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9:11 PM, Monday April 19th 2021

So while this is definitely a move in the right direction (and looking at your previous work, it's by a considerable margin), there are a few things that stand out to me, looking over these revisions:

  • First and foremost, your drawing appears to exist in two phases. There's the fainter, at-times sketchier (like looking at the rhino's head) underdrawing where you don't appear to be completely committed to the marks you've put down, and there's the darker (honestly sometimes equally sketchy) marks where you've gone back over the first set to commit to those lines. This simply isn't how your markmaking should be approached in this course. Every single mark you put down is itself committed. No sketching, no broken lines, no hesitant strokes where you're not exactly sure if that's where the line should go. If you're putting it on the page, you've made a decision, and that decision needs to be respected.

  • Related to the previous point - line weight generally shouldn't be used to reinforce the entire silhouette of a shape, because this causes us to fall into the trap of simply tracing back over the existing linework (focusing too much on how it flows across the 2D page, rather than how it represents an edge moving through 3D space). Instead, stick to the fairly limited purpose of line weight - which is to help clarify how particular forms overlap one another in specific localized areas. Just like every other mark, your line weight should also be added using the ghosting method, to ensure that your execution is confident and smooth.

  • I know I raised the issue of observation in my previous critique, and you have definitely improved on that front. That said, there are definitely areas - especially the rhino's back legs - which don't look like they're accurate in their proportions. Of course, I don't have the reference images to compare to - in the future, it's probably a good idea to include them so I can judge this more accurately. Also, when it comes to leg construction, you're doing a good job with the basic sausage structures but you don't appear to be going any farther than that. Legs are more than just chains of sausages - we can return to our reference and find all kinds of little forms present along the structure that we can build up with additional masses. I know it's been a while, but this is something I raised in my initial critique of your lesson 4 work.

  • It looks like your head construction isn't really incorporating the points raised in the informal demo explanation I linked you to some time ago. Pay attention to the specific shape of the eye socket, and of how all the pieces (muzzle, cheekbone, brow ridge) fit together around the eye socket like a puzzle. Your rhino's head is very much falling short in this regard.

  • Remember that the circle we draw in the eye socket is itself the eyeball, and that the eyelids then need to wrap around it. Your eye in the fox drawing appeared to be a pretty straight diamond, ignoring the curvature of that form.

  • Your fur's getting better too, but with the fox's tail it definitely gets haphazard, and elsewhere it's still fairly quantity-over-quality. Fewer tufts that are more purposefully designed will always be preferable.

Here are some notes directly on your fox.

I'd like you to do another two pages of animal constructions to apply what I've laid out here. Go for different animals, rather than sticking with the same ones. Provide me with the reference images with your submission, and if you haven't been already, definitely look for reference images that are as high resolution as you can manage.

Next Steps:

2 more animal constructions.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
12:44 PM, Wednesday May 26th 2021

Hi Uncomfortable

Here is the link to my two drawings, this time with references included. I tried two different animals as you have suggested, namely a wolf and a crocodile

https://imgur.com/gallery/q8uzgPV

I tried my best to keep all my lines as uniform and confident as possible to minimise the sketching mentality that you pointed out last critique. I hope it is more successful this time. I realised that part of the issue is that when i start doing detail, i naturally start using a lot more force because i begin to use more of my wrist then my shoulder when adding the scales/ fur (and also my microns begin to blunt out a bit in the late state of my drawing). I would also admit that I struggle with showing restraint when adding detail as I grew up a doodler and picked up the bad habit of chicken scratching/ adding detail mindlessly . That's something I think I will still need to work on, and i hope i did not overcomplicate the crocodile drawing especially

I also had quite a bit of trouble with the wolf's snout. i need to work on being able to capture the angle in which its face is turning.

Thanks for the patience and the tutelage. Its been a hard journey but I really appreciate the lessons and the critiques and Im learning alot!

Russlemania

2:50 PM, Thursday May 27th 2021

While your work was heading in the right direction initially, this is a BIG improvement, and it's very clear that you've immensely solidified your grasp of the concepts and put my critique to excellent use. Fantastic work. Your constructions feel vastly more solid, and the relationships between the forms incorporated into each animal feel more clearly defined.

Just one little thing - don't forget to add the contour curves at the joint between your sausage forms. You do so somewhat inconsistently in your wolf, often forgetting to add them at the ankles. I know that this point technically isn't between sausage forms, but it's really about defining the relationships/intersections between any two forms that connect to one another.

Anyway, keep up the great work. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.

Next Steps:

Feel free to move onto the 250 cylinder challenge, which is a prerequisite for lesson 6.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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Staedtler Pigment Liners

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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