ricepaddyhat

Thanks for the feedback!

Sorry, I do tend to reflect after finishing an exercise, I'll keep in mind to leave it out of the submission next time.

I guess you're right with the form intersections, I did manage to get through them reasonably well but I felt less confident while doing so which is mostly why the lines end up scratchy. So yeah, I'll try to plan ahead and fully commit to those lines in future.

The explanation about the distinction between accuracy and precision was helpful way of looking at it, thanks for that.

I had a feeling that the answer to my question about subdivision was to draw those lines with respect to the vanishing points. I guess I was hoping for a method like the mirroring technique that starts with something approximate but gives a precise match for the other lines, but like you said its still something non specific made into something specific. I did end up simplifying proportions out of necessity (so the page wouldn't get too cluttered) while still sticking to more measured subdivisions, its just goes against my instincts since I'm used to aiming to draw accurately from observation :')

Regarding the pens, I only used 1 pen per drawing and switched pens between drawings. I found myself naturally drawing lines more lightly for construction for more clarity, but retrospectively I know I should avoid this because it makes those lines less committal. I also did superimpose lines quite a bit to emphasize the actual object which might be why this effect looks dramatic.

Admittedly I did get tired on some of these drawings and ended pushing through a bit lazily in regards to planning and precision, the remote being the best example. I don't really have an excuse :P, I'll just keep that in mind for next time. I will say another reason I cut back on lines/precision is because I drew way too many lines in the first drawing which became completely unmanagable especially the ellipses (thats obviously not reason in the remote example). It was reactionary of me but thats how it is.

Anyway, thanks again for your detailed feedback as usual!

I'm planning on taking a break from draw a box for a while cause I feel like I'm juggling too much art wise (and in general) at the moment (thats probably why this submission wasn't up to my usual standard). When I feel up for some more technical drawing I'll buy the ellipse guide and get stuck into the next challenge!

Cheers :) Chalices need to come back in fashion!!

Cool idea! Lots of interesting shape and texture here. I wonder how long it'd take to bend all that cutlery into shape

Cheers :)

Thanks! Wasn't too happy about how it turned out but I still like the idea

Thanks for the feedback!

I didn't intend to create cylinders with no foreshortening, I tried to make some very slight but sometimes I'm inaccurate and it ended up too slight. Its a good point that 0 foreshortening means the form is perpendicular to the viewer, I didn't think about it like that but it makes total sense. And yeah, more variety would've been good, I kinda forget which cylinders I've drawn after analyzing mistakes so a quick review every now and again would've helped me notice I was getting into a habit with little variation.

Generally I'd say I was conscious of making the degree shift of the ellipses at least somewhat match the foreshortening of the cylinder, but it's obviously something I can pay more attention to/improve on (especially cases like the first example). For cylinders with slight foreshortening, the degree shift is also slight and hard to nail, sometimes I under shot it just a bit and ended up with no degree shift. On top of trying to be more accurate, I guess it would be better to exaggerate the degree shift just a bit because a contradiction is more noticeable

Good point, I'll keep it in mind. Thank you

Here are the 2 extra pages: https://imgur.com/a/J2wupK1

Admittedly I got a bit lazy in my original submission and wasn't reasoning about 3d space as much as I should've, hence the ill thought out masses. I forced myself to focus harder in the new pages and although its still not great I felt it was making more sense spatially (like a jigsaw as you've said).

On your critique, theres a lot of good points and thanks for the axolotl demo too!

• Adding masses - your analysis is spot on. I myself didn't always feel fully convinced how the objects sat with each other when I added the extra masses and so I tried reinforcing that with contour lines. But as you've said the additional mass should form a solid silhouette to begin with.

• Outlines binding masses together and creating 2d shapes - I think I picked this up from one of your older demos - https://youtu.be/B2y-GKKT9sM?t=788. It adds 2d shapes around the legs because they're already kinda flat. Of course I was applying this everywhere which I shouldn't have and generally it hurts solidity of the construction so I'll try resisting the urge to add it.

• Cutting into silhouettes on the greyhound - I know I shouldn't have! I only ended up doing it because I swear I remember seeing a demo that similarly cut into its silhouette of the torso (which of course I can't find now, maybe it was in a dream :P). Anyway, I like the approach you suggested of replacing the sausage shape with a more appropriately shaped torso, its more inline with with how we've been approaching constructions. I tried it in the first new drawing as the torso had similar shape.

Hope these new drawings are more on the right track. And thanks for your critques!

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

I agree with the saussage forms, mine do end up leaning towards ellipsis especially with the smaller ones, I'll try focusing on keeping the ends circular and not widen the middle in future exercises.

Cutting into silhouettes is also a good point. I usually do it because I draw forms that are disproportionately large so I cut into it to attempt to fix the bad proportions, but I guess it falls under "trying to make it look good" so in future I'll try to focus more on the 3d forms.

I also think theres some things I can improve to avoid the bad proprtions in the first place

• being more conservative with the size of forms - you can always add but not remove (i.e. trying to think additively)

• focus on the actual form being drawn - sometimes I feel influenced by the size of an overall form which ends up being a whole lot bigger, e.g. the base of the lobster claw

Good call out with the line work. I feel like I'm falling back to less confident lines as you said, which I need to practice more on. That lobster claw was particularly bad because I was trying to fix bad proportions again, I wanted to make it bigger and bigger so I ended up making way too many lines.

And thanks for the examples of building on top of legs/sausage forms! I was honestly a little uncertain during these exercises but these examples make it really clear.

The problems you mentioned aside, I think you've done a good job. You're building up each insect/arachnid with simple forms first then building on top of it which is the main point of this lesson. You also make good use of the line running down the middle of the head, thorax and abdomen. One thing I'd like to bring up is that you sometimes leave forms open, like on the 5th image - https://i.imgur.com/NzoLKsC.jpeg. Adding extra details like the spikes are fine but make sure to close them off and create a proper form (cone-like shapes in this case) otherwise you're undermining the solidity of the overall image.

Tips on wobbly lines that I found helpful:

1. Draw with your shoulder. I'm sure you're aware of this and why its important so I'm stressing this point. If you catch yourself falling back to drawing with your wrist, force yourself to use your shoulder again

2. Make sure your arm movements aren't too slow. The faster you move, the smoother the line will be but the less accurate it becomes, its a trade off. It's physically more difficult to make wobbly lines if you're moving at a decent speed. Try increasing your speed a little (don't go overboard) and practice creating basic forms from earlier exercises with nice smooth lines. Once you're comfortable, gradually slow down while maintaining the smoothness until you can draw controlled, smooth lines

3. Don't try to be perfect. Creating convincing 3d forms is the main goal, drawing smooth lines are much more helpful in conveying this than trying to have perfect accuracy and ending up with wobbly lines. Accept that your drawings will not be 100% accurate and thats okay

On lineweight:

Adding lineweight is difficult and I think it comes down to accuracy which will improve over time with practice. Make sure to keep applying the ghosting method and draw a single, confident line.

On proportions:

I think proportions come down to

• observation (noticing proportions accurately)

• drawing accuracy (drawing the proportion you're intending)

Proportions isn't a huge focus in this course so I wouldn't worry about it too much other than paying close attention to the relative proportions of your reference image and trying to recreate it (again don't try to be perfect)

Still, its an important skill to have. If you want some some focused practice, try drawing from still life while applying measuring techniques (measure using your pen with your arm extended) go look up some tutorials for this. It will get you to pay attention to the forms your and their relative size and position by measuring them and then translating that to your drawing.