Hello,
This is my Lesson 4 homework. It took me longer than expected, but it's done. I have included reference I used. Also I switched the paper I use in the middle of the lesson, because I noticed one was too thin and my marks were bleeding through. Anyway, looking forward to critique.
Thanks.
Hi Gytisb! I'll be reviewing your homework. Let's see:
Organic Forms with Contour Lines: They're mostly great. Sometimes their shape gets altered a little, but it's not always. They have a lot of dynamism and you can clearly see how they turn and move in 3D space. That being said, sometimes your contour lines don't accelerate enough when approaching the edge of the drawing; sometimes they don't overshoot either. This also happens on your insect drawings, so be very careful with that. If the curve doesn't accelerate enough, the drawing gets flatter.
Insect Drawings: They look beautiful, but that's not what we're for; instead, I'll focus on your construction. Most of the time it is great, but there are issues. On the insect at the right on 4.11, you skipped the main construction almost entirely, and went straight to breaking down the forms on top. This is also an example where your contour lines didn't accelerate enough, so the shell ends up feeling flat. This happens in a lot of the shells, when breaking them down.
Something similar happens in the tarantula on 4.9, where the thorax sphere is non existent. For that thorax, maybe building a shell on top of the original sphere, and then defining its shape with contour lines would've been better. The lineweight also doesn't do you any favors. Use the lineweight in a subtle manner, and just on the overlapping sections, not for the whole silhouette, as you often did.
The legs intersections are a thing that you missed on a lot of insects, but appeared on the later ones, so good job. Those help a lot in reinforcing the threedimensionality of the forms, so don't forget about them. In the left insect on 4.6, the abdomen is a lot more close to a box than a sphere; a similar approach to the one on the scorpion demo would've been great for that insect. The back shell also doesn't follow the shape of the form it is standing on.
At times, there are subtle complexities, like the wider sections of the legs on the right insect on 4.11, or little bits of shell near the legs or the head of the insects, that end up dissapearing. While sometimes you built the legs like the wasp on the lesson's demo (and that's great), at times it feels like you either: tried to get all the complexity on the first form, which we shouldn't do, as we are trying to learn about construction; or you omitted some information, which isn't ideal. So try to add those forms as simple masses, wrapped around the major forms.
A big thing is that a lot of times you didn't draw through your forms, particularly the legs. Draw through them, even if you can't see them; use the reference of the legs you have and the knowledge of the reference to place them more or less where they should be.
Overall, you're doing great, but I'll ask you for one more insect. Make it big, build it up starting from the first three simple masses. Remember to define the leg intersections; draw them as simple sausages and then add masses on top of them where necessary, as I couldn't see you do that on these demos, and that is one tricky element of insects.
Finally, remember to accelerate and overshoot if necessary your contour curves, especially if you're breaking down a shell. And be very subtle about the lineweight, use it only when necessary.
That's it, I'll be around if you have questions. Good luck!
Next Steps:
Hi, thanks for critique and giving good pointers where I need improvement. Insect on the right on 4.11 was tricky for me because of flat shell on round belly, but I think you are right, I should have started with sphere shape. As for drawing through forms I feel when I try to do that drawings become very busy and muddy very fast. I think I am a little too heavy handed with my fineliners. Anyway, I tried to pay attention to your points and draw another insect. https://imgur.com/WtYFshp https://imgur.com/YUSlnA6 What do you think?
Hi! Sorry for the delay. About the drawings becoming busy and muddy, I absolutely agree, and that's a good sign. Give this section a re-read.
I have three critiques about this insect. First, your initial construction is great; but the shell over the thorax is rather flat looking, as the contour curve beneath it doesn't accelerate enough when reaching the edge of the sphere. Moreover, if we observe carefully, we can see that the curve on that shell is actually facing on another direction. A point of intersection on the basic construction and couple of contour curves on the shell could help with that; same as in the abdomen shell, which tends to look a bit flat as well. I could be wrong too, since I have a tendency to rely too much on contour curves, so take that advice with a pinch of salt. Here's an example of what I mean. Adding the little poles to your spheres would also help with the three dimensionality of the construction.
Then, there's the issue of the legs. The basic construction, again, looks great. But especially on the back legs, the extra forms look a little weird from a construction point of view. If you remember the wasp demo, there were spheres added to the original sausages on the legs, that then would become the "shell" of the legs. And while you clearly grasp the form that makes the legs look like that, it would be useful to add those forms anyway, since we're practicing construction more than anything. You'll see that on the next lesson you will really need to add three dimensional forms to your original construction, so starting now would be great. Something like what you did on the head, that worked really nice, but for every form that needs it.
And third, there's a cast shadow on the right back leg, but then there isn't any on the rest of the legs, or the head, or the shell intersection, etc. If you're going to do those cast shadows, go all the way through, even if you decide not to do any more detail.
And that's it. Feel free to move on to Lesson 5, and keep fully constructing your drawings for the course. Good luck!
Next Steps:
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