Thank you for the additional feedback! I'll keep it in mind while I continue to work on understanding how best to add additional forms to my initial structures for this lesson and the upcoming one. Unfortunately it's a semi-long term injury but with some small adjustments I've been able to continue drawing with practically no pain and no detrimental effects to my injury.
Hi! Thank you for the detailed feedback.
I'm working with a bandaged thumb (and some pens that may have dried up since I had to take a break from using them) so I think I may have been a bit loose with the pen, especially during faster movements for the eclipses. I think that is already improving in the revisions.
I'll keep the feedback for the organic shapes with contour lines exercise in mind for the future.
Regarding the feedback on altering the silhouette, I think I understand how to approach it now a fair bit better based on the examples and explanations you've given. Just to be sure I understood it correctly, https://imgur.com/OsBBWoR, this is how the correct way to approach the thorax's complex shape would have been for the example you provided?
And regarding the blue portions you've pointed out that extended the silhouette on the beetle, those additions either need accompanying forms that are layered on or the underlying forms should have fully been covered by the larger forms that have their own silhouettes?
I think I understand now that the sausages I was using for the limbs were sometimes too complex in the sense of having too many curves and changes in shape, and if I intend to capture that I should start with a smaller generic sausage and add on forms to it in order to get the desired shape at the end. And I'll make sure to add the contour of the joints.
Thank you for the note on textures!
For the revisions I've tried to keep what I've learned from the feedback in mind and construct additively and add complexity only by adding additional wrapping forms. But in hindsight I think I did the first revision beetle's shell incorrectly since I went straight for the complex form, I should have at least put maybe three-four smaller sausages wrapping around the original form and then added an additional form or two on top for the desired silhouette.
Thank you for the detailed feedback! I have tried to take it into account for the revision work. I still struggled making the finer details have a finer and less dark line in the revisions, I naturally ended up slowing down while drawing the very small wavy details which made them darker. I'll try to continue keeping an eye on that for the future. I realized I also still ended up focusing a bit too much on smaller edge details that were one offs or bends, which was not needed at the moment.
Thank you Tofu for the detailed feedback on the lesson, it was very helpful in identifying areas to improve on for the future!
Thank you for the feedback! I will keep the points you mentioned in mind while working on this exercise in the future.
Hi there! Thank you for taking the time to give me some critique. I'll keep the smaller points in mind for the future. I really appreciate the bit on accuracy and confidence, it was something I struggled with a lot at the time of doing these exercises and has gotten better but I still find myself hesitating and not focusing on confidence at all sometimes. The way you've phrased it was really clear and helpful!
Thank you for the clarification, I will resubmit my lesson 1 work for official critique now and then work on the extra 50 boxes + 50% rule for the two weeks after the feedback.
Thank you for the information!
Thank you for your critique and feedback. I completely agree with the points you've made. I have also noticed a lot now while working on the 250 boxes challenge and redoing these exercises that I reflexively slow down to be more accurate which unfortunately is disrupting the smoothness of my lines. I have been working towards trusting my ghosting more and letting my shoulder move in one smooth and fast motion, seeing your feedback was very helpful in reaffirming that this correction of my movement is necessary.
Here is the revision work as requested: https://imgur.com/a/6lZRKNv . I consciously made sure to keep the movement from my shoulder as much as possible and complete the ellipses. While the accuracy of the ellipses was off sometimes, they are a lot smoother now in comparison.
Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.
Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.
These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.
We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.
Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
