As a whole your work here is really well done - which is good, because it's the last Lesson 5 critique I've got for the day (I'm tackling all of those first because they're generally the most time consuming to critique). And even better, because I'm scrambling to get back on schedule, which was somewhat thrown awry due to being hit by a hurricane and without power for several days. So, your critique will hopefully be short(er), touching really only on the things that will help you continue to continue making the best use of these exercises and tools. Just remember - while I'm going to focus on areas of improvement, you are by and large doing very well, and are applying the concepts from the lesson and the course well. Some of these will even be a bit nitpicky, but useful all the same.

So, jumping right into it, you're making excellent use of the additional masses in many cases, and clearly thinking a great deal about how each mass is designed so as to maintain a tight and clear relationship with the existing structures. I did however identify a few areas where some additional advice would be useful. Much of the following notes will be drawn on this page from your work.

First off, this is not an issue I saw often - usually you were more particular about using sharp corners where they were needed - but here you can see how the ends of these masses are still quite rounded, which does not establish a clear relationship with the existing structure. In order to establish how the mass actually wraps around the leg's base sausage, we need to use both an inward curve to show how the mass wraps around the visible section of the underlying structure, and a sharp corner to establish that the same thing is going on along the opposite side (and so the mass hooks back around along that side in the manner a contour line does).

Here's a diagram depicting this concept - along the top, it feels more like the new mass is a sticker being pasted on top in two dimensions, whereas along the bottom we get an actual relationship in three dimensions.

So here's this concept in action. Along with the correction along the leg, I made some adjustments to the big mass added to the neck, just to strengthen those relationships by gently adjusting some shallow outward curves back into inward curves where it is beneficial to do so. I also added the same to the other side, for the sake of symmetry - something that can easily go overlooked, but that is inherent in any animal.

The second point I wanted to address on this horse was this mass whose silhouette ended up being quite complex. While this isn't strictly wrong if there is enough reason for all of these different inward/outward curves and various corners, any situation where you find yourself trying to get a single mass to establish quite so many relationships, and really accomplish so many different things, is a situation that should cause you to think twice. As shown further down in that image, I demonstrated how the same could be achieved with many separate masses - first starting with establishing a big one along either side, and then creating that inward curve through the combination of shallower outward curves (which is the only way you could reasonably create an inward curve along the outside of the structure's silhouette, if we're playing by the rules that such things can only be created by another form pressing in on that silhouette, as shown here.

The last thing I wanted to take some time to discuss is head construction. Lesson 5 has a lot of different strategies for constructing heads, between the various demos. Given how the course has developed, and how I'm finding new, more effective ways for students to tackle certain problems. So not all the approaches shown are equal, but they do have their uses. As it stands, as explained at the top of the tiger demo page (here), the current approach that is the most generally useful, as well as the most meaningful in terms of these drawings all being exercises in spatial reasoning, is what you'll find here on the informal demos page.

There are a few key points to this approach:

• The specific shape of the eyesockets - the specific pentagonal shape allows for a nice wedge in which the muzzle can fit in between the sockets, as well as a flat edge across which we can lay the forehead area.

• This approach focuses heavily on everything fitting together - no arbitrary gaps or floating elements. This allows us to ensure all of the different pieces feel grounded against one another, like a three dimensional puzzle.

• We have to be mindful of how the marks we make are cuts along the curving surface of the cranial ball - working in individual strokes like this (rather than, say, drawing the eyesocket with an ellipse) helps a lot in reinforcing this idea of engaging with a 3D structure.

Try your best to employ this method when doing constructional drawing exercises using animals in the future, as closely as you can. Sometimes it seems like it's not a good fit for certain heads, but with a bit of finagling it can still apply pretty well. To demonstrate this for another student, I found the most banana-headed rhinoceros I could, and threw together this demo.

And with that, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. As a whole you've done very well, and while you've got some points to keep in mind, you are certainly equipped to apply this yourself. Keep up the great work.