Check Out NMA    About our Partnership    Collapse this Ad
View Full Submission View Parent Comment
10:06 PM, Saturday September 24th 2022

Hi! Here I made all the corrections. Some animals had the same mistakes pointed out before, so I didn't point them out again, but take them in consideration as a whole. I think you worked way too fast for what you had to look out for, so I think you should try again:

  • One hooved quadruped

  • One non-hooved quadruped

  • One bird.

Make them count, observe very carefully where the masses are; where you could lay a footprint for the muzzle, that always gives itself away if you look at the planes of the head. Take a look at the informal demos again; and go back to them and these corrections whenever you have doubts. Remember that it's okay to stop mid drawing and continue it later, is better to do that than to feel overwhelmed and rush it.

That's it, if you have any question, feel free to ask. Good luck!

Next Steps:

  • One hooved quadruped

  • One non-hooved quadruped

  • One bird.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
7:59 PM, Friday September 30th 2022

https://imgur.com/a/aMrhP8K

There were two particular questions that I have encountered while creating these constructions:

  • How does constructing the muzzle work when an animal is full profile?

  • Do adding masses work by fitting the mass AROUND pre-existing forms?

I decided to push forward and complete the constructions anyways to better apply the previous points that you made.

I appreciate your feedback and have no qualms if you feel that more revisions should be made.

3:59 PM, Sunday October 2nd 2022
edited at 4:01 PM, Oct 2nd 2022

Hi! Regarding your questions:

  • On the running rat demo, you can see how to construct a muzzle in full profile. If you look at your fox reference, you can see that, even though he's on a full profile view, the different planes of the head are still visible.

  • Yes, we fit the mass around pre-existing forms. I think Uncomfortable describes it as bags of flour; I tend to think of bags of flour when the masses are directly on top of things, and clay or sticky gum when they're below or around other masses; the point is that they have to wrap around the constructions. That rat demo from before is a good example of that.

Your constructions are looking a lot better, as is your line. In particular, your deer looks good, but you tend to slack off on the difficult parts such as feet, and you almost never add any masses to the head where they're necessary.

Remember that if you're going to use lineweight you have to ghost your lines the same way you would do it with any other line. Again, don't try to capture the whole image with a couple of forms, instead, build simple forms as an initial construction and then add masses to replicate those complex forms seen on the reference. This is something you tend to do, especially on the legs.

Here are the corrections for the fox. Most of the issues I see are addressed there. I think you're almost ready, but I'd really like for you to make another 2 animals.

One should be the same fox, and another non hooved quadruped. Think of all the corrections, and keep in mind the rat and the donkey demo when working. Treat the legs as carefully as any other section of the animal, and make those lines as confident as you can.

If you have any questions, I'll be around to answer them. Good luck!

Next Steps:

  • Redo the fox drawing.

  • Add one more non-hooved quadruped.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 4:01 PM, Oct 2nd 2022
5:51 PM, Saturday October 15th 2022

https://imgur.com/a/c6YWvuJ

I have 2 more questions.

  • How do I construct the muzzle of an animal with an open mouth?

  • How should I approach the feet if they are obscured in a photo?

The first question I feel was a bit of a problem for me on the fox photo I previously chose. It has also dictated me to find only photos of animals with closed mouths, and honestly felt pretty limiting to me. I have included a bonus construction where I attempted to draw a yawning wolf. It came out nice, but I don't think I really constructed it all that much, and I was wondering if you knew how to approach this? I want to remove this limitation I have.

The second question was a problem that I encountered while constructing the African Wild Dog (the second one), where his feet where obscured by the foliage of the savanna. It was a problem for a few of my previous constructions as well, and I would like to know how to get around this. Should I be finding separate reference photos for the feet?

I appreciate all of the help you have given me thus far. It has been extremely helpful.

View more comments in this thread
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 we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. 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.