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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This is a pretty detailed demonstration I did for a student who was struggling with the lesson, picking on a donkey in particular. It focuses on all major elements of construction as applied to animals - the basic masses, the use of sausage forms for limbs and torso, the adding of further organic masses that conform to the structure underneath them, etc.
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As we've discussed back in lesson 2 when talking about texture and detail, cast shadows are king. This is just a basic example of how you can convey simple feathers by capturing a few of the shadows that they cast on each other.
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The torso-sausage is the core of any animal, and quite easy to construct. In this demo I actually drew the ribcage way too small, but ignoring that, look at how the sausage is like a water balloon that is being held up by these two solid masses inside of it. The middle sags in the middle, and it remains relatively rounded and simple, conveying solidity and volume.
While a lot of animals will have visible masses and bulk along their spines (on the top), I still construct them in this manner, only adding the additional bulk after the fact similarly to the organic intersections from lesson 2.
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An analysis of how I would gradually build up the construction of this gazelle's head.
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This one's pretty old, but it still shows the principles of construction fairly well. Note that I haven't used the sausage method for the legs, but I'm still applying a lot of the same concepts.
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This one's very old, but I feel like the way it accentuates the volumes and general gestural nature of the legs still makes it valuable in some ways. There is a lot to be learned here, just don't let it cause you to stray from the techniques covered in the main lesson and demos.
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When tackling fur, make sure that you're not going into auto-pilot, trying to cover your silhouette in zigzags. Add specific, intentional, designed tufts of fur along the silhouette. This is what is going to carry the majority of the illusion of fur - you don't even have to put that much.
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Taking the concepts described in the demo above, here I'm applying it to a construction of a raccoon.
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Constructional principles applied to an oryx. Notice how I'm building up the bulk of its back with additional forms, not trying to achieve this all with the torso-sausage.
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A construction of an elephant. Again, I'm not adhering to the sausage technique for the legs here, though they're still reflecting a lot of the gestural qualities that the technique espouses. Remember that these techniques you're learning are intended to teach you the concepts that lay beneath them. Once you get the hang of them - which can take some time and practice - you can then apply them as much or as little as you want.
Just be sure to stick to them when working through these lessons so I can be sure that you're getting a good deal of experience with them.
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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