Lesson 6: Applying Construction to Everyday Objects
5:50 PM, Tuesday September 7th 2021
in hindsight, i should have constructed the grease gun in boxes before starting the cylindrical forms
Starting with your form intersections, the intersections themselves are coming along well, and they demonstrate a level of spatial sense that is developing quite nicely (except for this sphere/box intersection where I think you just got a little confused as to which part of the box was cutting into the sphere). Looking at your linework however, I did notice a bit of wavering/hesitation here and there - not much, but it does suggest to me that you may want to take a little more time with the planning and preparation phases of the ghosting method. Your ellipses would also benefit from the same - being sure to draw from your shoulder and use your whole arm, along with a little more time for ghosting will help you achieve tighter ellipses, especially when they get more circular with those wider degrees.
One last thing I caught here was that when you add line weight, it seems to jump quite a bit to a much greater thickness - either you're pressing way too hard, or reaching for another pen entirely. Regardless of what it is, it isn't necessary. Just apply that line weight the same way you'd have drawn the original linework - using the ghosting method, with confidence. The thickness comes from the fact that it's two strokes in the same area, rather than an actual increase in pressure. Also, being sure to lift your pen off the page before stopping will help taper the stroke to blend it more seamlessly into the existing linework.
Continuing onto your object constructions, your work here is coming along fairly well. I can see that you're applying the principles from the lesson effectively - building up your structures from simple to complex, using subdivision where appropriate, and so on. There are a few issues I want to call out, but for the most part your approach to the core drawings themselves is coming along well.
So the most notable issue I noticed was more or less what I'd already mentioned - there are a number of areas where your linework gets visibly hesitant and wobbly, and I suspect this comes up most often when you're actually going back over the lines to add line weight. You appear to do so very slowly and carefully, tracing over those lines. This is not the approach we want to be using here, because tracing causes us to focus too much on how the lines exist on the flat page, rather than how they represent edges in 3D space. It also inherently causes our linework to stiffen, simply because it's going to be a slower, more hesitant execution.
Just as with all of our other freehand linework, line weight needs to be added confidently, using the ghosting method. Generally speaking it also doesn't need to be added quite so liberally that it's being slapped on all of the lines - in fact, it's best used more sparingly, focusing it on the specific areas where forms overlap, as shown here in this example of two overlapping leaves.
Moving on, one minor thing I wanted to call out is that for this ratchet the structure of the handle appears to have some fairly subtle curves to it. For any kind of curves, I'd recommend first building them out as flat faces and straight edges, only rounding them out towards the end as explained here. The same goes for the sledge hammer's handle as well.
Continuing on, I noticed that you were a bit mixed in terms of how you were using your filled black shapes. Remember that as discussed back in Lesson 2, form shading isn't really a component we're exploring in our work for this course. Instead, try to reserve your filled black shapes for cast shadows only. Specifically draw those shapes by outlining them first, and designing them to directly relate to the form casting them. If we try to jump in and paint them stroke by stroke without a clearly defined shape, it's a lot harder to ensure that the shadows are specific and crafted for their purpose.
Now, to finish this off I did want to point out that I felt the magnet light was especially well done, and showed a lot of care and patience with all of the subdivision that was necessary. You also handled the sledgehammer's head quite well too - though again, try not to use line weight as something we just use to separate the "final drawing" from the mess. All the construction lines are part of your drawing - it's a matter of using line weight minimally in key areas to help that drawing emerge.
Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.
Next Steps:
Move onto the 25 wheel challenge, which is a prerequisite for lesson 7.
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
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