Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

2:45 AM, Friday October 4th 2024

Lesson 4 - Google Drive

Lesson 4 - Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JuN0sz9wP6h0-CYdjCIYSkRfn35qLM_t?usp=sharing

These were finished early August 2024 in a week, but I had some life stuff interfere and didn't get a chance to upload them until now. Thanks in advance for critiques.

2 users agree
9:14 PM, Wednesday December 25th 2024

Hi there! I saw your submission in the queue, so I figured I'd take a look. This may be a short critique, but that's only because there's not too much for me to point out here. Nevertheless, we'll press on:

Organic Forms with Contours. Okay, First thing that catches my eye is that you're using really confident lines with these. That's great to see, as this is one of those practices that can diminish with some students as they progress through the lessons. I am noticing some tapering on these, with ends that are thinner than the width of the sausage's body. Remember that the sausages are supposed to be of equal width throughout. The idea,I believe, is that by keeping these sausages uniform, we can build up with additional forms that help reinforce the contours of the base sausage. I'm also noticing a couple elliptical curve errors on these. Keep in mind with these sausages that a narrow contour would indicate that the form's orientation is nearly perpendicular (facing across from) the viewer's central point of view. As that sausage progresses in a way that veers away from that center, those curves will expand in width, to the point of the point of being completely circular if directly facing towards or away from the viewer. I have a couple sketches for you: the first here portrays the different kind of orientations we can see with these sausages, and the second is one I made for another student that is applicable here.

Insects without Texture. Alright, the meat of the lesson. Looking through these, there's some really good construction. You followed the demos well, and the ones you tried here look great too. One thing I wanted to point out, and these are the only two instances I picked out among all the insects, is on the housefly and snoot-bug(I saw this one in another submission and I'm not sure what it is, it's the one uploaded just after the fly) there appears to be a few lines that close a gap between a couple of 3D forms, shown here with the hatched area being filled by that connecting line. While this works on simple planar constructions like leaves and wings, on 3D forms like insects, it only serves to reinforce the idea we're looking at a 2D shape. In cases like these, we'll want to use an organic form to close that space and keep the 3D illusion intact. Here's a sketch from the lesson 3 informal demo that illustrates this idea.

Insects with Texture. So we're now looking at the last half of this assignment and... pretty good. There's really not much to touch on here, so I think I'll keep this section short. I'm seeing really good application of texture without going overboard, and cast shadows are nicely applied here. Your drawings aren't showing any major errors, though I did notice the same kind of mistakes made on the contours exercises on one of your insects, shown here. But aside from that, which I already touched on above, I really didn't see anything that needed to be addressed here.

So in summation, I think you did quite nicely here, I believe your work is a testament to your skill, and you're definitely prepared to move on to the next lesson if you haven't already.

Next Steps:

Move on to Lesson 5 if you haven't already.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
12:22 AM, Monday December 30th 2024

Hey, thanks for taking the time to leave feedback, I really appreciate it. I can see where I need to improve. The snoot-bug is a weevil.

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Staedtler Pigment Liners

Staedtler Pigment Liners

These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.

Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).

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