Yang

I think you did a great job! The construction looks pretty solid!

Thanks for the reply! I was feeling overwhelmed when starting this part of the exercise and had nearly forgotten that it was supposed to be just that--an exercise. Constructing the cylinder correctly within the box is so much less forgiving than constructing around an arbitrary axis that it was giving me mental whiplash, but I suppose the fastest way to learn is by facing my failures head-on.

Appreciate your reply! I definitely experienced a large difficulty spike when I moved on to the box checking method, so I think I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when writing my post. I like your method of using the box as the main reference for aligning ellipses when the minor axis is off, so I might try that for myself. My biggest worry about this exercise is reinforcing bad habits by aligning ellipses to an axis that I can clearly tell is off-center, so it helps to have another frame of reference (the box) to base decisions on.

Thanks for the feedback! Your point about internalisation is well taken. I do want to be able to create cylinders without having to rely on any crutches, so I guess the only choice is to push on without the ruler.

There are a lot of straight lines involved in constructing each cylinder, so I find that the accumulation of small inaccuracies inevitably leads to larger misalignments. I was worried that working around these misalignments would only teach me to draw awkward-looking cylinders, but I suppose the line extensions are there to correct any bad habits.

Thanks for the reply! I guess it really does just come down to personal judgement.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification!

I appreciate the critique! Thanks for pointing out my misguided fear about extreme angles, I think I needed that reminder to focus on the basics during the learning phase.

Is it also alright for me to ask a follow-up question? For your second point on things to keep an eye on, can you give an example of contour lines that don't really contribute to the construction itself? I mainly tried to use contour lines to reinforce the direction in which a form is wrapping around the torso or head (mostly to convince myself of their three-dimensionality), but maybe there were cases where I was excessive or not using contours correctly. I'm not sure if I fully understand what I'm doing wrong on this point.

Thanks for the feedback! Definitely gonna jot down some notes on things I should be looking out for. I have some clashing thoughts about my planning and execution (Should I be spending more time time and brainpower planning and ghosting my marks? Is too much planning feeding into my fear of making mistakes and poor line confidence?), but I think I'll try to work towards being okay with my mistakes. It'll probably take off a lot of mental burden if I just roll with the error instead of obsessively trying to avoid it.

Thanks! Your point about using consistent pen weight is well taken. It made me realize that I probably push the pen too hard way too early, and that those thicker lines end up clashing with the lighter lines of the initial construction. I'll try to apply my pen pressure more uniformly and save the heavier lines for clarification like you suggested. Really good advice!

Hello, I was trying to submit my Lesson 3 attempt when I realized that I haven't been marked complete for Lesson 2 yet. Please let me know if I should go back to some Lesson 2 exercises or if I'm cleared to submit Lesson 3.

Thanks!