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6:29 PM, Friday February 18th 2022
Hi Thecakeisalie! I'll be reviewing your homework. Let's see:
Organic Forms with Contour Lines:
First, remember that for this lesson it's just forms with contour lines, not ellipses. Second, remember that this are supposed to be simple sausages, like this. You tend to give them a lot of variation, either elongating their ends, making them different in size, or just like a long sphere.
Also, the curves/ellipses aren't consistent a lot of times, remember that those tell us how the form is turning in 3D space. Finally, try to maintain a steady, confident flow in your lines, remember, confidence before accuracy. They still show some wobblyness.
Insect Drawings - Construction:
I think that you get the general idea on how to build complexity by adding forms on top of each other. However, there are a couple of issues. At times, your added forms fail to follow the curve of the form they're on top of; especially on your shells and similar structures. It's not always, but it does happen. Try to think of those as in this demo, make sure that they turn away as they go around the spherical surface.
Another thing is that your legs rarely have any forms on top of them (which is weird, knowing how many weird masses insects have in them), and when they do, is almost always as an sphere. Problem is, when we used them in the wasp demo, they were always used near the intersection of the legs, and that way, the intersection remarked the fact that that was an sphere, and not just a circle.
Most of the time you did that, but in the second to last drawing, there are circles in the legs that simply don't read as spherical. To fix that, you could a. make an intersection line just as you do with any sausage form, and that way we can perceive it as being a 3D form, or b. add masses like in this example.
That's about it for construction, keep an eye for the intersections between your initial forms as well. Remember that we have to perceive them as three dimensional forms before we can move on with the rest of the drawing.
Insect Drawings - Texture and lines:
Here's a big problem, and it doesn't have to do that much with the fact that the texture is "good" or "bad". The issues are three:
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You tend to overdo the drawing through of your spheres and ellipses. Two or three times is enough; in the lobster drawing, you drew through your ellipses 4 to 6 times. That goes for major forms like the basic spheres of the body, as well as the intersections. Intersections should be drawn just with a simple contour curve. This is one of the things that is making your drawing look way messier than it is.
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You are using lineweight along complete sections, instead of just over intersecting lines. Like, in the spider drawing, using lineweight on the outer section of the legs doesn't really serve a purpose. Try to use it just to define which lines/forms are over which.
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You are going a bit overboard with the black swathes; doesn't matter if it's texture or you're just trying to define things, try to be more subtle about it. And remember, cast shadows follow the contour of the form they're cast in as well.
So, as I said, I think you've got the general idea, but there are still things we can improve upon. So, I'll ask for the following revisions. Apply all the corrections we talked about:
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Two pages of Organic Forms with Contour Curves. Give this section a re-read as well.
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Two insect drawings (one page each) without any detail.
That's it. If you have any questions, I'll be around to answer them. Good luck!
Next Steps:
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Two pages of Organic Forms with Contour Curves.
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Two insect drawings (one page each) without any detail.
4:00 AM, Sunday March 6th 2022
I'm sorry for the very late reply as I ran out of materials for drawabox. Here is my revision: https://imgur.com/a/GmjtDOd. Thank you for taking the time to critique my work.
6:36 PM, Tuesday March 8th 2022
Hi! So, starting with your sausages, while still a bit wobbly, they look a lot more like simple sausages. The idea of changing degrees comes across well enough on the ones with ellipses, but when it comes to the curves, they all show almost the exact same degree; the curves sometimes misalign with the minor axis, and aren't as precise overall.
As for your insects:
The first one looks a lot more solid, cleaner, with better construction and more believable masses added on top, so I'll point out the issues. I don't know the bug you drew, but unless it had no discernible head at all (like a scorpion), you skipped the head ball on the initial construction. Start with just a ball, then add complexity on top of it.
Furthermore, both back legs, but especially the one that's behind the body, relied too heavily on observation when constructed, like you tried to catch all the detail and form of the leg on the first try, instead of starting with a simple sausage and adding forms later. They will look weird, as it is hard to control the width of the sausage on such long dimensions (when you start at least), but remember that the point of these exercises is to study construction, not for them to look nice or even close to the reference (although is nice when that happens).
The legs behind the body aren't drawn through the body (we can't see where they intersect it), that's another thing that tells me that you relied more on observation. Again, it looks nice, but it defeats the point of the exercises.
The second bug has all of these issues but even more pronounced. It looks flat, as most of the intersections don't look like intersections at all, but simple subdivisions on a flat page. The sausages lost their form, trying again to replicate all the complexity on first draft. I'd keep listing problems, but they all have to do with the same issues discussed before.
In relation with this last insect, I'll leave you this revision on wings and these two on the overall construction of similar bugs. In any case, here's the revision by Uncomfortable himself where those examples came from. You'll find out some of your same issues on that submission, so it will be good if you can read the whole thing.
I'll ask you for a couple of things before moving on. First, another page of Organic Forms with Contour Curves (just curves, not ellipses). It's not my intention to grind you with these (and you'll have a lot of opportunities to work with them in Lesson 5), but I think you can make them a lot better, they're also intertwined with the issues of your constructions, so it's good practice.
And second, I'll ask you to draw again that last bug, the dragonfly, taking into consideration all the corrections. Read this again, and think of it when you're working on the legs/tail of your dragonfly. Focus as well on making your initial construction (head, thorax, abdomen) solid and believable, before moving on with other masses.
That's it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Next Steps:
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1 page of Organic Forms with Contour Curves (just curves, not ellipses)
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Redraw the dragonfly.
1:50 PM, Thursday March 10th 2022
Thanks once again for taking your time. Here is my revisions: https://imgur.com/a/7NRjBK1. I would appreciate if you can help me with observing the thorax where the wings are connected because I find it difficult to find smaller forms on itThis is the reference image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskay/48757679353/in/photostream.
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