On the arrows, #1 I just couldn't figure it out anymore at some point. #3 I tried to do an inverted C, but I think I need to use a box to draw it, because it feels like the cross lines would not be converging to the correct points.
On the leaves, I saw a nice twist in a dieffenbachia plant when I was researching, but when drawing without reference, the monstrosity that is #7 emerged. :)
Starting with your arrows, I'm noticing that you appear to be drawing these in two phases - you've got your seemingly more fluid, but more lightly drawn lines, and then a second pass with a darker, heavier stroke that often feels more rigid and stiff. In general, don't approach your drawings for these lessons in this manner. While line weight is great, it should really only be applied to limited, local areas, rather than being used to replace large chunks of linework. It is about drawing attention to a mark that exists by going back over it with a confident stroke, the same way you'd have drawn a mark for the first time (employing the ghosting method and all). There are some places where you did at least draw the darker strokes with a single, continuous stroke, but there were some cases where you did so with a much hairier, sketchier line that breaks a lot of the concepts covered back in Lesson 1.
Moving onto your leaves exercise, you've got these flowing quite smoothly and fluidly through space. I can see that you're definitely stressing your line weight here as well, although somewhat better than you did with your arrows, as you're not entirely replacing the entirety of your leaves' outlines. I'm also pleased to see that you're moving in the direction of adhering closely to the structure laid out in previous phases of construction when adding further edge detail, building off that structure directly instead of treating it more loosely like some manner of a suggestion. This is good to see, and it leads well into the core premise of construction.
As far as the core aspects of the branches exercise, you're doing a good job. You're overlapping those segments properly to have them flow smoothly from one to the other. There are some however where you're not extending those segments fully halfway towards the next ellipse (like #8), so please review these instructions on how this exercise should be done.
In regards to your line weight, you are running into one significant issue - by making the internal lines so much heavier than the lines along the silhouette of the forms, you're making those branch forms feel more like a loose collection of lines rather than a single cohesive form. I explain this further here.
Lastly, the occasional use of hatching on rounded surfaces - especially in cases like 8 where you've made the hatching run across the branch form, is a bad idea. Those lines function as contour lines, running along the surface of the form to suggest to the viewer how those surfaces warp through 3D space. By using largely straight lines for this, you're flattening out that form.
Moving through your plant constructions, there is definitely a good deal of improvement throughout your work. This page and this one show an especially effective use of construction especially, though there are good qualities in this regard in others as well. The only problem is - as the pattern suggests - your approach to line weight:
You have a tendency to add line weight with sketchy, broken lines.
You have a tendency to split your drawing into an "underdrawing" and a "clean up pass", something that back in Lesson 2's form intersection video I mentioned should be avoided. We want to focus entirely on every single form we draw, and every mark we use in doing so, being a "real" part of the drawing. Coming back with a heavier stroke to replace those lines after the fact encourages us to be much sloppier when laying down the initial construction (thus establishing less solid forms), while also causing us to execute those "final" marks using certain bad habits, from using sketchier, scratchier lines as you've done here, and "tracing" over the previous marks, a process that involves focusing too much on how our lines exist on the flat page, and forgetting about how they represent edges that move through 3D space.
Overall you are doing well, but I think you need to take a closer look at how I approach these drawings in my demonstrations. All of my lines are drawn to be equally confident and clear, and each one is treated as being a part of the final drawing, rather than as something that can be ignored later on. Take a look at the potato plant demo specifically. At no point am I sketching my lines, or working roughly. Each mark is executed purposefully, using the ghosting method.
Now, I am going to mark this lesson as complete - you've demonstrated a good grasp of how construction works in most regards, but this is something you'll have to resolve in your Lesson 4 work.
Next Steps:
Move onto lesson 4.
Thank you for the critique and the steps to follow!
I find it very difficult, because the initial lines, even though I generally ghost them, aren't always accurate. This is the same issue I've had for years when trying gesture drawing or life drawing in graphite... I end up with too heavy lines and it messes everything.
Will it help if I just abandon the search for accuracy in favor of committing with each and every line, even if the drawings will look wrong at first?
Also, I would like to ask about this:
"In regards to your line weight, you are running into one significant issue - by making the internal lines so much heavier than the lines along the silhouette of the forms, you're making those branch forms feel more like a loose collection of lines rather than a single cohesive form"
By internal lines, do you mean the cross contours? With the branches I find it a bit more difficult to say if a branch segment is going into the paper or out of it without adding a bit of weight to the cross contour curve. And this is also the reason why I added the hashing on branch #8, trying to match the cross contour. But as you've remarked, these things break the forms, indeed. I feel a bit lost in how to express this "going away/coming towards viewer" for the branch segments. I definitely agree that my approach falls flat, I just don't know how to make them a bit more solid/clear.
Anyway, thank you very much for the critique!
I wanted to get as fast as possible to the construction lessons, because the fun part of my homework is mostly drawing animals (and now some plants are quite fun to draw too), so I'll do more constructions and try to work on the issues with the confidence and line weight.
To your first point, accuracy is something that comes with practice, but achieving singular, smooth, confident strokes is a matter of approach. The ghosting method, as explained here in greater detail is all about learning to commit to a stroke. Back in Lesson 1, we talk about how your first priority is maintaining a smooth, confident, continuous stroke, and that accuracy is only relevant after that has been established. This continues to be the case throughout the course, so to answer your question, yes. Doesn't matter if your end results come out badly, the focus is on every drawing as an exercise, not as something to have an impressive drawing to show off at the end.
As for the 'internal lines', I mean that if you think of a drawing of a form as it exists in the two dimensions of the page, you've got lines that define its silhouette, and lines that exist within that silhouette. The 'internal lines' are those on the inside. So where you're adding heavy line weight to the contour ellipses, it's breaking the cohesion of the overall form.
I wanted to get as fast as possible to the construction lessons
To this point, you really shouldn't be going through this course with the kind of mindset that I want to "get through this as quickly as possible". I'm not sure if there are any courses where you should be rushing through sections to get to the parts that you feel are more important, but here especially if you drop the ball on the concepts covered early on, you won't get nearly as much out of the course as a whole. Moreover, after a point you'll end up stumbling enough to warrant the assignment of revisions to ensure that you understand the material and are able to apply it correctly. To that point, you'll save us both time in the long run if you set aside any of your own deadlines and goals and just focus on completing the course as it's set out, with the appropriate time and focus spent on every individual lesson and exercise.
Ok, thank you very much!
I will read the first lessons again, especially on line quality and line weight and try to respect the rules in all my drawings. I will definitely take my time on lessons 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, but indeed, I should work on the flaws I still have in the first 2 lessons. I don't want to seem like I'm ignoring the lessons, I feel this course has already helped me a lot, it's just that I'm fighting against a few years of bad habits, as far as line quality goes. :) I'll keep chipping away at it and hope to catch myself whenever I mess up.
Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.
Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.
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