View Full Submission View Parent Comment
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.

6:58 PM, Monday October 24th 2022
edited at 7:01 PM, Oct 24th 2022

Hi! Sorry for the delay. I'll give you my notes and then I'll go to your questions:

  • On the fox you made the whole neck-ears form in one stroke. Go step by step, it's better for the mental processes of building up forms. In this case it ends up flattening a bit the form. Is it intersecting with the cranium sphere? Or is it a superficial layer, where the ears are located? Of course we know what you're trying to do, but the point of this is to build on forms, step by step, one by one.

  • The hind leg isn't constructed; if you can't see it completely, you can look at other references or make an educated guess based on the leg you can actually see.

  • The added masses are where they're supposed to be, but be careful with those corners. Look at the corners in these masses. They're are aligned with the middle point of the sausage, signaling the way in which they wrap around the form. On your hind legs you almost got it, but not quite, so be really careful with those. And you can notice that, in that demo, where the corners are not needed, there ain't any of them.

I highly encourage you to look at this whole submission. Uncomfortable did the critique, so it's better than anything I could tell you, and it deals with a lot of the same issues you have here.

I would also encourage you to make your own archive of corrections, if you don't have one already. I've been saving a lot of random Uncomfortable's corrections on these lessons and it really helps to see different problems and the way they're resolved.

  • Your head construction is getting a lot better. Be careful with the eyes still, remember that they're bigger than we can actually see, and that they're covered by an eyelid most of the time, even when it's hard to see it. On your hyena for example, the eyelid doesn't wrap around the eye as it should, instead looking more representational; the muzzle could still be broken into more planes, as it is, it looks a bit flat.

  • As for the feet, you've got the right idea, but remember that once you have the basic form, you have to break it down and/or add secondary masses to make the actual form of a foot. Here's another demo from the lesson linked before that deals with feet.

  • Don't forget about the intersections. Your legs still look weak, and the intersections between sausages will help with that.

Now to your questions:

  • I could not honestly tell you that I have a specific, reliable method for constructing open mouths. What I usually do is establish the muzzle footprint, same as always, and then construct each seccion of the mouth by itself, defining planes, adding masses, etc; joining them only when I'm done with it; always trying to take some measuraments so the opening doesn't get out of hand. I could be wrong though, so you could ask on Discord about that.

Your head looks good, but yeah, more definition on the planes of the muzzle and a more defined form on it would've helped. Also notice that the nose has its own subdivisions. Try to think of the teeth as the claws on Lesson 4; you can revisit those in the informal demos section. So yeah, it looks good, and it's suggesting the right things, but just a bit more definition on the forms would go a long way.

  • Try to get the best references you can and avoid the ones where you can't see the things that you need. That being said, you can kind of see what the feet look like on the hyena, you could look at other references as well to make an educated guess of what they could look like; but then again, these are all exercises, try not to make them even more complicated.

So yeah, you're on the right track. Just to prove the point, I'll ask you for a last non-hooved quadruped, draw it big, search for a good reference photo and make sure to check out all the things pointed out here and in the critique by Uncomfortable. That would be the last one, we're kind of grinding on Lesson 5 and we should avoid that :P Anyway, good luck!

Next Steps:

  • One non-hooved quadruped.
When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 7:01 PM, Oct 24th 2022
9:31 PM, Wednesday October 26th 2022
1:11 PM, Sunday November 6th 2022
edited at 1:12 PM, Nov 6th 2022

Hello again. You're rushing the work, the animals before that one had more care put into them, things like intersections, the eyes, the way that added masses work, even the linework is wobblier than before.

It's ok, I think you should move on from here (if you haven't already), but work on the issues pointed out here and above all, try to really focus when working, rushing things will not help you to comprehend the things you're supposed to learn. So, to the 250 Cylinder Challenge. Good luck!

Next Steps:

  • Move on to the 250 Cylinder Challenge
This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
edited at 1:12 PM, Nov 6th 2022
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.
The Art of Blizzard Entertainment

The Art of Blizzard Entertainment

While I have a massive library of non-instructional art books I've collected over the years, there's only a handful that are actually important to me. This is one of them - so much so that I jammed my copy into my overstuffed backpack when flying back from my parents' house just so I could have it at my apartment. My back's been sore for a week.

The reason I hold this book in such high esteem is because of how it puts the relatively new field of game art into perspective, showing how concept art really just started off as crude sketches intended to communicate ideas to storytellers, designers and 3D modelers. How all of this focus on beautiful illustrations is really secondary to the core of a concept artist's job. A real eye-opener.

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