Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants
4:56 PM, Saturday June 18th 2022
Here is my lesson three stuff! Thanks!
Hey there! Congrats on finishing lesson 3!
Arrows: Really solid work here! Your arrows have confident flow, and I appreciate your challenging yourself to do inconventional arrow shapes (e.g., spiral arrow). One thing that gets a little confusing is your hatching. On some arrows, the hatching is inconsistent. Make sure to keep up with how that hatching would carry over on different overlaps. One thing that helped me is thinking about which side overlaps which. The side being overlapped would have the hatching due to its carrying of the other's shadow. Also, line weight can make things much clearer here. I see some instances of line weight, so keep it up. If you haven't already, I would add the line weight first so you have a better idea of overlaps.
Leaves: Good stuff here, too. Just like the arrows, you did a stellar job of flowing confidently in the forms. And, you were not afraid to overlap, which is something that even I struggle with sometimes. Your textures were solid, too.
Branches: You did alright on this exercise. You also challenged yourself with some difficult branches (e.g., the curved branches in the bottom left). One thing I noticed is that there is a little bit of wavering on the flow of your branches. While there was tailing (which gets better with practice), there were some instances where the lines did not look as confident as others. Remember to ghost your lines until you are confident that you can execute them. Don't get caught up in trying to make the lines connect to the ellipses. Sometimes, confidently missing is better than waveringly correcting.
Plants: Remarkable work overall! Your construction looks very solid throughout your demos. There were a few instances of wavering, but the final product still looked fine. Your textures are also incredible. Instead of just putting marks down, you took the time to study and understand how the texture sits on the form. Keep up the good work.
One thing I did notice was that there were some plants where it was difficult to discern which leaves or parts of the plant were in front of the other. For many of your textured plants, you added line weight when necessary. However, there are some instances where line weight could have been employed more (the top left flower and bottom left potato plant of textured plants page 2 are a couple of examples). Keep that in mind for future demos, as line weight is a good tool to help the viewer know which parts are most important to a figure.
Another thing I would keep in mind for future demos is to limit yourself to one or two drawings per page. There are some instances of plants where the construction is hard to discern because of how small you drew them. For example, on Constructional Plants page 4, you seemed to have a difficult time with the branches on the branched plant. Giving yourself more space would allow you a better chance to convey the branches more confidently. As you move into the next lessons, it is best to give yourself enough space so you can better convey what you are seeing. Preferably, I would just do one drawing per page, but if you feel inclined to do two for a page, you can, but only if you can still draw it confidently.
Overall, good work! I think you are ready to move on to Lesson 4.
Next Steps:
Move on to Lesson 4.
Here we're getting into the subjective - Gerald Brom is one of my favourite artists (and a pretty fantastic novelist!). That said, if I recommended art books just for the beautiful images contained therein, my list of recommendations would be miles long.
The reason this book is close to my heart is because of its introduction, where Brom goes explains in detail just how he went from being an army brat to one of the most highly respected dark fantasy artists in the world today. I believe that one's work is flavoured by their life's experiences, and discovering the roots from which other artists hail can help give one perspective on their own beginnings, and perhaps their eventual destination as well.
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