Remembering home. (One that got away from me.) A3 sketchbook. Water-soluble pencils and Ink.

Well, if I'm honest, Lew, I prefer the second one too. It has a melancholic, almost aching reflective appearance, that persuades the viewer to pause and think. In short, it has more power in my opinion. This is, of course, simply down to personal preference and others may well disagree. Great drawing nonetheless. Bri

Rather good idea of course, and an interesting face with some character. The right one for sure, Lew, always best to let the viewer draw their own conclusions. The title is important in this instance.

Agree with Alan - it is in the eye of the beholder.. The photoshop image (to me ) looks cooler ie bluer and the "rough edges"appear more sand papered . I would be delighted to have produced the initial image and what alternative to the blue female image would have worked better - I can't think of one.

Both work fine for me Lew, great expressive work. In the first the hills/mountains give the impression of "foreign fields" and that he's far from home. I might have made the woman's face a little smaller and more faded and vague with a pale wash, but that just a view. It's excellent work, top class in fact. You're a total master of expressions and have perfectly caught the wistful longing of the soldier.

Thanks to everybody for your observations. I think the woman's face is not in the right place, perhaps smaller as has been suggested...but after I got it wrong, I'd thought I should made have it huge and filled the space behind the hills, maybe just from her eyes up. Drawn faintly. Until it went pear-shaped I was intending to put more in the background. You can keep on and on like this...I got it wrong, but like the man's face. So it's move on to the next thing.

I know the feeling we are never happy are we ,I actually think the one on the left works as my initial impression was it’s dreamlike ..... it’s still excellent work Lewis your too hard on yourself

Great man's face - beautifully drawn. Personally I prefer the right hand one as well but I can see what you were getting at with the left one.

Excellent Lewis. This brings to mind a photo I have of my father who was in the navy during the war and the photo shows him in his uniform and superimposed on the top right hand side was my mother holding my brother in her arms (I hadn't arrived!)