Overall, this is a start. I can tell you right now that I won't be marking this lesson as complete, and you will get revisions - but what you've submitted here is something we can work on. As always, the goal is not for the student to produce perfect work, or to avoid revisions, but rather to give me (or whoever's critiquing the work) something upon which to base concrete, specific suggestions. So, let's get started.

Arrows

Jumping right in with your arrows, I can see that you're definitely drawing these with a lot of confidence, which generally helps you maintain smoother lines (although you do get more hesitant with the sections of the arrows that are farther away), but there are still some issues to address:

• Firstly, remember that as explained here, we want to make the gaps between the zigzagging sections smaller as they move farther away from the viewer. You tend to make the gap for the tail section of your arrows a lot bigger.

• More importantly, I noticed that the width of your arrow's ribbon section tends to get wider and narrower arbitrarily along its length, as shown here. It should consistently be getting smaller as we move farther away from the viewer. Of course, this is a natural part of the fact that it can be difficult to redraw the exact same kind of curve, and so when we make little mistakes, it can result in the ribbon getting wider or smaller in an inconsistent manner. A lot of this comes down to practice, but there are two other things that can help. One is to ensure that you're executing the marks from your shoulder (using your whole arm is a lot like using a "stabilizer" in digital software - it allows for far fewer sudden changes, and kind of averages your motion out, resulting in a smoother stroke. The other is to try to slow down your execution of the marks a little. That doesn't mean you should draw any less confidently, or allow yourself to hesitate - but rather try and experiment with different speeds, while still trying to force yourself to draw confidently and without hesitation. Earlier on, the easiest way to draw confidently is to draw fast - but over time, you'll find yourself being able to maintain that confidence even at somewhat lower speeds, which in turn can help you regain more control in situations like this.

Leaves

Continuing onto your leaves, you are definitely doing a pretty good job of drawing the simple leaf structures (steps 1 and 2 of the leaf exercise), except for one thing. You do have a tendency to leave little gaps in the silhouette of your leaves, as shown here. These gaps remind the viewer that they're looking at lines on a flat page, rather than an actual 3D structure, as an actual leaf wouldn't have any gaps in its silhouette. It seems like a "little" mistake, but it's these small things that do make a fair bit of difference.

Of course, sometimes it's just a matter of needing more practice with the execution of your lines (since we certainly don't expect you to be perfectly accurate), but more often than that, students will simply not invest as much time as they really need in each individual stroke, thinking that the "big picture" is what matters, and thus sometimes throwing marks down without as much time invested into the planning and preparation phases of the ghosting method.

Keeping this in mind, there are similar issues that arise when you add the additional edge details as well. As shown here, I've highlighted in red where either end of any of your additional edge detail marks did not end right on the leaf's main silhouette. In some cases, these were just gaps, like those I'd pointed out before, but in other cases, you'd have a little "tail" where your mark would hit that existing silhouette (or close to it), then kind of "flick" away from it, as shown here.

While it's entirely possible that when doing the first 2 steps of this exercise (defining the flow line and the simple silhouette), you're executing those marks to the best of your ability, and those gaps are simply a result of the fact that your skills aren't there yet (but that they'll continue to improve). When it comes to edge detail however, you are definitely rushing those marks, and are not giving them each as much time as they individually require.

This is not abnormal, and in fact it makes perfect sense. You're faced with a ton of little marks to draw, so it's normal to think, "well if I have 1000 lines to draw, I better start churning them out". And as a result, we change our approach in a few ways:

• As already mentioned, we don't give each one as much time as it individually requires, and so we end up with little gaps and other mistakes that could be avoided. I recommend you reread these notes about the purpose of the ghosted planes exercise - it goes over this exact same problem, where students will think that because they have more marks to draw, they're somehow allowed to put less time into each stroke, rather than taking more time overall.

• We become more prone to working on "auto-pilot". That is, instead of actually thinking about each individual mark we're drawing, we just fall into a pattern of trying to draw the exact same stroke over and over. If you look at the edge detail you've added to your drawings, there's no variation whatsoever between the different "bumps" you add, and no real sign that this was drawn using any sort of reference at all. If you did use reference (as instructed to at step 3), you definitely didn't give yourself enough time to observe it continuously, and identify even the smallest of changes from mark to mark, and ended up just drawing the same generic mark over and over.

Long story short, you're not giving yourself enough time for each individual mark. This actually brings me to one last point before we move on - sometimes students will think that they're somehow expected to complete a given drawing before they get up from their drawing session. And thus, their drawing must take the amount of time they have to offer it. This of course is not true - you are welcome and encouraged to split a single page, a single drawing, or a single exercise across as many sessions and days as you need. Your only requirement is that you give each object, each form, and each mark as much time as they individually require to be done at your best.

Branches

Unfortunately with this exercise, it appears that you did not understand the instructions, and thus didn't follow them correctly. The way in which the edge segments for this exercise are to be drawn is very specific. As outlined in these instructions from the lesson, each segment is to:

• Start at an ellipse

• Continue past the second ellipse

• Stop halfway to the third ellipse

Then, your next segment starts at the second ellipse and repeats the pattern. The result is that these two edge segments overlap quite a bit (the overlap is about as long as half of the distance between ellipses). This overlap is important as it helps us achieve a smoother, more seamless transition from one segment to the next.

Unfortunately this is not visible in your work at all - instead, you appear to have done a few different things, from having the segments stop and start around the ellipses, as seen here and here, to having the segments start/stop halfway between ellipses, as seen here.

Now, if you were making one mistake consistently, then it would be fair to assume that you misunderstood the instructions, and moved forward based on that misunderstanding. The fact that you employed two different approaches, which incorporated different aspects of the instructions shows that some part of you was aware of the fact that you were doing it wrong. Perhaps you knew that you didn't entirely understand, but you yourself at the assignment anyway, instead of revisiting the notes and even asking others what specifically you're doing wrong.

Continuing on from there, I also noticed issues similar to the arrows, specifically where your structure gets narrower/wider sporadically throughout its length. This should be avoided to the best of your ability, and playing with slowing down the execution of your mark (while still executing with confidence, without hesitation, and using your whole arm from the shoulder) should continue to help with this - but of course it also comes down to a lot of practice.

Plant Constructions

Continuing onto your plant constructions, your work here is not terrible. It varies from drawing to drawing, but overall I can see you holding to the core principles of the lesson, and striving to build things up from simple to complex, one step at a time.

That said, that core point I've raised already multiple times is still relevant here: You need to give every single mark you draw as much time as it individually requires. It's very easy to focus only on the "big picture", and to view your lines as a "means to an end" - this can put us in the mindset that individual marks don't matter, but they very much do. Of course, giving each and every individual mark as much time as it needs can mean that your drawings may take several hours each - but if that's what they require, then you are duty bound to do it.

Since that's the main theme of this critique, I've addressed it a few times over, so I won't keep repeating it. I will however call out a few other quick issues that you will want to keep in mind:

• Avoid any kind of chicken-scratchy markmaking. I actually don't see it often from you, but there are a few places (like here on this page) where instead of necessarily giving a stroke more time in its planning/preparation phases, you went in a little unprepared and then attempted to correct the mistake. Having made the mistake (of that edge segment not going as far as you needed it to) is not a problem - we will inevitably make mistakes. But if we try to correct our mistakes on a superficial level (meaning, to make this individual drawing more complete), then we are less likely to put more time in and do it correctly the next time. Whereas if we're forced to see our mistakes, uncorrected, we're more likely to try and change our approach for the next attempt.

• In the flower pot for this drawing, you correctly started with a central minor axis line, to help align your ellipses to one another. This should be done for all your cylindrical structures, including the trunk of this plant.

• Looking at the bottom of the flower pot from that same drawing, you laid down an ellipse for that cylinder's base, but then extended the cylinder further down as shown here in the section I filled with hatching. I'm not sure what you were going for there, but when constructing cylindrical structures, you're effectively just drawing a bunch of ellipses and connecting their side edges. Don't extend them out like this.

• Another point about flower pots - be sure to add as many ellipses/cross-sections as you require to fully define the form you want. As shown here, you tried to incorporate more complexity for that flower pot between the top/base ellipse, specifically where it kind of tapers through its midsection. This should be achieved first by adding additional ellipses to flesh out that structure, and then connect them together.

• Remember that construction as an exercise is all about building directly on the structure from the previous step. This means that we want to maintain tight, specific relationships between our different steps. Meaning, if we're drawing a leaf, step 1 will have us draw a simple flow line, and where that flow line ends is exactly where the next step - the leaf's simple silhouette - should end. If we're constructing a more complex leaf structure, where that initial leaf shape establishes where the smaller sub-leafs will end, then when drawing their flow lines, they'd have to end at the edge of that larger leaf shape. Here's an example of what I mean. Note how the example with the purple lines has tons of arbitrary gaps, whereas the example above strives to keep everything very tightly bound together?

Conclusion

Now, obviously this critique is very long, so I'm going to reiterate the main points below, though you should still take lots of time to read through this critique as a whole several times. Read it once, then take some time away from it, then read it again. Then, when you're working through each exercise, review that section's critique to make sure that you're applying its points as closely as you can.

• Give every single mark as much time as it individually requires. The ghosting method has several individual steps to it - the planning phase, the preparation phase, and the execution phase. When in the planning phase, make sure that you ask yourself, "What kind of mark do I wish to make here," and "What job is this mark supposed to accomplish," and "How can I best position myself to execute this mark so it can do its job as well as possible". It's okay if you do not end up making the specific mark you desire at the end, but it is critical that you fully understand which mark you'd like to make first and foremost.

• Pay attention to those little gaps - when you're working on the silhouette of a leaf, you need to make sure that the marks you draw rise off that existing edge and return to it, creating a clean, closed silhouette without any arbitrary tails sticking out of it. While you will continue to make mistakes in this regard, investing more time into each stroke will help you avoid this more often.

• Do not let yourself go on auto-pilot. When doing anything that requires reference (like adding edge detail to your leaves), make sure that for every individual mark, you're looking at your reference and identifying the specific nature of the detail you wish to add. It's very easy to slip into just repeatedly making the same marks, which will appear repetitive and oversimplified.

• Review the instructions for the branches exercise, as you did not follow them correctly.

• Maintain tight, specific relationships between every step of construction. Think of it as though you're constructing a building - before we put up a wall, we need adequate scaffolding to support it. That scaffolding has to actually be touching the wall in order to help hold it up - if it's a foot away, it's not of much use to us.

• When constructing your cylindrical flower pots, use as many ellipses as you need to flesh out the entirety of the structure, and draw them around a central minor axis line to help keep them aligned to one another.