be in the right place.

Or maybe you already did that. Your lines look pretty close It's looking lovely

--
"I'm still mildly in the doghouse for eating the potted apidistra in the hallway. Apparently, that's not why they're there."
-- Pan, Dead Pan and Joe Progress

Thank you dahling!! I think I am getting better at it...but my mind/hand still take liberties and go on their own tangents. So willful like that. I had a different looking sketch, then the other night, something clicked, I erased most of it, and came up with this. Looks a lot more like her. Serendipity.

I really never understood the impulse to copy the picture like that. I want to be able to look at the picture and figure out what shapes make up the face, and then duplicate it. Seems futile to just trace it....well, for my own drawing growth. Rising to the challenge is what I am striving for. No offense if that's what you do, sweetie...to each her own of course.

Another option I've seen recommended is a grid method, but that's for too technical for a flouncy easy, breezy artist like me. If nothing else, it's made me more observant - I'm always looking at people on the train, thinking about how I would draw their face, it's fun, lol.

Good for you! I have no patience for working hand to eye from scratch. Once a rough sketch is done overtop, I'd do everything by eye, but it saves me a lot of frusteration to know that everyhting is in the right place at the beginning.

Agh. My art is becoming condusive to how much time I can save. That's not a good thing

--
"I'm still mildly in the doghouse for eating the potted apidistra in the hallway. Apparently, that's not why they're there."
-- Pan, Dead Pan and Joe Progress

lol, if I was concerned about time, I'd never do any drawing at all....I move so slow, you'd think I was a statue! I keep thinking that one day I'll develop the knack for speed, hasn't quite happened yet. But, you gotta keep hope alive....hehehe.

I used to do the trace thing when I first started drawing, but it felt like cheating, lol. I want to be like the masters who could just look at some naked chick laying on a sofa and paint her just by looking at her. Now, where did I put that pesky naked chick on a sofa? She was just here! *looks around*

I speed sketch ... I can fill up a xerox paper in less than twenty minutes. It may not be good, but it's fast. Kinda like most food nowadays

Naked chicks on the loose! Hey ... did she steal your sofa?

--
"I'm still mildly in the doghouse for eating the potted apidistra in the hallway. Apparently, that's not why they're there."
-- Pan, Dead Pan and Joe Progress

OMG, she did steal my sofa (that never existed, but it's gone, so she must have taken it)! Never trust naked chicks!

I need to experiment with some speed sketches. Well, any kind of sketches would be good now, really.