Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

8:21 PM, Sunday November 14th 2021

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/3GWE3Zi.jpg

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

Hello, I finished lesson 3 and submitting my homework. At first it was a little confusing to draw actual objects with construction method, but after some time and many attempts I think I understood what I was supposed to. So after I got some grasp It was actually fun and enjoyable. All references that I used are at the bottom of the post. Waiting for reply and ready for the next lesson.

0 users agree
12:41 AM, Tuesday November 16th 2021

Starting with your arrows, you've done a good job of executing your linework here with confidence, which helps to push the sense of fluidity with which these structures move through the 3D world in which they exist. That carries over quite nicely into your leaves, where you've cpatured not only how they sit statically within the world as 3D objects, but also how they move through the space they occupy.

You've also done a great job in terms of applying the addition of more complex edge detail, having it flow fairly seamlessly off the existing edge, and ultimately return to it. With this one you did fall more into the mistake of zigzagging across the previous edge in one or two places (which was explained here is a common mistake), though you did a good job otherwise, across the other leaves. I'm also pleased to see that you took a swing at a more complex leaf structure.

Continuing onto your branches, overall you're doing pretty well as a whole, but there are some definite points I want to draw to your attention to ensure that you continue practicing this exercise correctly:

  • Make sure that you draw through every ellipse you freehand two full times before lifting your pen, throughout this course, as discussed back in Lesson 1.

  • Also remember that the degree of those ellipses should be shifting wider as you move away from the viewer. The reason for this is explained/demonstrated in the Lesson 1 ellipses video.

  • While I'm not sure if this is a mistake you're making consistently, but at least a fair bit of the time you are having issues in having your edge segments overlap one another as they ought to. As explained here, each segment should start at one ellipse, go past the second, and stop halfway to the third. The next segment to follow should then start at the second ellipse, continue past the third, and stop halfway to the fourth (effectively repeating the same pattern and allowing for a healthy overlap which helps us to achieve a smoother, more seamless transition from one to the next. I can see a number of cases where you're either not extending your segments as far as you should, or where your next segment starts further ahead than it should, etc. I'm pretty sure you're doing it correctly some of the time, but it generally seems that you're not as conscious of these specific requirements as you should be.

Moving onto your plant constructions, I think overall you're doing pretty well, but there are some points I definitely want to call out - again, to keep you progressing in the right direction. Earlier on in the set, you defintiely are somewhat more timid, but your confidence picks up as you move through the set, resulting in generally more solid constructions, and a general sense that you're pushing the various techniques further along, which is always good to see.

  • The first point I noticed was that you seem to abandon the branch technique right away, and in most of these you end up representing the stems/vines of your plants as simple lines. These are cases where you should definitely be employing the branch technique to create a structure with some amount of actual physical thickness. When we leave things down to simple lines, we're effectively conveying that this structure is paper-thin - so infinitely narrow that it cannot have any more thickness than a simple line. It's not something you're going to encounter often, so make sure you're building such structures out as complete tube forms, with thickness to them.

  • Similarly, make sure that when you construct flower pots, that you do so similarly capturing the thickness of their rim. You can do this by placing another ellipse inset within the opening, resulting in one ellipse for the outer edge of the rim, and another for the inner edge. Additionally, including another ellipse to define the level of the soil, and really ellipses for any element of structure that may be present in your reference image - don't stop at capturing the most basic cylindrical structure, there's generally more to them than that. And, of course, to help in drawing all of these ellipses, be sure to construct any cylindrical structure around a central minor axis line.

  • I called this one out already in your leaves, but I did notice a tendency to zigzag back and forth across the simpler edge of your petals, as explained here.

  • I did notice some variation in terms of how much time/effort you'd put into certain elements of your constructions. For example, with this flower, it's pretty clear that the petals weren't necessarily given quite as much attention as you could have afforded them. Remember that we do not ask students for perfect work, or even good work - just that they invest as much time as they need to in order to complete the work to the best of their current ability. If that means spending twice as much time, then that's what you ought to do.

  • On that same page, I noticed some jumping around in terms of line weights, with an especially significant jump in thickness along the leaves. It helps a fair bit aim the use of these tools - like line weight - towards specific purposes and goals, in order to maintain a consistent set of rules for how they're used. For line weight specifically, firstly make sure you're not going overboard or being really overt with its use. Keep it very subtle, like a whisper to the viewer's subconscious. Line weight is always going to be added with the same pen (after all, Drawabox only ever has you draw with a 0.5mm fineliner, up until lesson 6). Furthermore, it helps a lot to focus line weight specifically on clarifying how different forms overlap one another, by using it only in the localized areas where those overlaps occur. You can see this depicted in this example of two leaves overlapping one another - note how the line weight is focused only where the overlap happens, and quickly blends back into the lighter line thickness.

  • As mentioned in the branches - be sure to draw through all of your ellipses two full times before lifting your pen. This will help you achieve smoother, more even, and more solid results - especially in cases like the fruits on this plant. Also, be sure to employ the ghosting method as for all marks, and execute those ellipses from your shoulder - all things that should help you to emphasize the evenness of their shapes.

Now, I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but be sure to go through the feedback I've given you here a few times (preferably not all at once) to let it all sink in, and continue practicing these kinds of drawings and exercises as you push forwards.

Next Steps:

Move onto lesson 4.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
8:15 AM, Tuesday November 16th 2021

Thank you for really good and constructive critique. It's actually flattering to get a reply from you, I will definitely be more aware for my mistakes in future. The only thing I would want to clarify or maybe get an advice from you. With branches exercise I found it difficult to implement this technique in flower stamps because they are to thin. So what would be your advice? Maybe I should then ignore the real proportion and focus more on the technique? (basically make them thinker than they actually are)

4:20 PM, Wednesday November 17th 2021

Thinner branches are definitely quite a bit more difficult than wider ones - but a technique being difficult does not mean it should be completely replaced with something different. You should still be trying to capture them using the branch technique, even though you will mess up in the process. Each of these drawings are, after all, just exercises.

There are a couple things that can help, but they both relate to what you've stated yourself already - you can either exaggerate the proportions a little at first, making the stems a tad thicker, and then working your way down, or you can simply pick a smaller subsection of the overall plant to focus on, blowing it up in the space available to you on the page - this will make the stems wider overall while still maintaining the original proportions.

6:09 PM, Wednesday November 17th 2021

Okay, I think I understood what I need. Overall I think you are right, better to mess up something than not trying it at all. Thank you for your help, I will move onto next lesson and will consider all remarks.

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.
Cottonwood Arts Sketchbooks

Cottonwood Arts Sketchbooks

These are my favourite sketchbooks, hands down. Move aside Moleskine, you overpriced gimmick. These sketchbooks are made by entertainment industry professionals down in Los Angeles, with concept artists in mind. They have a wide variety of sketchbooks, such as toned sketchbooks that let you work both towards light and towards dark values, as well as books where every second sheet is a semitransparent vellum.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.