Cosmodious

Hi Frog,

I think it's safe to say you've really knocked it out of the park here. There's some really great work on display so I'm not going to go into too much detail on any particular thing but I will break down some points of improvement.

Your organic forms with contour curves show a fantastic range of flow, you've created some really nice, dynamic forms. That said, there are moments when they lose the 3D illusion a little bit on the right side but nobody's perfect and it all comes with practice.

Moving on to your insects, you've grasped this exceedingly well. The building up of simple forms to create the complex shapes of your chosen critters is done very well indeed. You've done a particularly great job of selling the illusion of depth when constructing the thoraxes and abdomens and your clean linework is not only a sign of confident strokes but, to be honest, makes things a lot easier to understand and critique which is excellent.

However, there are two little points on improvement that I think would help push it to an even higher level:

• The way you've created differences in shape on the legs is very nice but not quite in keeping with the lesson. When I did this lesson, Uncomfortable reminded me that the goal is to use sausages of consistent width then build on them, rather than just creating the shape from the start. He sent me this to demonstrate. As you can see it really helps reinforce the illusion of three-dimensionality that is the goal of creating these forms.

• The other little thing is demonstrated on the stag beetle on this page. If you have a look at it's tarsal spurs (the little spikes that come out of it's legs), they stand out because they're not quite as dynamic as most of your work due to how geometric they are. In cases like this it can help to deviate from the reference a bit by exaggerating a curve to make things feel a little more natural.

I'd also recommend that you consider using more cast shadows moving forward. They really help to define the form and add that extra touch to sell the illusion, without going too crazy of course.

All that said, these are only minor nitpicks on what is overall a fantastic lesson submission. I'd recommend you keep in mind moving forward but it's safe to say that you've crushed it so I'm going to mark this lesson complete.

Hey Lite,

Beginning with your arrows, there's some really great work here. Your arrows are really nice and smooth, as a next step I'd recommend going for some more extreme angles. Imagine the arrow goes a long way into the distance. That was something that really helped me understand depth better when I was at this stage. You already seem to have a good grasp on it but it can never hurt to push yourself, which is of course why we all do things like Drawabox.

Your leaves have a very nice sense of fluidity to them as well. It's very easy to imagine them floating on a breeze. I think the next step for these would be to try out some unusual leaf shapes. Something like a maple leaf that would give you a great opportunity to experiment with how the techniques apply to different shapes.

Onto your plants, there's some really nice work here but it's a little bit hidden by the shadowing. It's quite difficult to see the constructional elements within the drawing on the right on this page for example. One of the critiques I got from Uncomfortable when I did this lesson was that form shading is not meant to be a part of these lessons. The only shadows that should exist are ones that are directly cast by another object (e.g. a leaf on another lead) with minimal texture shading and no attempt to indicate changes in colour.

Pages like this one are a really great example of a focus on construction and do a great job of showing form so I know you've got a handle on construction and I can tell you've put a lot of really great work into this lesson as a whole.

Hey Uncomfortable,

Thanks so much for all your feedback. I think some of the texutre stuff would've benefitted from me stepping away for a bit and coming back to it fresh with a bit more energy. I'll definitely be keeping everything you've said in mind going forward.

And thanks for making an awesome curriculum and making it free to anyone who can't afford it. That's very cool.

Hi Svendogee, thanks for the feedback. Apologies for not doing the boxes the right size, I guess I let excitement get the better of me. Anyway, here are those extra boxes. I feel like I had some really good ones in there then lost it on the last two pages and I'm not really sure what happened.

https://imgur.com/a/wv4nLy0

Awesome, thanks so much!

Thanks qzhans. I've tried my best to do the one line, one try thing but it feels messier, haha. I'm in no rush to get to the next lesson, I'm more interested in getting things right, though I do value your time and don't want to be a pain.

Anyway, here's the link to the new organic perspective: https://imgur.com/a/R3r7imd

Thanks,

Ben

Thanks Qzhans. Sorry about that. This should work https://imgur.com/a/NgA4Trj