Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

6:10 AM, Thursday August 29th 2024

Draw a Box Lesson 3 - Album on Imgur

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Hi there! This is my submission for lesson 3. I didn't think to link my references for the flowers, but I believe I do have them on hand if needed. I'm ready and able to revise any work that you may need, so don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for looking at my stuffs!

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2:42 AM, Thursday September 5th 2024

Hello again Chieftang! Congrats on finishing lesson 3! I'll be critiquing your submission.

Organic Arrows

Your arrows look mostly good! There are a few places where the widths of your arrows seemed a little inconsistent, which undermined their solidity a bit. It looks like that might have been because you built up your curves in sections, rather than drawing a singular continuous curve. It's okay to do this, just keep in mind that in doing so, you're more likely to end up with wonky-looking sections if you don't match your trajectories for each section exactly, which is often difficult to accomplish. Drawing each side of the arrow in a continuous stroke makes for more solid arrows, but comes with its own challenges. You did a fairly good job of including your hatching lines on the correct side, and varying the widths of your arrows (broadly speaking) in a manner consistent with your hatching lines so as to reinforce the illusion of perspective. There were a few places where this faltered a bit, but that's to be expected at this stage.

I do want to expand on that point, though. Notice on this arrow here how your hatching lines in the back of the arrow establish the flow of the arrow, indicating that the section pointed out in the image is bowing outward, the middle bulging toward the viewer. Then, in the next set of hatching lines you've drawn, you contradict that established flow, indicating that the arrow is curving inward. This breaks the illusion of perspective by making your arrow flow in an unnatural manner.

I bring this up here because initially, it can seem somewhat arbitrary which side we draw the hatching lines on, like it's fully up to the artist to decide, but that's not quite the case here. By the time you're adding that last set of hatching lines, you've already established enough details defining how the arrow flows through space that the decision is no longer arbitrary. It becomes more important as you add more and more details to your drawing that you pay closer attention to the object as a whole, and make certain that you're adding your details in a manner consistent with the prior clues you've included in your drawing. When you're just looking at the one section in isolation, it can be temping to believe that either way works, but when you look at the arrow as a whole, it becomes clear that this set of hatching lines was drawn on the wrong side. If you wanted to indicate that the whole arrows was helixing (like a corkscrew), then your prior sets of hatching lines undermined that illusion. Just remember to step back and look holistically at your objects every once in a while, to make sure your details dont contradict one another.

Leaves

Your leaves turned out well! They flow nicely through the page and respect their established center-lines well enough. My only real criticism is that they lack variety, but this exercise had no hard requirement to be more bold with your leaf choices. This page establishes that you have a solid grasp on constructing simple leaf forms that flow believable and consistently through the page, so I would suggest in the future that you branch out more (pun intended)! Since you've demonstrated proficiency with simple constructions try some more complex constructions! Just remember not to skip constructional steps when doing so.

Branches

Your branches also look good. Your contour ellipses are largely aligned to the minor axis, and their degrees shift consistently throughout the branches, giving a sense of solidity to their forms. You've added a variety of shallow and dramatic curves, testing out how branches behave at a variety of bends and executing them well. I would have liked to see more knots and forks, but again, there is nothing wrong with using these exercises to demonstrate proficiency with the simple case before attempting the more complex ones. I would say you've shown a good ability to construct simple branches well, and similar to the leaves, would recommend trying more complex constructions in the future knowing that you can handle the simple cases.

Plant Constructions

I like these! You're clearly not skipping steps in the constructional process, and it looks like it's paying off. You've done a good job of respecting the constructional lines you've established for yourself, not going out-of-bounds very often. Your forms have a feeling of solidity and heft to them. I like how your marigold has multiple layers of petals that sit on top of each other, and you established their bounding curves early in the construction process. It gives a good sense of "stacking" layers that can be difficult to accomplish. You're also doing well to start with simple leaf shapes to establish bounding curves for the more complex clustering leaf structures. Honestly, I have very few notes here - you're following the instructions well and executing on your constructions adequately. My only real note is that in some places, like on the leaves of your hibiscus, you "cut into" your bounding curves rather that building out on top of them, which was specifically discouraged in the lesson instructions. This is a minor criticism, but something I thought I'd point out here. Otherwise, great work!

Closing Remarks

I think this is a very strong submission that demonstrates a good understanding of the lesson material, and a high degree of proficiency with using the constructional process to build up complex plant shapes out of simple forms. Well done!

Next Steps:

Time to move on to lesson 4! Great work!

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.
9:34 AM, Thursday September 5th 2024

Oh hey you! You do great reviews from what I've seen! I've been trying to improve my own critique game based on what I've seen from you and other thorough reviewers, so I feel very lucky to catch you again!

So yeah, my arrows were like a 7/10, but I didn't want to just do them again for the sake of submitting. I do draw them continously, but I've picked up this annoying habit of going wide or narrow on my following line. It's been slow breaking that one. And that spiraling corkscrew, that looked really good before I messed up the hatching and the line weight. I remember that moment of realization too! Just the worst. I have improved on the corkscrewing, but I'll take your pointers to heart and be more careful. Arrows might be my favorite exercise, but I ought to control my enthusiasm before they get away from me.

Thank you for the complement on the plants! I did forget that bit about not going back into the bounding curves, and I slowed way the heck down on my plant work after that.

I'll move on to lesson 4. I hope to finish the texture challenge and this lesson at around the same time, but I'm not going to stress either project. Thanks again for the lovely and thoughtful review!

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Sketching: The Basics

Sketching: The Basics

A lot of folks have heard about Scott Robertson's "How to Draw" - it's basically a classic at this point, and deservedly so. It's also a book that a lot of people struggle with, for the simple reason that they expect it to be a manual or a lesson plan explaining, well... how to draw. It's a reasonable assumption, but I've found that book to be more of a reference book - like an encyclopedia for perspective problems, more useful to people who already have a good basis in perspective.

Sketching: The Basics is a far better choice for beginners. It's more digestible, and while it introduces a lot of similar concepts, it does so in a manner more suited to those earlier in their studies.

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