Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

1:01 AM, Saturday July 30th 2022

Lesson 2 - Draw a Box - Kami Ash - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/c9Im9gl.jpg

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Thank gee I finally finished those darn textures. WooHoo me!

Would have finished a week ago if not for those spiffy textures. The texture study in particular. -ugh- Hated them in school two decades ago, still not keen on them. Not sure if I did them correctly, but I did them to the best of my ability.

Also think I went overboard in splitting up my sausages, had to look for more textures than I already saved. Looking for references is a terrible time sink.

I did have fun with the sausages piles though. Completely unexpected. I've been drawing them as doodles every since.

Thank you for your time!

Have a great day!

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6:29 PM, Monday August 1st 2022

I'll be the TA handling your Lesson 2 critique.

You're making progress towards understanding the concepts introduced in this lesson and hopefully this critique will help you in your future attempts.

  • Starting off in the arrows section your lines are looking smoothly and confidently drawn. There are spots where your arrows bulge/narrow suddenly, this is an issue because it gives the impression that your arrows are stretching which hurts their solidity. Remember that as our arrows move closer to the viewer we want them to widen consistently. It's good to see that you're trying to implement line weight, just remember that you want to keep your applications subtle and you'll become consistent with mileage. here are some things to look out for when applying it. I'd like you to experiment more with foreshortening in your future attempts, by utilizing it in both the arrows themselves as well as the negative space between their curves we can create a stronger illusion of an object moving through 3D space as demonstrated here.

  • Moving into the organic forms with contours exercise a couple of your forms are getting a bit too complex. We want to create our forms with both ends being the same size and to avoid any pinching, bloating, or stretching along the form's length as discussed here. You're keeping your line work confident here which is great, if you feel uncomfortable working with contours still don't stress with more mileage it'll become more natural. Speaking of contours I'd like you to try and shift the degree of your contours more. The degree of a contour line basically represents the orientation of that cross-section in space, relative to the viewer, and as we slide along the sausage form, the cross section is either going to open up (allowing us to see more of it) or turn away from the viewer (allowing us to see less), as shown here.

  • In the texture exercises (more so in your dissections, though your last analysis attempt falls into this as well) you're focusing largely on outlines and negative space rather than cast shadows created by forms along the texture itself. This makes it difficult to create gradients with implied information which we could then use to create focal points in more complex pieces, by doing so we can prevent our viewers from being visually overwhelmed with too much detail. For more on the importance of focusing on cast shadows read here. I'd also like to quickly direct you to this image which shows that when we're working with thin line like textures if we outline and fill the shadow we will create a much more dynamic texture than simply drawing lines.

  • It's quite common for people to feel like they don't fully grasp the form intersections exercise, if you feel like you may fall into this category try not to stress too much. This exercise is just meant to get students to start thinking about how their forms relate to one another in 3D space, and how to define those relationships on the page. We'll be going over them more in the upcoming lessons.Your forms are looking quite solid here and they believably appear to belong in the same cohesive 3D space, good work.

  • While wrapping up your submission with the organic intersections exercise you do a great job demonstrating that your sense of 3D space is developing as your forms begin to wrap around each other believably. You're keeping your forms simple and easy to work with which is a good strategy to help produce good results. I'd like yout o draw through all of your forms when attempting this again in the future, it will help reinforce your understanding of the 3D space you're creating. When it comes to your shadows you're pushing them enough so that they cast rather than just hugging the form that creates them which is a great start. Your shadows appear to be following a consistent light source, be sure to experiment with different angles and intensities when trying this exercise again in the future. I recommend pushing your light source to the top left or right corner of the page to start with, it's easier than working with a light directly above your form pile.

Overall this was a solid submission, while you may have some things to work on I have no doubt you will improve with more mileage. I'll be marking your submission as complete and move you on to the next lesson.

Keep practicing previous exercises as warm ups and good luck in lesson 3!

Next Steps:

Keep practicing previous exercise as warm ups.

Move on to lesson 3.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
8:59 PM, Monday August 1st 2022
edited at 9:03 PM, Aug 1st 2022

Thank you again, Tofu!

This is one I expected to be asked for a few extra pages, I'm surprised that I passed first attempt. Yay! -does happy dance-

I have been doodling with both the ribbons and sausages since they popped up in the lessons. Have also been playing with the form intersections in an attempt to understand them better. Thankfully, to me, these are fun exercises rather than a chore (like textures).

Textures, yeh, I did them wrong. While there is that texture challenge, I might do a few smaller texture studies just so I can understand it better. Focusing on the shadows rather than the detail. As much as I hate them, I do need to at least understand them. Slowly, slowly.

Okies, I won't natter on any more. Thanks again. :)

Have a wonderful day! :D

edited at 9:03 PM, Aug 1st 2022
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