Drawing-The entire 4 weeks

Today I have just finished the last day of my drawing workshop, and I felt that now was the right time to review what I have done.
To begin with we started drawing objects that we put together ourselves-these comprised of all sorts of small objects that our tutor brought in, such as bits of plant, blue tac, match sticks and bits of plastic. We put together an object each, and went about drawing them. In some cases, I put together several pieces of paper, and let my drawings run off the paper. The materials I used here were mainly charcoal, pencil and ink, in which I used a stick and a brush. When I first started the classes, I had a real problem in letting go of a drawing style in which I have grown up using, which is using lots of lines. Im not sure if it is a confidence thing, or just habbit, but it is something I had real trouble letting go, in order to try out other styles of drawing in the class. If im honest, I would say that it is something that I only managed to have any success in today.
Because I was ill for the next session, I had hear from peers that the subject followed in the next class was still life using different techniques, so at home I gave this a go myself, drawing objects around the house and trying out different techniques in order to create more of a vairety of textures. I enjoyed this, as I quite enjoy still life drawing, and drawing in general really!
Today we focused on drawing from paintings. The first one we all made our own 'motifs' on was a painting by Valasquez named 'Las Meninas' or 'The Maids of Honour'. This is actually a favorite of mine, as I studied it a few years ago, and I just love the story that is going on in the piece: the princess being dressed up by the maids, the king and queen looking on at her through a tiny mirror in the background. And not forgetting the artist himself, Diego Valasquez reflected through the painting, showing himself creating the piece as if the canvas we are looking at is actually a mirror itself.

http://artchive.com/graphics/meninas.jpg

Anyway, we all made our own versions of 'Las Meninas' while studying it as it was projected onto the wall for us. It was certainly a challenge-the painting is so full of beautiful detail that you couldnt possibly hope to capture it all in one go. But I had my breakthrough in drawing at this moment, by capturing the drama in the scene by blocking in all the dark and light using a combination of lots of ink and charcoal. I think both me and my tutor could tell that this was definately a step in the right direction. From then on throughout the day I produced many pieces that really captured the light in each piece, and I really began to thoroughly enjoy myself. From now on I will definately carry on this technique in my drawings to come, as this workshop was definately a learning curve for me.