To answer your question, including the reference images doesn't hurt, though I only really look at them or use them if there's something I want to explain specifically in relation to what you've chosen to draw. It doesn't happen often, so there's no real issue with students leaving them out. If I really need to, I can always ask for the references later.

Starting with your arrows, your underlying linework is excellent - it flows smoothly and confidently with a great sense of movement. This diminishes somewhat when you add line weight though - it's important that you add that line weight with the same confidence, using the ghosting method and not executing hesitantly. I know this will weaken your accuracy for now, but that will improve with practice, as long as you are pushing yourself to keep making those marks confidently. Furthermore, a confident stroke will help produce more of a taper in your lines which in turn will help the stroke blend into the original mark, as shown here. Lastly, and on the same point, don't trace over marks to add line weight. Tracing is usually hesitant, and focuses too much on how a line sits on the page, rather than how it moves through 3D space.

Moving onto your leaves, while you do a pretty decent job of capturing how these move through space, there is definitely a bit more stiffness here than the original lines of your arrows, which suggests that when you've moved onto drawing real objects, you've gotten a bit more caught up in the fact that you're drawing real things. When it comes down to drawing leaves, the fluidity of that flow line is incredibly important - it drives how that leaf moves through space, not just how it sits statically within it. As I mentioned, you're not doing a bad job here, but I can see that you are capable of a greater sense of movement and fluidity, so keep at it.

Your linework definitely gets more erratic and hesitant when you add additional detail - I can see visible wobbles there, which may be you attempting to add more randomness and fraying. Always make sure the marks you draw are fully driven by intent and forethought. Don't rely on randomness, or giving up that control for an effect.

I am pleased to see that for the most part, you appear to be adding those bits of edge detail bit by bit, adding one little bump at a time, rising off the previous edge of the leaf and returning to it.

Moving onto your branches, you appear to have forgotten that you should be drawing through your ellipses two full times before lifting your pen. Also be sure to draw your ellipses using the ghosting method to, again, maintain a confident execution. This will help you keep your ellipses evenly shaped. Just remember - the second your pen touches the page, no hesitation, no fear of making a mistake. Mistakes will happen, and you need to accept that.

Overall when it comes to the edge segments you are following the instructions, you just need to work on the execution of your linework. You're extending each one halfway to the next ellipse, allowing for a healthy overlap between them. Just keep at it, and always remember to use the ghosting method and execute from your shoulder. These are all things you'll get plenty of practice with in your warmups. Since you're coming back from a long hiatus, I'm assuming you've somewhat forgotten about doing the exercises from previously completed lessons - so make sure you get back on that wagon.

Moving onto your plant constructions, you're moving in the right direction, although there are still some issues I'll draw your attention to.

• In this drawing, you started with an ellipse similarly to how we approached the hibiscus demo. Constructional drawing is about each step establishing a clear decision, or answering a question. The ellipses in this case, should we choose to use them, define the outer perimeter to which our petals will be extending. This is not a vague general thing, or something we're kind of loosely establishing - it is a concrete answer, and once given we need to stick to it. That means that when we then apply the leaf construction method to build the petals, the flow lines actually extend to the perimeter of that ellipse and stop there. Then the petals are in turn built to extend no further than the end of the flow line. You didn't actually use the leaf construction method here, so there are definitely steps you've skipped and as a result you ended up trying to do too much all at once, figuring out how the leaves are going to flow through space and how they're going to be shaped. Take advantage of the benefits of constructional drawing - solve one problem at a time.

• Looking at this drawing, the pot itself is the main issue. You roughed in some loose ellipses, then traced back on top of them, basically doing an underdrawing followed by a clean-up pass. As discussed back in Lesson 2, don't use that approach in this course. It promotes tracing back over your lines, drawing with hesitation, and ignoring the idea that every mark you put down in your construction helps define a solid, three dimensional form. We have to have respect for the solidity of the forms we draw, and if we allow ourselves to ignore some, or replace them, we don't entirely buy into the sense that what we're drawing is real and 3D.

• Also, always construct your cylindrical forms around a central minor axis line, to help keep those ellipses aligned. Good on you for constructing the pot with many ellipses though. You've established a thickness for the rim, and even the level of the soil - many beginners skip over that and just draw a simple cylinder, which doesn't capture enough for the construction.

• The flowerpot in this one is definitely much better - you just need to be drawing through those ellipses.

• The issue with the above drawing is actually the seemingly random use of line weight. Remember that line weight should only be used to clarify specific overlaps in localized areas, not to arbitrarily reinforce the silhouette of a given form and definitely not to fix mistakes. Furthermore, line weight should always be subtle - it's a relative change in thickness that the viewer's subconscious picks up on. Sometimes students confuse it with cast shadow shapes, but cast shadows must fall on another surface and cannot simply cling along the silhouette of another form as line weight can.

• In this sunflower, I definitely noticed that when you have a lot of petals, you tend not to put as much thought into how each individual petal is going to flow, so your flow lines end up quite rigid. Keep an eye on that.

• Similarly, this drawing is a pretty strong example of where the more complex a drawing becomes, the less time you put into an individual part of it. You do not have a deadline, or a maximum amount of time you're allowed to spend on a drawing. Quite the opposite - regardless of how long a drawing takes you in total, you are expected to invest as much time into every individual mark as you would if it were a simple drawing. The total number of marks you have to make doesn't absolve you from taking your time on each. This is something we actually talk about here back in the ghosted planes exercise.

As a whole, you're moving in the right direction, but I do think that there are enough concepts from previous lessons that you're quite rusty on that I am not comfortable marking this lesson as complete. Instead, I'd like you to take some time to revisit that material (reread it, incorporate those exercises into your warmups) then complete the revisions assigned below.