MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-28 22:05
I don't think it'll be the same thing to just sit higher and draw down on a horizontal surface. Try it out, take a paper pad and just hold it up with your non-drawing hand. Then relax your other arm and draw on the pad, see if a different angle results in an easier time. If I hold the pad up and draw at about boob height and about a foot in front, that seems to be the sweet spot for full motion of my arm without being annoying. When I'm over a table after a while I rest my arm without thinking and then all the drawings go to shit because I start drawing with my wrist without noticing. Not that I'm an expert on drawing, but when I had a Cintiq (like a monitor that you can draw on) I had it at an angle because straight down just was awkward. I think they say that drawing flat like that skews perspectives when you're drawing and that having it at an angle helps offset that.
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-27 22:03
what is the optimal positioning of boobs relative to table and shoulder
I have a good amount of uh, chest, so totally get it :) But what I found was to change the table. I don't have a drawing table as I don't normally do traditional art, but when I was starting the ellipses and the lines I tried different pens, different positions for the paper, different angles, until I found one that was comfortable and let me make consistent strokes. Ultimately for me that was to have the paper at about a 45 degree angle and a bit off to the right, my shoulder opens up a bit, it gives me full range of motion for the shoulder, elbow is out, and my hand ends up being to the right of the boob, not in front. If I try to draw in front of my body then the boobs are in the way. Side is where it's at!
edit: For the angle I just used a solid flat clip board and propped it up on something to give me the incline. Putting it on my lap and leaning it onto the desk works too.
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-27 21:52
When I was working on the homework for the first lesson I think I read through the whole thread pertaining to that, I looked at everyone's drawings, and I read your comments on all of them. Then I went back and looked at what I was doing myself and adjusted. But the thing is, the same feedback was coming up again and again. Your ellipses are not loose enough. You need to do the ghosting method more. You are going too slow and getting wobbly lines. Etc etc. And each time you write it out again for a new person.
Some things to consider, I'm sure you have and realized they're not good but:
Report cards, our kids report cards have letter codes in each subject. Maybe one will have A,D,F and you go in and look at what they mean "talks during class" and "uneven effort" etc. Maybe something like this, where each of the issues that come up consistently is reduced to a letter, this still gives the student good feedback while seriously reducing the amount of time spent typing it up.
Other option would be a text auto expander. If you type "word" it would insert "paragraph". Then the critique could be as simple as typing in a few words that automatically expand to full text, with a few lines at the bottom for the things that didn't fit into the standard issues.
Edit: Also saw in some other replies the idea of small questions thread or something like that, I think that would be a great idea. Some questions actually have little to do with the lessons themselves and are more like "what kind of pens are you guys using? where did you buy them? what paper? how long did it take you to do XYZ? Does your hand cramp up when you draw or am I holding the pen wrong? " etc etc.
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-27 21:44
Or just donate a few bucks, get the critique, waste less time :) Time is money!
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-27 21:42
As someone that starts and quits a lot of hobbies impulsively I understand why someone would quit after a few lessons. It might take that long to realize that you enjoy it a lot or you don't. Which is normal, not everyone will like drawing and I'm sure a lot of people have some image of what it'll be like in their mind and find that in reality they'd have to put in a lot more hours than they thought. The progress is slow and less obvious than say, learning a language, where it's a bit more obvious. Being 20% better than you were still means shitty drawings. That "less shittiness" is hard to quantify if you don't know what you're looking for. I'm sure this huge drop off is the same across any online or offline learning.
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-08-27 21:28
I think your site is the great free resource, and you offer so many tools for people to self-evaluate so that even if one were to never submit for critique you could still do the lessons. You would still improve. I think it's honestly unheard of to put the time and thoughtfulness in your thorough critiques, it's very generous. But since the critiques are a "nice to have, not must have" maybe another option is to charge a few bucks for a critique.
Pro: people would refine their homework and not submit half assed attempts because money.
Pro: get paid for your time.
Con: ? I guess lose the "holy shit look at everything you get for free!" Though I think the lessons themselves being free is the real value, the critiques are icing on the cake. You could offset this by doing a weekly question thread where you can answer quick questions and quick checks like "is my ellipse ok" without going into huge detail. Then you could spend your time building up your site (ad revenue), doing critiques for a few bucks (revenue) and answering quick questions (customer support for a small business). It's tough, as a small business owner myself I get it, I used to give a LOT more away for free.
MissKhary in the post "State of the Union - September vacation, and dealing with the overwhelming number of homework submissions"
2016-09-01 07:24
You're welcome boobs!