Starting with your arrows, you've done a great job of executing these with a great deal of confidence, which really helps to push the sense of fluidity with which they move through the world. I did however notice that there was an amount of reflexive/unplanned markmaking - some cases where you'd go back over your lines without any real purpose, as well as the hatching being rather sloppy. Confidence is definitely our first priority, but we still want to make sure that we're executing our marks using the ghosting method, taking full advantage of the additional control that comes from investing time into the planning and preparation phases.
That confidence carries over quite well into your leaves, where you're capturing not only how the leaves sit statically in 3D space, but also how they move through the space they occupy. The tendency to put marks down without as much planning as is strictly needed also continues however, with a lot of extra, unplanned marks visible here as you build up edge detail.
I think this has to do with the distress and anxiety you mentioned. While I am not qualified to speak about mental health issues, I can reiterate exactly how we go about drawing in this course, and the reasoning behind it. The ghosting method - which, as I mentioned, is applied to every freehand structural mark we make throughout this course, creates a firm distinction between "drawing" and "sketching". When one thinks of sketching, they think about just going with the flow, allowing their instincts to take over. This can be really relaxing, but it can also put a ton of pressure on you because you're trying to tackle a lot of different problems all at the same time.
That's not what we're doing in this course. What we're doing here helps to train our instincts and develop them so that more fluid sketching becomes a lot easier and yields better results, but we do that by being extremely intentional with every action we take. As explained here, we break the process of markmaking into distinct steps, each one responsible for a limited set of tasks. First we identify the mark we wish to make, then we go through the motion it'll require of us, and only at the end do we execute a single stroke, without any hesitation.
There is undoubtedly some nervousness over whether or not that mark comes out as we intend it to (especially when we're investing so much more time into the planning and preparation phases, compared to just putting a ton of marks down and hoping one of them comes out right). I can definitely see that triggering a great deal of anxiety - but the critical thing to remember is that the result is not really that important. Every drawing we do in this course is an exercise. The end result is irrelevant. It's in exercises that we're supposed to make our mistakes. So, as long as you follow the process as instructed, applying the steps appropriately, then you're doing what you're supposed to. That doesn't guarantee your mark will come out as you intend for it to - but that's the least important part.
Anyway, back to the critique. There are two other noticeable issues in how you're tackling the later stages of these leaves - that is, either building up edge detail or approaching more complex leaf structures:
You appear to be treating edge detail as an opportunity to redraw the entirety of the leaf. This is incorrect. Construction is about building onto the existing structure. So, in the second step of the instructions, you can think of it as though we've cut out a piece of paper in the shape of a leaf, and we've got this physical leaf. It's a tangible, solid thing, flowing through the world. When we make changes to it, we're physically adjusting this structure. If we want to give it a wavy edge, we're physically lifting and dropping the edge in places to make it wavy. If we want to add spiky protrusions, we're physically adding more paper and attaching it. And if we want to cut into it in order to alter its shape, the lines we're drawing are defining the path a pair of scissors would follow to cut out our desired shape, as shown here.
For the more complex leaf structures, like this one, you appear to be skipping steps. You jump from the individual flow lines for each internal arm to drawing the more complex outline of the leaf. Instead, as demonstrated here and here, you need to construct every "arm" as its own simple leaf structure, based on the individual flow lines, then merge them together.
Continuing onto your branches, the lack of the use of the ghosting method continues to be a problem, and the tendency for your lines to disappear mid-stroke does make things rather difficult to visually analyze here, but I am generally seeing that you're applying the process shown here when drawing the edge segments. That is, having each edge start at one ellipse, continue past the second, and stop halfway to the third, with the next segment starting at the second ellipse and repeating the pattern. There are however a couple places where you don't adhere to this, like here, where the overlap between the segments is minimized. That overlap is important - it helps us to achieve a smoother, more seamless transition from one edge to the next.
Moving onto the plant constructions, overall I can clearly see that your spatial reasoning skills are developing well, and that you do know what you're doing. Your drawings look great, but it's a question of just how closely you're applying the core principles of the lesson. Again - not using the ghosting method is a pretty big issue. One we can certainly resolve easily enough (it's simply a matter of changing your approach after all).
Furthermore, taking more care with your markmaking and avoiding putting down many different marks where only one is required will help to make your forms feel more solid and tangible. Despite the looseness of your linework, your constructions do actually feel pretty solid most of the time, but this is still an aspect of your approach that needs to be resolved. I'm going to assign some revisions below, but before that, here are a few quick points to keep an eye on:
When adding edge detail to your leaves and petals, do not zigzag back and forth, as explained here. Edge detail is built up through the addition of individual marks, one at a time, that rise off the existing edge and return to it as seamlessly as possible. Right now you're putting those marks down rather haphazardly, so sometimes they zigzag (likely unintentionally) and more often, we end up with gaps where they do not actually return to the existing edge, and thus do not create as clear of an alteration of that silhouette as they need to.
Construct your cylindrical flower pots around a central minor axis line, so as to help you align the various ellipses needed to build out that structure. Also, be sure to include at minimum another ellipse inset within the opening to establish the thickness of the rim, as well as another to establish the level of the soil so the plant's stem has something to intersect with. Lastly, don't leave them open-ended as you've done for the two on this page. Cap them off with an ellipse, as this will help reinforce the fact that they're three dimensional - whereas leaving them open ended reminds the viewer that they're looking at a series of lines on a page.
There are two things that we must give each of our drawings throughout this course in order to get the most out of them. Those two things are space and time. Right now it appears that you are thinking ahead to how many drawings you'd like to fit on a given page. It certainly is admirable, as you clearly want to get more practice in, but in artificially limiting how much space you give a given drawing, you're limiting your brain's capacity for spatial reasoning, while also making it harder to engage your whole arm while drawing. The best approach to use here is to ensure that the first drawing on a given page is given as much room as it requires. Only when that drawing is done should we assess whether there is enough room for another. If there is, we should certainly add it, and reassess once again. If there isn't, it's perfectly okay to have just one drawing on a given page as long as it is making full use of the space available to it.
Above all else, remember - Drawabox is not about drawing objects in whatever way you can manage. Nor is it about drawing things that look cool, impressing me, or impressing yourself. Drawabox is just a series of formulaic exercises, whose purpose is geared towards rewiring the way in which your brain perceives the things you're drawing.
Next Steps:
Please submit:
1 page, half of leaves, half of branches
3 pages of plant constructions
I was a bit nervous and panicky at the start of each exercise but it got smoother and better.
I was probably a bit lazy with the foliage on the bonsai but i was a bit unsure how to do it properly without making it visually noisy and cluttered.
I really appreciate the in depth critique and apologize in repeating mistakes.
I can see that you've made an effort to address some of the things I called out - like the tendency to redraw way more of your leaves than you need to when adding edge detail - but there are quite a few signs that show that while it's probably not intentional, you are not yet giving yourself nearly enough time to execute each and every mark to the best of your current ability.
We can see this especially when it comes to adding edge detail, because you're not giving yourself the time you need to ensure that each of these new additions rises off the existing edge and returns to it in as seamless a manner you can manage.
For example, as we can see here, your edge detail marks are frequently doubled up (which suggests that you're not adhering to the principles of markmaking from Lesson 1, and not using the ghosting method to individually plan, and prepare each stroke). They also tend to shoot right past the existing edge, creating a bunch of separate marks but not creating a single cohesive silhouette. While this is considerably better, we can definitely see the kind of little gaps and sloppiness that make it clear you could have put more time in and created a more cohesive silhouette, had you chosen to.
I can understand that you may still be under the impression that you should be able to put these marks down quickly and fluidly, but that is not what we're doing in this course. Every single mark we put down here needs to be planned and prepared for. It needs to all be the result of forethought and consideration, and so each mark takes time. It's this kind of practice, this kind of intentional drawing, that we do throughout this course that allows us to draw with a lot more control when we do draw more fluidly elsewhere. We take our time here, so we can learn to be faster and more efficient outside of these exercises.
This generally sketchy approach is quite apparent throughout your plant constructions as well, although I've also noticed that there are points you haven't really addressed:
When it comes to your branches, there are quite a few places where you aren't extending your edge segments fully halfway to the next ellipse. I actually noted that you were doing decently at this before, but didn't quite end up with as much overlap as was needed in a few places. Here you appear to have minimized that overlap more frequently - so in that sense, you kind of slid back. Please take note of the specific instructions demonstrated here and follow them to the letter.
You still appear to be entirely inconsistent with your flower pots. Sometimes you'll draw them around a central minor axis line, sometimes you won't. Sometimes you'll add additional ellipses to flesh out more of the structure, sometimes you'll limit it to the basic cylinder with an ellipse at both ends. I don't get the impression that you're really consciously applying the point I raised about this in my previous critique.
As a whole, you're just not giving yourself enough time to apply my feedback consistently, or to construct your forms, design your shapes, and execute each and every mark to the best of your ability. You have improved on this front, don't get me wrong - you're in many areas a lot less sketchy, and that's a big improvement to be sure - but I think your expectation is still different from what's being asked. You're still showing a tendency towards trying to put your marks down quickly and reflexively, and you're definitely still not applying the ghosting method nearly as completely and consistently as you need to, resulting in marks that are drawn more quickly, marks that are repeated, and so on.
I'm going to ask that you go back over my past feedback, and take notes on the specific points I've raised so you do not forget to address them. Then, complete the same revisions I assigned before once again.
Also, in regards to the bonsai tree, that is definitely a more complicated problem that we don't really address in this lesson, simply because the lesson itself isn't about learning how to draw plants - it's about using plants as a lens through which to look at these kinds of core constructional problems. So there are definitely cases that get left out (like handling tree tops). While I don't have anything against students trying them out, in your case it may be better to focus on simpler plants that line up with the demos so you don't have to worry about both being more mindful of how you're executing your marks and tackling things that aren't addressed as specifically in the lesson, at the same time.
Next Steps:
Please attempt the same revisions again.
Occasionally* i would slip up and quickly redo a line out of habit after it not coming out the way i intended. Some of my elipses are a bit messed, but i did make more of an effort to breathe and ghost lines but i lack consistency.
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.
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