Strongly recommended that this lesson be done traditionally with a 0.5mm felt tip marker. Your results will likely not be as helpful if it's done digitally. Of course, it's up to you.
This approach relies on first completely ignoring all of the overwhelming detail. It may look silly and juvenile, but it is important to do the simple lay-ins first for every drawing. Not only does it help produce a successful drawing, but it also trains your brain to consciously ignore detail that is irrelevant.
Usually I'd say that this should be done from life, but drawing insects from life is pretty difficult. If you happen to have access to accurate models of insects, or preserved insects (like what collectors have), draw from those. Otherwise draw from photo reference.
If you feel that you are starting to screw up one of the drawings, I urge you to persevere through it. Don't scrap it and start a new sheet - see what happens if you keep going at it. Of course, that doesn't mean just throwing ink everywhere and hoping it'll go better. But try and recognize what you feel you did wrong and analyze how to fix the image. This is a major skill to develop when it comes to drawing, especially with ink.
Minimum of 8 pages of insects, at least 2-3 insects per page. You can choose to draw any sort of insects, arachnids or crustaceans. If you can find other subject matter that fits the bill, then go ahead and draw that. We're focusing on exoskeletal creatures with the head-thorax-abdomen architecture, as well as with segmentation on their bodies.
Remember, we aren't just replicating reference photos - we are analyzing and studying the construction, texture and form language of these creatures. Focus on rebuilding the insect, not the photo.
Nice work! I find most of these deeply unsettling, so you must be doing something right.
I especially like 4, 11, and.. oh dear, your numbering's all over the place. The ladybugs are cool too. And fuck your spiders, especially 3, that thing.. god, I can't look at it anymore. Your scorpions are also quite well done, I remember having an especially difficult time with them.
Overall, I'm seeing that you seem to be more relaxed, and are able to capture the volume of forms more easily.
I'm someone who likes bugs and insects (and yes, especially spiders), so I didn't find them unsettling, I found them beautiful and cool, and sometimes cute.
I got a bit burned out towards the end and did them faster, but I was pretty impressed how I could nail down basic proportions and angles without much thought. I took the first ones pretty slow and tried to observe all the angles.
Nice work! You explored a lot of interesting creatures. Wasp #3 looks wicked, and really captures the proportions and gesture.
If I had to point out a weakness, it'd be that a lot of them seem to be very noisy. The hatching creates a lot of contrast, so the viewer's eye doesn't exactly know where to settle. In the future, consider creating areas of dense detail as well as rest areas. It's tricky at times to interpret a reference image and make those decisions, but the ability to do so is definitely a great strength. It draws the line between being a human photocopier and being an artist.
I look forward to seeing your submission for lesson 5!
Yeah, you pointed that out on lesson 3 too and I totally see that mistake. When I was drawing I kept that in mind but I was like "Okay, one more mark here and a lil bit more shading there will make it more awesome" thus ending up creating noise.
Thanks for the tips, gonna try to improve next lesson!
Great work! I'm seeing a nice balance between areas of detail and areas of rest. Some of them are showing some excellent volume (the spider from page 2), while others are flattening out a bit much (most of page 5). Still, I'm seeing a lot of improvement over the previous lesson. Just be sure to keep the contour line stuff in mind, from lesson 2.
Nope, I think you're comfortably bobbing well above the surface! These look great. Especially loving the ants and the spiders, but they're all pretty much fantastic. The only page that seems a bit weaker would be number 5 - they look a bit flat compared to the rest.
I really like the way you shade, mostly how you use a lot of regular/repeated patterning. The drop shadows come out nice and flat, which in turn makes the rest of the object pop and feel round and bulky.
I can see that you did learn a lot, especially with your 'shading experiments'. You went a bit too far with your tarantula and were heading off in a weird direction with the scorpion, but you clearly were aware of that and learned from your mistakes.
In the next lesson, you'll see a method of drawing a circle around the focal point and shading/detailing the fuck out of that area, and leaving everything outside the ellipse blank. You might find that helps you maintain a clear focal point and find a good balance between simplicity and detail.
The wasp (#6) is definitely the strongest one there. The attention goes directly to the darkest areas (the head and upper abdomen), and the rest is left fairly simple and clean, aside from those few stripes on the thorax which add a bit of extra, but non-show-stealing points of interest.
I also think that you used the segmentation on the thorax to your advantage - they're natural contour lines, so they naturally make the form seem more three dimensional. From what I can see, for this wasp you drew the bulky areas and then carved into them to find the actual more accurate shape of the wasp's body.
This is missing in, say, the scorpion (#13). The core of the body is okay, but as you go further down the tail, the lay-in gets weaker, and the rest of the form suffers. Without the solid scaffolding, the darker linework comes out flat and desperate.
The spider (#19) is an interesting case study. Overall, I like it, because the forms are nice and rounded, and it gives the overall feel of the spider fairly well. I do however think that when you were drawing it, you seemed a bit timid and perhaps too careful. Probably drawing with your wrist, rather than drawing complete, closed forms/shapes from your elbow or shoulder. I really do like how you've got the darker texture/shading fading out as you reach the ends of the legs, that's a really cool effect. On the downside though, the head of the spider gets really muddy, since it pretty much ends up all being dark dark dark. Consider thinking about how you're going to balance those lights and darks before you start putting them in, so that the major elements of the spider read clearly.
I would like you to do two more pages of these. Overall, I think you're showing a lot of strengths, but I can't shake the feeling that you have a lot more to offer, if I just push you a little more.
Think on the following:
Spend more time on your lay-in. Draw solid, complete shapes and forms from your shoulder. If you feel it helps, feel free to throw in some contour lines of your own, even if they don't exist on the creature. It should feel 3D before you throw in the texture and shading.
Consider where you want to put your lights and darks. The purpose of throwing in the shading is to support the read of the object that should already be fairly strong. This means you don't need to add too much, just some minor things here and there to make it pop.
As for your question about the hairy spider, I'm REALLY glad you asked, because it is relevant to what I mentioned above. Surprisingly enough, to draw a spider like that you don't have to draw a bazillion little hairs all over his body. In fact, you only need to break up the outlines themselves, and you can leave most of the inside of the forms relatively empty.
There's a hierarchy of places we look when we want to discern the surface texture of an object. Highest on the list is the edges of that form. Is the outline clean and smooth? Does it curve or is it straight and flat? Is it broken and are little bits coming off it?
Only after we look at that, do we start looking inside the shape for extra, often unnecessary information. Keeping this in mind will keep your drawings clean and will allow you to create clear focal points without giving the viewer less information than they need about the object they're looking at.
Heres the two pages. I still feel something is wrong/bad with them, but I can't put my finger on it.
I have two questions:
On the first one (the cockroach) I separated into black and white, but I'm wandering how you would do it, would you separate it into three values? (heres the picture I used)
And what kind of brush pen (if that's what you use)do you use to fill in large black areas?
I took a stab at drawing that roach. Not gonna lie, I had a really rough time with it. Not entirely sure why it was so hard, might be because of the strange curvature of the shell.
At first glance, the shell looks really shiny, so I can see your urge to go for those solid black shadows. It's extremely rare that you'd ever go for those, though. With a closer inspection of the shell, you can see that it's got all these bumps and divets, and little planar shifts where the surface of the shell bends subtly. Because of that, I felt sections of crosshatching that go at different angles was the best way to communicate all of the different planes.
As for the rest of your work, it's better, but you're relying far too much on your shading still. Do another two pages, but this time - no shading at all. Convey the bends in the form by relying only on contour lines and the particular fashion in which the edges and lines of your drawing bend. Kind of like how you can technically give the impression of a cube without drawing the internal lines.
4 is great. The rest are a bit more tenuous, but I think it's fair at this point to have you move forwards to the next lesson. Just keep the principles and concepts I've mentioned up to this point in mind when you approach the next subjects.
The beetle at the bottom of page 1 looks great. So does the... is that a bed bug? At the bottom of page 5? When I was doing this exercise for class, I was also suffering through a bed bug infestation in the room where I was staying... >: On the bright side, it made for some rather up-close subject matter.
The cicada and the roach(?) from page 8 look good as well. The others have varying degrees of flatness, but you're definitely getting there.
You should work towards breaking free of those sketchy lines though - the dark lines we see in your drawings are often visibly made up of a lot of little line segments. Always try to move towards drawing single marks for each line. Think hard before every mark you make, and make sure that each one is driven by a clear intent.
Will Do! I've been told that before, about the lines that is. My other instructors have mentioned about the sketchy lines, as well as my extremely heavy hand :/ Something I have been trying to work on for a while. I always feel like it is a little easier for more to build out a form, from a mess of lines (I start many of my drawings with just a bunch of random scribbles on the page and then try to find forms within them). I will try and focus more on planting solid lines though. any advice on doing that? I know that's a pretty open ended question to ask haha, but any advice would be helpful! As for heavy hand-ness.. I always feel like I am doing a good job of it at the very start of my drawings, but as my drawings progress, my hand gets heavier and heavier without me even realizing it. It's probably a bit more difficult to see with ink drawings, but if we ever move onto pencil I am sure you will notice.
Well, it's always easier to approach things from a sketchy direction. It's just that the result is less solid and convincing, so it breaks the illusion of the drawing.
As for your heavy handedness - don't worry about it for now. Deal with one challenge at a time. Once you've improved your ability to draw intentional, thoughtful marks, you can start worrying about taking more care with your pressure control.
If you have time, I wouldn't mind seeing an example of how you'd draw the hairy spider someone else posted because I wouldn't know where to start with that!
Spider on the bottom of page 4 is awesome. Also our wasps are showing some good volume (which was a bit weaker in the plants). I liked seeing the step by step, it shows that your lay-ins are solid.
One thing I'm concerned about though is your proportions. I can't see the reference images, so I can't be sure, but in various cases (the wasps for instance) the different major components of their bodies don't seem to have the correct size relationships between them.
Secondly, I think you may be getting sloppy when it comes to observing your reference. Proportion is likely a part of that (a more significant symptom), but on a less significant level, you tend to make significant mistakes with the legs and the faces of spiders. I think you may still be oversimplifying those finer details into what you think you see (a basic human adaptation that we all have to train ourselves to ignore) instead of drawing what is actually there. As I said, you're doing that only for these finer details. Maybe that is your natural response when you become overwhelmed with the detail, I'm not sure. Either way, I think it's something that practice will help remedy.
Okay, so. I want to see two more pages of insects, and in addition to that, studies from the following images, all of which are flies:
This way I can see how you deal with specific reference images, and I can check where your observational skills are not quite sharp enough.
Oh, also, as per your request, the hairy spider. When doing your own drawings, avoid shots like this that use a lot of depth of field techniques to obscure the focus from different parts of the subject. It definitely makes things a lot harder!
Thank you! I'm really glad you mentioned the detail thing. I noticed something was going wrong in those complex areas but I wasn't sure what and I don't want to self-critique too much when submitting. Besides this practice, is there an exercise I can do to work on proportion?
Unfortunately nothing comes to mind. Proportion as an observational skill mainly just comes from, well, looking at things, and studying them. That's more or less just practice.
Here's some critique. Overall, you've done pretty well. There's just a couple things to keep in mind.
Right now your line weights are 100% uniform, which flattens the drawings out. Check out the bonus notes on the side bar, there are some that deal with line weights. Also look at other peoples' submissions, that help as well.
Read this. Your hatching is a little sloppy, but moreso there are better ways you could go about it that both reinforces the curvature of your surfaces and also generally looks better. In terms of the sloppiness I mentioned though, just slow down a bit and think about the marks you're drawing before you draw them.
Always be sure to draw the smaller details so they fit in line with your lay-ins. That's what the lay-ins are for. You'll notice on the second page from the left, on the bottom row, I did a quick demo of sticking to the lay-in.
Overall, you did enough successful drawings for me to be comfortable with letting you go to the next lesson. Be sure to carry this critique over to the next subject.
Fantastic work, Chris. Your wasps, ants and beetles are definitely my favourite. I'm not entirely sure how accurate the scorpions are to your reference, but construction-wise they're pretty solid. 10's looking a little flat though, same with 6 (largely because you've got some thick weights on both sides of the form).
Overall, I'm very impressed and don't have much to say in the way of critique. Feel free to move onto lesson 5!
[deleted]
2014-12-30 15:26
Awesome thanks! Quick question though, are we still laying in the forms using ink? Or could we use pencils to lay in the forms?
I'm amazed that you drew these with an 08. Usually thicker markers are much more difficult to do actual drawing with, largely because it requires so much more pressure control. It's definitely good practice, but sometimes it makes things prohibitively hard for those with less experience.
These are really well done. A lot of great forms, a great amount of detail (you erred on the side of being a little more bare, which I think was a good decision). All of your insects are communicated very well.
Great work. You've earned your badge, and you may move onto the next lesson.
Looking good! I'm loving your volumes and your forms. Your proportions might need work though, so try to pay more attention to that when drawing.
A couple things that might help in the future.
Ease up on the contour lines, after a certain point they just become noisy and bothersome. A few are great, but covering everything isn't.
Consider outlining a shadow shape on the floor under your subject. It helps 'ground' them in a scene, rather than having them float around on the page. By shadow shape, I mean just the empty silhouette in line like these. Filling in the shadow would probably get too distracting.
Anyways, you did well! Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Ease up on the contour lines, after a certain point they just become noisy and bothersome. A few are great, but covering everything isn't.
Consider outlining a shadow shape on the floor under your subject. It helps 'ground' them in a scene, rather than having them float around on the page. By shadow shape, I mean just the empty silhouette in line like these. Filling in the shadow would probably get too distracting.
Noted.
Your proportions might need work though, so try to pay more attention to that when drawing.
Just curious though, which one specifically has bad proportions?
I can't be certain without the reference images, but 18 comes off as very strange to me. 15 and 16 seem a bit odd and I'm not 100% sure about 5's thorax/head area.
My creeps are here. I'm not sure if I done them in right way. Some of them are really sloppy, especially the first ones on each new day I did them and very last one (on last page). In any case I did enjoy drawing spiders and insects. Thanks a lot for your advice and observations, it really helps to push myself further and try harder.
Nice work! Your approach on the lay-ins was definitely different from what I intended, but I wouldn't go so far as saying they're wrong. Just different - and I think it's a very interesting method, and if that's how you feel comfortable working, more power to you. It's particularly great because it really focuses on the volume in the construction phase, so all of your drawings tend to have a much greater sense of form.
I have only one major point of critique - in most areas, your hatching/shading is done quite well. In some specific cases, however, your approach isn't the greatest. Look at the ant on page 3 (5 in the imgur album). The ant in the bottom left. Its abdomen is curved and rounded, and your hatching follows that curvature, stopping a little ways in.
I generally find that this is not a great way to shade a cylindrical object. Instead, hatching length-wise tends to come out better. I wrote some notes about it a while back. Your hatching does curve along the form, so it's not really flattening it out, but in my opinion it always feels weird to have those curving lines end suddenly.
That said, I think it works nicely in the bottom right of the following page, on the shell. The hatching adds some nice texture and interesting pseudo-detail.
Anyways, now I have to stop looking at your insects because they're giving me the willies.
Goddamn, you make me want to start doing these lessons again, purely to defeat you! Sadly right now my free time is spent programming, for some strange reason.
Fantastic forms and textures. The line weights especially make the drawings pop. I think the snail's my favourite though - that, or the spider underneath him, it's got spunk.
The best thing about your drawings is that each one has attitude and personality - they're not just animals, each one's become a character in its own right. That's definitely something special.
Out of curiosity (and a desire to steal), where do you find your reference? Google images? Or are you hiding something...
Are you a secret entomologist with the power to freeze time?!
Strange, I feel the same thing about your drawings. And you know, then I'd need to come back and beat you, it'd never end! ;)
My references all come from google image search, flickr, deviantart and pinterest. Whenever I'm sitting around eating lunch or on the phone, I'll often jump on the net and start gathering references for the future.
You definitely show a lot of improvement. Early on you seem to be struggling with understanding proportion - specifically with the ant on page 2, and the spider on the bottom of page 3, the mantis on page 4. They tend to be a little bit hit-and-miss (the spider on the top of page 3 on the other hand is pretty damn cool). Eventually you do hit your stride, with your last few pages looking very good.
I especially love your cicadas (I think?) and the scorpions on the last page are absolutely wicked.
Early on, you're also showing somewhat sloppier hatching techniques. It might be due to a general lack of comfort and confidence - if you feel you're doing poorly, you might get sloppy. Later on, it improves with everything else. There is one aspect of your hatching technique I'd like to draw attention to, however.
Looking at page 5, with what I assumed to be cicadas. The one on the bottom left shows a lot of hatching following the curvature of the body, like mini contour lines. Some of these stop abruptly, because the shadow doesn't extend beyond that point. I often find that hatching lines that stop suddenly feel a little jarring, especially on cylindrical surfaces. In my opinion (I'm saying this because while I take a firm stance on most things in this subreddit, here I'm really not sure if I'm making the right call), the way you approached it on the bottom right of that same page is more effective. Hatching lines running length-wise, growing more and more spaced out as they go towards the centre of what is essentially cylindrical. I kind of tackle the same issue in these notes.
Anyways, overall great work - the improvement over the course of the lesson is fantastic, and so are your final results.
I love insects! So I hate this! Because you have all these gorgeous designs and then they look rubbish when I draw them. Its like excitement then frustration then disappointment. I'm going to get good at this dam it! Anyway I have not finished yet even though I have done the right amount of pages because I want to do a lot more. I am however uploading now in case you had any advice or tips for me as I continue. Here we go http://imgur.com/a/QpnYT
Well, I just learned a whole lot of things I didn't want to. Like that ants sometimes have stingers... And you just HAD to draw roaches. Shudders
I think what stands out most to me is, as you noted somewhere in there, the lack of focal points. That, and your tendency towards letting your crosshatching/texturing/etc get a little cluttered. For example, on the left side of page 5, your mandible study. You've got some scribbly-looking crosshatching that gets very distracting.
I think your roaches come out much better - especially the top left of page 6. I'm always a fan of crosshatching on a curved surface that flows against the curve (so on a cylinder, having the hatching going along the length of the form instead of wrapping around it). Reason being, while you can create a lot of tiny contour lines through your hatching, I find that they tend to become a little jarring. Instead, if you have them going length-wise, and increase the density of the lines where the form turns away from the viewer, you can much more successfully convey the curvature without providing too much visual information.
Anyways, as always, I think you've done pretty damn well. Your forms are impressive as always, aside from those mandible studies where they don't seem entirely convincing.
When you get a chance, check out /u/ffflay's insect homework. The use of line weight and conservative detailing is definitely something worth studying.
For some reason your comment got caught as spam... reddit is weird.
Anywho! Your new ones are really nice. I mean, I hate you for insinuating that someone should be stroking the hairs on one of those flies, but... no, no buts. Die in a fire.
Haha, those mantis shrimp bring me back. Peter loves those things to death.
I had a ton of fun with this and drew a lot. 14 pages in total.
I´m looking forward to your critique. Some things I´ve noticed myself are for once that my Layins lacked volume and form. This resulted sometimes in very flat drawings. The more I´m tired and sleepy, the more this becomes a problem. Another thing is that I tend to mess with propotions.
I think I´ve gotten better over the lesson. But I still have a lot to learn
I see a lot of drawings here that I really like. The vast majority of them, especially later in the lesson, are showing exceptional observational skills. I do agree with you however - you aren't focusing enough on the lay-ins. While the drawings aren't necessarily flat, they're not entirely cohesive. A lot of them are like little pieces that have been drawn together in the same area, but not necessarily belonging to the same creature. I mean, it's obvious that they're singular creatures composed of these smaller parts, but they don't feel that way.
I'd like to see a couple more pages - instead of going into heavy detail, which I know you can do well, I'd like to see your lay-ins. Treat them more like the form intersections and organic forms with contour lines from lesson 2. Use your contour lines to show how the forms turn in space, and try and approach them more in a "constructive" manner rather than loosely enclosing the space and then going into detail.
I think once you're able to nail the form/construction aspect, your work will be phenomenal.
These lay-ins look much better. The forms are a lot clearer and carry a good deal of volume. That's all I really wanted to see, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.
I see a lot of clear improvement between the beginning and the end! Page 1 is looking a little flat, but the subsequent pages are showing a lot of clear, solid forms - things that I didn't see quite as much from your plants. You've made good use of contour lines as well.
Your texturing could be improved in some places, to create clearer focal points. Also, in some places (like #16) you're getting a little too sketchy, so sometimes you might want to pull back a little and think more before you draw.
Aside from that, fantastic work! Definitely consider this lesson complete.
Nice work! Your early stuff seems a little flat, but steadily you definitely show a good degree of improvement. Your forms start becoming more convincing around page 3, with those spiders. #7 looks especially great, as do your scorpions. Feel free to move onto the next lesson!
Uncomfortable
2014-09-06 18:37
If you haven't completed the previous lessons in this set, please do so before moving onto this one.
Notes
Strongly recommended that this lesson be done traditionally with a 0.5mm felt tip marker. Your results will likely not be as helpful if it's done digitally. Of course, it's up to you.
This approach relies on first completely ignoring all of the overwhelming detail. It may look silly and juvenile, but it is important to do the simple lay-ins first for every drawing. Not only does it help produce a successful drawing, but it also trains your brain to consciously ignore detail that is irrelevant.
Usually I'd say that this should be done from life, but drawing insects from life is pretty difficult. If you happen to have access to accurate models of insects, or preserved insects (like what collectors have), draw from those. Otherwise draw from photo reference.
If you feel that you are starting to screw up one of the drawings, I urge you to persevere through it. Don't scrap it and start a new sheet - see what happens if you keep going at it. Of course, that doesn't mean just throwing ink everywhere and hoping it'll go better. But try and recognize what you feel you did wrong and analyze how to fix the image. This is a major skill to develop when it comes to drawing, especially with ink.
Bonus Content
Homework
Minimum of 8 pages of insects, at least 2-3 insects per page. You can choose to draw any sort of insects, arachnids or crustaceans. If you can find other subject matter that fits the bill, then go ahead and draw that. We're focusing on exoskeletal creatures with the head-thorax-abdomen architecture, as well as with segmentation on their bodies.
Remember, we aren't just replicating reference photos - we are analyzing and studying the construction, texture and form language of these creatures. Focus on rebuilding the insect, not the photo.
curiouscake
2014-10-01 06:12
Creepy crawlies:
http://imgur.com/a/6TQz7
Slowly seeing the things I do wrong. Correcting them even slower o__o But it's a start.
Uncomfortable
2014-10-01 06:37
Nice work! I find most of these deeply unsettling, so you must be doing something right.
I especially like 4, 11, and.. oh dear, your numbering's all over the place. The ladybugs are cool too. And fuck your spiders, especially 3, that thing.. god, I can't look at it anymore. Your scorpions are also quite well done, I remember having an especially difficult time with them.
Overall, I'm seeing that you seem to be more relaxed, and are able to capture the volume of forms more easily.
Onward, to lesson 5!
jabberdoggy
2014-10-01 15:13
Wow, these are great.
I'm someone who likes bugs and insects (and yes, especially spiders), so I didn't find them unsettling, I found them beautiful and cool, and sometimes cute.
mihachris
2014-10-01 22:09
This week's homework.
I got a bit burned out towards the end and did them faster, but I was pretty impressed how I could nail down basic proportions and angles without much thought. I took the first ones pretty slow and tried to observe all the angles.
Also, here is a great insect depository for anyone interested.
EDIT: I think I overdid it a bit with the level adjustments on most of them. Too much white :/
Uncomfortable
2014-10-01 22:36
Nice work! You explored a lot of interesting creatures. Wasp #3 looks wicked, and really captures the proportions and gesture.
If I had to point out a weakness, it'd be that a lot of them seem to be very noisy. The hatching creates a lot of contrast, so the viewer's eye doesn't exactly know where to settle. In the future, consider creating areas of dense detail as well as rest areas. It's tricky at times to interpret a reference image and make those decisions, but the ability to do so is definitely a great strength. It draws the line between being a human photocopier and being an artist.
I look forward to seeing your submission for lesson 5!
mihachris
2014-10-01 22:45
Yeah, you pointed that out on lesson 3 too and I totally see that mistake. When I was drawing I kept that in mind but I was like "Okay, one more mark here and a lil bit more shading there will make it more awesome" thus ending up creating noise.
Thanks for the tips, gonna try to improve next lesson!
jabberdoggy
2014-10-02 13:06
Those look great, and thanks for the link.
tmku
2014-10-11 16:22
Hey, here's my submission: http://imgur.com/a/uphZ3
Uncomfortable
2014-10-11 17:26
Great work! I'm seeing a nice balance between areas of detail and areas of rest. Some of them are showing some excellent volume (the spider from page 2), while others are flattening out a bit much (most of page 5). Still, I'm seeing a lot of improvement over the previous lesson. Just be sure to keep the contour line stuff in mind, from lesson 2.
Onwards, to animals!
isleyso
2014-11-01 20:04
Finished with the homework.
I'm starting to think I'm getting over my head with these lessons... But I've learnt a ton so I guess I'll try to keep up...
Uncomfortable
2014-11-01 20:29
Nope, I think you're comfortably bobbing well above the surface! These look great. Especially loving the ants and the spiders, but they're all pretty much fantastic. The only page that seems a bit weaker would be number 5 - they look a bit flat compared to the rest.
I really like the way you shade, mostly how you use a lot of regular/repeated patterning. The drop shadows come out nice and flat, which in turn makes the rest of the object pop and feel round and bulky.
I can see that you did learn a lot, especially with your 'shading experiments'. You went a bit too far with your tarantula and were heading off in a weird direction with the scorpion, but you clearly were aware of that and learned from your mistakes.
In the next lesson, you'll see a method of drawing a circle around the focal point and shading/detailing the fuck out of that area, and leaving everything outside the ellipse blank. You might find that helps you maintain a clear focal point and find a good balance between simplicity and detail.
Golden_Crane
2014-11-09 20:30
Here's my homework. Do you have any tips on drawin hairy things like [this spider] (http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/10/geekspider.jpg)?
Uncomfortable
2014-11-10 01:31
The wasp (#6) is definitely the strongest one there. The attention goes directly to the darkest areas (the head and upper abdomen), and the rest is left fairly simple and clean, aside from those few stripes on the thorax which add a bit of extra, but non-show-stealing points of interest.
I also think that you used the segmentation on the thorax to your advantage - they're natural contour lines, so they naturally make the form seem more three dimensional. From what I can see, for this wasp you drew the bulky areas and then carved into them to find the actual more accurate shape of the wasp's body.
This is missing in, say, the scorpion (#13). The core of the body is okay, but as you go further down the tail, the lay-in gets weaker, and the rest of the form suffers. Without the solid scaffolding, the darker linework comes out flat and desperate.
The spider (#19) is an interesting case study. Overall, I like it, because the forms are nice and rounded, and it gives the overall feel of the spider fairly well. I do however think that when you were drawing it, you seemed a bit timid and perhaps too careful. Probably drawing with your wrist, rather than drawing complete, closed forms/shapes from your elbow or shoulder. I really do like how you've got the darker texture/shading fading out as you reach the ends of the legs, that's a really cool effect. On the downside though, the head of the spider gets really muddy, since it pretty much ends up all being dark dark dark. Consider thinking about how you're going to balance those lights and darks before you start putting them in, so that the major elements of the spider read clearly.
I would like you to do two more pages of these. Overall, I think you're showing a lot of strengths, but I can't shake the feeling that you have a lot more to offer, if I just push you a little more.
Think on the following:
Spend more time on your lay-in. Draw solid, complete shapes and forms from your shoulder. If you feel it helps, feel free to throw in some contour lines of your own, even if they don't exist on the creature. It should feel 3D before you throw in the texture and shading.
Consider where you want to put your lights and darks. The purpose of throwing in the shading is to support the read of the object that should already be fairly strong. This means you don't need to add too much, just some minor things here and there to make it pop.
As for your question about the hairy spider, I'm REALLY glad you asked, because it is relevant to what I mentioned above. Surprisingly enough, to draw a spider like that you don't have to draw a bazillion little hairs all over his body. In fact, you only need to break up the outlines themselves, and you can leave most of the inside of the forms relatively empty.
There's a hierarchy of places we look when we want to discern the surface texture of an object. Highest on the list is the edges of that form. Is the outline clean and smooth? Does it curve or is it straight and flat? Is it broken and are little bits coming off it?
Only after we look at that, do we start looking inside the shape for extra, often unnecessary information. Keeping this in mind will keep your drawings clean and will allow you to create clear focal points without giving the viewer less information than they need about the object they're looking at.
Golden_Crane
2014-11-14 18:54
Heres the two pages. I still feel something is wrong/bad with them, but I can't put my finger on it.
I have two questions:
On the first one (the cockroach) I separated into black and white, but I'm wandering how you would do it, would you separate it into three values? (heres the picture I used)
And what kind of brush pen (if that's what you use)do you use to fill in large black areas?
Uncomfortable
2014-11-14 21:57
I took a stab at drawing that roach. Not gonna lie, I had a really rough time with it. Not entirely sure why it was so hard, might be because of the strange curvature of the shell.
At first glance, the shell looks really shiny, so I can see your urge to go for those solid black shadows. It's extremely rare that you'd ever go for those, though. With a closer inspection of the shell, you can see that it's got all these bumps and divets, and little planar shifts where the surface of the shell bends subtly. Because of that, I felt sections of crosshatching that go at different angles was the best way to communicate all of the different planes.
As for the rest of your work, it's better, but you're relying far too much on your shading still. Do another two pages, but this time - no shading at all. Convey the bends in the form by relying only on contour lines and the particular fashion in which the edges and lines of your drawing bend. Kind of like how you can technically give the impression of a cube without drawing the internal lines.
Golden_Crane
2014-11-24 20:23
Here.
I think #1 and #4 turned out the best.
Uncomfortable
2014-11-24 21:53
4 is great. The rest are a bit more tenuous, but I think it's fair at this point to have you move forwards to the next lesson. Just keep the principles and concepts I've mentioned up to this point in mind when you approach the next subjects.
NuggleBuggins
2014-11-25 08:08
Alrighty! I am back with another assignment! This one was a lot of fun! I never realized how much repetition there is in insects! Homework
Uncomfortable
2014-11-25 17:12
The beetle at the bottom of page 1 looks great. So does the... is that a bed bug? At the bottom of page 5? When I was doing this exercise for class, I was also suffering through a bed bug infestation in the room where I was staying... >: On the bright side, it made for some rather up-close subject matter.
The cicada and the roach(?) from page 8 look good as well. The others have varying degrees of flatness, but you're definitely getting there.
You should work towards breaking free of those sketchy lines though - the dark lines we see in your drawings are often visibly made up of a lot of little line segments. Always try to move towards drawing single marks for each line. Think hard before every mark you make, and make sure that each one is driven by a clear intent.
Onward to lesson 5!
NuggleBuggins
2014-11-25 18:56
Will Do! I've been told that before, about the lines that is. My other instructors have mentioned about the sketchy lines, as well as my extremely heavy hand :/ Something I have been trying to work on for a while. I always feel like it is a little easier for more to build out a form, from a mess of lines (I start many of my drawings with just a bunch of random scribbles on the page and then try to find forms within them). I will try and focus more on planting solid lines though. any advice on doing that? I know that's a pretty open ended question to ask haha, but any advice would be helpful! As for heavy hand-ness.. I always feel like I am doing a good job of it at the very start of my drawings, but as my drawings progress, my hand gets heavier and heavier without me even realizing it. It's probably a bit more difficult to see with ink drawings, but if we ever move onto pencil I am sure you will notice.
Uncomfortable
2014-11-25 19:02
Well, it's always easier to approach things from a sketchy direction. It's just that the result is less solid and convincing, so it breaks the illusion of the drawing.
As for your heavy handedness - don't worry about it for now. Deal with one challenge at a time. Once you've improved your ability to draw intentional, thoughtful marks, you can start worrying about taking more care with your pressure control.
starfries
2014-12-13 11:28
Here's mine: http://imgur.com/a/LsYX7
If you have time, I wouldn't mind seeing an example of how you'd draw the hairy spider someone else posted because I wouldn't know where to start with that!
Uncomfortable
2014-12-14 03:58
Spider on the bottom of page 4 is awesome. Also our wasps are showing some good volume (which was a bit weaker in the plants). I liked seeing the step by step, it shows that your lay-ins are solid.
One thing I'm concerned about though is your proportions. I can't see the reference images, so I can't be sure, but in various cases (the wasps for instance) the different major components of their bodies don't seem to have the correct size relationships between them.
Secondly, I think you may be getting sloppy when it comes to observing your reference. Proportion is likely a part of that (a more significant symptom), but on a less significant level, you tend to make significant mistakes with the legs and the faces of spiders. I think you may still be oversimplifying those finer details into what you think you see (a basic human adaptation that we all have to train ourselves to ignore) instead of drawing what is actually there. As I said, you're doing that only for these finer details. Maybe that is your natural response when you become overwhelmed with the detail, I'm not sure. Either way, I think it's something that practice will help remedy.
Okay, so. I want to see two more pages of insects, and in addition to that, studies from the following images, all of which are flies:
http://www.rescue.com/images/houseFly.png
http://img.wylio.com/flickr/500/640499324
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Green_Fly.jpg
This way I can see how you deal with specific reference images, and I can check where your observational skills are not quite sharp enough.
Oh, also, as per your request, the hairy spider. When doing your own drawings, avoid shots like this that use a lot of depth of field techniques to obscure the focus from different parts of the subject. It definitely makes things a lot harder!
starfries
2014-12-14 04:17
Thank you! I'm really glad you mentioned the detail thing. I noticed something was going wrong in those complex areas but I wasn't sure what and I don't want to self-critique too much when submitting. Besides this practice, is there an exercise I can do to work on proportion?
Uncomfortable
2014-12-14 04:21
Unfortunately nothing comes to mind. Proportion as an observational skill mainly just comes from, well, looking at things, and studying them. That's more or less just practice.
dth0807
2014-12-14 22:45
http://imgur.com/a/4TYpJ
Thank you for the exercise. Had a lot of trouble with this one.
Uncomfortable
2014-12-15 01:15
Here's some critique. Overall, you've done pretty well. There's just a couple things to keep in mind.
Right now your line weights are 100% uniform, which flattens the drawings out. Check out the bonus notes on the side bar, there are some that deal with line weights. Also look at other peoples' submissions, that help as well.
Read this. Your hatching is a little sloppy, but moreso there are better ways you could go about it that both reinforces the curvature of your surfaces and also generally looks better. In terms of the sloppiness I mentioned though, just slow down a bit and think about the marks you're drawing before you draw them.
Always be sure to draw the smaller details so they fit in line with your lay-ins. That's what the lay-ins are for. You'll notice on the second page from the left, on the bottom row, I did a quick demo of sticking to the lay-in.
Overall, you did enough successful drawings for me to be comfortable with letting you go to the next lesson. Be sure to carry this critique over to the next subject.
[deleted]
2014-12-29 20:11
Here are my creepy crawlies
While I did feel like I started to get better as I went along, I really need some guidance because it still looks wonky.
Uncomfortable
2014-12-29 22:28
Fantastic work, Chris. Your wasps, ants and beetles are definitely my favourite. I'm not entirely sure how accurate the scorpions are to your reference, but construction-wise they're pretty solid. 10's looking a little flat though, same with 6 (largely because you've got some thick weights on both sides of the form).
Overall, I'm very impressed and don't have much to say in the way of critique. Feel free to move onto lesson 5!
[deleted]
2014-12-30 15:26
Awesome thanks! Quick question though, are we still laying in the forms using ink? Or could we use pencils to lay in the forms?
Uncomfortable
2014-12-30 16:55
Everything is still 100% ink.
CtrlAltZdraw
2015-01-08 16:08
Homework http://imgur.com/a/KY46e
So difficult!
Uncomfortable
2015-01-09 00:49
I'm amazed that you drew these with an 08. Usually thicker markers are much more difficult to do actual drawing with, largely because it requires so much more pressure control. It's definitely good practice, but sometimes it makes things prohibitively hard for those with less experience.
These are really well done. A lot of great forms, a great amount of detail (you erred on the side of being a little more bare, which I think was a good decision). All of your insects are communicated very well.
Great work. You've earned your badge, and you may move onto the next lesson.
aaylmao
2015-01-15 21:57
Here's my HW:
http://imgur.com/a/8fwpG
Personally, I like how #11 came out; I find it to have the most volume.
Uncomfortable
2015-01-15 23:29
Looking good! I'm loving your volumes and your forms. Your proportions might need work though, so try to pay more attention to that when drawing.
A couple things that might help in the future.
Ease up on the contour lines, after a certain point they just become noisy and bothersome. A few are great, but covering everything isn't.
Consider outlining a shadow shape on the floor under your subject. It helps 'ground' them in a scene, rather than having them float around on the page. By shadow shape, I mean just the empty silhouette in line like these. Filling in the shadow would probably get too distracting.
Anyways, you did well! Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
aaylmao
2015-01-16 00:52
Consider outlining a shadow shape on the floor under your subject. It helps 'ground' them in a scene, rather than having them float around on the page. By shadow shape, I mean just the empty silhouette in line like these. Filling in the shadow would probably get too distracting.
Noted.
Just curious though, which one specifically has bad proportions?
Also, thanks for the reply!
Uncomfortable
2015-01-16 00:58
I can't be certain without the reference images, but 18 comes off as very strange to me. 15 and 16 seem a bit odd and I'm not 100% sure about 5's thorax/head area.
Airward
2015-01-18 22:20
My creeps are here. I'm not sure if I done them in right way. Some of them are really sloppy, especially the first ones on each new day I did them and very last one (on last page). In any case I did enjoy drawing spiders and insects. Thanks a lot for your advice and observations, it really helps to push myself further and try harder.
Uncomfortable
2015-01-19 23:47
Nice work! Your approach on the lay-ins was definitely different from what I intended, but I wouldn't go so far as saying they're wrong. Just different - and I think it's a very interesting method, and if that's how you feel comfortable working, more power to you. It's particularly great because it really focuses on the volume in the construction phase, so all of your drawings tend to have a much greater sense of form.
I have only one major point of critique - in most areas, your hatching/shading is done quite well. In some specific cases, however, your approach isn't the greatest. Look at the ant on page 3 (5 in the imgur album). The ant in the bottom left. Its abdomen is curved and rounded, and your hatching follows that curvature, stopping a little ways in.
I generally find that this is not a great way to shade a cylindrical object. Instead, hatching length-wise tends to come out better. I wrote some notes about it a while back. Your hatching does curve along the form, so it's not really flattening it out, but in my opinion it always feels weird to have those curving lines end suddenly.
That said, I think it works nicely in the bottom right of the following page, on the shell. The hatching adds some nice texture and interesting pseudo-detail.
Anyways, now I have to stop looking at your insects because they're giving me the willies.
ffflay
2015-01-20 01:37
Buuuuugs
One of these things is not like the other.
Uncomfortable
2015-01-20 01:59
Goddamn, you make me want to start doing these lessons again, purely to defeat you! Sadly right now my free time is spent programming, for some strange reason.
Fantastic forms and textures. The line weights especially make the drawings pop. I think the snail's my favourite though - that, or the spider underneath him, it's got spunk.
The best thing about your drawings is that each one has attitude and personality - they're not just animals, each one's become a character in its own right. That's definitely something special.
Out of curiosity (and a desire to steal), where do you find your reference? Google images? Or are you hiding something...
Are you a secret entomologist with the power to freeze time?!
ffflay
2015-01-20 03:37
Strange, I feel the same thing about your drawings. And you know, then I'd need to come back and beat you, it'd never end! ;)
My references all come from google image search, flickr, deviantart and pinterest. Whenever I'm sitting around eating lunch or on the phone, I'll often jump on the net and start gathering references for the future.
thesadnman
2015-01-23 08:06
Here is my lesson 4. I feel like I improved a lot over this lesson. I especially like how my beetle on page 6 turned out.
Uncomfortable
2015-01-23 22:47
You definitely show a lot of improvement. Early on you seem to be struggling with understanding proportion - specifically with the ant on page 2, and the spider on the bottom of page 3, the mantis on page 4. They tend to be a little bit hit-and-miss (the spider on the top of page 3 on the other hand is pretty damn cool). Eventually you do hit your stride, with your last few pages looking very good.
I especially love your cicadas (I think?) and the scorpions on the last page are absolutely wicked.
Early on, you're also showing somewhat sloppier hatching techniques. It might be due to a general lack of comfort and confidence - if you feel you're doing poorly, you might get sloppy. Later on, it improves with everything else. There is one aspect of your hatching technique I'd like to draw attention to, however.
Looking at page 5, with what I assumed to be cicadas. The one on the bottom left shows a lot of hatching following the curvature of the body, like mini contour lines. Some of these stop abruptly, because the shadow doesn't extend beyond that point. I often find that hatching lines that stop suddenly feel a little jarring, especially on cylindrical surfaces. In my opinion (I'm saying this because while I take a firm stance on most things in this subreddit, here I'm really not sure if I'm making the right call), the way you approached it on the bottom right of that same page is more effective. Hatching lines running length-wise, growing more and more spaced out as they go towards the centre of what is essentially cylindrical. I kind of tackle the same issue in these notes.
Anyways, overall great work - the improvement over the course of the lesson is fantastic, and so are your final results.
Whirly123
2015-01-26 22:54
I love insects! So I hate this! Because you have all these gorgeous designs and then they look rubbish when I draw them. Its like excitement then frustration then disappointment. I'm going to get good at this dam it! Anyway I have not finished yet even though I have done the right amount of pages because I want to do a lot more. I am however uploading now in case you had any advice or tips for me as I continue. Here we go http://imgur.com/a/QpnYT
Uncomfortable
2015-01-27 00:24
Well, I just learned a whole lot of things I didn't want to. Like that ants sometimes have stingers... And you just HAD to draw roaches. Shudders
I think what stands out most to me is, as you noted somewhere in there, the lack of focal points. That, and your tendency towards letting your crosshatching/texturing/etc get a little cluttered. For example, on the left side of page 5, your mandible study. You've got some scribbly-looking crosshatching that gets very distracting.
I think your roaches come out much better - especially the top left of page 6. I'm always a fan of crosshatching on a curved surface that flows against the curve (so on a cylinder, having the hatching going along the length of the form instead of wrapping around it). Reason being, while you can create a lot of tiny contour lines through your hatching, I find that they tend to become a little jarring. Instead, if you have them going length-wise, and increase the density of the lines where the form turns away from the viewer, you can much more successfully convey the curvature without providing too much visual information.
Anyways, as always, I think you've done pretty damn well. Your forms are impressive as always, aside from those mandible studies where they don't seem entirely convincing.
When you get a chance, check out /u/ffflay's insect homework. The use of line weight and conservative detailing is definitely something worth studying.
Whirly123
2015-02-02 14:24
Done some more. Added them to the album. Hopefully they are getting better? Man bugs are sexy http://bug-tattoo.tattooimages.biz/images/gallery/tattoo-prayingmantisgrasshopperbeetletattoo.jpg You are right /u/ffflay 's bugs are super sexy!
Whirly123
2015-02-02 22:19
Bloody hell I'm 28 and my writing looks like a 9 year olds and I keep miss spelling beetle. I need to learn architects script or something!
Uncomfortable
2015-02-04 01:21
For some reason your comment got caught as spam... reddit is weird.
Anywho! Your new ones are really nice. I mean, I hate you for insinuating that someone should be stroking the hairs on one of those flies, but... no, no buts. Die in a fire.
Haha, those mantis shrimp bring me back. Peter loves those things to death.
Milvolarsum
2015-02-23 10:42
Here´s Lesson 4 I´m proud of number 15 and 16 ^^
I had a ton of fun with this and drew a lot. 14 pages in total.
I´m looking forward to your critique. Some things I´ve noticed myself are for once that my Layins lacked volume and form. This resulted sometimes in very flat drawings. The more I´m tired and sleepy, the more this becomes a problem. Another thing is that I tend to mess with propotions.
I think I´ve gotten better over the lesson. But I still have a lot to learn
Uncomfortable
2015-02-24 01:07
I see a lot of drawings here that I really like. The vast majority of them, especially later in the lesson, are showing exceptional observational skills. I do agree with you however - you aren't focusing enough on the lay-ins. While the drawings aren't necessarily flat, they're not entirely cohesive. A lot of them are like little pieces that have been drawn together in the same area, but not necessarily belonging to the same creature. I mean, it's obvious that they're singular creatures composed of these smaller parts, but they don't feel that way.
I'd like to see a couple more pages - instead of going into heavy detail, which I know you can do well, I'd like to see your lay-ins. Treat them more like the form intersections and organic forms with contour lines from lesson 2. Use your contour lines to show how the forms turn in space, and try and approach them more in a "constructive" manner rather than loosely enclosing the space and then going into detail.
I think once you're able to nail the form/construction aspect, your work will be phenomenal.
Milvolarsum
2015-02-25 18:56
There are so many strange bugs out there..
Anyway here are my lay ins
I tried to simplify more and more while going with the exercise. It´s actually kind of interesting.
Hopefully the Lighning is ok. It´s late here in germany and it´s difficult to adjust the flash of my camera in the right way.
Uncomfortable
2015-02-25 22:27
These lay-ins look much better. The forms are a lot clearer and carry a good deal of volume. That's all I really wanted to see, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.
cartoonishguy
2015-02-23 23:08
Here is the album - http://imgur.com/a/JBDD9
I felt these were hit or miss. Mostly miss. Almost all miss.
Uncomfortable
2015-02-24 01:01
I see a lot of clear improvement between the beginning and the end! Page 1 is looking a little flat, but the subsequent pages are showing a lot of clear, solid forms - things that I didn't see quite as much from your plants. You've made good use of contour lines as well.
Your texturing could be improved in some places, to create clearer focal points. Also, in some places (like #16) you're getting a little too sketchy, so sometimes you might want to pull back a little and think more before you draw.
Aside from that, fantastic work! Definitely consider this lesson complete.
thetickdr
2015-03-01 18:23
Here's lesson 4.
Waiting for your critique.
Uncomfortable
2015-03-02 00:42
Nice work! Your early stuff seems a little flat, but steadily you definitely show a good degree of improvement. Your forms start becoming more convincing around page 3, with those spiders. #7 looks especially great, as do your scorpions. Feel free to move onto the next lesson!
thetickdr
2015-03-02 04:35
Great! Thanks for the feedback!