Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

3:42 PM, Sunday February 2nd 2020

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/aourzmG.jpg

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I think on the second page of organic form intersection I made mistakes on the top most layer. The shapes do not fall correctly on the forms underneath.

Please let me know if all images appear in the post. I've been having problems with the appearing even after adding them multiple times. Here's a list of all images in the post.

https://imgur.com/2I90QjQ

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2 users agree
1:36 AM, Monday February 3rd 2020

Yup, looks like all the images showed up. Starting with your arrows, these flow quite fluidly and smoothly across the page, though one thing you're missing on the first page and demonstrating some awareness of in the second one is the idea that perspective applies both to the positive space (the width of the arrow's ribbon) and to the negative space (the spacing between the zigzagging sections of ribbon). This spacing compresses as we look farther back, which eventually results in the sections overlapping one another. You're starting to show that you grasp this somewhat in your second page onwards, but I think it still needs to be exaggerated there.

Moving onto your organic forms with contour lines, one thing that does stand out to me is that though you are clearly trying to keep your forms to adhere to the "simple sausage" characteristics covered in the lesson (avoiding any pinching or swelling through the midsection, and keeping the ends as equally sized spheres). I do think however that you've got some room for improvement here - specifically the ends feel kind of small relative to the rest of the sausage, which gives them more of a stretched or pointier appearance. Do be sure to take another look at this specific section of the instructions.

Aside from that, I do think that your contour curves and ellipses appear to be holding to the same width/degree as they move through the length of each sausage form. This isn't correct - the degree of the contour line, which represents the orientation of that cross-sectional slice relative to the viewer, should get narrower/wider depending on where it is in space.

You can demonstrate this concept to yourself with the following exercise: take something flat and circular like a CD or a large coin, and hold it out in front of yourself, in between your eyes, so you're staring at its edge and unable to see its face on either side. Then move it left or right, straight across your field of view. You'll notice that even though the object is not turning, you'll be able to see more and more of either of the faces - that ellipse's degree will effectively increase. This is because the orientation of that surface relative to the direction in which we're facing changes, even as it simply moves straight across. Similarly, each of your contour ellipses or contour curves captures a cross-section just like this object in different positions.

Aside from that, just keep working on the accuracy of your placement with the contour curves - you're definitely struggling to get them to sit snugly between the edges of the sausage form, and this is particularly important in getting them to read as though they're running along the surface of the form. This will of course improve with practice.

I think you've done a pretty great job with your texture analysis and dissections exercises. You've demonstrated a clear, strong understanding of everything is just a form, and the marks you put down are the shadows they cast in specific terms. For the most part, you're definitely moving in the direction of understanding the nature of each little textural form (in order to determine how to draw the shadow it casts) rather than just mindlessly transferring detail.

I actually did entirely rewrite the texture section of this lesson and published it yesterday, as many students were having trouble understanding these concepts. I'd still recommend going back over the new content (at least watching the short videos I added), but I do think you understand the principles fairly well at this point.

Moving onto the form intersections, I look at two things when critiquing this exercise. First and foremost, my main focus is on whether or not the student is able to construct the forms consistently within 3D space, so they don't appear as though they're pasted in from different drawings, instead feeling cohesive and consistent. At this, you're doing a decent job. I do feel that the boxes themselves could use some work, as you've got a number of diverging sets of lines, especially on this first page. This will continue to improve with practice, but be sure to incorporate those freely rotated boxes, along with the line extensions like we did in the box challenge, into your warmups.

The other thing I look at - and it's not a big priority right now - are the actual intersections. This exercise is intended to introduce the student to the concept of how the forms actually relate to one another in 3D space, and it is one of the core concepts that we explore over and over throughout the entirely of this course. I think you've got a good start but that there is a lot of room for improvement, and there is a lot of time for it as well. I do not expect students to have a good grasp of how these forms cut into one another in space right now, and we will continue to develop this skill as we move through the next lessons.

Above all else, when dealing with intersections, try and think about the idea that the intersection line is essentially a contour line - one that runs along the surface of a given form - except this time it is running along the surface of both intersecting forms simultaneously. What I mean by this is that if you were to pick any single point along this line and check which form it sits upon, you will find that it sits on both. This concept is definitely hard to grasp, so keep rolling it over in your head as you move forwards.

Lastly, your organic intersections are okay, but I do think there is a lot of room for improvement here. First and foremost, I think the contour curves generally feel somewhat shallow in their curvature along one side (they hook around nicely on one side of the form, but don't align quite right on the other). In general they don't appear to be drawn with the same amount of care as those earlier in the lesson.

Secondly, try to keep the sausage forms in this exercise all the same size, instead of having one big base one and a bunch of smaller ones. You'll notice that in my demonstration in the instructions, their sizes weren't all that different. Also, continue to think about the simple sausage forms. I'm noticing that the really big ones tend to be more cigar shaped, which is incorrect. We want them to maintain a consistent width throughout their lengths, as this makes them feel more flexible and fluid.

So! All in all you're doing a decent job, and your texture work is looking great. I am still a little concerned about your organic forms and contour lines however, so we'll do a few more before continuing on.

Next Steps:

  • 1 page of organic forms with contour ellipses (focus on the shift in the degree and maintaining a proper sausage form)

  • 1 page of organic forms with contour curves (same - focus on degree shifts, sausage form)

  • 4 pages of organic intersections. Try to follow how I do it in the instructions more closely.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
10:48 PM, Thursday February 6th 2020

Hi!

I redid the extra pages you recommended. I still don't realy feel confident about them. I get fustrated a lot, especialy when I start making mistakes on the third or forth sausage. I feel that i shoul continue with these exercises. i'll focus on them as oart of my warmups.

https://imgur.com/a/LYEKUIl

10:56 PM, Thursday February 6th 2020

These are phenomenally better. Your organic intersections are looking very solid now, and you've done a much better job of nailing the simple sausage forms in your organic forms with contour lines. I do feel that you're still struggling with getting your contour curves/ellipses' degrees correct. With the contour curves they all seem consistent once again and with the contour ellipses I think you're getting them a little backwards.

You tend to put the widest ellipse in the middle and the narrowest ones out towards the ends. If anything, it'd be the other way around - narrowest one in the middle and widest ones out to the sides, assuming this sausage is sitting directly in front of you. Alternatively you might have it narrower on one end (the end closest to you), and wider on the other end.

Anyway, this is something you can continue working on in your warmups, so make sure you're paying special attention to this concept. You'll also run into it in the branches exercise from the next lesson. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.

Next Steps:

Move onto lesson 3.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
8:11 AM, Friday February 7th 2020

Thank you for the feedback. I understand now what you mean by getting the ellispes backwards, I will try to focus on that. I still feel that all my form intersections all look a bit samey. I think I need to force myself to experiment with them more.

Should I start doing the texture challenge in parallel with lesson 3, or should I wait to start that? What about the cylinder one?

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