Old thread got locked, those of you eligible for private critiques can submit your work here (and all others are welcome to submit their work to the main subreddit for a community critique).
You've done a phenomenal job. Really, really great work. You've demonstrated an enormous amount of care and patience throughout each of these texture studies, which is frankly one of the most important things. But beyond that, your observation skills and your mastery over the all too human tendency to oversimplify, to descend into chaos and to work from our flawed memory is in full display.
You've gone to great lengths here to capture every tiny visual detail for your direct studies, and have been able to organize the wealth of information to great effect on the right there. A lot of these are definitely quite tricky, and you still managed to capture the same impression of tactile quality, the same sense of smoothness or roughness or whatever else when organizing the features from dense to sparse.
Now while I don't have a lot to offer in terms of useful critique, there was one thing that I caught here and there that is perhaps worth mentioning. I get the feeling you may be aware of this yourself, but I need to point something out in order to earn my keep.
On a number of textures where you've got a lot of ridges, a lot of forms that protrude out, like the third texture down on this page, the third down on this page, and the fourth down on this one, you have a tendency to leave some rather strong light edges towards the far right to give those forms just a little bit of definition and presence rather than being engulfed by the darkness. It's an understandable desire, and in illustrations we'll sometimes use rimlighting to this effect, but in these cases I think it would often be better to embrace that darkness. Let the details get a little lost.
Reason being, when we have white and black to choose from, leaving those white edges communicates a sort of very harsh reflectiveness on the surface material, where they can still catch this tiny glimmer of light. If the objects were obsidian, those kinds of sharply lit edges would be understandable, but on rock or plant matter, surfaces that are quite matte and that diffuse light very quickly, it gives the wrong impression. So long story short, don't be afraid to go full dark, especially when all the surrounding area already has. It all comes down to local contrast. areas with a spec of white in a sea of darkness are going to raise questions of "well what is the nature of that area that remains lit that allows it to fight back the blackness?"
In this sense, you can sort of break each texture down into vertical strips, and analyze how much black vs. white you've got present in each one. Since towards the far right of those particular textures you've got maybe 5% white to 95% black, those questions start to arise.
Anyway, that's about all I've got. Really, really great work here. Keep it up, and consider this challenge complete!
Finally got around to finishing this challenge and upload my work. The order got mixed up with uploading so the ones more at the end of the process are in the beginning. I made more than required because some were really bad or just not well approached.
I'll be completely honest - you raised your pledge to become eligible for a critique, and I think you should lower it back down. Not for any negative reason - quite the opposite.
This work is phenomenal. You're doing exactly what was asked of you, and conveying an extremely strong grasp of how to convey all the little forms present on a texture through the shadows they cast, rather than attempting to establish each form on its own.
You've analyzed each texture carefully, and have distilled them into a tool that can be used in any drawing, in any lighting scenario. The dense-sparse transitions are fantastic.
So, I have nothing to offer in terms of critique, in return for your increased pledge. You may consider this challenge complete, and with flying colours. You should be proud of yourself, because I certainly am.
Whohow thanks. I guess by already having done all the lessons this challenge became a bit easier. Onwards to the dreaded treasure chests and figure drawing.
Uncomfortable
2018-05-03 17:28
Old thread got locked, those of you eligible for private critiques can submit your work here (and all others are welcome to submit their work to the main subreddit for a community critique).
ILikeRatBellies
2018-06-16 15:51
Procrastination is one hell of a drug. But here's the finished challenge!
Uncomfortable
2018-06-16 18:54
You've done a phenomenal job. Really, really great work. You've demonstrated an enormous amount of care and patience throughout each of these texture studies, which is frankly one of the most important things. But beyond that, your observation skills and your mastery over the all too human tendency to oversimplify, to descend into chaos and to work from our flawed memory is in full display.
You've gone to great lengths here to capture every tiny visual detail for your direct studies, and have been able to organize the wealth of information to great effect on the right there. A lot of these are definitely quite tricky, and you still managed to capture the same impression of tactile quality, the same sense of smoothness or roughness or whatever else when organizing the features from dense to sparse.
Now while I don't have a lot to offer in terms of useful critique, there was one thing that I caught here and there that is perhaps worth mentioning. I get the feeling you may be aware of this yourself, but I need to point something out in order to earn my keep.
On a number of textures where you've got a lot of ridges, a lot of forms that protrude out, like the third texture down on this page, the third down on this page, and the fourth down on this one, you have a tendency to leave some rather strong light edges towards the far right to give those forms just a little bit of definition and presence rather than being engulfed by the darkness. It's an understandable desire, and in illustrations we'll sometimes use rimlighting to this effect, but in these cases I think it would often be better to embrace that darkness. Let the details get a little lost.
Reason being, when we have white and black to choose from, leaving those white edges communicates a sort of very harsh reflectiveness on the surface material, where they can still catch this tiny glimmer of light. If the objects were obsidian, those kinds of sharply lit edges would be understandable, but on rock or plant matter, surfaces that are quite matte and that diffuse light very quickly, it gives the wrong impression. So long story short, don't be afraid to go full dark, especially when all the surrounding area already has. It all comes down to local contrast. areas with a spec of white in a sea of darkness are going to raise questions of "well what is the nature of that area that remains lit that allows it to fight back the blackness?"
In this sense, you can sort of break each texture down into vertical strips, and analyze how much black vs. white you've got present in each one. Since towards the far right of those particular textures you've got maybe 5% white to 95% black, those questions start to arise.
Anyway, that's about all I've got. Really, really great work here. Keep it up, and consider this challenge complete!
ILikeRatBellies
2018-06-18 05:07
Wow, I didn't expect those textures to be that good. Thank you!
AAARRN
2018-09-15 09:30
Hi there,
Finally got around to finishing this challenge and upload my work. The order got mixed up with uploading so the ones more at the end of the process are in the beginning. I made more than required because some were really bad or just not well approached.
https://imgur.com/gallery/iRgjN9J
Uncomfortable
2018-09-15 18:22
I'll be completely honest - you raised your pledge to become eligible for a critique, and I think you should lower it back down. Not for any negative reason - quite the opposite.
This work is phenomenal. You're doing exactly what was asked of you, and conveying an extremely strong grasp of how to convey all the little forms present on a texture through the shadows they cast, rather than attempting to establish each form on its own.
You've analyzed each texture carefully, and have distilled them into a tool that can be used in any drawing, in any lighting scenario. The dense-sparse transitions are fantastic.
So, I have nothing to offer in terms of critique, in return for your increased pledge. You may consider this challenge complete, and with flying colours. You should be proud of yourself, because I certainly am.
AAARRN
2018-09-16 15:57
Whohow thanks. I guess by already having done all the lessons this challenge became a bit easier. Onwards to the dreaded treasure chests and figure drawing.