Color Sketches

I think this might be exactly what I need. I've been putting it off for so long for a couple reasons: 1. I really don't like working directly from reference, and I always feel like I'm wasting my time when all I feel like I made is a duplicate of the photo.
2. I'm not that great at lighting most of the time and therefore I don't really like doing it.

These past artistic guests have inspired me however, and I've decided that I'll give it a shot. Both of these are pictures of friends that I have taken, I'll do some building and landscape ones next. These took from 7-10 minutes. And yes, he was making a pretty bizarre face.