Hello Pikasfy, I'm ThatOneMushroomGuy and I'll be the TA handling your critique today.

Arrows

Starting with your arrows, your linework is looking smooth which helps push the feeling of fluidity that arrows have as they move through space. Your arrows are looking very tridimensional and this is due to the good use of foreshortening you apply to your arrows, as well as the correct placement of your shading.

Overall you've done an incredible job with arrows, the only thing you should keep in mind going forward is to never forget to make use of added lineweight on top of the arrow's overlaps, in order to reinforce their depth. Keep up the good job and don't forget to challenge yourself by attempting different types of arrows in the future.

Leaves

Moving on to your leaves they're looking energetic and fluid, nicely moving across the page as the fluidity you had in the arrows exercise is translating nicely into your leaves.

When it comes to the complex leaf construction method you're using it very effectively, but I have noticed one case where it seems you skip construction steps for your complex leaf construction, by drawing some of it's individual arms with the leaf construction method, but skipping steps for some and attempting complexity right away. It's important to establish the overall footprint of your leaf structure before establishing how individual arms move, because even though the leaf is separated into different structures it's core is kept the same and these smaller arms abide by it. So do your best to always take your time to draw things out fully.

Your edge detail is coming along nicely, although there are some cases where you you end up zigzagging your edge detail and trying to capture more than one bump of detail at a time with a single strome. Zigzagging your edge detail is a mistake that goes against the third principle of mark making from lesson 1 and is something you generally want to avoid, so make sure to always take your time with this step of construction.

And lastly I want to mention something which isn't an outright mistake but does end up missing the point of the exercise and what it seeks to teach you, that's the fact that you're not drawing many of your leaves with any kind of fold or overlap. As explained in the intro to this exercise leaves are objects which are very easily influenced by outside forces such as the wind or gravity, so when approaching this exercise, think of the forces that push through these leaves, and draw them with an awareness of how they flow through space, this includes drawing them bending and folding over themselves.

Branches

For your branches they are coming along very decently as you're generally following the instructions for the exercise, although there are some places where it seems you don't follow through with these instructions as there are some gaps inbetween the ellipses and the branch's edge, which should not happen.

So don't forget how branches should be approached, by having your segment start at the first ellipse, extending it past the second ellipse and fully to the halfway point to the third ellipse, afterwards you'll start a new segment, making sure to place your pen at the second ellipse and repeat the pattern until your branch is complete.

Another thing that also impacts the solidiy of your branches is the fact that your ellipses degrees are barely changing in some places when they should due to how the ellipse degree shift works, as shown here. It seems that you are aware of this which is great, so just push your ellipses degrees further and always keep in mind that as a cylindrical form shifts towards or away from the viewer, the degree of the ellipses within that structure will also shift.

Plant Construction Section

Let's talk about your plant constructions, you're moving in the right direction and your constructions are looking pretty tridimensional, you're demonstrating a good grasp on the concepts this lesson seeks to teach as well as a great sense of spatial reasoning.

Your work here is solid, although there are some things which are holding it back from it's full potential, as such I'll be giving you a couple of pointers on things you should look out for in the future.

• Construct all cylindrical objects, such as flower pots, around a minor axis in order to keep your several ellipses aligned. And going further make sure to fully construct your flower pots, many of these objects have a rim around their edge, it's important to capture this form as well through the use of extra ellipses and an inner ellipse on the inside in order to indicate the thickness of the pot.

Always make use of the construction methods and techniques introduced in the lesson and always construct your forms fully.

For example, in this plant construction you start out well by constructing the main stem of the plant with the branch construction method, but as it goes on you start to capture branches with single lines instead, these look out of place especially when close to the volumous form that is the main branch, they also don't capture any sense of form or tridimensionality and only serve to remind the viewer that they're looking at flat lines on a page and flatten your work.

There are other examples of this issue - such as in page #3, where you jump into complexity right away with the leaves on the stem of the flowers and how in page #4 you don't draw through your forms, which doesn't allow you to make full use of the leaf construction method correctly - but as of now I'd like to use two of them as examples.

Such as this plant where you don't draw any of the branch like structures present in the plant with the branch construction method.

And for this construction you have a very strong and solid start as you construct each of the leaf structures separately which gives them a clear sense of form and makes their relationships with one another clearly defined, but, as we get closer to the edges, you give up trying to capture each of these forms individually and instead you attempt to capture it's overall form by outlining it's silhouette, this is incredibly jarring and suggests that as you started this construction that you were aware of how it should be approached - by drawing each leaf structure individually - but as you continued you may have gotten impatient and started rushing your work, but this only serves to flatten your construction.

The methods introduced in these lessons are not suggestions, they aren't guidelines to use at our own discretion - they're tools. Tools which have a very specific purpose, that is, to help us deconstruct and understand our subjects of study in order to further our own knowledge and develop our sense of spatial reasoning and through this allow us to draw solid looking structures on our page.

So make sure that you're always using the methods introduced in the lesson, otherwise you'll leave the relationships between your forms vague and undefined, or rely on flat shapes which don't convey any sense of tridimensionality.

In that same vein, draw through all of your forms and construct them fully as I've noticed that in some of your constructions you don't draw through your forms, such as petals in this construction this limits your ability to work through these tridimensional puzzles and limits how much you're getting out of the exercise as not drawing through your forms means relying on your observation skills, instead of engaging your sense of spatial reasoning and truly trying to understand how the object you're drawing works, where it comes from, what it attaches to.

• It's incredibly important for you to draw through all of your forms, as small or as unecessary as you might believe them to be, forms don't stop existing when they become obscured by other forms. Think of it as building a house and having a full X-ray view of the building, it's a tridimensional puzzle that cannot exist before the foundations are laid out, the roof cannot exist before the walls, the walls cannot exist before the foundation, and the furniture cannot exist before the building, in that same vein tips of leaves or parts of a construction cannot exist by themselves, they still exist as full forms even when they're partially obscured by other objects. Therefore you should make sure you're always drawing forms in their entirety, this will help you develop your sense of spatial reasoning and make all of the relationships between phases of construction in your drawing clear and defined.

I have noticed that in several of your plant constructions you're defaulting to zigzagging your edge detail which as discussed previously in this critique is a mistake that you'll want to avoid. The reason I mention it again is because not only is it an issue present in your work, but because you apply it decently in your leaves page but apply it way less effectively in your plant construction pages this leads me to believe that you're rushing your work and not taking the time to draw each piece of edge detail with it's own stroke, making sure to start your leaf structures with simple forms and gradually build up it's complexity.

Keep in mind that in order to get the most out of this course a very important thing that's asked from students is to produce work to the best of their current ability, rushing through these pages in order to get them done and over with faster ironically only hurts your progress and makes you learn slower, so take your time with your homework pages and each mark.

And lastly one thing that impacts the quality of your work seems to be the fact that you're drawing way too small, while for your regular plants you seem to be drawing at a good size, for your attempts at the demos they look incredibly tiny, especially considering the size of the writing next to the potato plant demo, this is harming your progress by artificially limiting the space of your page and doesn't allow you enough room to work through the spatial reasoning challenges that arise when tackling these exercises. Not only that, but drawing bigger will allow you to fully engage your whole arm when drawing.

So draw bigger, as big as it's necessary for you to be able to properly engage your brain and arm when drawing, and make sure to invest as much time as its necessary into each and every construction.

Final Thoughts

Overall, you're starting to understand what these exercises want to teach you, but I'm afraid that sometimes you're rushing your constructions and not applying the methods as thoroughly as they ought to be used, as well as believing you're not allowing yourself enough space to fully work through these exercises in some cases, while you're showing a great understanding of spatial reasoning these issues are still significantly bringing down the quality of your work and what you're getting out of it.

I'm not going to be passing you onto the next lesson just yet, these concepts will be highly important in the following lessons and you need to show that you truly understand them before moving forward by applying them to your work to the best of your current ability and consistently. Make sure to revisit any relevant material mentioned here and then please reply with your revisions.