This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
0 users agree
9:25 PM, Sunday September 5th 2021
You have a pretty solid showing here, with just a few issues to point out.
The arrows are pretty good, getting bigger as they get closer to the viewer. There are some here and there where the gaps in the folds don't increase in size as they get closer, but this isn't an entirely consistent occurrence.
Your branches are quite good. They appear solid and well constructed, with barely any visible fraying tails off the sides in sight. My only point of critique here is that the degrees of the ellipses don't seem to change all that much in some of your branches. There are other branches in here where you do apply this, however.
Your leaves are very good, being drawn with confidence and control. You do seem to use subtractive construction somewhat often, however, which is a big no-no. You should try to keep it largely to additive construction.
I don't have much in the way of criticism for the actual plant constructions, outside of criticisms already brought up for the leaves and branches. You're clearly breaking these plants down to simpler shapes and working from there, and you seem to be working with a great sense of care. You clearly put a lot of work into the observation side of things, which is good. My only criticism here is that, on the last drawing, you don't seem to use line weight much to add clarity to the piece and don't seem to mark out the intersections between forms. Both of these will be quite important going forward, so try to incorporate these practices in your drawings more as you go forward.
Next Steps:
Overall, you've done a great job with this lesson. I believe that you're ready to move on to lesson 2.
3:28 PM, Monday September 6th 2021
Thanks again for your time, I really appreciate it.
(Also, happy to hear I'm doing okay. And about too much subtractive construction - It's the thing I didn't really notice at all that I do so much, so it helps a lot to be reminded of that.)
4:15 AM, Wednesday September 15th 2021
You are welcome; I wish you the best of luck going forward.
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.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)
Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.
Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.
These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.
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.
Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.