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10:20 PM, Monday February 22nd 2021

It's been quite a while since you received your critique, so I'm going to share a bunch of newer diagrams/explanations with you that may help you further continue to improve your grasp of this material. As a whole, there is improvement here, but there are also a number of things I want you to work on - some things I definitely called out before, and some other things I may not have addressed previously, because my approach to explaining this material is always evolving and improving as I do more and more critiques.

First and foremost, remember that each of these drawings is an exercise - don't approach it as you would a sketch, always think of it as though you're working with concrete, solid forms, building them up on top of one another. One key aspect to this is that once you've introduced a solid, three dimensional form to your construction, avoid altering the silhouette of that form after the fact.

The silhouette of a form is basically just a flat shape on the page, which represents a three dimensional form in the world. By changing the silhouette's shape, we aren't changing the nature of the 3D form it represents - we're merely breaking the connection between them, leaving us with nothing but a flat shape. So for example, looking at this dog construction, you've got a lot of loose additional lines you added afterwards - like causing the torso to sag around the chest. These are alterations to the torso sausage's silhouette.

We can best demonstrate how altering a silhouette can flatten out a form by looking at what happens when we cut into the silhouette of a form. The same thing occurs when we extend the silhouette of a form as well - it all just reminds the viewer that we're dealing with a two dimensional drawing. This is an issue that is definitely emphasized by how your linework tends to be somewhat loose, not exactly creating enclosed shapes, but rather a collection of lines that are loosely related to one another.

Focus above all else on creating solid, three dimensional forms. The way we ultimately make changes to the structure - like bulging out the chest of that dog - is to wrap another complete, enclosed, three dimensional form around it. You do this more when following along with the wolf demo.

I recommend you check out this more recent lobster demo for a more detailed demonstration of working completely additively. As you go through it, compare the approach I show there to how you draw (your approach is much rougher and more sketchy).

Moving forward, you appear to still be pretty inconsistent in your use of the sausage method - that's something I pointed out in my Lesson 4 critique as well as the critique of your original Lesson 5 material. It seems like you may be reading that feedback, but ultimately by the time you sit down to do the revisions, you've already forgotten and may not be making much of an effort to reread the critiques you received.

That's not really something I'm going to expend more time in reiterating.

The last thing I wanted to call out is to do with your head construction. I did call this out before - the importance of ensuring that none of the facial elements (like eye sockets, muzzle, etc.) float relative to one another, that they should all fit snugly together like a puzzle. You're kind of all over the place with this.

More recently, I wrote this more succinct explanation on how to think about head construction. It may help you understand, if what I provided previously did not.

Overall you are moving in the right direction, but you are really holding yourself back by simply not following the feedback that's been giving to you to the letter. This will normally happen if you don't make it a habit to review that information regularly. There's a lot to remember, and it's easy to forget. The long break since you actually submitted this in the first place certainly doesn't help, as it can certainly make us rustier.

I'm going to assign a few more pages of revisions, so you can show your understanding of these concepts.

Next Steps:

Please submit 4 additional pages of animal constructions.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
3:25 PM, Saturday March 20th 2021

Hi, thanks again for the exensive feedback.

https://imgur.com/a/UkxGo6Y

9:39 PM, Monday March 22nd 2021

So the first thing that jumped out at me was that, while in my previous critique I highlighted this explanation of head construction but aside from this direct copy of it I'm not seeing any signs of you really applying its concepts. This leads me to believe you might not be consciously attempting to apply the principles of these explanations, but rather following them and then hoping they'll apply themselves in your drawings. That's not how this works. You need to be consciously applying the concepts explained, keeping in mind precisely what you're trying to do with each and every mark.

So for example, looking at this rabbit, you've just drawn the eyes floating loosely on the head construction, with no clear muzzle form being attached to the structure. This issue can be seen throughout your work - inconsistent use of the sausage method and random use of contour lines in your leg constructions, cutting into the silhouettes of forms you've constructed (like in this dog's head), and so on.

Long story short, this is the same issue I addressed before. You're being given feedback, but you're not applying it. Rather than repeating myself further, I'm going to give you one more chance to actually take all the feedback that has been given to you throughout this lesson. If the same issues that had already been pointed out in detail persist, you'll be asked to redo all of Lesson 5.

Next Steps:

Another 4 pages of animal drawings, actually addressing the issues I've raised. These should consist entirely of your own drawings, not draw-alongs with demonstrations.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
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Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.

Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.

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