Hello. Here's my Lesson 4 submission.
I think i went overboard with the Blue Dasher+ Beetle, but even after finish lesson 4 i still do not think i'm fully able to grasp the method of applying texture to insects/arachnids. Any comments/critiques are welcomed. Thanks!
Hello I'll be handling the critique for your lesson 4 homework.
Organic Forms with Contour Lines
-Starting with the organic form with contour lines, you have avoided any unexpected pinching or swelling throughout their length and I can see that you are drawing each contour line with an awareness of how they change degree as they move through space ????, although they do it quite subtly, and in some cases it almost looks like they barely change at all, so try to be more bold with them a give them a much more pronounced curve, instead of relying on such tight ones
Insects
-Okay so moving on to the insects your work is largely well done, and I can see that most of the time you are relying on full forms rather than flat shapes which is correct, there are only a few things I want to call out.
-The first thing I want to call out is how you are constructing legs, I can see that you are sticking to chains of simple sausages which is correct, but keep in mind that the sausage method is not about capturing the shape of the legs precisely as they are, instead it is about laying down a basic structure that captures both the flow and solidity of these limbs in equal measure, once that structure is in place we can start to build on top of it to better capture the shape of the legs. This process is better exemplified in this diagram which shows how to apply construction to an ant's leg. This is something that you did better on your mantis and those hairy moths, where you captured the segmentation of their legs,but you can keep pushing it further.
-Aside from this I don't really have to much to call out, when it comes to construction, however I am pleased to see that you drew along the informal demos, sometimes when I see a student that struggles with this lesson I ask them to draw those demos, whether it is the shrimp or the lobster. The reason is because that shows the more updated approach that has not been fully integrated into the lesson material.
You can see that at every step we are working with full forms rather than flat shapes, but the most important thing is that we are wrapping the silhouette of each additional form around the initial form, this is really what lesson 5 is all about. This process is exemplified here, this is a really good diagram and you can see how we are wrapping the silhouette of each form, this one is relevant too
This approach can be used with all kinds of features of our insects, for example taking a look at your Hercules beetle. I can see that you tried to capture the shape of the horn right away, instead you can break it down into smaller pieces and draw each one at a time as shown here.
As a whole though, I think you're doing a good job of building up 3D forms on top of each other. That's really the key - so avoid any situation where you end up altering the silhouette of a form you've already constructed, or where you add a 2D shape to your drawing instead of a 3D form. This is what will remind the viewer that they're looking at a drawing on a piece of paper, and that is to be avoided..
-Okay so now let's move on to texture, I can see that you sometimes cannot resist the urge to fill in the eyes of your insects with black, and to use hatching on your drawings, two things that I think I have already raised previously. I agree that you went too far with the blue insect and the Hercules beetle, I really couldn't not see the construction on the latter.
This really has to do with the density of detail, keep in mind that you have to work your way from dense to sparse, while always keeping in mind the light source, you can place it directly on top to make things easier.
After that you can basically do what you already know, first identify the textural form which is blocking the light and project the shadow, then design the shape of the cast shadow by wrapping it around the surface it is falling on and filling it. You will never find yourself copying from the reference image, you only can draw information from it but you are the one who has to design each individual shadow shape. As always keep in mind how these details break the silhouette and that should be it. I'll just redirect you to these notes which can be really useful (https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/2/reminders) .
Okayy I think that should be about it, keep up the good work I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete
Next Steps:
Lesson 5
You know when i'm still waiting for my assignment to get critiqued, i was hoping it will be you who critique my work, and bingo i'm glad i was right!
I already take note of everything you’ve said. I'll push the contour curves even more for Lesson 5! And thank you too for the texture tips, i’ll try not to overdo it for my future assignment. Thank you again Beckerito for taking your time, have a nice day wherever you are! ^^
it is very kind of you to say that c:. I look forward to see what you come up with for the next lessons.
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
