The demos here have been drawn in the course of a student's homework critique, but contain information that can be useful to all working through this material.
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Sticking to the trend of looking at more crustaceans, this is a demo I did for a student. It's based on a mixture of the student's own drawing and some other reference images, so I'm not sure if it's actually all that accurate to real shrimp - but the focus here is ultimately on how we can take simple forms and combine them, defining how they relate and intersect in 3D space, and building upon them in much the same way to work towards an overall more complex result.
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Here's a demonstration of using a lobster as the focus of a constructional exercise. Always remember - constructional drawing, and everything we do within this course, is just an exercise.
Furthermore, it is an exercise that requires immense patience and care. Students are often eager to rush forwards and to skip steps. Everything builds upon the structure laid down before it, and if there is not enough to support the complexity you wish to add, your construction will fall flat.
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This demo focuses on how to apply additive construction (as opposed to using subtractive construction incorrectly by focusing on flat shapes rather than solid 3D forms). It also explores how you can imply the presence of top/side/front faces of an object through silhouette alone, and also how you can use that silhouette to demonstrate how one form wraps around one it is connected to, without the use of any internal edges being defined.
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A lot of these insects feature various kinds of segmentation, especially on their abdomens. Pay close attention to how they overlap, and how they break the silhouette of the form in order to convey them as strongly and effectively as you can.
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I often find that students have a tendency to flatten out crickets' abdomens, even when they do a great job with segmentation on other insects. Something about their bodies really lends themselves to it. Always think about how those layered segments of chitin conform around the underlying bodypart.
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Simple overview of how I would have approached this spider. I don't believe I had the reference for this one, so I constructed it based on what the student's drawing conveyed.
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Same as the above - using the student's drawing, I broke it down into its major forms and explained how I would have approached the construction.
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One thing we get into more and more as we talk about construction and form is the idea of forms having clear distinctions between their various faces. The top, the side, the front, etc. Even when a form has a seemingly smooth transition here, think about where you would distinguish these planes, and where the surfaces turn.
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While many students will drop in some hatching lines and call it done, I want to encourage you to look a lot closer at your reference image and identify the wealth of visual elements and information that are being conveyed there. Look closely, and you'll find that it's not quite as simple as you may have thought.
When it comes to getting your hands on fineliner pens, there's a few common challenges. They tend to be on the expensive side, with reasonably priced packs usually including pens of many different sizes (since we're only using the 0.5mm pens here, that means a lot of extra ones you won't necessarily use). On top of that, depending on where you live, it can be quite difficult to get access to pens to begin with.
In order to help with this, we are now selling pens through the Drawabox website. Packs of 10 (all 0.5mm) go for $16.50 USD, with free shipping in the continental United States. We tried pens from several different suppliers, and chose the ones that felt best.
Now, if you can go to an art supply store and pick pens up in person, that's still your best bet (especially if the stores sell the pens individually). But if you can't, these may ultimately be a cheaper option. We even test them all out before sending to make sure you don't get stuck with any duds.
Having your work reviewed by others is critical, as those who are just starting out aren't in a position to properly judge their own work, and won't be for quite some time. Don't be afraid to show your struggles - it's by analyzing your mistakes that we can help you grow. Perfect homework is not what we're looking for; we just need it to be complete.
There are currently two places you can get your work critiqued by the community - Reddit and our Discord Chat Server.
Both of these are completely free.
If you are interested in receiving extra help, I critique the work of those who support Drawabox on Patreon.
All of these private critiques are done through reddit, in specific threads where students post their work as a comment, including a link to their work (often hosted on Imgur, though most image hosts are okay).
My requirements are more strict than the free community critiques:
The minimum pledge for this lesson is $10.00/month. The orange button above will take you to the reddit thread for this lesson, you can post a link to your work there and I'll be notified. Once I catch the submission, I'll add it to this backlog spreadsheet.
Pledges are collected at the beginning of the following month, but you may start submitting your work immediately. If you're a new patron, I'll be reaching out to your shortly to collect your reddit username.
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