MsPurrr

Re:" I'll take a look at your cow construction, but in future you will need to complete all the assigned pages before submitting for feedback. While that puts more work on you (in terms of giving you more room to end up making the same mistakes more than might feel necessary), it is necessary to put that on the student due to the extremely low price at which our feedback is offered. If you need assistance on individual construction pages, you can certainly make use of our discord chat server, where there are plenty of people available to help."

I'm ok with Drawabox charging me for a full review if a full review is actually given. I'd rather not reinforce bad habits and waste my time.  Until lately, I have been enjoying Drawabox for half a decade. Full disclosure, I am reconsidering continuing with Drawabox.  I am hoping to see original, constructive criticisms. 

I don't mind a productive grind. Every lesson so far has been "grindy", usually redoing about half of a rather bulky homework, 250 + boxes challenge most of all. Yet, I am struggling with this lesson more than previous. I'd rather not have the freedom to choose references to draw from. Most of the references I found do not show the entire body. The torso sag in a rabbit, manatee, and deer appear to differ. Is there a library of references we could both reference?  

The requested redos may be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/f9F4nyH7ssHPVo938

Thank you for your one review of my cow drawing from lesson 5. I always do look forward to each review on drawabox, because I usually get huge improvement from them after some practice. I actually did far more than the 15 drawings I submitted. Sadly, those were just the best ones. At a certain point, I recognize I'm making the same mistakes that all stem from not being entirely sure where the joints even are on half of these pictures. Many of the past replies were beyond enlightening in solving problems I didn't even know I had over the last few years. After reading the last reply, I'm not still not sure how to find where to draw the limbs, short of in depth studying and redrawing of comparative vertebrate anatomy in various poses, perspectives, light, genders, ages.

I'm aware of the past feedback both here and at other art classes and I have been thinking of it while drawing a few times per week for the past few months. The issue was more with what I was trying to draw. Bamboo has relatively simple construction. Insects are a little more complicated, but I could usually see the shiny spines and limbs clearly in the most of the pictures I chose. I usually lean into values and color, but I understand that's not the focus here.

I am definitely having trouble with my own independent animal construction. Animals have far too much fur and it is way to hard to find where the limbs connect to the body when most of the reference pictures I found focus on one body part and the rest is hazy. Choosing exclusively profile or frontal perspectives felt like the safe option because I can see all of the parts, but it really does make the result feel a bit flat. I noticed that demos make it look easy with the occasional well placed blob to mimic skin covering muscle and bone and fat and organs.

Most of the demos, whether wolf or donkey, had what you described as extending off the silhouette. Some of the past lessons even encouraged altering silhouette construction as adding details, like on a leaf ridge or a beetle leg. Why is it ok there and not here? What's the difference? If I don't add any of those, or just add the same ones across species, the animals kind of start to look the same too. Some of the past demos mentioned the idea of using these simple sausage forms for muscle. I do recall the benefits of sausage method of leg construction in weevils... Alas, vertebrates have far more muscles covered in a lot more thick skin and fur, most of them change form when flexed. I'm not even sure what to connect to where.

I am actually having similar issues when drawing human figure or portraits. My imagination and past demos and experiences only go so far when half of the object is forever obstructed from view and what even is visible is covered in a coat of skin or fur or clothing. The demos made the idea of what is a ribcage and what is a pelvis and hip so clear... I'm definitely having a hard time visualizing how the exact locations fit together in some of these references.

I spent just under 2 hours on this new sketch https://photos.app.goo.gl/t27vjnidnjHL2jvY7, the same as I spent on the watercolor flowers and double the time I spent on the statue. The oil portrait took 3 hours. I also spent another 13 hours over six days looking over previous material and practicing the lesson drawings. I did incorporate more sausage forms and used the ghosting method where I felt appropriate. My in-person teachers also encourage breaking down the object into simple forms, such as drawing an ellipse for the recess of the eye socket. I drew the pentagonal shape also. This is the reference I used for the last cow drawing https://www.flickr.com/photos/-danophotography/32611502573/

Could you please clarify how can I improve the construction?

Thank you! Happy Holidays!

Thank you, please see this link with revisions: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qmRTgYdgujJ8Uu5d6

Thank you!

It's been pretty cool to see how these lessons have improved the other things I work on. I've taken part in two shows in the last couple of months and sold my first painting last Friday.

I'm looking forward to the next lessons.

Hello!

Here is the page of branches: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BeLXdPV2qCDsuTHu9

Thank you so much for such a detailed review. You gave me a lot to think about.

I realized I was often focusing more on saving space and paper than the drawing. Your advice to draw bigger has drastically changed the way I approach art. Turns out it's a lot less frustrating to do a sketch when I have more than a square inch of space. I have filled several sketchbooks and started a hobby instagram account over the past few months, mainly focusing on watercolor or figure sketching at a local art guild (I joined 3 months ago).

I have been using earlier lessons from Drawabox as quick warmups before most art sessions over the last few years, mostly from lesson 1. I have reviewed the rest over the last few months, and some reproductions from lesson 3 demos are linked. I have tried to incorporate your critique into the new 8 plant construction pages. Please let me know how I can improve.

I have included an imgur link to all pages of the 250 boxes in my own submittion. There are going to be a few. You may also notice a change in your boxes as you go through the challenge.

Thank you!

Hello!

I have the two rows of texture analyses and the form intersections: https://imgur.com/gallery/IvSVXCb Your advise regarding shadows really helped.

Using solid concrete forms also definetely helped. It was tricky to find a picture reference that had deep shadows from overexposure online, so I just held a flashlight to have a sharper contrast. It didn't turn out as pretty as I hoped, but I tried to follow your directions as closely I could.

I feel like I have learned a lot from these exercises, but they were definitely very challenging. I also noticed significant improvement in painting with acrylic. It became much easier to notice lines and forms.