Check Out NMA    Learn More About our Partnership
Close and Enjoy Drawabox Ad-free
View Full Submission View Parent Comment
6:22 PM, Tuesday August 3rd 2021

Your insect constructions certainly are moving more in the right direction. While there is still plenty of room for improvement and growth, it's very clear that you're trying to apply the points I raised, and that you're thinking much more about how the forms you add to the construction exist in 3D space, and how they wrap around the existing structure.

One thing I noticed when it comes to the leg constructions was that you didn't appear to make use of the techniques I shared with you from this demonstration, which I used extensively in the ant leg demo. You may want to take another look at those.

Looking at your organic forms with contour curves though, while you're definitely trying to shift the degree of your contour lines, you're doing it in the wrong direction. As we slide away from the viewer, the contour curves should be getting wider, not narrower. There are a few where you do this correctly, but you're pretty inconsistent, and I think you have the shift reversed more often than not. As I mentioned before, this concept is explained in the lesson 1 ellipses video.

While I am satisfied that the insect construction work is progressing in the right direction (though of course, you'll continue working on applying these concepts into the next lesson and in your own practice), I do want to make sure that you can handle these organic forms with contour curves correctly. I'll assign a couple additional pages of them below.

Next Steps:

Please submit 2 more pages of organic forms with contour curves.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
9:20 PM, Wednesday August 4th 2021

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I am confused on how we know when a form is sliding away from the viewer? If we are the ones constructing a form (essentially the illusion) on 2D paper, then can't any side of an organic form face the viewer?

Also, if I make an organic form and it is facing the viewer but turns around in space, then can't the organic form have a wide contour curve and then as it turns have a narrower one? Like for example a half donut? Both ends will have wide contours, but the middle would be narrow since that is the point where it turns.

9:33 PM, Thursday August 5th 2021

So to clarify the first part - I mean that the contour lines positioned farther away from the viewer along the form, if it isn't turning or anything and just remains fairly straight, will get wider, and those positioned closer to the viewer will be narrower. Not that some forms are moving away or towards.

To the second point, if the sausage form itself is turning in space, then this also will impact the degree of the contour line. At the end of the day, the degree represents the orientation of the cross-sectional slice, relative to the viewer's own angle of sight. This means that if the sausage itself is bending, then that orientation will certainly change - but even if it's totally straight like a cylinder, the angle between the viewer's angle of sight and its own orientation will change, as shown here.

1:45 AM, Friday August 6th 2021
edited at 1:49 AM, Aug 6th 2021

So, I understand that. What I don't understand is where the viewer is positioned. I was looking at the videos for the lesson again, and here is an example below. For that photo, is the viewer positioned to the right because those contour circles are narrower? How did you know that the viewer was positioned there? There is a pole on the left, doesnt that mean the left side of the form is facing the viewer? If that is so, why aren't the contour circles on the left narrower instead?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T2bJIab1vghA0aQCbEfFxfIxn4tjZdmI/view?usp=sharing

Ultimately, if we are the ones drawing the form and essentially controlling the 'illusion,' then dont we get to dictate where the viewer is looking at the form? If the viewer was always looking at the form dead in the center, then both the left and right side of contour cirlces of that form would be wider than the center.

Sorry, I just feel confused. Can you give me an example I did in the homework that was really incorrect?

edited at 1:49 AM, Aug 6th 2021
View more comments in this thread
11:29 PM, Saturday August 7th 2021

Thanks for the feedback! Your apartment flooded?! I am sorry. I hope youre doing okay. Your content is still really amazing even if some of it is outdated. Anyways, here is my third revision. I tried setting the viewer to directly look at the contour ellipse at the pole. I understand what you mean now by varying degrees:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jredKnjht_RVhJ_YXPTlUZ2FUj1xcvx1/view?usp=sharing

4:10 PM, Sunday August 8th 2021

Yep, a sprinkler pipe burst. We had to move out while they did repairs. Eventually we ended up signing a lease in a new place, but we were only barely able to move in before we had to fly out to help my parents move out of their house. Since we won't be back in town until September, that'll be when I start doing the overhaul again.

Anyway, your work here is definitely showing a better overall understanding of how these contour lines should bew orking. Just make sure that you're keeping it consistent with the ellipse at the end. There are a few cases, like this one where the contour curve just before the ellipse is very narrow, but the ellipse itself is drawn to be much wider. Of course, you have many others where that relationship is more correct.

This is definitely significant progress, so I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.

Next Steps:

Move onto lesson 5.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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.
Cottonwood Arts Sketchbooks

Cottonwood Arts Sketchbooks

These are my favourite sketchbooks, hands down. Move aside Moleskine, you overpriced gimmick. These sketchbooks are made by entertainment industry professionals down in Los Angeles, with concept artists in mind. They have a wide variety of sketchbooks, such as toned sketchbooks that let you work both towards light and towards dark values, as well as books where every second sheet is a semitransparent vellum.

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