Kavel

Hello, I'm slayerDelano and I'll be reviewing your work.

Let's break your work down piece by piece.

2 organic forms with contour curves

For your contour curves to start, you're doing a good job keeping your form contour lines snugly fit within the form. However, there are a few things that would help you enforce the lie of 3D space that we aim for within Lesson 4. I'll outline these one by one.

1. Sausage form solidity

   For your Sausage forms, I notice you're getting a lot of bloating (one side being too big compared to the other) within your forms. For this exercise, recall that we should keep our forms simple; this can be reviewed here. When drawing your Sausage forms, think of a scale with weights on both ends. I've outlined this concept here. Ensure that both ends feel solid with equal weight so that the overall Sausage connection is consistent.

2. Degrees are the same

   For your Sausage forms, the degrees of the forms you've drawn remain a bit too consistent. I've outlined this concept here. Remember the concept of degree shift, which was introduced in Lesson 2; feel free to look at it again just in case you need a refresher. It's also outlined in Lesson 1 where degree shift is talked about. To fix this, we can ghost a full contour ellipse before drawing the contour line and exaggerate it to the maximum. I've shown this here, and even I could have exaggerated a bit more on the ends. Lastly, as a side note, when you draw the arrow through your form in the middle, specify which direction it's going in (with an arrow at the end) so you can think more about how it moves along the surface. This can be seen here from this Demo Dio gave me. The Sausage can be looked at in different ways depending on where or how you draw the contour lines. Because you're the overlord of your art, you get the freedom to choose how you show this to your viewer.

4 pages of insect/arachnid drawings that are purely constructional with no texture or detail

For your work on the insect/arachnids, you're demonstrating a good understanding of differentiating the different forms, being the:

• Head

• Thorax

• Abdomen

and using them as a base to start drawing and adding details to your work.

I'll outline some things we can do to elevate our work to the next level.

To start off, with all legs, I would suggest following the Sausage method for them. The method to do this is outlined here. Most of the legs we've drawn aren't following the method. Using this method is crucial because we can use the Sausage method and build on top of the base with forms afterward. To help with this, also remember to draw an ellipse where the legs would actually go to help set them up to be drawn. This importance can be seen in these examples Dio gave me: here and here. Also, remember to draw the intersection at the joints, as it wants to outline the importance of how the forms connect together like an unbreakable chain. This can also be seen in this example Dio gave me here. I've outlined this on this spider you've done. Also, remember to always draw the big three (head, thorax, abdomen) as on this spider you've pasted the fangs onto the thorax mass when the head is a separate mass from the thorax, regardless of how close they may seem.

For your drawing here, remember to add line weight to the parts you want to highlight. The stinger especially would glow a lot better with some line weight emphasizing its might. Here's the article on line weight just in case you need a refresher. Also for this drawing, remember to draw through your work. Even though we as the viewer won't see the drawing's insides like an x-ray, for you as an artist, it's good to know exactly where and how things attach to one another. So drawing through your work will help you understand this connection better to ensure it makes sense.

Lastly, don't be scared to push past the bounds of your forms. You did an amazing job on the left eye; the right can feel similar to the left by breaking past the boundary of the head. Also, bounce your forms for the stinger off of each other to portray the layers.

6 pages of insect/arachnid drawings that can go into texture and detail if you wish

They're off to a good start; however, they suffer from some of the same things mentioned above.

For the shadow below the form, keep in mind that depending on where you choose your light source, the shadow will extend or contract further or closer away to the subject. I think Kavel mentioned this on stream, but I'll say it again: try to push your shadows out further and have them not as close to your form. These shadows are supposed to represent the ground plane or where the shadows such as legs, the head, etc., are supposed to be in relation to the form itself.

Some of your constructions, such as this one, feel a bit flat. This is something that can be fixed with more practice or simply more experience over time. So keep pushing forward and continue to draw as much as you can :] . Also for this drawing, for the antenna, you can use the branch (plants) method or Sausage for it, but try to avoid drawing through it (with a line) as it clutters what's there. I'll also point you to the process of construction, as I feel it would help a lot. Remember, everything we draw in Drawabox, we as the artist have to see and envision as 3D; always believe in the lie. Every line you make and do, make sure it feels like you're building on top of that 3D farce (lie). Remember to mark out your forms on the insect and keep in mind which plane it should be covering. This can be seen from this demo from Dio here.

To conclude...

I believe I've covered everything. From what I can see, your work is improving more and more with every drawing you do, which is amazing. You have a decent foundation with what you've done so far. Incorporating what's said above will really push your art to the next level. I think with a bit more time to cook, you can really push your art to the next level, so I'm tasking you with some revisions. These revisions will help solidify your fundamentals further, as the next lesson after this is a really big jump, so I want to make sure you have all the tools needed to succeed in it. Don't feel the need to take in everything said here at once, as this is close to 1.5k words at this point and is a lot to digest, so tackle these things bit by bit and at your own pace—there's no rush. Have fun with everything you draw and keep pushing your limits. I look forward to seeing what you make. Good luck!~