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4:48 PM, Saturday November 25th 2023
edited at 4:55 PM, Nov 25th 2023

You are definitely on the right track with your superimposed lines and table of ellipses! This is a much better attempt than your previous submission. The lines are more confident and the ellipses don't look as haphazardly as they did before. :) I'm sure you yourself can see the difference!

As for your issue with ghosting vs mark-making, sometimes we look at ghosting and mark-making as two different things when naturally they belong together. Try this for example:

Take the pen and ghost an ellipse a few millimetres above the paper, then as you ghost slowly bring the pen down towards the paper. Keep the speed of ghosting consistent. It's at this point that sometimes we pause for a second as we suddenly think "Oh we're about to draw on the paper!" but keep that ghosting movement going while you slowly bring down your pen. Keep to the lightest of touches. You'll see how little pressure you need just to draw a faint line on the paper. You don't have to do this as part of the revision so just take a scrap piece of paper and experiment with how much pressure you need to actually mark the paper. Almost as if your arm was a robot and you had a control switch that gradually brought the 'arm' down onto the paper while the robot was just doing consistent circles. Lol. I'm not sure if that makes sense but if you want a further explanation, let me know.

Drawing ellipses is definitely harder when you are just starting off in learning how to use your shoulder to draw but don't worry, with practise you'll get better at it. Also, I'm guessing that when you write normal words, you tend to press down on the paper but with these felt tip pens you really don't need that kind of pressure. It's mainly required for later lessons when you want to draw the eye towards certain lines/aspects of the artwork.

Also to reduce the wobble (as I still see a little bit of wobbling in your table of ellipses), try increasing the speed of ghosting. Sometimes when you go a little more slowly, the brain starts focusing on trying to be accurate and then end up with a line that lacks confidence. So a little more speed and a lighter touch might help. Try doing a few ellipses like this on scrap paper before you attempt the funnels exercise.

Also if you can, try to do about two rows of the table of ellipses. This isn't part of the revision so you can skip it if you want to, but it may benefit you just to compare and see the differences between all 3 versions.

And sorry, yes I meant organic perspective. I hope this helps but it's all about loosening up and ghosting. Take your time to ghost. Sometimes it might feel a little weird to ghost about 10 times for a simple ellipse, but you'll see that after a while of ghosting, you naturally also get better at drawing them.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

edited at 4:55 PM, Nov 25th 2023
6:48 PM, Saturday November 25th 2023

Thank you for the helpful advice. The specifics are really helpful. I tried these two again. Should I redo the smaller boxes again for organic perspective?

https://imgur.com/a/gQoIxPW

7:18 PM, Saturday November 25th 2023
edited at 7:20 PM, Nov 25th 2023

No your organic perspective is looking much better now so I don't think you need to redo the smaller boxes. Though on your last row, the smaller boxes also start from the point where the larger boxes end. The larger boxes should have been heading horizontally to the left instead of down. I think you may have gotten a little confused in following the swoopy line. Remember to follow the swoopy line correctly when you do this exercise for your warm ups.

I'm still not confident of your ellipses though so I'd like you to do another page of Table of Ellipses. I think you're getting there so don't lose hope, this can be hard for some students. A little more practise is all thats needed. Remember to take your time to ghost but keep the speed up.

Just want to say as I noticed you had written 'slower and lighter' on your revision page. Ghosting does not mean slowing down. You need to go at a faster pace to ensure that your lines don't wobble. But repeated ghosting allows for a more confident and accurate line.

Next Steps:

1 table of ellipses

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 7:20 PM, Nov 25th 2023
7:52 PM, Saturday November 25th 2023
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