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1:57 PM, Thursday March 18th 2021
Hi Wifu4Lifu, I've checked your submission.
Starting out by your sausages, you are doing a good job taking into account the charasteristics of simple sausages, there are some slip ups here and there, but you will get better at them with time. You are also doing a great job by changing the degrees of your ellipses, the only thing I have for advice on this exercise is that you should invest just a little more time on ghosting so you can fit more snugly your contour curves. Remember that we are pursuing the illusion that these lines are running along the surface of the form, so we don't want them floating loosely inside our forms!
Moving onto your insect constructions, you did a really good job with this constructions- You are applying the sausage method very accurately, and your forms feel like I could extend my hand and grab them. Though, there is still room for some improvement, so you can keep going on the right path.
The most important thing here is to remember that we are trying our best to maintain 3d forms in a 2d surface, this means that it's very easy to make mistakes and undermine the solidity of our constructions. That's why we need to limit the kind of marks that we allow ourselves to make, sticking certain rules.
One of this rules is to avoid trying to alter the silhouette when adding new 3d forms to our structure. It;s pretty common to see people cutting into their forms or extending them with flat shapes to create more complex forms- The thing is, when changing the silhouette (2d shape), you don't alter the 3d form, you just break the connection between them, and ultimately, undermining your constructions.
Take a look at this construction your did, here you are adding complexity by extending over the silhouette with a flat shape!
Instead, we try to add new, enclosed, 3d forms and we then establish the relation they have with our construction, eiteher by contour curves like the organic intersections exercises, or by shaping the silhouette of the new form so it wraps around the existing forms (as shown here).
For examples, check out this beetle horn demo which you may compare with your beetle construction and this ant head.
One last thing, as I've already said, good job on applying the sausage method, though it is more like a first step. What we can do now that we have stated the flow and solidity of our legs, is keep adding forms to make more complex and interesting forms, like this and this. With this, we can take our constructions way further, like in this ant leg, and even in this dog leg (since this technique will be used on the next lesson)
You did a great job, I'm gonna mark this lesson as completed! Keep it up.
Also, glad to see you back at DaB!
Next Steps:
Feel free to move on to lesson 5!
6:02 AM, Sunday March 21st 2021
Thank you! Sometimes, I have a hard time understanding what I'm looking at. I can't find a good enough reference image that provides some clarification. Would it be best to make an educated guess in these cases or what would be the approach here? I'll have to admit, the beetle horn and ant head demos are more complicated than what I had managed to do so far. I wonder what it'll take to have such a level of observation with anything we draw. It feels like this is going to be important when tackling the next lesson and when learning human anatomy. I'm just amazed. Anyways, thanks for taking the time. Your feedback is super helpful and informative! Hope you have a nice day.
7:26 PM, Sunday March 21st 2021
I definitely feel the same way as you, these demos are from no other than Uncomfy himself (don't tell him that I get into his official critiques and steal his material ;D), though what I think we need to develop here (and it will take us time) is not just the ability to observe, but also to transform what we see into the forms that we need to add. It's probably the same point as you made, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it!
Anyways, I'm glad you found my critique useful, hope you have a nice day too!
Also, next time you submit a lesson, check out the critique-exchange channel on discord, or just ping me there so I can go over it.
2:45 AM, Monday March 22nd 2021
Sure thing! I think Ill do that :D
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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.
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