Movement

What are some of the general criticisms and suggestions for the current work?

The compositions are fundamentally derivative of the aesthetics of portrait photography. (Source your own elements and build your own compositions.)
Key proportions are off. (Keep practicing)

Drawings need more story elements. (Move towards more still lives that include a figure rather than a figure that includes a still live.)

Figures don’t have context. (See previous)

I don’t feel pulled into the drawings. (Use color massing, conscious use of tonal variation, balance, simplicity from a distance) (possibly begin with a general compositional map before adding in the individual elements)

Colors are muddied. (Switch medium to painting)

The figure tends to get lost in the interior of the drawing. Explore enlarging to the point of abstraction and cropping while maintaining the still life.

Bring more rhythm into the drawings by using pattern (wall paper, fabric)

Create and use elements (cups, vases of flowers, food)

Use mirrors, windows, doorways.

Play operator more often by drawing from resource drawings as a method to distance and detach from the subject.

Otherwise, just keep playing, practicing, and enjoying what you are doing. Make sure to continue to create challenges and opportunities for yourself and the drawings will develop… but they’ll go in a direction that is more specifically and authentically yours if the suggested changes are put into place.