Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

12:13 PM, Monday July 10th 2023

Draw a box - Lesson 3 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/DBf6v8M.jpg

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

Intended to go for textures but I was exhausted.

If any image is hard to see, please tell me and I will take a better picture of it.

References for the construction in this submission:

https://imgur.com/a/0QN5TrB

4 users agree
5:43 PM, Tuesday July 11th 2023

Hi TonyGotCakes,

This is well done, good job! I have a few things that I would like to point out.

For your arrows, be weary about where you put your hatching lines, as you always want them to to remain on one side of the arrow while fully conveying the arrow turning in space. One of the arrows in the middle (https://imgur.com/a/kd6e2al) has some hatching that looks like it's on the outer side of the arrow but doesn't fully cover that side when it turns in space. The hatching stops before it is able to completely reach the arrow's edge (the one that signifies a turn), which does not sell the idea of the arrow turning in space as well as if all of your hatching was to reach that edge.

Your leaves are well done. If you ever do this exercise again, I suggest that you try to explore leaves with more varied silhouettes, because, from what I see, you have a good understanding about what you are doing. Just be sure to differentiate from the middle of the leaf form and the leaf's flow line as much as you can (if the flow line doesn't represent the middle of the leaf). In leaf 3, one of the veins looks like it is connecting to the leaf's flow line, making it a little confusing visually as to where the middle of the leaf is. The flow line itself doesn't touch the line that bridges the sides of the leaf together, making identifying where the middle of the leaf is a little difficult. If it helps, you can think of the leaf's form separate from the flow line entirely, just to envision where the middle of the leaf would lie.

Your branch/tube forms rotate and sit in space well. Again, if you every do this exercise again in the future, I'd say to play around more with forms that twist and turn more in space, with their ellipses having their degrees being widened and lowered at a more noticeable rate.

Your plant constructions were clearly done with a lot of thought nad understanding about how they are constructed, which is good. I would say to watch out how many times you go over your spheres that you draw, especially in the 3rd plant. A lot of the segmented branches have spheres that look like they're drawn 3-4 times over.

I understand that you got tired by the 8th construction (which is entirely understandable), but if you were ever to do something like the Trachyandra Tortillis (the plant with a lot of twisting forms), I'd suggest to add some cast shadows to make it even more clearer about which forms overlap others. Your highlighted lines serve well, but having some cast shadows (even smaller ones) would make the construction a lot clearer.

Good luck with future endeavors!

Next Steps:

  • Move on to Lesson 4
This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 4 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
2:24 AM, Wednesday July 12th 2023

Hi PiksCarots! Thank you for taking your time to write the feedback. I'll keep what you said in mind for future warm-ups. For leaf 3, I intended to connect the top U line in the middle of the leaf to the flow line but I can't control the accuracy of my mark-making (https://imgur.com/a/1Ol0Oqw).

In leaf 3, one of the veins looks like it is connecting to the leaf's flow line, making it a little confusing visually as to where the middle of the leaf is.

If I understand correctly, the vein you are speaking of is the green one in the same image I post above. I'm asking because I don't want to misunderstand it. I remember drawing all ellipses/circles in 3 rounds (1 round + 2 extra rounds over it) as well but I think it may look like I draw more than that because there's a lot of overlapping going on with other ellipses in such a small space.

Thank you again for the feedback!

3:19 PM, Wednesday July 12th 2023

Yeah, you well understood my point about the leaf vein!

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
How to Draw by Scott Robertson

How to Draw by Scott Robertson

When it comes to technical drawing, there's no one better than Scott Robertson. I regularly use this book as a reference when eyeballing my perspective just won't cut it anymore. Need to figure out exactly how to rotate an object in 3D space? How to project a shape in perspective? Look no further.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.