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9:11 AM, Thursday December 15th 2022

Hello,

The plane you highlighted above the eyes is the forehead plane. It connects to the top edge of the eye sockets and will almost always be angular. In some animals (like the rhino linked above) it may extend a way off the cranial ball at the top. This is part of taking the round cranial ball and transforming it into a more planar construction. We're still keeping things simple, but these planes are closer to the structure of a head than the ball we started with. We're using planes rather than rounded masses up here because this area is usually pretty hard and bony (tap your own forehead, it's hard, no?) Uncomfortable draws it in this specific way- attached to the top of the eye sockets, as a way of connecting all these puzzle pieces together, so nothing is floating, everything fits together.

The other section you highlighted is the cheek, and this one varies a lot more. You'll need to study your reference to see what size and shape you need for that particular animal. Hopefully you can see that this piece is also wedged against the other parts we've already drawn- the eye socket and the muzzle.

Here are some further examples of the informal head demo method in action:

camel head

bunny head

These notes Uncomfortable made on another student's work may help you understand additional masses. That image also shows how to start your head constructions.

Hope that helps.

4:02 AM, Monday June 5th 2023

Do you really have to use your shoulder to draw everything? For smaller details, additional masses, sausage forms, and more I find to be near impossible for them to be non wobbly because it's so hard to draw from the shoulder in smaller places. I reread all the critique for lesson 4 and 5 and a lot of the times you said my lines were wobbly and non confident it was only because I drew from the shoulder.

9:27 AM, Monday June 5th 2023

Hello Drego,

You'll find the answer to your question here in lesson 1. Wherever you want to draw a smooth flowing line, including sausage forms and additional masses, you should be engaging your whole arm. For textural details you can draw from your wrist.

I'd like you to carefully read this section about the path of least resistance. If you've taken a 6 month break from Drawabox, and been drawing from your wrist the whole time, it is going to feel pretty rough switching back to drawing from your shoulder. Just because it is difficult does not mean you should avoid it. Be patient with yourself, make sure you're doing your warmups (and including exercises you find challenging in your warmups). Remember drawing large (making full use of the space on the page) will make it easier to engage your whole arm, and as always make full use of the ghosting method for every line.

2:00 AM, Tuesday June 6th 2023

https://imgur.com/a/Tmx6Lxq

thank you for your answer and i had another question about the additional muscle masses. how do i know when to use sharp edges and when to use soft ones like in this example? i never really understood this from the start.

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