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9:36 AM, Wednesday November 15th 2023
edited at 9:38 AM, Nov 15th 2023

Hey - thanks for your feedback!

I just wanted to clarify a few things, to make sure I can get the most out of your feedback, if that's okay? I did only use a biro for all the drawings submitted here (plus brush pen for cast shadows) as per instructions. I did add much more weight when drawing 'final' (or 'visible') lines whilst trying to be as light as possible with the biro for subdividing and construction lines early on - so that the constructions didn't become too visually cluttered/difficult to understand. I thought that was why we were told to use ballpoint pens, to take advantage of the range of value you can get from them, but apologies if I was mistaken.

For example: here where a line runs from the front corner of the vehicle to the back of the cab, through the wheel, to lay down the general length - I added line weight to the line either side of the wheel with biro, thinking of this as adding line weight in order to clarify the position of the line.

I remembered the feedback from lesson 6, after I tried using different coloured fine liners for different 'phases' of the drawing, so I did think I was trying to approach this lesson more in the right direction. I wanted to make this clear as it seemed like an important point in your critique, and I can understand why it would be if it looked like I had ignored specific instructions or previous feedback. Anyway, I just want to be able to properly take your feedback on board and make sure I am addressing the right thing, so that I can work on improving.

With the orthographic plans, it would be really helpful for me if you could be more specific in terms of which landmarks I am missing during this phase. With the 8 orthographic plans (not including the ones I made following the demos), I can't see much of a change in my approach between my first and my last so it would be good for me to know exactly what I should be focusing on here more to improve.

Sorry! If any of this is nitpicky or anything, I apologise. I just wanted to make sure I can get the most out of the last feedback! :sweat:

Thanks again for your time, I appreciate it!

edited at 9:38 AM, Nov 15th 2023
7:03 PM, Thursday November 16th 2023

In terms of the pen usage, while it definitely looked like the clean-up pass was done with a fineliner, there are definitely situations where the results can be hard to distinguish. That said, the bigger issue was less the switching of the pen, and more the clean-up pass itself. When we change pens, it pretty much requires us to trace back over the entirety of the drawing because of how when mixed, fineliners and ballpoint pens tend to stand out, so it'd look strange to just touch up a few areas with what would be a much thicker pen.

We advise students against clean-up passes because they tend to put us in a "tracing" mode - meaning, we're focusing on following the lines on the flat page, rather than remembering that our strokes are meant to exist in three dimensions, and be drawn with confidence. While I didn't strictly notice that issue in your work, it's still something I wanted to bring to your attention both as something to avoid when applying the exercises from this course, and in terms of making sure you keep a close eye on the instructions.

As to the orthographic plans, by landmarks I basically mean any sort of corner or feature that you would need to make a decision on at that phase. I marked out a few here - each of those, working from that orthographic plan, would still have to be guessed at or estimated when moving to 3D space. As explained here, those are the things you already want to have decided upon before moving to the 3D construction - or in the situation where you missed some, it's probably best to go back to the orthographic plan, make the decision there, then continue (instead of trying to eyeball it).

1:42 PM, Saturday November 18th 2023

Thanks for getting back to me!

Yeah, I definitely do have a tendency to go over lines a bit too much when I am drawing. Anyway, note taken! I will work on it going forward. :)

And thanks for the extra notes on the orthographics - makes more sense to me now what you were getting at - I definitely could have been more precise. Must subdivide more!

Thankyou again & all the best

C

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A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.

In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.

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