Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

7:22 PM, Saturday September 19th 2020

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That was harder than the 250 box challenge. Thanks for taking a look.

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8:48 PM, Monday September 21st 2020

It may have been hard, but you did a pretty good job with it.

Starting with your arrows, you've done a good job of drawing them such that they flow through space with a fair bit of confidence and fluidity. Don't forget however that the spacing between the zigzagging sections is subject to foreshortening, just like the rest of the arrow, and it should be getting narrower and tighter as we look farther back in space. This is actually something you do appear to improve on into the second page, though it was more lacking on the first.

Also, for arrow #10, I noticed that you weren't bridging the width of the ribbon across right at the folds, as shown here.

Moving onto your organic forms with contour lines, you've done a pretty good job of sticking to the characteristics of simple sausages as mentioned in the instructions. For your actual contour ellipses, you do at times have a little more hesitation which causes them to get a little more wobbly. I suspect this could be either because you end up drawing more from your elbow or wrist, or that you don't adhere to the ghosting method as much in certain cases (remember that you should be rotating that page to find a comfortable angle of approach). Either of these things can lead to more hesitation, rather than the confident execution that results in a smooth, even stroke, though it's not to too great a degree. Just something to keep in mind as you move forwards.

Continuing onto your texture analyses, you've done a great job here of demonstrating your understanding of just how much I stress the use of clearly defined shadow shapes, and you've combined it with solid observation skills and attention to detail to create excellent gradients, controlling their density extremely well. I'm also pleased to see that you applied these principles the same way throughout the dissections - not going crazy on capturing every last detail and outlining each textural form, but rather implying them using cast shadows and controlling where to focus that detail and where to provide the viewer with rest areas instead. Very well done.

For your form intersections, you're doing a pretty good job of constructing those forms with clear, concise linework, resulting in solid forms that feel cohesive and consistent within the same space. That is the core focus of the exercise, so with that you've done well. The secondary aspect - the intersections - also has a great start, though there is room for improvement here. That is entirely expected and natural for this stage. This part of the exercise serves to introduce students to thinking about how the forms relate to one another in 3D space, and how to define those relationships on the page. We don't expect them to be correct - just that students make an attempt, so they can start thinking about them as we continue to explore them through the rest of the course.

Lastly, your organic intersections have similarly come along quite well. You've established how the forms interact with one another in 3D space, rather than as flat shapes on a flat page, and have created a believable illusion of gravity in how they slump and sag over one another. You've also got a good start in grasping how those shadows can be cast, although I think you should continue thinking about how those shadows might follow as the surface they're cast upon turns one way or another, due to those sausages being rounded.

All in all your work here is really solid, and it's clear you've pushed yourself throughout. Keep up the great work and consider this lesson complete.

Next Steps:

Feel free to move onto lesson 3.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
4:57 AM, Tuesday September 22nd 2020

Thanks boss man, this was not the critique I was expecting so well chuffed.

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