Using Shapes to Aid in Sketching

This comes from following exercises of sketching subjects using simple shapes by Sandy on sketchingeveryday.com.

I am trying to visualize shapes when looking at a subject I find difficult sketching free-hand..........particularly faces and features.  Normally I avoid animals or people unless I do so with them facing away.  After trying my hand at her horse's head and recently a cat head using shapes she shared, I went through my photos and tried applying this exercise with the deer.

It took me awhile to get past all the fur and features to depict simple shapes but finally I did somewhat as shown above.  The sketch is from lightly sketching these shapes and then going back to form the deer as close as I could to the photo.

These may not be the shapes another person might see but for me these worked.

I'm a little off I think in the nose/mouth area but definitely closer than what I know I would have achieved without trying this exercise (at least without a lot of erasing and trying again numerous times).   I still need more practice and I think if I can get this concept down, it will help makes things a bit easier with future sketches.