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12:27 AM, Monday February 5th 2024

Hello Kairos, thank you for getting back to me with your revisions.

Your construction of complex leaf structures is looking much better, but your texture both in here and in your plant constructions can still be improved as you're focusing on a lot of dots, hatching and lines to convey it still, rather than designing them as dynamic shapes and then filling them in.

I also recommend taking a look at the section talking about detail density in the website, currently your detail is pretty evenly spaced in your work, which doesn't give the viewer any place to "rest their eyes" or any focal points of detail.

Your branches are looking okay, but in your plant constructions you're often spacing your ellipses too far apart in stems and branch structures, which causes you to lose control over your marks more often and causes your branches to be inconsistent, as you construct your branches and decide where to place your ellipses ghost your marks and notice how far your arm will go before you lose control over it or it becomes uncomfortable, your ellipses should be placed at points that are far enough that you need to use your shoulder and have a good length of runway between ellipses, but not far enough that you lose control over your marks.

Your plant constructions are looking pretty good, you're making use of the construction methods and techniques introduced in the lesson to great effect.

In general you are doing really well and I believe you are ready for the next lesson. I'm going to be marking this submission as complete. Good luck in Lesson 3.

Next Steps:

Don't forget to add these exercises to your list of warm ups.

Move on to Lesson 4.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
7:42 AM, Monday February 5th 2024

Thanks again!

8:29 AM, Monday February 5th 2024

Hello again, I wanted to take the opportunity to ask about the textures you are mentioning. I usually default to dots and lines on plants and mushrooms because usually I don't really see "anything". And if I had to see something it would be a porous surface.

Looking into L4 insects with smooth surface and onwards, how could I face these cases without clear textures?

Thanks!

10:02 PM, Monday February 5th 2024

Hello again, I wanted to take the opportunity to ask about the textures you are mentioning. I usually default to dots and lines on plants and mushrooms because usually I don't really see "anything". And if I had to see something it would be a porous surface.

That's because you're still starting out and thus you haven't developed the skills necessary to distinguish the different types of detail information present in a reference, cast shadows are only one of them and when everything is put together it can be quite confusing.

But there are a couple of things that we can keep in mind that will make this process easier.

  • Always keep in mind the information mentioned in the texture section of Lesson 2 of Drawabox, make sure to also always take a look at the informal demos present in each lesson as they often contain information that is not present in the main material of the lesson.

  • When looking for a cast shadows ask yourself what is the form that is casting said shadow, where that form is coming from, and how best to design that shadow in a dynamic way.

  • Don't forget about focal points of detail.

  • Choosing good reference pictures. References with a clear, single light source are easier, with high definition and clear cast shadows, the Drawabox discord server has several channels dedicated for receiving live feedback from other students, it has resources linked for plant and other references but you can always post a photo and ask if it has good and clear shadows.

Looking into L4 insects with smooth surface and onwards, how could I face these cases without clear textures?

You can find an informal demo here that explains a little bit more about how to identify texture, but in general make sure to always choose a good reference picture and go through all of the demos, as some of them also focus on texture.

For those who wish to get more practice with texture the 25 textures challenge is a great choice to receive further feedback.

4:25 PM, Friday February 9th 2024

Thank you very much!

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