Imaginary ladies galore

I made the decision to finally start working on basic painting skills. I would like to learn how to shade. Right now, I am not necessarily looking for realism. I just want some dimension in my work. I think the perfect subject matter is lady's faces, so I drew a boatload. I drew them on old poetry I weeded out of a journal I am altering as an art journal. Did you know that if you draw with a Sharpie, or similar permanent pen, and cover it with gesso, the ink bleeds through. There is a technique floating around the internets called ghosting, where you do just that. I traced my drawings in Sharpie so I would have a guide when I covered my bad poetry with gesso. Did you also know that ghosting is not only a phenomena that occurs when covering permanent marker with gesso? It also happens with ballpoint pen and cheap felt tip pens. Yep, the bad poetry I am trying to free myself from came right back at me like a bad dream. I tried a second coating of gesso on some pages, to no avail. Then, I hoped a coat of matte gel medium would seal of of that. I retraced my drawings in permanent marker, then gesso again. Better. But not good enough. Sigh...deep sigh. This paper is going to be so thick with gesso and mediums it will be able to stand upright without support. But I will persist.  I think I am at a point where I only have to touch up critical areas before painting. In the meantime, here are strategically cropped photos of most of the drawings. I really quite like them. I like them so much I am going to scan them so I can reuse them, especially if I end up destroying them when I try to paint. I hope you like them, too.

My favorite is the one on my left. Please forgive me if you can read any of the hideous poetry. I was emo before emo became a thing.

The center drawing is the only one I even somewhat modeled after someone else. I was watching the season finale of American Horror Story: Asylum, and I really like Lana's reporter look.