This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
0 users agree
8:12 AM, Tuesday April 6th 2021
As a whole, you've definitely done a good job throughout this lesson. There are a few minor issues I want to call out, but all in all, you've done a great job, and have built out solid, believable structures, all of which demonstrate an excellent grasp of space and form.
The first point I noticed was in your first sheet of birds. In the duck head on the top left, you started with a cranial ball as usual, but ended up cutting back across its silhouette when "refining" the given shape. As a rule, when going through constructional drawing exercises, refrain from altering the silhouettes of any of the forms you've already constructed. As shown here, this has the tendency of flattening things out. For organic subject matter, always build on top of the structure, and if it deviates from the reference image and cannot be solved by building up further, leave it be. The goal is to construct something that feels solid, first and foremost, even if it deviations from your reference image.
To that point, be careful when going back over the silhouette of your constructions, as you did with the other full bird construction on the left of that page. This can easily end up having the same impact as redrawing the silhouette of an existing form. Limiting line weight to simply clarifying specific overlaps in localized areas is generally going to help avoid accidentally flattening structures out, or turning them more into graphic shapes rather than solid forms.
The wolf constructions on this page are coming along very well, and I'm really pleased to see how you're leveraging the additional masses, mindfully shaping their silhouettes to wrap around the existing structure. A few points, though, as marked out here:
-
Don't miss opportunities, as in mass at the base of the running wolf's neck/above its shoulder, to define the spatial relationship between it and the shoulder mass.
-
Use the sausage method when constructing your legs - this was called out in your lesson 4 work as well.
-
Be a bit more generous when it comes to the size of your eye sockets and your eyeballs. They generally work better when you draw them larger than you think is appropriate, especially since we need to wrap the eyelids believably around those structures.
-
For the tufts of fur on the wolf head construction, you start to get somewhat repetitive in some places. This often happens when falling into auto-pilot. Always remember that being intentional and in control of how those tufts are designed is key - if you find yourself not being able to focus on them, it's better to reduce the actual number of tufts, rather than to put more in and have them be repetitious.
A minor point for your deer - avoid cutting off their feet. If your reference obscures that part of them, there is of course no reason you can't just find alternative reference to fill in the gaps.
Aside from those points, you really are knocking this out of the park. Keep up the fantastic work, and consider this lesson complete.
Next Steps:
Feel free to move onto the 250 cylinder challenge, which is a prerequisite for lesson 6.
The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens
Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.
Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.