New figure study

It's been a long time since I was last at life drawing class and I fear I'm getting rusty, so I want to get back to charcoal figure study practice to ensure I stay in some sort of shape in case I receive any more commissions.
I can't remember where I found the photograph of this pose but I was really drawn to the lighting, with those dramatic shadows across the back, the chance to practice both a front and back pose simultaneously, and the unguarded, slightly vulnerable pose. It didn't have the dramatic arching or dancer's poise that some of the others did, but just seemed very natural, almost documentary, which I found much more interesting than the more classical poses I have used before and seen elsewhere.

The final piece is A3 on paper, in Derwent charcoal pencil and grey shades compressed charcoal sticks. The mirror background is black acrylic paint and the mirror frame is C. Roberson & Co metallic pale gold acrylic paint, accented with charcoal pencils.

Wedding present commission number 3 (I think!)

I was asked to create a wedding gift but had minimal reference suggestions, other than the couple's invitations, which had a 1920s Art Deco theme. I also only had a few photo references to use, so having chosen the clearest image, I took a few practice runs at it. As I only had mobile phone images, I went with an illustration style that allowed for a lack of detail, so black ink linework with grey and white charcoal on toned paper. I thought this would allow for a big enough final piece to feel like a significant gift, and would feel a bit like a minimalist, modern update to the bold illustrative style of the '20s.
Once the illustration was sorted, it felt bare, so I sourced a large wallpaper sample from 1924 from Etsy and decided to decoupage the illustration on top of that and mount the piece in a box frame. I cut the piece out in a diamond and overlaid that on both a white and black mount to allow it to stand out from the similarly coloured background wallpaper. I hand wrote the bride and groom's names in an era-appropriate font in black ink and painted the inside of the lettering with gold acryilic.
The date of the wedding was written up and mounted in the same style as the illustration. The whole thing was double mounted and framed in a deep box frame. Finished size of the piece is 20" x 16" frame for a 15" x 10" final image.