Starting out with your organic intersections, I can definitely see that you're struggling a little when it comes to actually having your cast shadows fall on the surface of the forms beneath, so that's definitely something you're going to want to dedicate a little more time to figuring out. One key necessity is to think about where your light source actually is, and to ensure that you're maintaining a consistent relationship with it. To have shadows cast on both sides of a form wouldn't make sense, and you're ending up in that situation quite a bit. Additionally, don't add your cast shadows until the very end, and really think about just how each surface exists in 3D space, and how those shadows are being cast upon them. Even the ground plane is its own surface, and all are receptive of shadows.
Continuing onto your animal constructions, there's definitely good progress here, and I can see a lot of effort being invested into figuring out these different drawings. There are some key issues that should help you progress a fair bit further of course, so I'll focus on pointing those out.
Above all else, the key shortcoming here is that you're jumping between working in two dimensions and working in three dimensions very freely. Constructional drawing is all about building things up by introducing new, solid, complete forms to our structure, establishing how each one relates to that which already exists, in 3D space. It is however very easy for us to simply draw some lines, or a shape, or to create a shape that relies on existing lines to be fully enclosed. We're drawing, after all, and everything that goes onto the page is within our control.
And that's our greatest weakness. The fact that we can draw whatever marks we wish, and that the vast majority of these marks would serve to undermine the illusion we're trying to create. That is precisely why thinking so much about how each thing we add is itself a solid, complete form, is so important. We are imposing external, made-up rules in order to keep the illusion consistent, and avoid undermining the viewer's suspension of disbelief.
Now, you have been working in three dimensions, but you've also just as often tossed them aside to take a little shortcut here and there, to bridge the gap between two forms without constructing a whole new form. And those tempting shortcuts are what we need to avoid. For example, I've taken one of your foxes and marked out where you opted to just draw a basic line instead of a form.
Now, there are plenty of instances where you do use those additional masses more correctly, so let's look at how we can employ them even better. The thing about these masses is that when they exist in the void on their own, they're basically balls of soft, squishy meat. They maintain their simplest possible form, because they're not being influenced by anything external - they're just balls, made up entirely of outward curves. When we press them down upon some existing structure however, they start to get more complex on the sides making contact. They develop inward curves, and corners as shown in this diagram. This is how we need to think about these additional masses.
The key to keep in mind is that every "inward" curve occurs in response to some actual, physical form that is pressing against our mass. That means that we can't just draw the silhouette in an arbitrary manner - we have to know precisely the nature of the form that's pressing against it, and even define those forms separately. You can actually see a lot of this in the ant leg and dog leg I shared in my critique of your lesson 4 work. Everything fits together, everything is influenced by elements that, whether they're drawn explicitly or not, have been thought through as well. I of course would encourage you to draw all those forms, however, just to make sure you're fully aware of how they exist on the body.
Another point I'm noticing is that while you're making attempts to use the sausage method for constructing your legs, note that you are frequently missing key aspects of the technique - from not using proper simple sausages (often using stretched ellipses instead) to not reinforcing the joint between sausage segments with a contour line. Be sure to look at this diagram again, as all these issues are noted there.
Thirdly, there are definitely issues in how you approach constructing heads. You're moving in the right direction in a number of places, trying to fit the eye sockets, muzzle, etc. together, but there is a lot of improvement that can be had. This is actually more an issue with the lesson's core demos on this topic being insufficient - so more recently I've added this brief explanation on how to think about head construction to address it until I'm able to revisit the lesson as a whole. Be sure to read through the text alongside it.
One last, relatively minor point I wanted to mention was that in your rhino you got caught up in the form shading of the underbelly. In the future, leave that out - remember that back in lesson 2 we talk about how this course will not be getting into any shading.
Now, I'll leave you to apply the points I've raised above with some revisions, and we'll look at what you come back with.
Next Steps:
Please submit the following:
4 pages of animal constructions. Take your time with each one - don't tackle more than one drawing in a single day, and make sure that you really focus on spending as much time as you reasonably can on each. The "one per day" isn't a deadline - if you feel you need to spend more than a day on a single drawing, then you are encouraged to do so. Spend that time planning out each and every mark you make, executing them with confidence, etc.
Hi Uncomfortable,
Thanks for the feedback. Attached is the re-do of the 4 pages of animal constructions. I still struggle with "layering" on the masses, but I do see what you mean. (I found it difficult to add masses for larger parts of the animals, like adding the belly at the bottom of the sausage, or a "rump" at the top-rear of the sausage). At least the fox is a step in the right direction. Let me know what you think.
I have found the following difficult and would be keen to hear if you have any links/feedback on what I might be missing:
adding masses for larger shapes (the belly, the rump, etc), I can tell I'm sort of just "tacking them on" when I can't see where they might attach.
in which direction do I add the contour line on the sausages when they meet? I tried to add a countour based just off what I saw depending on each animal, but am I missing a "just do it one way" kind of thing?
faces remain difficult, but at least the fox one improved. I struggle sometimes with getting the initial proportion of the head to the sausage right - guess It's better to start too small and add layers than to start too big?
Thanks again,
T
Before I touch on your questions, let's look at your revisions.
The antelope definitely shows that you're not really understanding the idea of attacking forms to one another. You've got a lot of areas, especially around the legs, where you've just pasted shapes on top of one another, but never actually defined the three dimensional relationships between those forms as I've pointed out here. As you can see in my demonstration, every element I add is fully enclosed, and its silhouette wraps around the structure that precedes it.
Moving onto this rhinoceros, you've got a lot of additional masses whose silhouettes have an amount of randomness to how their silhouettes are drawn. Complexity to a form's silhouette is always a factor that can flatten out that shape - but if that complexity actually lines up with some other form present in your construction, and gives the impression that it is wrapping around it, or responding to it, it can actually make the construction appear even more believably three dimensional.
The most notable sign that you're not really thinking about how the complexity in your silhouettes relates to external factors is the big masses on the rhino's back - specifically those masses' top edges, where you've got little tips and waves with absolutely nothing there to press up against them. There is no reasonable cause for those forms to have that complexity, and so they read more like flat shapes rather than 3D forms. On those upper sides, they should be entirely simple, relying only on outward curves.
This is what I explained in my initial critique, in the section relating to this diagram. You definitely need more practice in regards to this.
As to head constructions, looking at that rhino's head there are definitely things you're not paying attention to in the demonstrations available to you. For example, if we compare your rhino's head to the demonstration/explanation I linked to you previously, it's clear that no attempt was made to apply what was shown there. Your eye socket and muzzle are floating independently of one another. Additionally, you should also be dropping a ball into the eye socket, around which to wrap eye lids. Do not just draw an iconic eye.
I have another demonstration of a rhino head I did for another student, which you can see here.
As a whole, I think there is a lot missing in terms of you actually applying what was mentioned in my critique. The lesson and my critiques are all quite dense, so it can often require going back over them several times on different occasions, and if you jump straight into drawing in a session hoping you've remembered everything you should be working on, you may be mistaken.
I will however say that your fox drawing is much better than the one you did in the original submission, so this shows you are moving in the right direction - even if you have a lot of room for improvement.
The last thing I wanted to mention is that for now, I strongly recommend you not worry about detail - specifically fur. It's only distracting at this point. I can see that you're drawing it quite quickly and haphazardly, rather than designing individual tufts and taking your time with each bit. When drawing fur, it's critical that you be patient and intentional with every mark. It's very tempting to fall into auto-pilot behaviour, repeating patterns and such, but that always comes out with a mess.
But of course, as I mentioned - leave fur out for your next set of revisions.
To answer your questions:
It's not about finding "where a form might attach". There's no specific place to put one form in relation to another. Any form can attach to any other form at any position, we just need to understand how they both exist in 3D space and how one would have to conform to the other. For example if we look at this mass you added to the fox's back, it has no inward curves (which as we've already discussed, occur in response to making contact with another form). In order to understand how that form would curve inwards, you'd have to think about how it would be pressing up against the torso, and how that torso sits in space. On top of that, you'd also have to think about how that whole mass is wrapping around both the side of the torso we can see, and the other side as well.
The contour line at the joint defines a cross-sectional slice shared by both forms. In order to understand how it should be angled, we have to think about how that slice exists in space, how it would be oriented, and how the viewer is looking at it. It seems you pretty much stopped trying to add those joints - even if you don't feel confident you understand how it works, you should still be attempting to do so. That's how we learn.
Yes, it's better to start smaller rather than bigger, as we can always build towards bigger.
I'm going to assign the same revisions as before - 4 pages.
Next Steps:
Please submit another 4 pages of revisions, with the same restrictions as before, along with not including any detail/fur/texture and focusing entirely on construction alone.
Ah, Christmas comes early!
Thanks for the thorough feedback. I will re-read and write some notes so I can try and get it to stick better. I will take my time with the next 4 pages as well, so you won't hear from me for a few weeks at least.
Seasons greetings/happy holidays/merry solstice.
T
These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.
Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).
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