Zangk

Greetings, I have managed to complete the 3 pages of extra homework:

Extra Homework

Thanks for the explanation. I will be sure to do that for the official course work.

This leads to a second question dealing with practicing and warm-ups. Using the "overcomplicated" method above during practice, how should I challenge myself in practice? Try using less ghosting and see if I get the lines sooner? Do it a little faster? Or more or less keep to the same pace?

I cannot claim extreme competency in this area, but here is my interpretation and perhaps "summary" of what Uncomfortable just stated:

I see it in this way: are you using the images to make an exact copy of each part of your picture? If so that seems like a glorified version of clip art or scrap booking to me; a version of direct copying. Thus you would find a pose of a lion and copy it exactly, and then beside him the running man, that you copied exactly, to the market, equally copied. (Ironically, concept art kind of follows these procedures...Copy a drawing and paste it into a scene and move it about)

However, if you use a reference picture to gain the "general idea" of something, and then use that to inform your imagination without a great detailed study, I do not see the issue. Another way to put it, use reference pictures as rather "inspirational" pictures: Pictures that jog an idea, which is a sort of informing, but after that it is put aside. The rest is imagination after this point.

Lengthy example:

If you want to draw a lion, but you have no clue what they look like, there is no problem taking a peek at the basic lion features, just enough cultivate your idea to put something on paper (good, bad, or otherwise). After that, put away the pictures and do not refer to them again,using your new found lion knowledge to create your picture. In the same vein can look at the market buildings to inspire your own market's architectural design. Maybe the running man pose is perfect, save for the fact that he is a skinny office worker, but you want a burly barbarian with long golden locks? The running office worker will be suitable for that pose, but the rest will be your imagination. You may have to look up young Arnie for some Mr. Universe muscle action.

Hopefully this helps as well.

He also got laser I eye surgery it would seem.

I suspect that he got thin for another reason as well- most college students cannot afford to eat. He probably gained muscle and lost weight by joining college football. Then he specialized in calisthenics. But what drove him to selling surgery cereal is beyond me!

Thank you for your critique, and I took no offense with regards to your comments on "Self-documentation". I completely understand.

For some reason I had thought I could not number my pages, but I will do so for now on. I was really wanting too! I will also limit my pictures to one page per photo. I can understand the quality and visibility issues.

these are worse than a few pages ago

I don't think I was clear here. I meant that during the exercises it seemed that my skill level was getting worse, but toward the end I was starting to get more confident and better at it.

Until the next set,

Thanks you for your time and efforts.

Thanks for the explanation. It is what I figured it meant, but I wanted to be sure I was not mistaken.

"That's... definitely not the way you're meant to be going the organic perspective exercise. "

Good thing we were able to catch that then.

Now I am doing the first 250 crucible, some of the mistakes have crept in at times, but some other aspects (good ones) have started becoming reinforced. The biggest test has not truly been my dots, lines, accuracy, straightness, ect at this point, even if they need much work: perseverance and patience are my true bane here...but I am almost done, regardless of the results. I hope to have it in before the end of this month.

Thank you for the critique:

One of Two: There is a little irony in your "Two of possible problems, but probably the second" critique. Remembering back, I think that I was doing both. Sometimes I would ghost more quickly out of impatience- but sometimes in a fit of overcorrection, I would spend too much time trying to line it up.

Rough Perspective: This may be do to a lack of understanding on how to approach the lesson. Here is what I did:

1. I would make my dot and then build up the box (this was not the hard part)

2. I would ghost from each point to the vanishing point (about 8 times each), and then stick a dot when in the middle of my 9th run. At that point I felt committed, regardless of where that dot would end up, so I would ghost to it, whether it was wrong or not.

Which begs the question: Can I correct my dot if I do not think that it is lining up to my vanishing point? This may have been the problem more then the lack of patience if I can correct my dot.

Rotated Perspective: Agreed. Once I was well into it I found my boxes were too small. I did not have a sense of proportion yet until it was too late. I did not want to restart, as that is not the point.

Organic Perspective: I think I know what went on here. I started picking up a bad habit, I think one I began in the Rough Perspective, as a means to try to correct my errors. I would draw the line first rather than plot it out with a dot. Then I would connect the parallel where ever it would meet up with the original, making an "overshooting" effect. Which in reality, is rather an undershooting of the second line, which is then connected to the first.

You have mentioned something a few times, "automatic reinforcement". I do not recall hearing or reading this term within the lessons- could you elaborate?