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1:40 PM, Wednesday November 9th 2022
Hello Steenstn, I'm ThatOneMushroomGuy and I'll be the TA handling your critique today.
Arrows
Starting with your arrows, they're coming along quite nicely with lines which are confidently drawn for the most part, they have good overlaps and carry a good sense of fluidity as they move across the depth of the page. Good job!
The points that you could improve here are that the shading in your arrows is sometimes located at the wrong side of the bends and your hatching.
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Due to the way perspective works, objects of the same size will appear bigger when closer to the viewer and smaller when further away. The way this affects an object of consistent size that stretches across space is that segments will get smaller as they move away from the viewer. The way you shade your arrows, such as this one implies that your arrows are getting exponentially bigger as they move away from the viewer, this breaks the perspective, here's the way your arrow's hatching placement should be approached.
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Remember that the side of the arrow that's closest to the viewer will be the biggest side, as such, the side that should get the hatching will be the smaller side.
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Hatching should be perpendicular to the lenght of the arrow, running along the width with parallel hatching lines that run from one side of the arrow to the other, and not stop at arbitrary places.
And lastly, keep in mind that lineweight should be added on top of your arrow's overlaps to reinforce the depth of the arrow.
Leaves
There isn't much to point out in your leaves as you've done a good job of drawing them with a good sense of energy and they flow across the page nicely. They're also drawn with good and natural folds.
Your edge detail is also well executed, as you make good use of the mark making principles in lesson 1.
The only thing I can point out is that in here and in here it seems you tried to redo your outer edges. Keep in mind that we must commit to our lines even if they don't turn out the way we originally hoped.
Branches
Onto your branches, you're doing well by varying your ellipse's degrees. But you should also draw through your ellipses twice as this is also a mistake that shows up in your plant constructions.
You should also keep in mind the mark making principles from lesson 1, lines must be smooth and confidently drawn while you have visible signs of hesitation in this page.
You're also not completely following the instructions for this exercise, as you're drawing your lines in a single stroke and not extending your lines. Remember the steps to how branches should be drawn: by starting a segment at the first ellipse, continuing past the second, and stopping halfway to the third, then restarting at the second ellipse and continuing the steps until the branch is complete.
Plant Construction Section
Onto your plant constructions they are generally coming out really nicely, they have a good sense of tridimensionality to them and you're making good use of the principles introduced in the lesson, especially in your mushroom drawings.
But there are a couple of things that can be improved here.
Firstly I'd like to address the fact that you're generally drawing way too small.
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Many of your pages have empty spaces that could have been better used by drawing your first constructions bigger. Right now your drawings are too small for you to engage your whole arm. Which is forcing you to skip certain instructions.
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It's important to give our first constructions as much space on the page as they require, and only afterwards, if there is enough space on the page, add another construction. This way you allow yourself more space to work through the spatial reasoning problems that arise when tackling these exercises.
Remember to construct cylindrical objects around a minor axis, such as your mushroom caps, and in this potted plant, you should also remember to follow the instructions for this lesson as in this particular plant you don't follow drawabox construction principles, such as not using the leaf construction method or drawing through your forms.
- The purpose of these exercises is to develop our spatial reasoning skills through the use of exercises. We're not looking to make clean or nice looking drawings, as such all the methods and principles introduced in the course should be considered and followed when approaching your homework pages, including drawing through all of your forms.
In your rafflesia you don't fully use the leaf construction method, so be careful as there's a tiny gap in your flow line to the outer edges. This also happens to the flowers in this page.
When adding texture remember to keep the principles of Drawabox in mind, texture in Drawabox is based on cast shadows and as of now you're drawing the textures in your plants pretty explicitly, here are some useful reminders on texture.
Also remember to use lineweight in your constructions to clarify where each form sits in space.
Final Thoughts
Your work is looking good as you seem to understand the concepts this lesson seems to seek and your later pages have very clear noticeable amounts of improvement, but you also need to pay more attention to some of the principles introduced and follow them closely.
I'm going to be moving you to Lesson 4 as I believe you've shown adequate understanding and improvement in this lesson, but remember to keep the points here in mind and to follow the instructions closely.
Next Steps:
Move on to Lesson 4.
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