Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

8:06 PM, Wednesday February 14th 2024

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Hi, I enjoyed this lesson. The textures in lesson 2 were a bit of a drag but here in context I really liked the process.

The first half of the plants I drew along with the tutorial and also added the texture. Only later I realized that the first four should be only construction. Oops I guess. But it didn't feel right to go back and draw them again without texture so I just kept it as is.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

6 users agree
7:27 PM, Thursday March 14th 2024
edited at 6:00 PM, Mar 17th 2024

Hello Fable, I'll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Note: The form construction is still clear here, so I think the texture is fine. Following up on that point, your submission includes half of the demo drawings. (4/8 instead of max 3/8). I won't be asking for another plant drawing, but I just wanted to point it out so you don't get marked for it on future lessons that follow this guideline.

Organic Arrows

Your lines prove to be smooth and consistent within both pages, and the principles of mark-making from lesson 1 are adhered to properly. However, the foreshortening is a little lacking in conveying distance. Consider arrows as ribbons flowing within the 3D space. As they flow towards the end, we want to exaggerate the arrow width as they progress away from the viewer. For instance, the bottom leftmost arrow appears to lean closer to 2D as the compression is static during the middle overlaps and doesn't vary much. Line weight looks good here, but just be mindful of how the extra stroke should taper off.

Leaves

Overall, your leaves are well done here, and the spine is adhered to closely as you add the overlapping folds. Line work is smooth and supports the natural motions of the leaf. As a recommendation, I would play a little more with the varying types of leaf shapes and edge detail so you can challenge yourself more with breaking down complex leaf constructions.

Branches

Pressing ahead to branches, some tails are slightly visible, but it's an issue that will mostly be improved with practice, so no worries there. The method for branches is followed correctly, as the stroke is drawn to at least halfway past the second ellipse. On the topic of ellipses, degree shifts are evident, are drawn at least twice, and align to the minor axis. Some issues pop up around the attempts at drawing curvy branches. In order to relieve the cases of missing or cutting into ellipses, I suggest placing 1-2 extra ellipses to bridge the gap so it's a little more manageable in making the branch width consistent.

Plant Constructions

Now for the plant construction, overall I think you’ve followed the instructions and methods of construction fairly well, so I’ll just be pointing out the major concerns when appropriate.

If we take a look at your arum lily plant, the use of boundary ellipses works well, but the topmost flower seems to be missing the curved lip petal included on the other flowers. It's not much of a construction issue, but it helps if we include all the forms as accurately as possible.

All in all, I think you understand the Lesson 3 concepts well, so I’ll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 4. Keep up the good work.

Next Steps:

Lesson 4.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 6 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
edited at 6:00 PM, Mar 17th 2024
8:01 PM, Wednesday March 20th 2024

Hi Senj, Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

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