Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants
6:13 AM, Monday July 20th 2020
Hi thanks for your critique in advance ;)
Hey Lite,
Beginning with your arrows, there's some really great work here. Your arrows are really nice and smooth, as a next step I'd recommend going for some more extreme angles. Imagine the arrow goes a long way into the distance. That was something that really helped me understand depth better when I was at this stage. You already seem to have a good grasp on it but it can never hurt to push yourself, which is of course why we all do things like Drawabox.
Your leaves have a very nice sense of fluidity to them as well. It's very easy to imagine them floating on a breeze. I think the next step for these would be to try out some unusual leaf shapes. Something like a maple leaf that would give you a great opportunity to experiment with how the techniques apply to different shapes.
Onto your plants, there's some really nice work here but it's a little bit hidden by the shadowing. It's quite difficult to see the constructional elements within the drawing on the right on this page for example. One of the critiques I got from Uncomfortable when I did this lesson was that form shading is not meant to be a part of these lessons. The only shadows that should exist are ones that are directly cast by another object (e.g. a leaf on another lead) with minimal texture shading and no attempt to indicate changes in colour.
Pages like this one are a really great example of a focus on construction and do a great job of showing form so I know you've got a handle on construction and I can tell you've put a lot of really great work into this lesson as a whole.
Next Steps:
Before I mark this lesson as complete I'd like to assign a couple more exercises to solidify your learning here. I think this extra step will serve you well as you approach insects and animals whose construction can be very difficult to read with too much detail.
I'd like you to complete:
One page of unconventional leaves
One page of a plants of your choice using only construction and cast shadows
I know you'll crush it!
A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.
In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.
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