8:25 PM, Thursday July 20th 2023
Before I get to the actual challenge work, I should note that the material for this lesson doesn't actually refer to french curves at all - only to ellipse guides (being the recommended option, even in the face of the more limited sizes of the master ellipse templates we recommend for the sake of frugality) and freehanding (which we strongly discourage, due to the additional cognitive resources it requires, which then leads to more distraction from the core focus of the challenge in favour of worrying about drawing ellipses, which other exercises from earlier in the course do a better job of training).
The reason french curves were not suggested for this is because they are not actually intended for this purpose. Rather, they're used to execute either single partial curves, or complex irregular shapes - they provide us with a lot of different edge paths to follow, allowing us to for example execute highly specific curves in a car, or on a particular object. When drawing ellipses, we reach for ellipse guides or freehanding because our focus there is on creating a regular, even shape.
Now, this admittedly does hinder the effectiveness of the challenge, as you ended up pursuing a tool that was never really meant to be used for it, but I'll continue moving forwards with the critique with what you've done here, keeping that point in mind. Similarly, the "Took me until wheel 13 to properly start using reference" is unfortunate - it'd be rather difficult to perform this exercise correctly without paying close attention to your reference, as would be the case for anything after Lesson 2, aside from the cylinder challenge.
Starting with the structural aspect of the challenge, I am glad to see that you've been mindful of the inclusion of a larger ellipse towards the center, to create a more arcing profile for the tire. This helps a lot to make the structure as a whole feel more inflated, as though it would land with a bounce rather than a heavy thud.
Looking at how you've approached the spokes of your wheels' rims however, I am noticing some points I wish to address. I've marked them out here.
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You tend to fill the side planes of your forms with solid black. Generally speaking we want to reserve our filled areas of solid black for cast shadows only, where the filled shape is designed to convey the relationship in space between the form casting it and the surface receiving it. When we fill in an existing shape, like the side plane of a given form, what we're doing is more in line with form shading, where we're making a surface lighter or darker based on its orientation - not because something else is blocking the light from reaching it. Of course, as explained here in Lesson 2, form shading should generally be avoided for this course (although there are plenty of demos that still employ it, as this is a policy we implemented after several rounds of updates/revisions, as it helps keep students more on target - we're working hard to update the demo/video material to keep up with the things that have changed, but it's quite a task, and we're making fairly slow progress on it).
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I also noticed that there are places where you have the far edge of the side plane continue along with the closer edge to the viewer, extending just as far even when it should be cut off to show that side plane intersecting with other structures. As I marked out on the image linked above, the inner rim structure would cut off that side plane surface.
Continuing onto the textural aspect of the challenge, one of the purposes of this challenge is to serve as a reminder for those students who - being as far removed from Lesson 2 and its discussion of textural concepts - have not really continued practicing those concepts in their warmups, but rather allowed their memory of them to lapse. In other words - it's a trap for the large portion of students who haven't continued practicing the older material, focusing on texture but really there to urge students to go back and review sections they may have forgotten.
You certainly have fallen into that trap, as primarily what I'm seeing here is that you've focused on drawing what you see in your reference image, without really including the intermediate step of interpreting what you're looking at to understand which forms are present there along the wheel's surface, and how they relate to the surfaces around them. You can read more about this in particular in hese notes from the texture section.
Alongside that however, there is some additional information I want to provide for when it comes to textures that involve shallow grooves, holes, or cracks. There are many tire tread textures that are made up only of shallower grooves, and that's another reason why it becomes significantly easier for a student to end up just drawing what they see, and drawing those grooves directly as lines, rather than considering the small forms being represented and thinking about how they relate to one another in 3D space. Many textures are "named" after the kind of forms they're composed of. Bumpy textures have bumps, rocky textures have little rocky protrusions, etc. and these names correspond directly to the textural forms that are present. With grooves, cracks, and holes on the other hand, the words used to label them don't actually correspond to the textural forms. Instead, they correspond to negative space, where no form exists. Instead, the actual forms that are relevant here are the walls that surround those gaps, and it's those walls that cast shadows upon one another, and upon the floor of the hole below. I explain this further in this diagram.
Now, while I normally don't assign revisions for this challenge (since it's meant to be more of a reminder), in your situation with the issues involving the french curves, I think it would be wise to give you a further opportunity to demonstrate your best when you aren't hindered by misunderstandings. I'll be assigning some revisions below. When you work on them, keep the following in mind:
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The ellipse guide's forcing you to draw small - this can be quite challenging when it comes to the fineliners, as it requires us to be more delicate with our pressure.
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Remember that when drawing our shadow shapes, we're not just painting them on with our pens - outline them first, so you have an opportunity to intentionally consider how you're designing/shaping them, as it's that shape that will define the relationship between the form casting the shadow and the surface receiving it.
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Every filled solid black shape is a cast shadow - meaning, if you're going to fill something in, ask yourself whether it's a shape that already exists as part of your construction, or if it is a new, separate shape based on the spatial relationship you're trying to define. Some shadows may be very thin, and you'll be tempted just to draw them in one go, but don't. Even in those cases - and again, it'll be challenging due to the limited scale of the wheels - take care to outline them first, then fill them in.
If you feel working with fineliners for this is too difficult, I will allow you to work with ballpoint pens as well, just take care when filling in your shadow shapes, and if you choose to use a ballpoint pen for the wheel construction, use it when filling the shadows in as well.
Next Steps:
Please submit an additional 10 wheels.