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8:01 PM, Sunday March 14th 2021

So there are some things that stand out to me that were addressed in the various demos I pointed you to in my last critique.

Firstly, when drawing your ant head, you started with a ball, and then redraw a more complex form around it (effectively redefining its silhouette and leaving the original form to float loosely inside of it). The correct approach here is to build onto the structure, ensuring that every new form's relationship with the existing structure is defined as shown in the ant head demo I provided before. Now, obviously that ant is a different species from yours, but the principles on display are what matter.

Looking at your lobster drawing, you did add some of the bigger spikes as their own enclosed forms (although you didn't establish a relationship between those forms and the existing structure as shown here which in turn still made them read as flat shapes). When it comes to the main claw itself, you still built up the serrations there as flat shapes. As discussed in my original critique (and also demonstrated in the lobster demo you should have been drawing those as complete, enclosed forms as well.

I think it might be a good idea for you to draw along with the lobster demo, step by step, to try and get a sense of how this kind of thing might be approached. It's one thing to just look at it, but actually following along can be more educational.

Along with following along with the lobster demo, I'm also going to assign two more insect constructions. You're definitely showing progress in some areas (defining the joints between sausages and such is definitely helping a lot), but you're not quite there yet.

Next Steps:

Please submit the following:

  • One attempt of drawing along with the lobster demo. Take your time, and follow each step individually. You may even want to take a short break between each step, just to ensure that you're not allowing your desire to jump ahead to the next to interfere with your focus.

  • 2 additional insect constructions. Similarly, take your time, and really focus on observing your references for the majority of the time invested. In order to construct effectively, we must first properly identify all the little forms that need to be added in order to move to the next phase of construction.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
12:24 AM, Tuesday March 16th 2021

my beetle kinda fell apart so i did a 3rd.

http://imgur.com/gallery/zkAi2ze

1:28 AM, Tuesday March 16th 2021

Alrighty, much better! There's still room for improvement and growth, but as a whole you're now headed on the right track so it's really just a matter of practice, and making sure you're investing plenty of time into each drawing. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.

Next Steps:

Move onto lesson 5.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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The Science of Deciding What You Should Draw

The Science of Deciding What You Should Draw

Right from when students hit the 50% rule early on in Lesson 0, they ask the same question - "What am I supposed to draw?"

It's not magic. We're made to think that when someone just whips off interesting things to draw, that they're gifted in a way that we are not. The problem isn't that we don't have ideas - it's that the ideas we have are so vague, they feel like nothing at all. In this course, we're going to look at how we can explore, pursue, and develop those fuzzy notions into something more concrete.

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