Drawing garlic: To stink or not to stink?

One of the things that I have learned throughout my 30 days of drawing is that my home is devoid of interesting (yet not too challenging) subjects for drawing (home occupants included).

Actually, that's not true. During the first week of drawing, I found my surroundings completely uninspiring but drawing started to change my way of seeing and all of a sudden, I found inspiration in things that I had previously taken for granted.

I spent an entire week drawing garlic, not to be ironic but because I found it fascinating.

This first piece is significant to me because I feel that it marked a breakthrough in my shading and texturing techniques. Initially, I found it difficult to give roundness and three-dimensionality to a bowl but I think I've been able to achieve a bit of that here, with a challenging shape.

This drawing is significant because I drew the outline of the garlic without looking at the page and the result is that the overall shape and proportions are pretty close to the original subject. This is something I have never been able to do before.

One of the things that I found so beautiful about the garlic was its subtle violet hues. I tried to capture that with this picture but went overboard on the pink and purple. I was amazed to discover, however, how the white chalk strokes created the appearance of depth and texture.