In your previous homework submissions, I could see that you were submitting your work pretty rapidly. Normally that's a red flag, but I didn't dig into it any further because your submissions were still coming along fairly well, suggesting that you were indeed investing ample time into each individual drawing. This time, unfortunately, that is not so much the case. There are some pretty significant signs suggesting that you may have underestimated just how much time these drawings might demand of you.

Sooo, I looked at your submission history, and did notice that you've basically been submitting your homework every 14 days. I really cannot stress this enough - that 14 day cooldown is not a deadline. It is there to help discourage people from rushing, and to keep our staff from getting overwhelmed. As discussed back in Lesson 0, you should be taking as much time as you need to execute each drawing, and each component of each drawing, to the best of your current ability.

I'm kind of on the fence between canceling your submission and refunding your credits, and actually doing the critique. I think there's enough here that is done decently that I will go ahead with the critique (the submission itself isn't horrible, just rushed), but as you can imagine, there will be revisions.

The main issue that stands out most simply comes down to observation. From what I can see, you're not really spending as much time as is really needed simply studying your reference. Sometimes students will spend lots of time studying their references up-front, but then will go on to spend long stints simply drawing/constructing. Instead, it's important that you get in the habit of looking at your reference almost constantly. Looking at your reference will inform the specific nature of each individual form you ultimately go on to add to your construction, and it's important that these are derived from your reference image, rather than from what you remember seeing in your reference image.

Right now, because there does appear to be a greater reliance on memory rather than direct observation (not everywhere - some parts come out stronger and more directly informed than others), there are definitely elements that come out looking highly simplified. For example, if we look at this tiger, the proportional relationships really are all over the place. Here's a deeper analysis of some if the issues.

One thing that can help with determining how to position things like legs is to pay attention to the "negative shapes" that exist between the limbs and body. You can then, with each of these individual shapes, try to construct sausage structures that create similar shapes in your drawing. They won't necessarily be perfect right off the bat, but paying attention to them and taking the time to identify those shapes in your reference will help. It will simply require more time observing.

I can definitely see what you mentioned about creating 3D puzzles in your head constructions - you are definitely putting effort into avoiding gaps between the elements of your head constructions. This can be further improved however - in this demo (which I assume you've seen because I emphasize it in pretty much all of my critiques), I build out a number of different components to the head. The eye socket and muzzle are definitely the most important, and you certainly gravitate towards those, but the brow ridge/forehead is one that you seem to often skip over. It's certainly not as important, but it does help provide a greater sense of structure to the cranial ball, breaking it further into separate planes.

Another point that stood out in your constructions was the fact that you tend to draw your initial masses - be it the cranial mass, the ribcage, the pelvis, or the whole torso sausage - visibly more faintly than everything else. I am happy to see tht all your other linework is confident and dark, but there's no reason for these initial masses to be drawn lightly, and like everything else, you definitely should not be tracing back over them after the fact to make them darker, or to alter their silhouettes.

When it comes to additional masses, another point I raise often in my critiques, is the importance of just how we design those masses' silhouettes. I can see that you are being more attentive to those shapes, considering how they wrap around one another, but you do have a tendency to allow some masses to end up with inward curves in places where there's no cause for them. For example, looking at this wolf you can see where I've noted an inward curve along the top edge of an additional mass. As explained here, we only add complexity to those silhouettes (like inward curves and corners) where there is another structure or form pressing up against it. Here it is open to the air, and therefore should remain as simple as possible. If you need an inward curve there, then you should be building it up through multiple additional masses that layer on top of one another.

So, here's a summary of the main points you need to address:

• Take. Your. Time. Every mark you draw should be informed from direct observation of your reference, and every shape should be designed according to its own requirements. If you're drawing sausages for the legs, make sure you stick as closely to the characteristics of simple sausages as explained here, and don't forget to add contour curves at the joints (you're pretty good with that, but forget them on occasion). If you're drawing additional masses, think about them in terms of where you're placing your complexity.

• Pay attention to the proportions of your reference images, looking particularly at the negative spaces to help inform where you place your constructed elements.

• Start with smaller cranial balls - you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot by making them so big each time. Also, pay closer attention to the shape of the eye sockets in my head construction demo. The upturned pentagon allows for a nice wedge space for the muzzle to fit into, and a nice flat top for the brow ridge to be constructed upon.

• Take your time! I know I said this already, but I really cannot stress it enough. Right now you're working based on an arbitrary deadline. Your drawings will take as long as they need to take. You do not have to finish a drawing in one sitting, or in one day. You do however have to make sure that you are investing as much time as you need into each individual aspect of a construction. Even if your construction ends up being really complicated, that doesn't change anything. You still draw your lines with the same amount of care, the use of the ghosting method, etc. if you have to draw five, or if you have to draw five hundred.

I would like you to submit 6 pages of animal constructions, and I do not want you to submit them for another 2 weeks at minimum. I am assigning these as revisions, so you won't be charged additional credits, but I really want you to focus on investing as much time as you need to, not on getting them finished in a set amount of time. I know you are capable of far better, you just have to give yourself the room and time to achieve it.