Hello I’ll be handling the critique for your lesson 3 homework.

Organic Arrows

Starting with the organic arrows you’ve drawn the edges with a good deal of confidence which really helps to give them a good sense of form and you are also making some good attempts at the foreshortening of the ribbon, as it gets wider the closer it moves towards the viewer the only thing I would like to emphasize here is that the negative space between the zigzagging sections of the ribbon should get narrower as it moves further away from the viewer this is exemplified in this diagram

https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/011d064f.jpg . Aside from that I think you are moving in the right direction, although here are a few arrows that look a little bit off because they move more erratically, just try to stick to a S shape because it makes it easier to focus on all of the things I’ve mentioned above.

Leaves

Moving on to the leaves I think you are doing a great job drawing the edges confidently but there are some issues. Once you’ve drawn the the flow line and the edges all of further details you add tend do not seem to stick too closely to the previous stages of construction, and seem quite loose for example the cuts and bumps you add to the edges do not return and touch the initial edge thus leaving a gap, it is super important to avoid leaving gaps between stages of construction.

I like to see that you’ve tried some more complex leaf structures but you can still improve the way you are approaching them as explained in this informal demo https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/8/complexleafstructures , pay attention to how each flow line touches the edges of the initial structure without leaving any gap.

And one last thing is the texture, here I can see that you’ve added plenty of cast shadows and some of them are quite bold and take up a good chunk of the leaf, but there are some instances like on the aloe vera where the shadow ends up flattening the entire structure.

Before you add any cast shadows really try to think about what you are trying to achieve by adding that detail, in the case of these leaves we are trying to convey their texture so remember to use a gradient, that is a zone where there’s is a high density of detail to one where it is more sparse, in any case I highly encourage you to go back to lesson 2 and review some of that material so you can keep those concepts fresh in your mind

Branches

Moving on to the branches you are doing great, I can see that you’ve kept in mind the degree shift of each ellipse and how it changes as they move through space, you’ve also done a good job on the execution of each segment there are still some ends visible but this will improve with time and mileage.

Plants

-Moving on to the plants you’ve made a good attempt at using the construction method to build these plants with the tools you’ve been given in the previous section though there are some areas where you tend to slip into some of the mistakes we’ve already talked about.

-For example starting with the aeonium plant you are still leaving gaps between the flow line and the edges of the petal, instead make sure that they alway meet at the tip. Although your use of the cast shadows here is more deliberate and it does really help to define the relationship between these group of petals, the reason for this is because the shadows are actually being projected from one petal’s surface to the other instead of being in the same surface of the form that is supposed to be casting it.

-There are also some issues with your leaves in some plants, I’ve noticed that you do not really let them fold and they are always drawn so that we see them in their entirety, so take a look at these notes which explain why this is an issue much better than I can do it here https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/folding

And in the case of your gloriosa lily you actually slipped into zigzagging that edge detail, which is another issue discussed here https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/zigzag

FInally I want to talk about the way you’ve approached texture here, as I said previously your use of the cast shadows on the aeonium plant is pretty spot on as those cast shadows are being projected from one surface to another, because they cannot really cling to the silhouette of the form casting them. But on the other plants like the clematis and the bearded iris specifically this is exactly what is happening; those shadows are clinging to the silhouette of the petals and leaves.

The thing to keep in mind is that a cast shadow is the result of a form blocking light from reaching another surface - and so, it projects a shadow onto this other surface. In doing so, it defines a spatial relationship, between the form casting the shadow, and the surface receiving it. This is valuable information - it's not just decoration. It tells us about how far apart those forms are, among other things.

Because of this, we cannot draw those shadows without being aware of the specific nature of both the textural form, and the surface receiving the shadow. This is what most students miss out on - they think, "well I'm just going to draw the shadows I see from my reference image", but this is incorrect. Drawing what you see in your reference does not mean you understand what is depicted there.

Instead, we strive to use the visual information in that reference (cast shadows among other things) to understand the nature of those forms, and then using that understanding we create our own shadows. Much of the time those shadows will match what's in the reference, but that's not really important. What matters is that those shadows define specific relationships. That their shapes are designed with purpose and intent, because you know what specific forms and surfaces are being linked through the shadow's creation.

This is really not something easy to do but it doesn’t matter if you struggle with it as long as you are trying to do it correctly, remember that your focus should be on the process you follow rather than the end result.

Anyways before i mark this lesson as complete I want to assign you some revisions so you can address some of the issues here before moving on to lesson 4.