HebiTukai

Hello Mungo! I (again) forgot to check my notifications, so apologies if this is very late ^^'. I should mention that I took a pretty long hiatus from drawing (personal reasons), so the work that I'm going to show you isn't super new.

Anyway, here's my homework for the first 4 weeks of DS: https://imgur.com/a/tJFmzF3

(Note: I only did 1/2 of the # of pages required for week 4)

Hope it gives you a good idea of what the course is about :) .

I know this is super super late, but tysm for the comprehensive answer! I ultimately decided to take the course on NMA around ~1.5 months ago since they announced a live class version of it around that same time frame. However, I wound up dropping the live class (wasn't in a very healthy mindset), so now I'm just doing it at my own pace. So far, I haven't regretted starting it at all! Fundamentally it's DaB, but with a much greater emphasis on making things look "prettier". And also with like half of DaB's rules stripped away haha. As you explained, it really does help you expand upon what DaB teaches students, and helps students branch further into sketching. I think most people can semi-comfortably take the course having at least completed lessons 1-5 + 250 box challenge, I don't think I'd have the skills + experience to get the most out of DS if I hadn't made it that far. I can share some of my work if you're interested.

Glad that my questions helped you as well! Hope you're having a great day / night :D

Yes, there isn't any need to draw any sort of surface details / patterns (stripes, fur color, etc.) in your DaB drawings. In fact, it's actually better to avoid adding details like that entirely, as they will likely obfuscate or distract from the underlying construction.

It's important to remember that details are just details: the underlying construction is the most important element in DaB drawings. Without that, no amount of extra details will make the drawing look more believable or 3D.

IIRC Uncomfortable requests students to do a certain number of drawings for the homework assignment without adding any detail whatsoever. That is likely due to what I stated above (and a few other things, but that's the main gist of it lol)

Hopefully that answers your question :-)

Ah then I must have been mistaken, my apologies. So the mass's appearance depends on what it's wrapping around (as well as mass's own volume), and its corners will be sharp, smooth, or a mixture of the two based on how quick or sudden the transitions are. The explanation helps, thanks.

Alright I see what you mean now. I might do one or two pages of just head constructions, following that demo as closely as possible. That would probably help with hammering it in more lol

Thank you for your well-worded critique, it gave me some good points to work on in the future.

A minor question however: I think you mentioned somewhere that additional masses shouldn't have sharp corners, but rather smooth transitions throughout the form. In your correction for the armadillo lizard ( https://imgur.com/f875xwj ), it seems like the masses you've outlined have reasonably sharp corners to them. Is that acceptable in this instance?

A concern in regards to head construction: I'm pretty sure I understand what you explained in this section, but I'm not sure where I've made some errors with head construction in my work (aside from the drawings towards the beginning). Can you give examples of my work where the head construction isn't as strong as it could be? Sorry if I'm not reading correctly.

Sorry for the odd time to respond. I was waffling on whether I should respond or not.

I appreciate the in-depth critique, and I'll keep your words about the self-deprecation thing in mind. I hadn't even thought about that, haha

However, I just have one question / concern: when we're studying from a reference, is it fine to do a digital traceover to lay in all the basic forms of the subject before tackling it on paper with fineliners? I'm not sure if this is recommended / allowed or not. I think this was brought up by someone before, but I can't remember your answer on the topic.

Thanks for your time, I look forward to your response :).

Yeah, I agree. Fineliners require a more thoughtful and prudent approach to drawing, which is one of the mentalities this course aims to reinforce. Not using them for course material would be detrimental to my overall progression. Fineliners are obviously a bit more pricey than some other drawing materials, so I don't want to use them unnecessarily / treat them inappropriately. Guess I'll just have to suck it up, lol. Thanks for the reply.