Alicia Keys (a lesson in saving work)

The saying goes 'Best foot forward', so my first impulse is to start by uploading a picture I'm particularly proud of (sketch and finalised).
With this particular image, I learnt the valuable lesson of saving every chance you get. I actually got to the stage where the copy I'd spent hours working on finally looked like the second copy below, then I pressed something and my computer died...and I realised since scanning and cleaning the image, I hadn't saved. I nearly followed the computer's actions.
It's funny how close you feel to someone when you spend over 3 hours solidly working on getting their likeness. My inspiration for drawing this? I like drawing faces but I can't draw both eyes....yup.
(24/03/04)