Sketching - Drawing from Life

So, I haven't posted any sketches from my sketch book recently, so I thought now would be a good time to show where my brain is. I've been having to do a lot of paintings and drawings based on photographs, and to counter balance this, I've been trying to draw more from life in my daily sketching. I think you can really see the difference. The top one was done from life, the bottom one from a photograph.

I'm more partial to the one done from life. Both of them were just sketched off pretty quickly though.