Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids
6:16 PM, Tuesday February 1st 2022
Here's the link for the image references:
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3:27 PM, Thursday February 3rd 2022
Hi! Here's my critique:
Sausages
Your accuracy with the contour ellipses is very good, but I'm noticing two problems here. You're not keeping the sausage width consistent, they must not taper like this. Try to make them like you did the two bottom right on the second page. It's fine if you can't draw them in a single stroke. I think segmenting them is allowed, just make sure to continue the line where you lifted the pen with care and precision.
The contour ellipses are all the same angle, meaning they're not rotating in 3D space. Varying their sizes is essential, it's about convincing yourself that you're making something solid. You can find this mistake listed here.
Insects
Very good job on the insect construction! Honestly I struggle to find what to critique here, other than some minor accuracy/proportion mistakes (which are not the focus of drawabox). Observing the reference, maybe I'd rather construct the neck of this insect with two sausages so it feels more solid, especially since we're looking at it from side view.
I will critique you on the texture though, as it seems that you're mostly texturing explicitly instead of implicitly, meaning you're outlining a lot of textures and "showing everything" to the viewers. You can see a clear difference between texture scarcity while you followed the demos, vs the insects that you did on your own. There's really not a need to draw every single bump you see on the surface - consider that you're drawing cast shadows, meaning there will be less of them on a lit area but more in the shadows (at some point they begin blending with the form shadow). Also remind yourself that you're not doing this to achieve a pretty drawing, but rather to learn how to observe and apply texture.
Here's an example, you don't need to draw every line on the back of this insect, it's better to imply those lines exists. It's also not necessary to outline the colored patterns that some insects have. In fact, you can completely ignore them, I asked Uncomfortable about this myself.
EDIT: It won't let me edit the section after this, I meant re-read the whole texture section, not just implicit vs explicit segment that I've linked.
Next Steps:
I will ask of you to do some revisions because I think they'll help you improve in your weak areas. Firstly, draw one page of organic sausages with contour curves, keeping in mind what I said in my critique.
After that, re-read/re-watch the texture lesson and draw one more textured insect of your choice. Your construction is great so this is just for you to start applying texture the way it's taught on drawabox. While re-reading, compare Uncomfortable's words with your insects and think of how they could be applied. When drawing, constantly ask yourself "How can I represent this texture with as few lines as possible?". Good luck!
11:34 AM, Friday February 4th 2022
Thanks so much HFO1 XD
Will apply your advice :+1:
7:05 PM, Tuesday February 8th 2022
I've added an extra Insect and the contour curves drawing to the Google Photos link XD
12:59 AM, Wednesday February 9th 2022
Great job, I can see the improvement! You can move onto the next lesson now, I'll give my thoughts on your revisions because why not.
The sausages are nice and consistent now! If you wanna get creative with this exercise in future warmups, you can make the sausage edges both face towards or away from you and make the contour ellipses change directions like this.
I think you did texture the best on the bottom side of the abdomen. Try applying such dark to light transitions whenever you get an opportunity to, whether it's on a big or small scale.
Next Steps:
Proceed onto lesson 5! :)
1:20 PM, Wednesday February 9th 2022
Thanks HFO1 for your feedback
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