Female Figure Drawing

Artwork by Alex Saldivar, Drawing Academy student

Hello, I wanted to submit this drawing I did for critique. It took me a little over 9 hours to complete from the basic measurements and basic shape construction of the body to the final rendering. I feel I am making improvement in my art. I especially feel I am better understanding the female anatomy. I think for many artists, drawing females is harder especially because pretty much all art books and anatomy books use the male physique as a reference. Those references that do use the female anatomy, use it very vaguely.

My main goal in my art career is a focus on comic book art which is very stylized. I try to practice as much as possible everyday. However, I do enjoy fine art, especially figure drawing. The background seems unfinished because I found it tedious to render the entire paper in graphite. I did not want to spend too much time on something so trivial.

Thank you!