Hello Splatted.

I hope you didn't mind me poking fun at the date on that insect. It's actually very helpful when students put the date on their work. It lets me know if there have been long periods of time between pages, which would explain if a student gets rusty or forgets things, and also if there is a sudden improvement in the work as the student may return to these exercises with more experience from other drawing projects. Conversely if I see multiple pages done in a single day it can be a heads up that the student may be underestimating how much time these constructions require, especially as they get more demanding later in the course. So I hope you continue to write the date(s) on your work.

1) Perhaps I could have phrased this better. This diagram shows the various configurations of contour curves I would normally expect to see for this exercise. Your reasoning is correct though. If one end of that organic form is facing almost directly at the viewer and it bends quite strongly like this banana then the contour curves at the far end will be narrower than the contour curves at the near end. What I wrote for you was designed to make sure that you are aware of how the shift in degree operates on cylindrical forms, not to admonish you for experimenting with your organic forms. I will work explaining this particular point more clearly in the future. I apologise for any confusion and hope that clears things up for you.

2) Ah, okay, I can totally see where you're coming from there. Lesson 4 has some different strategies for constructing legs, between the various demos. Given how the course has developed, and how Uncomfortable is finding new, more effective ways for students to tackle certain problems. So not all the approaches shown are equal, but they do have their uses. If you were working from the wasp demo then you applied it well enough. Uncomfortable is working on overhauling the lesson content, to make the information provided more up to date and consistent. For now, the the shrimp and lobster demos at the top of the informal demo page show the most effective way to add forms to insect legs, it's also shown in the ant leg demo I shared with you. It's not that you did a bad job (as I remarked, you're doing well, and are ready for the next lesson) more that I'm trying to provide and explain better techniques for you to use as you move forward.

On that note, while you're here I'll give you a heads-up on heads in lesson 5, as there are a variety of techniques being used in the various demos. We normally say this to students after they complete the lesson but I think you can make good use of this information if I present it to you now. As it stands, as explained at the top of the tiger demo page (here), the current approach that is the most generally useful, as well as the most meaningful in terms of these drawings all being exercises in spatial reasoning, is what you'll find here in this informal head demo.

There are a few key points to this approach:

1- The specific shape of the eye sockets - the specific pentagonal shape allows for a nice wedge in which the muzzle can fit in between the sockets, as well as a flat edge across which we can lay the forehead area.

2- This approach focuses heavily on everything fitting together - no arbitrary gaps or floating elements. This allows us to ensure all of the different pieces feel grounded against one another, like a three dimensional puzzle.

3- We have to be mindful of how the marks we make are cuts along the curving surface of the cranial ball - working in individual strokes like this (rather than, say, drawing the eye socket with an ellipse) helps a lot in reinforcing this idea of engaging with a 3D structure.

I hope that clears things up for you.