nyokiart

Hey! It's really nice that you've revised your work.

I can see you've put more thoughts into leaves exercise. They look more dynamic, showing both the top and the bottom planes.

I think twisting leaves are not an issue, but having control over when you would like it to twist and when you wouldn't want it to twist is the key here.

I think of the line going from the base of the leaf to the tip of the leaf as vertical axis, and I use imaginary lines perpendicular to that axis as my guide to determine which way the plane of the leaf is facing.

It's a bit hard for me to explain how I think about this... so please refer to images below, and see if they make sense to you:

https://imgur.com/a/5LS4bWK

Your 3D arrows were very well done in the first submission, so I have a feeling you'd have a lot easier time imagining the leaves initially as rectangular planes.

I use shading that follows the direction of my perpendicular guidelines mentioned above... somehow it makes sense to me, but I don't think there is a fixed rules for how you can shade the underside of the leaves.

As for the branches... to be honest, I draw a single continuous line after I draw the ellipses along the central axis... I tried doing overlapping lines, but like you, my lines don't seem to overlap well and they don't look very smooth :-( So... I'm not sure how to advice you on this. One thing I can say is that I do the ghosting lines for my one-stroke curves to make sure it touches the edges of all ellipses.

Hi there, well done for completing this homework.

Here is my feedback:

1. The overlapping line exercises look pretty good. You might be having a bit of trouble with curved lines, so just make sure you are still using the shoulder joint and not the wrist joint to move your hand. It seems like there is a ink blob at the beginning and at the end of the line, which may come from you having a good new pen with a lot of ink, or you might be holding the pen on the spot a bit too long. You can practice putting down and lifting the pen smoothly if latter is the issue.

2. On the other hand, the ghosting line exercise seems to have the opposite issue. I don't see the ink blotch but I do see that you are missing the start and end point for some of the lines, so you may not be taking enough time to really practice your arm movement before you put down your mark. You might need to find a happy middle between how you drew the overlapping lines and ghosted lines.

3. The planes and ellipses look good. Again, some of them may have been a bit rushed, so take your time.

4. Funnel exercises: I think it's well done.

5. Tables of Ellipses: they are good, but remember to correct any skewing each time you draw ellipses. Some of them have flatter sides or pointy edges, and they are repeated. I know it's tempting to continue doing what you do (which I tend to do as well) but you'd want to be constantly paying attention and correcting your quirks in your arm movement. Overall though, you've done a nice job!

6. 2P perspective boxes: They are good, but take note that you want to make hatching lines to go from one edge all the way to the other edge which will look neater and will train you to make consistent parallel lines.

7. 1P perspective boxes: I think it would have been better if you could add a bit more line weight to add the sense of depth and to clean up the lines.

8. Rotated Boxes: well done

9. Organic Perspective: I think again, you could add a bit more line weights especially to the boxes that are up close to add the sense of distance to your boxes. Otherwise, well done.

Thanks a lot. I will continue to draw boxes and hopefully I'll be able to overcome the back corner issue one day. Thanks for the handy reference as well. Will keep that in mind :) Thanks again

Hi! Thanks for the feedback! Here are my 25 boxes:

https://imgur.com/gallery/OV6fWIw

I was honestly a bit upset when I read that you wanted me to draw more boxes XD but I'm really glad you did, because once I used the extended line after each page, I realised where things are going wrong... namely, the intersection at the back. I still seem to have issues with this, but I think being aware is a good first step. I'm very grateful that you pointed this out to me. Thanks a lot.

Hi there, Nice work! I think you did a good job :)

Here are some stuff I noticed... hope they are helpful.

1. The organic arrows are very well done. They are dynamic and interesting to look at.

2. The leaves exercise incorporates different leaf shapes, but I feel you can try drawing more leaves that show both bottom and the top sides of the leaves. It doesn't have to be as extreme as the organic arrows exercise. I say this because I find it very helpful to understand how curved leaf that is coming towards you (imagine a large, coconut tree leaf) will show the bottom surface and then gently droops down to show the top surface. This can add a lot of depth to your drawing, so please give it a go.

3. The branches exercise, as you mentioned, seems to suffer from the ink blotches when overlapping lines. I suggest trying a) rather than stopping the pen when the pen is still on the paper, try to lift it off as you finish the stroke b) when adding the next line overlap the lines for a bit longer, but when doing so, start the stroke after ghosting the line a few times on top of the existing line first. Also, from the stand point of plant anatomy, remember the forking branches are usually thinner than the main branch it is coming off of.

4. It's good that you included the reference images in your submission. I think there are a good variety of different plants, and you drew them well. Take note that when you drew a group of flowers (the pink ones), the flowers which are on the edges should be seen from the side and not from the front as you drew some of them. Remember the flowers are following the curve of the blob you drew to group them. For the cactus pot, I think a central axis line through the pot may have helped to align the top of the pot to the bottom of the pot.

Hi there, I like how your lines have a lot of flow to it, especially Organic Perspective you did.

Having said that, I feel that you could benefit from slowing down a bit, in terms of putting down marks.

Here are a few points I noticed:

1. Your superimposed lines and ghosted line exercise often miss the end point, which means you probably will benefit from a) steadying your wrist and drawing from your shoulder, b) slowing down the speed of the pen a little, and c) doing a few more 'strokes in the air' before you put your pen down. If you try this, I think you'll see improvement quite quickly.

2. Ellipses: all the ellipses are drawn through a few times as instructed, which is good. Again, like I said in the beginning, I personally like the flowyness of your lines, but the scale is tipped towards speed/flow and away from precision. I suggest the same three points I mentioned above to hit a good balance between flow and precision.

3. 2-point (plotted) perspective: nicely done :)

4. Rough Perspective: this is a hard one. But you seem to have gotten the hang of it and you also went over with red yourself, so well done.

5. Rotated Boxes: Again, tough one, but you managed it. I guess you could add another layer of boxes at the back for the sake of completeness, but I guess that's not strictly necessary.

6. Organic Perspective 1: The distortion is somewhat strong, but I like how there is a lot of dynamism to how the boxes twist and turn.

Thanks for the feedback. I will try to keep the points you mentioned in mind for the future drawings. Happy learning!

Hi there!

I think the drawings are well done and congrats on finishing all the exercises.

A few points to consider:

1. The 3D arrow exercises: try using heavier line weight for the parts of the arrow that's closer to you so you can make it clear which part is in front and which part is behind. I think the top two arrows are drawn well and it's quite clear which part you intended to be coming forward, but somehow the other arrows lower down the page seems to get a bit confusing, even though you've put some shading to indicate which parts are on the inside of the curves.

2. For the contour line organic form exercise, the ones with ellipses drawn through look fine, but when you are doing the curves only on the front surface, the ellipse shape seems to get a bit pointy at edges. Always move your hand as if you're drawing a full ellipse even when you are not drawing the far side of the form. I struggle with this myself also.

3. Dissections look good, but again, use line weight to emphasise the edges closest to you, so even with a lot of texture you'd still be able to make out the form clearly. You can also vary the details of the texture when you're drawing texture on curved surface (like you did in Texture Analysis exercise) to mimic the light/shade gradation.

4. Form Intersections are done well, but again, I feel that you can use a bit more variation in line weight to make it clear for the viewer which shapes are in front and which ones are not. I know there are edges where you did darken the line, but I want to see more of it :)

5. Organic Intersections are nicely done. I like the fact you used various sizes of this form to create a dynamic looking pile. They somehow look quite alive.

6. Texture analysis are well done :)

Hi BlankCanvas, thanks a lot for the feedback!

Yeah, what you said about the ellipses in planes is very true. Thanks for pointing that out... I seem to desperately try to touch at intersections, rather than thinking about the overall flow. Will work on that moving forward.

I rotate the page occasionally but not always... thanks for reminding me :)

Cheers! Happy drawing!