But it's hard to live by the rules,

I never could and still never do. This is a line from a song that was popular in the early 1980's. The band was the Pretenders. It spoke to me then and still does now.

I did the following exercise from a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing People Illustrated. The exercise called for using pencils in a variety of hardnesses to achieve the desired look. But anyone can do it but following the directions. I need to be different. And, I have the perfect color of Micron Pen for denim. So, here is my take the hem of a pair of jeans:

It looks like the picture, trust me ;-).