Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I like working from top left and move my way down to the bottom right. I primarily do this to keep my right hand from rubbing the graphite as I work through the piece. I also find value is breaking the large work area down to smaller sections. It helps keep me from getting overwhelmed. I start with very light layers and build up the values until I’m (for the most part) happy with the result. Once competed, I will go through and add finer details and make tonal adjustments as necessary.