Hello I'll be handling the critique for your lesson 2 homework.
Organic Arrows
-Starting with the organic arrows, these are drawn with a good deal of confidence which really helps you capture the way they flow through space. That said, I do notice a few instances where your linework feels a little hesitant, causing the ribbon to bulge and swell, keep an eye for that in the future. You handled the foreshortening of the ribbons pretty well. The main thing I want you to keep working on is the negative space between the zigzagging sections of the ribbon, keep in mind that it has to decrease as it move further away from the viewer as shown here. Lastly, it is good to see that you are applying lineweight and you have done it correctly, although the hatching could be a little tidier.
Organic Forms with Contours
-Your sausage forms are turning out quite well, as you avoided any pinching or swelling throughout their length. When it comes to the contour ellipses you have drawn with an awareness of how they change degree relative to the viewer, they are also drawn with a good deal of confidence.
You are moving in the right direction when it comes to the contour curves and overall and these begin to wrap around the sausage in a believable way, though I would like to suggest a few things. Keep in mind that contour curves are a useful tool to describe how a form sits in 3D space, but they can also work against us by flattening our drawing, it is better to use them very sparingly. Use the ghosting method to think about each mark's purpose and how you are going to achieve it best, also try to imagine as if you were carving your pen along the surface of the form, this way you will start to get the little bits of nuance that help describe how this form sits in 3D space.
Textures
-On the texture analysis you show a good understanding of how to distinguish between form shading and cast shadows. You also have achieved a seamless transition from dense to space, and overall this is a great start for your textures.
-On the dissections you have done equally well, but I notice that you drew a lot of textures like fur, before moving on I'd like to quickly redirect you to this image which shows that when working with thin line like textures it is better to first outline the shadow shape and filling it rather than simply drawing lines. I also notice that you drew a lot of textures like fur, make sure to experiment with other types of textures.
Form Intersections
-The form intersections are turning out quite well and you have drawn each form with a good deal of care, which makes the whole set feel more solid and cohesive. If you feel like you don't fully grasp the intersections themselves, don't worry as we will be going over them in future lessons.
The main thing I want to call out is that the lineweight is pretty thick, try to be more subtle and tidy with it.
Organic Intersections
-Finishing with the organic intersections, they are beginning to wrap around each other believably, I want to call out a few things that may help you with future attempts at this exercise. Firstly try to have each sausage equally sized, and as always avoid any elongated ones and keep them simple and easy to work with. Lastly try to take more time to design the cast shadows, remember that they act as contour lines and they should wrap around the surface they are falling on. It seems that you drew some shadows that fall under the category of form shading, you may have confused them with cast shadows but these must be projected from one surface to another, thus they can't cling to the silhouette of the form casting the shadow.
Anyways, you still have some things to keep working on but I have no doubt that you will continue to improve with practice. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete
Next Steps:
Lesson. 3
Hello!
Thank you so much for your critique! This was really helpful!!!
Your texture analyses show a very clear understanding of the given assignment, and your organic forms' ellipses/lines do a good job of demonstrating how the forms are rotating in space. I myself haven't finished the last two assignments yet, so I can't say whether or not those needs improvement, but everything else shows a clear understanding of what you're doing.
Next Steps:
I think you're ready to move on to the next lesson.
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We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.
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