Experimenting with stippling

Hello, i've been trying out something new lately. It seems like stippling has been kind of trending in social media lately, so i felt like jumping on the bandwagon. Stippling is for those who don't know, a series of "dots" used to create a depth through lightning/shadows. For example higher density of dots is used to create shadows. It's often confused with pointilism, which is almost the same, but tries to blend the dots by so that they don't become noticeable.


Stippling example of dark to light.

 But i wanted to do my own take on it because i feel like stippling creates rather static images. As simple dots do not convey motion or add particular depth to the image. As such they often result in flat images. So instead of using a mechanical marker i tried using a brush marker. Which i use to make small teardrops in different size and length. Which gives off a more organic and dynamic expression. On a technical level it resembles cross-hatching a lot because i draw organized lines of brush marks that curves around the shape.

#1 Attempt

So this is from a photo i've taken from the church in Kristiansand. I thought the silhouette would make an interesting subject. But the first attempt is always doomed to be a failure. I learned that organized brush marks look better than randomly placed ones and that it's better to use many small brush marks rather than big ones.

#2

 For this picture i wanted to draw an androgynous face with strong and unique features. However the face turned out really askewed since i didn't use reference. (Note: always use reference!). As you can see i never finished it. The hair and concaveness of the cheeks turned out really nice though.

#3

While i'm pretty happy with the brushwork this time, the design is just so boring. I really can't help myself against my super-critical mindset. I feel like i need to practise design.

Practise Design
So uhh yeah i guess i'm gonna pursue this stippling a little further since it's pretty fun, but i'm gonna practise design as well. I think i could do well if i studied illustrations by Esra Røise. Since she's pretty good at design. So i'll use her for inspiration and see if i can learn anything from studying her pictures.

Source: http://www.esraroise.com/portfolio/selected-works/stopitrightnow-pt-2/285/

I think her design is pretty strong in terms of framing, style and purposely leaving artistic "mistakes". So i'm gonna try and pick up on those aspects.

Update:

So i did a few studies on works by Esra Røise and got back to drawing. I've picked up a couple of tricks, such as intentionally leaving out areas that simply vanish. A trademark is that she often doesn't render the second eye, leaving a blank iris. Everything else is simplified. Another interesting thing about her illustrations is that her "inner frame" is almost always the same, great space on the bottom and tight on the top. Usually with a white/grey border tone that's difficult to discern from each other.

Source: http://www.esraroise.com/portfolio/selected-works/shakeshakeshake/449/

Generally speaking i think "less is more" applies to her illustrations. So i tried a more minimalistic approach, with only details left on the important areas such as the eyes, nose and lips.

So i got a little critique from /ic/ drawing board and it seems like my drawing suffered from readability. So i unified and removed several elements to make it more simple. I feel more confident about the newer version.