Advanced Drawing class, 1997-ish. Jim Pink's class. Three consecutive sketches, timed for 3-minutes each, from a live model who would change his pose at each time-stop, and Jim would reposition the lighting.
Paint, charcoal, conté crayon on butcher paper. The objective was to focus on the lighting. To really examine lights and darks and create the shapes using lights and darks, first - lines later. An exercise in seeing things differently than how we normally might.

Every now and then, I think about that exercise as an application in day-to-day life. Looking beyond the first impression of something, taking the time to examine and think about it differently. To look at how lights and darks can define a “shape” almost better than the shape defines itself. The practice of looking at things differently can take you in a lot of different directions.

It's a pretty cool exercise to apply to different things, and people. You should totally try it. :)