Hello I’ll be handling the critique for your lesson 3 homework

Arrows

-Starting with the arrows these are drawn with a good deal of confidence which has really helped you to capture the way they flow through space, and in general you are doing a pretty good job with the perspective, as the ribbon and the negative space between the zigzagging sections gets wider as they move closer to the viewer, you are also applying lineweight properly, using it only to clarify overlaps.

Leaves

-Your leaves are also drawn with confidence but there are two issues I want to address. FIrst, remember to take your time to design each individual bump and cut. I think you may be drawing them on autopilot without much forethought. I will quickly redirect you to these notes on lesson 1, about the principles of mark making https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/3/consistent.

I like to see that you have tackled more complex leaf structures and in general you are doing a pretty good job building them step by step, except on the fourth leaf on the left side of the page, the one that is just above the lower left corner. Where you skipped a step, which would be to flesh out another leaf which would give us an edge to draw those bumps and cuts on. Aside from that instance, you seem to know what you are doing well.

Branches

-On the branch exercise make sure to extend each segment fully halfway to the next ellipse, I think you may be overshooting or falling short, but most importantly do your best to have those segments overlapping a good deal, this will help you to achieve a smoother transition. When it comes to the ellipses I like to see that you seem to be aware of the degree shift as the branch moves through space.

Plants

-Now, moving on to the plants I think there will not be much to call out, since you are doing pretty well with those. You are using the construction method well, building each subject step by step, and bringing the solidity from those earlier stages to the more complex ones.

-One of the things that I want to address is your mentioning that you were scared to use texture, there is nothing wrong with leaving it out for the moment. The thing to keep in mind is that a cast shadow is the result of a form blocking light from reaching another surface - and so, it projects a shadow onto this other surface. In doing so, it defines a spatial relationship, between the form casting the shadow, and the surface receiving it. This is valuable information - it's not just decoration. It tells us about how far apart those forms are, among other things.

And there are some situations where it can come handy, like the palmtree you drew, I can see that you chose to flesh out individual leaves. The problem is that there were so many of them and the result is visually noisy. Instead of drawing each one of those explicitly you could have chosen to do it implicitly by applying texture.

Much of the time those shadows will match what's in the reference, but that's not really important. What matters is that those shadows define specific relationships. That their shapes are designed with purpose and intent, because you know what specific forms and surfaces are being linked through the shadow's creation.

All the same, don't avoid it because it's hard. It will get easier to wrap your head around as you continue to build up your spatial skills via constructional exercises, but you'll develop it faster by attacking the problem from many angles.

-The last point is that on the hibiscus demo you have drawn an ellipse, this helps us to guide our flow lines, so each individual flow line would have to end right at the edge of the ellipse. THe important thing here is that you should not leave any gaps between stages of construction.

Okayy, so that should be about everything I wanted to cover, I’ll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.