Hello Orrin_a, thank you for getting back to me with your revisions.

Let's start by addressing your doubts and questions.

• Can I draw triangular projections off of the main spine as my boundary? Can I use a triangle for the boundary of the entire leaf? I didn't see anything like that in the videos.

As stressed in the instructions for the exercise, it doesn't matter how complex your overall leaf structure is, you should concentrate on capturing the core of it with two single curves.

Trying to capture your leaf structure by either making your outer edges triangular, or by adding a triangle as a boundary goes against the principles and concepts behind the exercise, which is an extension from the concepts taught in the arrows exercise. It goes against the idea of the flow line and how the leaf moves across space.

When you're drawing a boundary, the only thing important is that you establish how far out the general structure will extend and then respect it - by trying to capture this with a triangle it makes one shift their focus when tackling these exercises from developing their skills through the use of the methods introduced, to believing that in order to develop their skills they must accurately capture the look of the subject matter they're drawing ( be it plants, insects, animals, etc ).

This is not true, capturing the exact look of these subjects is not necessary. Think of these sets of exercises as three dimensional puzzles, in this case it's more important that you apply the formula to every possible plant in order for your to brain to engage and develop your spatial reasoning skills by having to consider the way in which these different forms and structures relate to one another in space.

• I'm still confused about a few things. I do not understand how I skipped steps on the oak leaf.

It's important to keep tight and specific relationships between the different phases of construction. While you do extend lines in your oak leaf you're not fully applying the leaf construction method by drawing the outer edges back from the flow line end and then connecting it at the top back again, and only then connecting your separate "arms" together in order to create your complex leaf structure. This hurts the solidity of your leaf, but it's something that you seem to generally have addressed in your new pages.

• I wasn't sure how to contruct the large cactus.

You've actually done a fine job on your second attempt at it. Your construction is coming out pretty solid as you put more time understanding how the different forms of the cactus relate to one another in space.

Now, onto your actual revisions.

Firstly, you've done more revisions than were assigned, the requested amounts were 1 page, half of leaves and half of branches, not one of each.

I've got nothing to say about your leaf's page, they're well constructed and have a good sense of energy to them. You're also applying edge detail correctly.

For your branches it seems there's been a bit of a downgrade in their overall quality. Your branches don't have a consistent width in this page when they did in your original attempt. This is hurting the solidity of your forms, another problem that's stands out even more with the size inconsistency is that the ellipse's degrees for your branches are too consistent, remember that as a cylindrical form shifts away from the viewer, so will the degree shift.

When it comes to your plant constructions your early work already showed lots of potential for your spatial reasoning skills, and here your work is a big improvement, they're looking much more solid, much tighter and consistent which is helping communicate that these are solid objects much more clearly.

Given these points, I'm going to be moving you onto the next lesson, just remember that when revisiting the drawing branches exercise that their width must be consistent. Good luck in Lesson 4.