Uncomfortable

2015-03-30 23:04

I think the biggest issue here is a lack of solid lay-ins. The benefit of lay-ins is that they don't leave much grey area in terms of correctness. There's no smooth, carved forms, there's just solid geometric forms.

Beyond that, you can (and probably should practice) block in forms with just boxes. A box can represent any other form, because it is the perfect encapsulation of 3D space. Once you've got a box set up, you can build any other form within it.

Like this.

Another thing, which I demonstrate in the image above, is that you're dropping in your cylinders very arbitrarily. That's mostly because of the lack of attention to the lay-ins, but there's a bit of a technique that you can use.

If you lay them in as boxes initially, you can then find the centers of the two opposite faces, and connect those to find the 'spine' of your cylinder. That's going to align to your minor axes of your two ellipses. This will keep the alignment of your cylinder correct - most of your cylinders end up being off because you don't align them to a particular center line or spine.

I'd like to see four more pages, but don't go into any detail. Only do the form intersection construction. If you find the next step requires you to draw something that is not purely one of the major geometric forms, stop and move onto the next.

Uncomfortable

2015-04-06 23:54

You definitely have more room to grow, but I see a lot of progress and development through your homework. This topic is definitely a lot harder than the previous organic stuff we've been dealing with, so you should be pleased with how you are coming along.

I think the one thing I could suggest to help guide you is to consider which of the marks you're making are wasteful and which have purpose. Which ones are exploratory and uncertain, and which ones have been previsualized and are part of a greater plan. Remember the ghosting technique, and how it forces you to plan through everything. Try to carry that mindset into how you draw anything.

Anyway, go ahead and move onto the next lesson - but try and keep up with doing these kinds of still life studies, they'll definitely help you improve rather rapidly.

Uncomfortable

2015-04-08 01:02

Funnily enough, I think your best work is with the cylindrical objects. The reason for this is because you know they're a weak point, so you approach them more carefully. You focus more on breaking things down into smaller forms, and the result comes out much better.

You're too cocky with the boxier objects. You don't break them down enough, you jump from the overall box right down into the little nuances. Step back and take your time constructing those forms. Focus on the angles, and try treating everything as a form intersection. Not just a combination of forms being added to each other, but think about how you might take one form and subtract it from another. Try approaching it in that manner instead of guessing how you should carve into a particular form to get a certain result.

Also, I noticed that because you're finding this subject a little overwhelming (as anyone would), you're getting very rough with your lines. You're thinking on the page, instead of trying to visualize and think through the problems before drawing. Draw only what you need to understand a problem. Don't draw a few lines hoping for one of them to be correct.

This will definitely require you to draw more basic forms (to help build up the construction), so when you do, remember the ghosting technique.

I'd like you to do another 8 pages of these every day objects. I'd say devote at least 6 of them to boxy objects, and the last two can be cylindrical.

Don't get me wrong - you're doing very well. The spray bottle on page 2 looks especially good, and I like the bottles you've drawn on page 3 and 4. I just think you could do even better by focusing more on your constructions instead of relying on so much guesswork.

Uncomfortable

2015-04-19 18:49

Not bad. I think the biggest cause of the 'messiness' is that you're not taking the time to lay down your lines cleanly. It sounds pretty obvious, but it's definitely just a matter of rushing.

Your cross-hatching tends to look sloppy and uncontrolled. You set out the shape of your shadows, but then your hatching lines overshoot the shape, or start halfway through it. You should be taking the time to line up your pen so it starts at one side, and ends at the other. These lines should also be fairly parallel to one another.

Also, don't go back and hatch in the opposite direction, making a sort of grid. That just looks bad.

I did notice a few other instances of you simply not taking the time to think through your decisions before drawing the lines. Ghosting is your friend - find a comfortable angle, mark your beginning and end points, and ghost ghost ghost through the drawing motion as many times as you need to get accustomed to the line you want to draw. Then just draw it down once.

There's nothing wrong with drawing through your forms, and more than anything I encourage it. But every line you put down should serve a purpose. Either to help you understand the form better, or to help convey it to the viewer. If you can't find a specific way a line is adding to your drawing, then chances are that it shouldn't be there.

All that said, there's no reason to hold you back. For the most part your forms are okay, and you seem to understand what you're doing, it's just a matter of requiring more drawing mileage. Go ahead and move onto the next lesson, but be sure to continue practicing these things regularly.

Uncomfortable

2015-05-26 21:58

Your forms generally look very solid. I'm especially fond of USB charger on page 2 and the marker/highlighter on page 3.

There's definitely a lot of room to grow, and I think some of the techniques I covered in the very recent video on cylinders would help with how you place and align your cylinders (by starting off with a box).

I'm going to mark the lesson as complete, as I'm satisfied that you're moving in the right direction, but be sure to continue practicing this stuff on your own - once you've given yourself a well deserved break, of course.

Uncomfortable

2015-05-31 16:48

Not bad! I definitely think drawing cylinders by starting off with a box would have helped in some scenarios, but in general you did fairly well. Your forms give the impression of solidity and volume.

When it comes to that camera, those lenses are extremely challenging, for sure. That said, it doesn't look like you really used the cylinder-in-box technique correctly. You drew a box for the outermost ellipse, but the actual cylinder that protrudes out is significantly smaller. It would have been better to use a separate box for it. I understand that this would result in a whole lot of extra linework, but it's more important right now that we focus on getting accurate forms rather than a clean drawing.

It might also help to be less sketchy with your lines. The camera in the top left of page 7's got some lay-in boxes that are pretty rough. The one beneath it is far better, as each line seems to be drawn with clear planning and intent. It exudes confidence, while the one above seems more timid and uncertain.

Anyway, you're definitely moving in the right direction with these. I'll mark this lesson as complete, but be sure to keep practicing this subject matter.

Uncomfortable

2015-06-01 22:35

Not bad. It's definitely moving in the right direction. Generally your overall forms are okay (at times I do see the perspective falling a bit out of whack, especially the boxes on page 8 showing the far planes being a bit larger than the near planes), but when it comes to the finer details, you have a tendency to sloppily doodle them on instead of attempting to construct them from forms. For example, on that same page (8) you leave the dials as ellipses when they're likely supposed to be cylinders. That is why you get the feeling that yours look basic. It's just a matter of paying closer attention to your reference/subject matter, and properly constructing all of the forms instead of being loose.

Another thing I believe will help is for you to practice drawing cylinders. I recently posted a video about constructing them that you should find handy. It details a method that involves drawing a box first and then constructing a cylinder inside of it. This would ultimately help with situations where you have to position/align a cylinder, which is generally quite challenging.

Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete, but be sure to keep practicing this stuff.

Uncomfortable

2015-06-12 22:17

Not bad! Your general sense for forms is definitely there, and you seem to be able to break down those forms into their smaller components. The problem lays with your execution. It's not terrible, but it's very sketchy - lots of marks where only one is necessary, wobbly and uncertain lines, etc. You need spend more time thinking before you put down your marks, separating the drawing process into multiple stages. Spend most of your time planning your approach and ghosting through the drawing motion, and once you feel comfortable, the act of drawing the mark should be quick so as to avoid wobbling.

I'd also recommend looking into the 250 cylinder challenge. There's a video at the top of the challenge post that explains how to approach positioning cylinders effectively.

Anyway, you did pretty well. You clearly need to work on what I mentioned above, and there's a lot of room to grow, but you generally display enough understanding of the forms themselves for me to mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable

2015-06-24 20:05

It looks to me like your pen is dying. I have to admit, it doesn't generally look great where you used said dying pen for shading/texture. It follows the same rule I've mentioned before, that textures generally aren't random so one should always avoid scribbling. Every texture has a rhythm to it, and in order to convey it competently, you need to identify that rhythm and pattern.

Your forms are kind of hit and miss. A lot of the time, the forms themselves are okay, but the issue is that when you try and put them together, they don't align to one another properly. They end up kind of disjointed. One way of approaching this is to start everything off as a box, then to carve into those boxes to gradually achieve the forms you want. By starting off with more complex forms, you end up with very little grounding as to how the forms relate to one another.

I kind of like the mice you did - you even started off with a box. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the box for the lower-left mouse drawing, you'll see that the far plane is larger than the near plane. Right off the bat, this kind of threw your perpsective out of whack.

The waterbottle at the beginning shows the effects of starting out too complicated. Since it isn't based off a preliminary cylinder (though I'd still go box>cylinder>bottle), it doesn't have any firm groundwork for its form. It ends up flattening out.

On your mug, one thing stands out quite a bit - there's no thickness to the mug. It appears to be paper-thin. It's very important to always remember that just about everything solid has thickness to it.

Your hairbrush also stands out to me, largely because of how you approached drawing the bristles. To be honest, right now I'm not 100% sure how I would approach it myself, but I might consider attempting to group all the bristles together into a big block - kind of like how one would, when drawing fur, draw clumps with minor details affecting the silhouette, but not drawing every single strand. Drawing each bristle of the brush just produces far too much visual noise. Furthermore, each one has its own thickness, and connects to the brush at a particular location, so if you were to draw each bristle individually you'd still have to consider that.

I'm really glad to see that you've tried your hand at a wide variety of objects, and that you clearly did all of the from life. It's not at all easy to draw from life, so kudos to you for that.

I do however want to see another four pages of everyday objects. Start off with a box and gradually go more complex from there. Also don't scribble with that dying pen, it ruins your drawings.

Uncomfortable

2015-07-13 20:12

Nice work! I really like the speaker and the mouse. Your boxes are definitely a little hit-and-miss (the rubiks cube and the camera), so you could definitely do with some extra practice with boxes in general, but overall you did very well. The majority of your forms are solid and you have a good eye for the finer details, rendering them all as individual forms rather than simply flat detail.

Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable

2015-07-30 01:32

So again, much like in my critique of your initial animal homework, your details are great but the underlying forms are not solid due to the scratchy approach. It's important to pull back and think through every mark, and how that mark is going to contribute to the drawing.

You may also want to check out the video linked at the top of the 250 cylinder challenge. It talks about how to align a cylinder to another object, using a box as a scaffolding. This is particularly relevant for this exercise, as it can be quite challenging to get that alignment right.

Secondly, I noticed that on some of your boxier objects, your far planes were looking a little larger than your near planes. for example, the bottom right of the first page. Come to think of it, I didn't really see that issue anywhere else, but I figured I should bring it to your attention.

Anyway, give the lesson another shot, trying to reign back the scratchy lines and put purpose and thought behind each mark you make.

In case you didn't catch the announcement I posted today, my critiques for the month of August are going to be limited to patreon supporters, due to my being swamped at work, and being generally unable to deal with the usual number of homework submissions I get. Normal open critiques will resume at the beginning of September.

Until then, once you've tackled this lesson's homework again, you may move onto the next lesson. You can submit them both again when the critiques reopen.

Uncomfortable

2015-08-01 16:19

That's exactly the case. Geometric forms force you to make decisions, because they have clear-cut edges and corners. A smooth surface is basically just a field of indecision, which could represent any number of configurations of solid, flat planes.

That said, you generally did a great job. I especially liked your boxier forms, and your shaving razor really stood out to me (I saw it beforehand on your twitter).

Your cylinders do need some work at times, though they're moving in the right direction as well. The other thing I want you to keep an eye out for is your contour curves. If you look at the tea-pot, you'll see them failing to wrap around the form to varying degrees.

The reason for this is your timidness. You seem to be a little afraid to draw through those forms - so while you are drawing through them, you're struggling to keep your lines very faint and unnoticeable, lest you make a mistake. In a sense, you're hedging your bets - you're making yourself more likely to make a mistake, but you're making the ultimate effect of that mistake less noticeable. Ruining a drawing isn't the worst thing in the world, so try to push yourself to draw through your forms with more confidence. If things go wrong here and there, just move on to the next one.

Anyway, generally you did quite well so I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. The next one is essentially more of the same, but at a larger scale which can present its own challenges.

Uncomfortable

2015-08-08 14:54

Not bad at all. There's definitely plenty of room to grow, but that will come with more practice.

The main thing I want to pick at though is your shading/hatching. It's generally quite sloppy, and that decreases the overall quality of your drawing. Taking the time to draw each line out deliberately, making sure that they are parallel and that they stretch out across the entire surface would very much improve the overall impact of your drawings. Another thing to point out on that subject is that, along with serving as a means to describe the lighting on an object, hatching lines also function the same way contour lines do. They follow the surface of an object, describing how it bends, twists and moves through 3D space.

If you use straight hatching on a cylinder, you're communicating to the viewer that this object is flat, since the contour lines travel straight across it. Instead, the hatching needs to curve with the surface. Often this is rather challenging and doesn't even look that great, so I'll generally apply the hatching length-wise along the cylinder, rather than wrapping it around the shaft. Here's some notes on hatching I'd written out a while back.

The other thing I want to encourage you to do is to take a look at the 250 box challenge and the 250 cylinder challenge. The videos and the notes will help refresh your understanding of how those forms work. The vast majority of your constructions rest on the solidity of these forms, so it's important to regularly practice drawing them.

Anyway, though you have room to grow in this area, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. I expect you'll continue to practice these skills. The next lesson also tackles a similar set of challenges, though at a much larger scale, so they will also help to sharpen your understanding of construction from rudimentary forms.

Uncomfortable

2015-08-30 23:36

I think you're moving in the right direction - starting to get a sense of how to break objects into smaller primitive forms. That said, there are still some fundamental problems that you need to work through.

I strongly recommend doing the 250 box challenge and the 250 cylinder challenge. Your boxes in particular are struggling - you have a tendency to draw the far plane of the boxes larger than the near plane. Be sure to practice a bunch drawing through them completely, as if they were transparent so you can see all the lines that define each plane of the form.

Furthermore, I hope you are continuing to practice the exercises from the first two lessons (the first one especially). I'm seeing a lot of places that would benefit from more practice on your ghosted lines (like the weight bench's lines are often composed of several marks, rather than a single well planned and prepared mark for each line). These are things that take time to improve, so you need to keep up with those exercises.

Once you've had the chance to go through those challenges and grind away at some of those earlier exercises, take another stab at the homework for this lesson and we'll see how much you've improved.

Uncomfortable

2015-09-01 23:54

Nice work! Early on you seem to be struggling a bit - or perhaps not struggling, but working in somewhat simpler terms as far as your constructions go. You ramp things up as you move forward, and the results are quite nice. The battery charger and the plug on pages 7 and 8 are really nice. I did that whole whistling thing one does when they see something impressive. I like what I see with your cylinders (constructing them from boxes), and in general you seem to be going in a solid direction.

Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Oh, and in regards to your question - separate in your mind what is an exercise and what is a proper drawing. Everything we do in these lessons are exercises, just for training. In that situation, avoid using a ruler, and instead take the opportunity to boost your ghosting/freehand skills. If you are drawing something that really needs to be perfect, then a ruler may be okay.

Uncomfortable

2015-09-04 22:30

You're definitely moving in the right direction. I did notice some issues with your cylinders however. I strongly recommend that you look into doing the 250 cylinder challenge. The video linked there specifically talks about some approaches to constructing cylinders, utilizing the minor axis and even building it as a box first and placing a cylinder within it.

Once you've done the cylinder challenge, do another couple pages of every day objects and submit them here.