Is it possible to be ‘too respectful’ to a photograph.  I’m throwing this one open to the collective brains trust!

At the end of my 5th day of Inktober I am already questioning my approach to the photos I’m using as a source material.

I’ll show you today’s drawings/sketches to demonstrate what I mean.

Having reached an end point with that first sketch, the outcome of which I wasn’t completely excited about, I decided to draw a way looser sketch of myself.

After the self-portrait I decided to go back to my previous subject and try to loosen it up. The second version now bears less of a resemblance to the original photo. However, I probably rushed this a bit too much. I would still like to see some resemblance to the source material, but I am feeling that this is probably more ‘authentic to my style’ than the first version.

Am I just copping out with a return to my preferred style? Can you suggest ways of approaching the sketches without becoming  consumed by producing ‘respctful’ likenesses?

Your thoughts on this matter,whatever they are, would be appreciated.