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5:55 AM, Friday January 22nd 2021

Arrows

It's hard to see because the page is a little blurry but it seems that the shading is kind of patchy, I recommend to shade with a bunch of ghosted straight lines.

I'd also recommend to vary your arrows' widths more so that you get a better feel of arrows.

Leaves

Overall there is good confidence in your lines.

  • Might be a little personal preference but I would advise you to focus more on the outline of a leaf rather than detail because (as you know from L2's dissections) silhouette is a pretty powerful tool to use.

  • The middle leaf (with ???) actually makes sense, you just added a lineweight to a wrong lines

Branches

  • Keep them constantly wide. If you feel like a stroke is too big for you to achieve, you can add another ellipse in between.

  • Also keep in mind that if you are struggling with maintaining nice branches, you don't have to do forking branches.

Plants

  • The mushroom (page 1) seems wobbly. To avoid this, draw a straight line first and then ensure that ellipses are centered to this line. (since your other plants don't have this problem, I guess it's not an issue anymore)

  • The pitcher plant (page 2) lines are unconfident. Don't be afraid to add as much ellipses you need to make sure that you follow your form well.

  • Bottom plant (page 2) has scratchy outline on the leaves. Make sure that you work additive (you add on top on existing forms, not cut in) and that you execute your marks with confidence and don't do it randomly (https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/zigzag explains this point)

  • In 7th page your branches are oddly connected, you should make a ball in the intersection and then branch off that ball (just like in the branch exercise)

In conclusion

  • I believe that you definitely need to do some more branches. Add them to your warmup.

  • To make your leaves more 3d, it helps to add these leaf veins.

  • Try to work additive and don't zigzag your edges https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/zigzag

Your leaves' exercise was done well but this didn't translate so well in the plants you drew because they were less confident and there appeared some mistakes that I've mentioned before. I suspect that this might be due you not wanting to ruin your image but keep in mind that you are here to learn, not to draw pretty pictures and also confidence >> precision.

Next Steps:

Do 1 page of branches and 1 page of leaves (focus on the leaves that weren't as successful in demos).

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
10:18 PM, Sunday January 24th 2021

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Her are the new pages: https://imgur.com/a/O9Hzuig

I find it a bit difficult to keep my branches smooth since I have to draw them segmented, but I think it improved somewhat.

11:48 AM, Monday January 25th 2021

https://imgur.com/a/O9Hzuig

Thanks for the critique, here is the extra pages. I find it a bit hard to make smooth branches, since I have to draw them segmented, but I think I improved somewhat

5:27 AM, Thursday January 28th 2021

The skill will come with practice, see https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/tails to deal with that better. Your branches were reallly wobbly at first and at your new attempt they are shaping better and if you will do them in warmups then you'll have them better.

With the leaves exercise I wanted you to try out different leaves and petals that you didn't make as smooth in your plant drawings. As with branches, if you want to improve them, just add them in warmups. One tip with that maple leaf is that I would personally make 3 small leaves inside and then add detailed edges on those little leaves like https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/skipping

Next Steps:

Move to lesson 4 and incorporate leaves and branches exercises in your warmups.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
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