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2:32 AM, Tuesday July 13th 2021
edited at 3:12 AM, Jul 13th 2021

I know that it can be subjective, but now I feel like I tried to convey too much textural information...without using very efficient/economic marks, apparently.

  • Again, in the leaves/petals examples, I thought that "adding more ink", or rather blocking up some texture, provided enough contrast to notice the veins and depressions while still treating those areas as form shading...but perhaps I should have just tried to capture very little to no texture in them?... Perhaps not treating them as form shading at all would have been a better choice?

Thanks again for the feedback. I'm still puzzled by what would be the right balance here, so I will now move on to the next lesson.

edited at 3:12 AM, Jul 13th 2021
12:52 PM, Tuesday July 13th 2021

Shoot, I messed up in my response. i meant to say that form shading will not be a part of the drawings you do for this course (which is ehat the linked section explains). So yes, not treating them as form shading would have been the better choice.

It's best to treat all of the filled black shapes you draw as cast shadows, without exception, at least in the scope of what you draw here.

Sorry for the confusion.

1:35 PM, Thursday July 15th 2021
edited at 4:11 PM, Jul 15th 2021

---(I'm starting to think most of this is actually just more of my confused thoughts that I should have kept to myself.)---

Your linked section does not explicitly mention to never use form shading—it merely says that it's not the main focus of the course and that it's not used for the purpose of making forms feel 3D. This is followed by "everything we add to our drawings serves a specific purpose. Therefore if the shading does not serve any such purpose (since it's already being handled by the techniques listed above), then we do not bother to include it."... But then, to end this explanation with "Shading where those transitions are achieved with textures specific to the surface of that object, however, are perfectly acceptable." can make the instructions rather confusing with the way you put it.

I had three purposes in using form shading: adding clarity and contrast, helping to maintain a hierarchy and sneaking in some textural information. To my understanding, there was no reason for me to not use it when adding texture because I was not using it to make my drawings "pretty" with hatching lines or as a means of construction. Not to mention that I've seen you use something similar to it in demonstrations like this or as I think I misunderstood here, at step (4). Only after the fact do you tell me straight up to not ever use it in Drawabox, and so I won't.

In fact...

  • Are these really cast shadows?... I'm not sure anymore, given that some of them seem to occur on the sloping planes of the leaf itself without being cast by another object...

Sorry if I seem a little impatient and also for continuously coming back to you with something else, especially if you're dealing with over a thousand people. It really is a difficult course.

edited at 4:11 PM, Jul 15th 2021
8:28 PM, Thursday July 15th 2021

I understand that the lessons are far from perfect, and much of it needs to be updated for the sake of clarity. That is something I did embark on, starting from Lesson 1, several months ago, and it's something I plan to continue for the rest of the course - but unfortunately it had to be paused due to my apartment flooding and my equipment being placed in storage. I will resume that effort in September.

Those of you receiving official critique fortunately get more up-to-date and purposeful instruction in the critiques you receive, so you can rely on that. If there are any contradictions - and there will be - rely on what I've shared with you in the feedback. The lessons themselves are the result of an iterative process, and what I share in the critiques will eventually be reflected more directly there.

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