1:42 AM, Friday March 20th 2020
There are a number of problems that are present across all three drawings - some of which I've mentioned in the past. I've pointed them out in these notes.
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Drawing something that is believably three dimensional requires you to treat it as though you believe it is 3D. This is easier said than done, of course. When drawing on a page we have the freedom to put down any marks we choose - but there are many choices we can make that will remind the viewer that they're just looking at something two dimensional. Notice how you initially drew a cranial ball, then later went back over it to change the nature of that shape on the page. This alteration was something you did entirely in two dimensions - you didn't respect the three dimensional nature of the form you had created in 3D space, and so in making this change, you sent the signal to the viewer that the drawing was not 3D. This is the sort of thing you also did in your initial set when extending the torso of the flamingo which I pointed out here. Once you place a form in space, you need to accept that it is solid and cannot simply be altered or ignored so easily. If you want to change it, you have to do so by reinforcing the fact that it is 3D - this can be done by cutting it into pieces using contour lines as shown here, then choosing to treat one piece as positive space, and the other as negative space. If this kind of cut approach won't work for your situation, you simply need to accept that you're stuck with the form you'd drawn already.
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Similarly, you need to be drawing through each and every form, drawing it in its entirety, to remind yourself of how they all exist in 3D space, how they sit in that space, and how they relate to one another within that space. If you let your forms end where they are overlapped by another, then you're just giving yourself another reminder that what you're drawing isn't real and 3D, and you're making it that much harder for you to believe in the lie you're creating. The more you believe in the lie, the more difficult it will be for you to introduce details and make choices that contradict this illusion - buying into it wholeheartedly is ultimately something we're working towards.
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Your sausage forms are not proper sausages - you're smushing the ends and flattening them out quite a bit. Remember that the ends need to be spherical, giving ample room to overlap. Your contour curves are also not wrapping around the rounded forms well enough, instead coming out somewhat shallower. Don't forget about how the contour lines exercises in lesson 2 encourage you to even overshoot your curves as they hook back around if necessary to really push the sense that they're wrapping around this form.
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There was a good deal of extra room left on the page for each and every one of these drawings. It's one thing to leave a little extra margin in order to ensure you don't bump up against it, but the space you're leaving on the table is actively making this drawing more difficult. With less space to work with, your brain is struggling not only to deal with spatial problems, but it is also resulting in linework that is somewhat more clumsy (because the lines end up thicker relative to the whole drawing). It also makes us more susceptible to drawing more with our elbow than our shoulder.
A couple additional points I have is that you need to spend more time observing your reference - right now the way you capture elements is coming out more simplified than it really should, which suggests that you're drawing more from memory. You may well be studying your reference a great deal, but you're also spending too much time looking away from it - remember that we want to be looking back constantly, only taking a moment or two to draw a specific mark or shape before refreshing our memories. For example, if you look at the simplicity of the eyes and the paws, and then compare them to the wealth of information present in your reference image, you'll see that a lot is being lost in translation.
It's also worth mentioning that much of your linework is somewhat slower and more careful. Your lines are still smooth to be sure, but if you look at the initial marks you'd put down when laying out the initial masses, they're considerably thinner and more fluid. They ooze confidence, whereas the rest of your lines suggest that you're pressing far too hard, and being generally too belaboured with every mark. Confident lines make our forms feel solid and our drawings feel more alive. Drawing more slowly and carefully keeps the lines more uniform and imbues them with a sense of rigidity and stiffness. You're clearly demonstrating the capacity to draw these much better, but it's the choices you're making that are putting blockades in your way. These may not be conscious choices, but the solution is to make conscious choices to do the opposite. To draw more confidently, to observe your reference more closely and more frequently, and to adhere to the principles and techniques outlined in these lessons (in regards to treating every form as solid and 3D, and of drawing them in their entirety.
I don't usually reassign the same reference image, but I think you should give this cougar another shot. You can submit one drawing, but take the time to reflect on this critique, on the lesson material, and even look back over earlier lessons - lesson 2 in particular. Of course, remember that you should be still doing those older exercises as part of a regular warmup to keep the principles of drawing confidently and fluidly, and of constructing proper sausage forms fresh in your mind.
Next Steps:
Try drawing the cougar once more.