drusk

Hmmm.

Well let me first begin by saying I am not trying to ignore what you said or waste your time, but perhaps I am focusing on the wrong things. I did try to reduce the fur but clearly not enough. I feel like there is a grey area that I am crossing over once I finish construction when adding details. It's almost like "If I am not trying to make a finished picture, what's the point of any detail?" Except perhaps a shadow here or there. I will do another furry critter and see if I can get it right.

I did try to use your wing demo as my model, but it wasn't attached to a bird, so maybe I just missed that part of it. None of your bird demos have wings in flight, so I assumed that the feather which are flatter (which is why I first drew it using a leaf model) would attach to the skeletal part of the wing. Also, I do feel you can see the musculature of the wing in the photo, which is why I added it as a separate structure. I will try another bird and see if I can get that right.

As for the heads, I am clearly missing something there. I do feel lost when attaching parts to the cranial mass. I will follow the demo's again and try just some head studies as part of my resubmission. I attempted multiple squirrel heads before I got to even what you see there.

I think I see what you are saying now about the added masses. The lines do come to a sharper point on the sample. I have a different picture of an elephant and will attempt that one again.

I really thought I did better on this submission, but I will try to improve. It's hard to hear a critique at times, but necessary to grow. Thanks for the advice for continuing forward. I appreciate it.

Here are the three animal pages:

https://imgur.com/a/dvK2BSs

I knew that the fox fur was wrong. I tried to improve the squirrel drawings after going over the raccoon with fur demo. I did another picture of a squirrel and hope that I got a little closer this time. When I did wing on the hybrid, I was looking at the complicated leaf demo for inspiration. I redid a bird with wings so that I could try again. This time I followed your example. Still a little lost on the cast shadows. I think I am getting stuck on the word shadow which seems inadequate to describe what you are after. Maybe it's just me.

And now the elephant in the room. Oh and I did an elephant. But actually I have been meaning to ask a question but wanted to wait until I was further along in the lessons to ask. It's about those pretty pictures we have been avoiding. I wholly approve of what you are teaching and how you are teaching it. I'm all in. But, at some point, the goal is pretty pictures for most of the people coming to Drawabox. I am wondering if at some point you will post a lesson or article on "And now what". How do you transition from the exercises here to a more finished drawing? I don't think the 50% rule is enought to get a person there. It probably wouldn't be a lesson (unless it's lesson 0.2) but maybe an article. When you did the drawing of faces that you tore up in your demo, you didn't use construction lines. So how do you get there? I have thoughts about it, but I am more interested in yours.

Before I address the question, one word of caution. When you say you are trying to practice lesson 2/3 material. Are you trying to do that simultaneously? The lessons build on each other and are not meant to be done at the same time. I do suggest going through them in the recommended order and getting feedback along the way, whether from the community or official feedback. I have received great feedback that way and it has helped me.

It sounds like you are on the right track with the observation, you just need "mileage". Just draw. You have to have a lot of wrong before you will get to right. Keep your work, set it aside and look at it after a couple of days or a week. You will be able to see why things are right or wrong more clearly than you can in the moment. You may be doing better than you think.

I think your stress might be coming from wanting a pretty picture. When I showed my wife what I had spent a month doing (lesson 2), I was quick to explain its purpose because lets face it, it doesn't look like much (although the dissections look cool). Drawabox lessons are exercises. Save the pretty picturess for the 50% rule.

If you can be brave, post some of the things you think are a problem here and let people have a look to see if there are any specific areas you could practice.

I don't know what Uncomfortable would say, but I have done something similar (sort of). I was finding it difficult at time to see the shapes with all the confusing details, so I would physically print out a black and white photo and use a fat marker to draw the 3 main forms on the picture. All I wanted was to see those big shapes so I didn't use the fineliner on purpose. I would then put that away and using the my unmarked photo reference, a fineliner and a new piece of paper, attempt the picture again. I would caution against using that digital trace for the final drawing. That would actually be counterproductive to what Uncomfortable is trying to teach. You might have seen other artist do this online, but I would say they are trying to render something and need exact proportions and angles. As Uncomfortable says, we are not making pretty pictures here. We are training the eye and hand to see and draw the illusion of 3D in 2D.

Thanks. It's what I thought, but wanted to check.

I have a few thoughts, but first I need to ask some clarification. If by depressed you mean actual Depression, please seek the care that you need and don't concern yourself with Drawabox. If you mean it in the more casual use of the word meaning discouraged, then I have a suggestion.

You say that you don't think you can do this consistently. It sounds like you are putting too much pressure on yourself to produce a certain amount of work. You have just started this process and it is a marathon not a sprint. You might have had a rush of excitement when you started and now it is starting to be clear how long this process is going to take and it seems overwhelming. What you might want to do is tell yourself that you will do a minimum amount each day. And when I say minimum, I would make it so small it almost seems silly. "I will draw a single ellipse everyday" or "I will draw for at least 1 minute each day". You make yourself do that bare minimum everyday. If you do it and that is all you do that day, great, you met your goal. I think you will find that more often than not you will do more than the minimum, but if you don't, its fine. The idea is that you will never actually stop and the habit of drawing will grow. This is just to get you through those tough days when you are just not feeling it. Other days, you will be drawing just like you were at the beginning. I do this myself and it has helped me make steady progress over the past months. It might be something for you to try.

You're not "wasting" your time, your allocating it. You are a very careful observer and it shows in the quality of the work you shared. I think you should not worry about the time if you are enjoying yourself. I do think you might be able to work a little faster, but I think that will happen naturally as you progress. You will find that textures start to fall into categories and it will get easier as you go and you will need less time observing. If you are enjoying getting into the details of the turtle anatomy and 3D models, go for it. All of that will build your visual memory and drawing skills and will be applicable to other things. I am curious about what your art teacher thought was trivial and unimportant. That sounds like someone trying to keep you focused on an assignment.

I did Lesson 2 and the texture challenge. I found both exercises to be really enjoyable. I don't know if I did them correctly, but I still feel I learned a lot doing them. Trying to draw the cast shadows was a challenge. I probably could have used more observation like you are doing.

Thanks, that's high praise.

I got lucky on this one and the whole thing just sort of popped into my head.

The good news is you have come to the right place. Drawabox is all about looking at the objects of the world and "seeing" them as 3D objects. You really can't draw a convincing 2D picture from a 3D object until you understand the "why" of the lines you draw. I started out just like you (maybe everyone does) and would try to draw something by starting with random lines and trying to make it look like something in the end. I didn't understand its construction in real space before drawing. This will usually go wrong somewhere and even when it is done perfectly, it often appears flat with no character.

I don't know what lesson you are on, but cars don't come until lesson 7 for good reason. One, they are very complex shapes that are often difficult to render accurately in proper perspective. Two, knowing where to start is very important because small mistakes will add up to big ones. And three, cars are very recognizable objects that people are familiar with, small errors will be noticeable. You might want to start with something simpler.

I will add one last thing. Sitting down and drawing what you see is a skill many people want. Unfortunately, it is actually really hard to do well. It takes a ton of practice. Your first attempts are going to suck. And they will keep sucking, right up to the point when they don't. That only comes from practice and honest critique of the work you are doing. I am holding on to all of my super crappy drawings from when I started this art journey I am on just so that I can look back on it later and see my own progress. As Uncomfortable talks about, drawing is not a magical talent. It can be learned like anything else. Keep working at it. It will come.

I was hoping that someone with more knowledge than myself would answer this question because I am really interested in what other people think. I am doing Drawabox because I am unable to take traditional art classes. I want to learn the fundamentals and I think Drawabox (and many other online resources) can teach me them. I don't think there should be any conflict between Drawabox and traditional art classes unless the classes teach fundamentals in a different way than Uncomfortable does. I guess my question is: If you can take traditional art classes, why are you doing Drawabox? Or the flip side, why are you taking art classes? Is one filling a need that the other cannot fill? If yes, and you have the time, do both. There are some interesting Youtube videos that discuss the pros and cons of art school that you might want to check out.