Uncomfortable's Advice from /r/ArtFundamentals
uncomfortable's Comments | Check out their posts instead

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-22 19:28

Generally very nice work. Good work on the arrows, and your organic forms with contour ellipses and contour curves are solid.

Your dissections are moving in the right direction, but there are a few things I'd like to mention about them. These relate mostly to the second page, since it doesn't seem like you used much photo reference for the first one.

When observing a texture present in a photo or in an object you're looking at in real life, it's important to remember that every single texture - no matter how random it seems - follows a particular rhythm and a particular hierarchy. There is very little randomness in the world.

If we think about randomness when we tackle these textures, we end up stumbling into a few common pitfalls, such as scribbling and generally putting marks down without thinking about how we're arranging them. A good example of this is hair. We look at a hairy texture and all we can see is the fact that there's hair, and that it's everywhere. So, that's what we put down.

Instead, we should observe how that hair is grouped and clumped together. Putting a bunch of random lines scribbled in one area results in a lot of contrast and visual noise - this is generally something we want to avoid, because it becomes distracting to the viewer. So, instead of trying to draw exactly every detail we see, we instead need to interpret it, leaving some things out so that we can bring attention to the main point we're trying to communicate.

That is, after all, what we're doing - we're not creating photographs, carrying over every detail with complete accuracy. We are communicating the idea of what it is we're drawing. If it's hairy, we don't need to draw every hair - we can start clumping the strands together into shapes and masses.

Hair is rather complicated, and we deal with it a little later, but I will instead show you this demo about studying textures found on a beetle.

Here, I start by identifying certain details present in the texture. Then I look at how they're grouped - whether they're spread out evenly over the surface, or if they come together to form clusters. I often let details bleed into one another, turning lines into shapes in order to keep my overall contrast down.

Anyway, moving on - your form intersections are good, but the set you referred to as "pure" is definitely the best of the lot. Reason being, the shading you apply in the others is generally quite sloppy. Hatching lines should be continuous from edge to edge, and should not be scribbled. All the same, you have demonstrated that you have a decent sense of form and 3D space. Just remember never to be loose and sketchy or scribbly - always put thought and planning behind every single mark you put down, even if it seems unimportant and inconsequential. After all, if the mark's unimportant, then it probably has no business being drawn at all.

So, I'll mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2015-12-22 19:06

To start, I'm going to say that I will be marking this lesson as complete. You started off really, really poorly (mostly relating to the fact that your drawings were extremely sketchy and that you were not taking the time to pull back and think through your decisions before putting marks down on the page - check out this more detailed critique), and for the most part things didn't come together until the very last two pages.

Those last two pages are significantly stronger than the rest, although I do still have some concerns about the fact that much of your focus seems to be on the detail phase, rather than the lay-in portion of the process. Your lay-in is where you establish all of your forms, creating a solid construction. You could stop at that point and you'd still have a decent drawing, even without any additional details. If you focus instead on the details, however, you end up with a lot of little bits with no overall construction binding them all together in 3D space.

That said, I don't think this lesson is the one where we should fight this battle and conquer these issues. The next one where we deal with insects and arachnids is much more effective because that subject matter really lends itself to the idea of constructing objects from the simplest of forms. Furthermore, their natural contour lines give us plenty of opportunities to add details that help describe the curvature of forms without having to add in our own artificial contours.

So, read over the notes I linked you to in the first paragraph of this critique, and keep those in mind as you move onto the next lesson. Your next set of homework should bring to light any underlying issues that remain as far as form and construction go, and we can fix them then.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-20 22:41

There's some good, there's some less good, but I think overall I can see that you are making improvements and generally moving in the right direction. There are some things that I'd like to point out however.

Your arrows show me that you understand what to aim for, but you got pretty sloppy with them - the twisting ribbon forms were decent (that's the core part of the exercise), but the arrow heads seemed to be done with little care, and even less concern was paid to the hatching lines you added for shading. When you do an exercise, put your full effort into doing every part of it to the best of your ability. Never scribble, don't be loose, and always think through every mark you put down.

Your organic forms with contour ellipses have only one issue, which I'm seeing in other later exercises as well - you're not drawing through your ellipses. It's extremely important that you draw through all of the ellipses you draw for my lessons two or three times before lifting your pen from the page. This will help you capture a more even, rounded shape.

When you move onto contour curves however, the majority of your curves do not give the impression that they are wrapping around the rounded organic forms. Here's an overdrawing showing you what I mean. A lot of them give the sense that they're just continuing on, instead of hooking back around and continuing on behind the form. This is a common issue that you need to work towards fixing - I discuss it in this video from the lesson.

Your dissections are pretty good - I can see that you're really exploring all sorts of textures, and you're really digging into what gives each one its particular appearance. There's only one thing I want to make clear however - never scribble. If you look at this page, you'll notice that at the bottom, you've layered cross-hatching with more complex, observation-based details. Cross-hatching is almost never what you want to use here - it's more often a shorthand for "i don't know what goes here but I don't want to leave it blank". The way you've used it here though takes the more interesting, mindful details you added and makes them look like they're tangled in a bit of a mess. Every texture has a hierarchy and a particular organization to it - remember that. Everything needs to be organized and follow a particular rhythm.

Lastly, your form intersections by the end are progressing nicely. The only thing I want you to remember is what I mentioned earlier - draw through your ellipses. Spheres have a tendency to not read quite well if the circle does not maintain a consistent, rounded shape.

Anyway, keep an eye on your organic forms with contour curves. I'll mark this lesson as complete, but I definitely think you could use more work in that area, so don't let it slip.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-20 20:39

I'm glad it helped! It was initially included as a separate component, but when I started formalizing the lessons back in February, it was included in lesson 1's Boxes section. That said, I do think it's still a pretty tough concept to wrap one's head around - but once it clicks, things tend to get easier.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2015-12-18 13:32

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st, so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2015-12-16 20:58

Excellent work. I especially like your lay-ins (their forms are very confident and well executed), though your experimentation with texture and rendering is very nicely done too.

On that tarantula, I'd say you did a pretty decent job of capturing its hairs, but something you may also want to consider is where you might want to start grouping those hairs into clumps, drawing a short of shock of hair instead of an individual strand. The thing about the individual strands is that they come off a little more tangentially to the rest of the body (although yours mitigated this by being more swooping and curved). On the other hand, a shock or clump of hair is a shape instead of a line, and tends to integrate a little more smoothly with the rest of the body. These notes on fur touch on the concept.

Lastly, one minor thing I noticed with your scorpion's claws was that on the left one's pincers, you didn't consider how those pincers connect to the bulk of the hand - instead you drew two lines without capping off that intersection. It's a really minor point, but I'm being nitpicky because you generally did very well. Always remember to at least in some way define the intersections between forms. You did it more appropriately on the pincers on the opposite claw, so I'm sure you fully understand what you should be aiming for, you may have just let one fall through the cracks a little.

I like your praying mantises! They've got lots of character. One of them's lookin' to pick a fight.

Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-16 20:52

Generally there is a fair bit of visible improvement here. Initially your lines are certainly wobblier and less certain, and your constructions feel considerably less solid. By the end, the boxes feel as though they carry weight, and the lines merge cohesively into forms, rather than just loosely grouped marks on the page.

The application of line weight does certainly take practice. As for the wobbling, just keep in mind that you don't want to draw slowly and cautiously - you want to think hard and prepare beforehand, but when you draw, you draw confidently and quickly. The preparation is what mitigates the inevitable inaccuracies that come from drawing fast.

Also, focus more on the mistakes of understanding - that is, where you drew a line initially and upon reflection realized it wasn't correct. Issues where your pen slipped to accidentally add way more weight in one part of line than another are mistakes of a different sort, and will generally just go away with time and practice. When it comes to going back and marking out your mistakes, that's where you want to correct your understanding rather than critique your own physical technique.

Anyway, great work. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-12-16 13:48

Honestly I don't. It depends a lot on how busy I get with other things, and how demanding things become here. I'd be more likely to just switch to patreon-only on a permanent basis though, rather than closing shop completely.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-12-16 02:28

Since you've pledged to the patreon campaign, you may as well take advantage of its perks - also, I did glance at your homework and there were some core issues I wanted to mention to you (and I was gonna have you redo some of it). It's probably best to submit now so I can give you a little direction. I generally do my critiques in the afternoons/evenings when I get off work, so if you submit now or some time tomorrow morning or early afternoon, you should get a critique tomorrow evening.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-12-16 02:02

Thanks for becoming a supporter! I noticed that you'd submitted your homework for lesson 1, but then deleted it - so I'm guessing you'll be submitting it again soon?

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2015-12-15 20:48

A lot of this is very, very well done - your birds especially. In general you're showing a good sense of construction and how the various forms fit together. You also have an eye for detail, and you're doing a good job of identifying various textures and considering how to render their details whilst balancing the density of information in the various parts of any given drawing.

I do see a few issues that we can work on, however. What stands out most to me is that you have a tendency to rough in shapes with smaller chicken-scratchy line segments, rather than drawing complete, unbroken shapes from your shoulder. As such, your underlying forms do not carry the sense of solidity and weight that would really push your drawings to the next level.

Do not get caught up in the need to create a beautiful drawing. That's not our focus here. A lot of people become afraid to put down lines, and end up loosely sketching in order to ensure that what they do put down can be hidden or ultimately dealt with. This undermines our focus on 3D form, as independent, chicken-scratch strokes do not come together to form a single element, rather they emphasize their independence. In the end we want our drawing to be understood as a collection of forms, not a collection of lines.

Ultimately we don't want to be wasting our marks, and we want to focus on putting down only what is necessary. That said, lines that help us understand our forms and shapes and wrap our minds around how these objects exist in 3D space are necessary. On the other hand, chicken-scratching a line creates a lot of wasteful marks where a single one would have been far more effective.

Another thing I'm noticing is that when you draw ellipses, you don't draw through them. I've mentioned this in earlier lessons, you should be drawing through every single ellipse you draw for any of my lessons. What you choose to do outside of the lessons is your business, but ultimately as long as you do it while doing these homework sets, you'll get enough mileage to understand what it means to draw an ellipse confidently enough to maintain its evenness and roundedness. Your lines are still wobbling, due to a lack of that much needed confidence.

I generally like how you approach fur, capturing elements of it here and there with short lines - what I would like you to be aware of however is the impact hatching lines have, and the different ways they can be used. There are many instances where you've used them wonderfully here, but be mindful of how the surface of a form warps and bends when applying such lines. Those lines should follow along the surface of the form unless you want them to flatten it out. There are situations where you might want to flatten out a shape (for example, the drawing in the middle of the first page of wolves, I think it was an effective choice to flatten out the far legs). On the other hand, in the drawing of the ferret (i think it's a ferret), you seem a little more careless with how you're applying those lines, so you end up flattening forms out where you probably didn't intend to.

The thing about hatching lines is that people tend to use them as a shorthand for "I have no idea what goes here but I don't want to leave it blank". When using details that simple, it's easy to just stop thinking and go to town - you need to make sure that you think through all your decisions and all of the lines you put on the page.

So, long story short - your drawings are very nice, good eye for structure and detail, but you need to draw with more confidence and draw complete shapes made up of singular, continuous lines. Breaking up the line undermines the integrity of the form. Keep that in mind as you move onto the next lesson.

Edit: This demo I did in the past does a decent job of showing what I mean about drawing with more confidence, and using longer, more continuous lines: http://i.imgur.com/dtjwmvj.jpg

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2015-12-14 21:55

Based on a cursory glance, conjure.io is a team-based system that just makes it easier for existing team members and clients to give feedback on a project. The dynamic between the creatives and the people giving feedback is very different from the nature of drawabox.

The stack exchange model is one that could work in theory, but in order to function it requires a pretty massive scale, where all of the bad feedback is overshadowed by a decent amount of good responses. In a way, that is not dissimilar from the system I initially wanted to create for drawabox, ultimately to increase user participation and decrease my workload. I did have certain concerns about the model though, especially questioning peoples' willingness to give helpful, meaningful critiques. Answering a question or helping to debug a small section of code is one thing, but critique is fundamentally different. It's not about finding a concrete answer - it's about pinpointing what the individual is not understanding, and separating it from the mistakes one makes just by not yet having enough practice. It's a situation where everyone may ask the same question, but the answer needs to be at least to some degree tailored to each individual.

Anyway, I'm not interested in doing that any time soon. As a game developer, I'm far more interested in other kinds of projects - this whole drawabox thing is a minor project that's gotten a little bit out of control. Right now I'm trying to dedicate myself to a different project I've been trying to finish off for quite some time, so I'd much rather not be distracted from it.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-14 20:13

Pretty solid work. I have only a couple of issues I'd like to raise about your organic forms, but generally you've done quite well and should feel free to move onto the next lesson.

First off, always draw through the ellipses you draw for my lessons - that is, continue going around the ellipse with your pen two or three times before lifting it off the page.

Secondly, you're generally doing a decent good job of wrapping your contour curves around the forms, but there are still some instances where that area is a little weak. I wouldn't say you're doing anything wrong, but rather thant it's important that you continue to focus on that idea of wrapping the curves around a 3D form. As you continue to keep that in mind as you practice, the concept will solidify. If, on the other hand, you stop thinking about it, there's a chance that you might regress and go back to drawing things as though they were a little flatter. So, just be sure to keep it in mind - the forms we're drawing are 3D, and so those contour lines run along the surface of 3D forms, wrapping around them completely.

Anyway, great work. Your dissections, arrows and form intersections are all done very well. I'll mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2015-12-13 20:14

Being a wee feller, I often have the same problem. Hell, at work I sit on a big fat cushion to make sure that I can position myself over the desk and really dominate the space.

That said, my concerns about one's workspace and posture is less about the physical situation and more about how it impacts one's mindset as they draw. We're not always conscious of it, but we have a tendency to be sloppier when we draw in a sloppy environment. As you become aware of it, you can compensate - but that takes time, and just being superficially aware of the issue from me telling you won't make a big impact.

Were I in your position, I probably wouldn't draw with the pad in my lap. It just doesn't seem terribly steady, and mentality aside, that ain't gonna do much good for your back.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-13 01:04

Nice work. Early on your lines are a bit shakier and less certain, not really planned out all too well, but as you go through the set your confidence improves, and the lines come out straighter and smoother. The only thing that I would recommend is that you not only focus on boxes with very dramatic perspective applied to them, where your far planes are way smaller than your near planes. That's definitely useful, but at the end of the day shallower perspective tends to be more common.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-11 23:05

Your arrows, organic forms and dissections are all looking pretty solid. One thing that I did notice with your form intersections however was that you seem to get very scratchy when you try to add weight to your existing lines. This sort of chicken scratch, making up lines with a bunch of separate marks instead of just a single stroke is a really bad habit, and one you should not indulge. Instead, apply the same ghosting method when you add weight to your lines.

Also, it's great that you're drawing through your ellipses - just push yourself to draw around the elliptical shape only two or three times before lifting your pen, and strive towards tightening them up. I expect that you will continue to do all of the exercises from the previous lesson as warm-ups, so you can continue to sharpen up your skills with ellipses.

I am admittedly concerned about that chicken scratching, but I can see elsewhere that you've applied the ghosting method properly. Continue to do that in general, and feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-11 13:51

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st, so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2015-12-11 13:35

That is actually something I've considered - or at least, in some form. Regardless, it's a very good idea. I have certainly compiled (mentally, not written down) a lot of very common mistakes that people tend to make, and have been wanting to post them on the website for quite some time, more for people who self-critique rather than having people critique others (though there's really no issue with the latter). I haven't gotten around to it, but it's on the list of things I'd like to do this month, probably on the top of the list.

Thanks for your input though! It's certainly nice to see that other people have considered a similar idea to have worth.

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2015-12-11 02:17

That was the plan initially - or at least somewhat. Not so much a free-for-all critique (there are plenty of subreddits like that, and frankly just because someone's offering their two cents doesn't mean their critique is going to point you in the right direction). Instead, my intention was to have people who proved themselves by completing the core lessons to then go on and critique others. I did test that out a bit, but people have their own lives and their own pursuits, and don't really have the time to reliably meet the demand. There's no reason for someone who knows what they're doing to spend that time, so ultimately they don't.

The other end of the spectrum would be to take on a couple qualified folks to spread out the workload, but that would mean splitting up the patreon income. Really not worth it for me.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"

2015-12-10 19:33

You're getting there. I'll mark this lesson complete, though keep in mind that it will take time and practice. You are heading in the right direction though. Here's another tip/approach you can try to use for forms that are made up of a lot of vague curves, which can be quite difficult to pin down since at first glance it's hard to relate them to the solidity of a box.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-09 23:53

Very nicely done! I can see that you're pushing yourself to wrap your curves around the forms, and for the most part it's paying off nicely. Another thing that you should also keep in mind, that I think may have fallen through the cracks a little is to be mindful of that central spine that I mentioned in the lesson - that is, the line that passes through the centre of the organic form. This line serves as the minor axis to which each ellipse (and therefore each curve, which is merely the visible section of an ellipse) is aligned. Keeping this spine in mind will help you when angling your curves.

Your dissections are very well done - they show a lot of close examination and experimentation with a wide variety of textures. I like that you really dug into each one, but considered how to organize the details not only considering what exists in reality (from your reference) but also how that organization of visual elements would impact composition. You did a great job.

You did a pretty solid job with your form intersections too, there's only one thing that I want to remind you of - draw through your ellipses. You did great with the organic forms with contour ellipses, but I did notice that afterwards you seemed very preoccupied with producing clean drawings, and as such became somewhat less willing to draw through your ellipses. The rule of thumb I use for people is that if they draw through all of the ellipses they draw for every single one of my lessons, they should be good to do whatever feels best to them afterward. They'll have had enough practice drawing in an elliptical motion that their ellipses should be reasonably round and even. Until then, just keep drawing through them.

Anyway, great work - feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2015-12-06 04:32

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st, so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-04 23:02

You are certainly demonstrating some solid confidence, but there are a few areas where you can certainly work towards improving.

Before I go into that, I do want to point out that you did not do the additional step of going back over the set and correcting lines with a different coloured pen or a pencil. Since you haven't yet done that, I'll give you a few tips for doing that:

So the biggest issue that I'm seeing is that your far planes are quite often coming out larger than your near planes. If you remember the primary rule of perpsective, if an object is moved away from the viewer, it will get smaller and smaller when drawn in 2D. So, each box is made up of pairs of planes, one of which is near and one of which is far. There's three of these pairs, making a total of 6 planes. Each member of a pair is identical in size and angle, the only difference is that one is further away from the viewer. So, the farther one must always be smaller than the nearer one.

I'm going to mark this challenge as complete, but definitely go over the set of 250 boxes and identify the mistakes you've made. They won't always be immediately apparent, so drawing through them may help you identify them more easily.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-04 22:56

You are definitely showing improvement over the set. There are a few points though where I think you're missing issues with your near/far plane size relationships. That is, where your far planes are ending up larger than the corresponding near planes.

Some examples of this include 224, 221, 43, 102. When you do your corrections, you seem to be focusing very much on the quality of your lines. While that is important, you should be focusing more on issues of understanding - specifically your understanding of form and 3D space.

Focus more on issues where you drew a line, and at the time you thought it was correct, but it turns out it wasn't. One way that may help test out whether or not your forms are coming out solidly is to draw through them (draw the lines that are generally blocked by the form itself). This allows you to define each plane with a full 4 lines, which gives you a better sense of how they relate to each other, in size, angle, and so on.

As for your line quality though, I definitely am noticing that your lines could use a little more care. Spend more time during the preparation phase of your 3-step ghosting method, and be sure to ghost through that line more often. If your lines arc or wobble, you need to adjust your approach.

Anyway, you did do a good job, these are just areas where you can certainly focus to see more improvement. I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-04 13:48

Hey, unfortunately I'm taking a break through the month of December. Free critiques will resume on January 1st, so you'll have to resubmit the work then - until then, the critiques are restricted to the patreon supporters (if you are one, make sure you've sent me your reddit username via patreon's messaging system). For now, you can definitely still gain quite a bit by looking at the critiques I've given others - it helps to see if you've made similar mistakes.

You can check out this announcement on the hiatus for more information.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"

2015-12-03 23:25

I think you're definitely going in the right direction. I like seeing a lot of the lay-in boxes and construction lines. There are some issues though that I think we can work towards remedying.

I've pretty much included all of it in this image. I think the overall principles are there, but to start with, but I do notice places where some of your lines get a little wobbly, and perhaps some of your boxes get a little less solid. This might just be from your getting tired, because it's not entirely consistent across the board. Just remember to always apply your ghosting method, and be mindful of the integrity of your box forms, and most of all - take breaks.

In the bottom right you'll see how I would tackle curving objects - ignore the curves at first. They really complicate things, because it is much more difficult to get a sense of how to construct a curve if you're not giving yourself enough of a framework. So, in objects that have a lot of curves going on, simply starting with the overall box isn't quite enough. It may be necessary to subdivide your forms further, or construct the form out of numerous boxy forms first.

So, like I said, ignore those curves at first. Imagine what the object would look like if it were boxier, and construct it in that manner first. Your last step should then be smoothing out these boxy forms and rounding out the corners - but remember that the majority of your volumes are still going to be quite similar to the boxy construction - it's just the corners and edges that will be gently smoothed out.

I'd like you to spend some time practicing your basic line exercises from lesson 1 (as you should have been doing continuously), and also draw 50 boxes and 50 cylinders. Then I'd like to see four more pages of everyday objects. Take your time, take breaks, and spread it out. Always remember to do exercises from the first two lessons as warm-ups and don't leave them in the past.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-03 00:21

It's coming along nicely. There is however one thing that I would like to encourage you to do as you move forward - draw through your boxes. That is, draw all of the lines that make up the box, including the ones that are blocked by the box itself. This helps clearly define every plane of the box with a full 4 lines, which gives you a better sense of when your far plane/near plane size relationships are correct or not.

You can do this while drawing them, or another way to make use of this approach is to draw through your box during the correction phase. It'll definitely highlight some mistakes, and I encourage you to try it out on your last page of boxes there. You'll notice that there were some errors that you didn't catch.

Anyway, nice work completing the challenge.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"

2015-12-03 00:19

You're doing okay, but there are some core issues that we need to iron out. They relate to your two core forms - boxes and cylinders.

Here's some notes/overdrawings.

First and foremost, you need to work on your box constructions. A lot of your boxes have far planes that are larger than their corresponding near planes, which means that your lines are converging as they get closer to the viewer - the opposite of what the rules of perspective demand. If your boxes aren't solid, then that will definitely impact the objects you construct from them.

Next, always remember the purpose each form you draw is serving. When you started off with that measuring tape, you drew a box, which is good. As I pointed out in my notes above however, you then did not acknowledge what that box represents in space. The far end of the measuring tape is not following the box as it should be. That box is there as a guideline, its purpose is to make your life easier. Don't ignore it while you draw, and never guess. Every problem you face in constructing an object can be solved by working up from your simple boxes, so when you're about to work off a guess, stop yourself and think through the problem instead.

Lastly, be sure to check out the cylinder challenge, specifically the video included in that post. There I talk about using boxes as a starting point for constructing cylinders. It's a very useful method when you need to align your cylinders to specific angles. You start off constructing the box in order to find your minor axis. You then use that minor axis as the hard-and-fast reference point for constructing your cylinder, and you can use the box as a rough guideline/suggestion to get a sense of how wide the ellipses should be.

I'd like you to do the following:

Take your time, and don't rush. Also remember in your drawings that whenever you add things like hatching lines, don't be sloppy. Draw lines that go all the way across your surface from edge to edge.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-02 23:44

Awesome work - I especially enjoyed your form intersections and your second page of dissections. The only thing I want you to keep your eye on as you move forward is your organic forms with contour curves (that is, the second part of that exercise where you only draw curves instead of full ellipses). Always keep in mind that those curves need to give the impression of wrapping around a rounded form. As such, as they reach the edge of the form, they must accelerate their curve and finally hook around to properly give the sense that they're continuing on to the other side.

You're not doing too badly at this, but I do feel like you're more at the precipice between doing it correctly and not. As such, I want you to keep an eye on it. This video from the lesson discusses the issue, which is quite common.

Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2015-12-02 23:41

You start off a bit weak and uncertain, but you do eventually start to find your rhythm. I'll mark this lesson as complete but here's a few things to keep in mind:

I think you will have a lot to gain from the next lesson, as far as constructing forms does, so feel free to move on.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"

2015-12-02 23:35

Quite well done. Your boxier objects are pretty solid (though you should get into the habit of always subdividing your initial lay-in box. Don't eyeball things, make a point of being specific and as exact as you can.

For your cylinders however, I think you should look at the cylinder challenge and be sure to read the notes/watch the video. Starting off with a box is really important, especially when it comes to figuring out how to draw your minor axis so it aligns to a specific position and angle. Once you've got your minor axis set in, you can continue to use the box as a general guideline, but you focus on aligning your ellipses to that minor axis.

When you skip the box approach, your cylinders don't end up aligning with other forms very well. For example, your desk lamp's base and shaft don't feel like they come together properly.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles (version 3)"

2015-12-02 23:31

It's definitely a challenging subject, but you're making some headway. Still got a lot of room to grow though.

Early on, you've got some interesting constructions. The AT-AT has some issues that come from a lack of a sense of where the ground is and it getting cut off the page (keep the space you're drawing in in mind so that you don't end up going off, and always mark out your ground plane when you've got something with legs like this), but the tie fighter, x wing, and the tank are quite nicely done. The reason they're done well is because they rely on very concrete geometric forms - basic building blocks. This applies especially strongly to the tank.

At times, however, you get sloppy. The side views of the cars on page 7 are supposed to be proportion study, but there's actually nothing here that we can carry over to a 3D drawing. The best example of the proportion study in the lesson is the one for the train - you start with a rectangle and subdivide it. Subdivision is something you can apply to a 3D box just as you can to a 2D rectangle, using the methods covered in the lesson. By subdividing, you can figure out a sense of what goes where in two dimensions, and then apply what you've figured out to the 3D drawing. Without the subdivision, the proportion study becomes far less useful.

Secondly, as you continue to work on the integrity and solidity of your most basic forms - boxes and cylinders - you'll find that you'll be able to combine them more effectively when drawing vehicles. If the first overall box (which you should always start with) is incorrect, the entire construction will be off. So, definitely spend a lot of time continuing to keep up with your basic boxes and cylinders. Practice them in isolation, practice creating form intersections from them, use all kinds of combinations but be sure to keep at it.

I do kind of like the car on page 9. It has its faults, but you did get somewhere using the subdivision techniques. That said, always start off with a proper proportional study (to figure out how big your wheels need to be relative to the rest of the body of the car) and never ever eyeball positions. Always rely on subdivision - if you think about the two wheels, you should be able to draw a line that cuts across the top of each wheel, and that is parallel with the ground. So, start off by drawing that front wheel (getting the size right by doing a proportion study first), then draw a line from the top of that wheel back, parallel with the ground, to find where the top of your rear wheel is going to hit.

A lot of it can get quite tedious, but it's absolutely necessary. The more steps you skip in the construction, the more mistakes you will make.

Aside from that, it's just a matter of practice. Just like I mentioned practicing boxes and cylinders, practice your ellipses as well. I'm under the impression that you aren't continuing to do the lesson 1/2 material regularly as you should be - so make sure you stay on top of that. That shit never ends, you have to do it constantly to sharpen your skills and keep them sharp.

I'll mark this lesson as complete because you're heading in the right direction. Keep it up.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2015-12-01 23:46

Hate to tell you this, but there are a lot of issues in how you're approaching these exercises, so you're not quite done with this lesson yet. Luckily since you're a patreon contributor (and have been for quite some time, thank you!) your critiques will continue through the month.

I'd like you to do the following:

Lastly, keep in mind that I've noted a lot of points here where you didn't read the lesson or the exercise descriptions that carefully. It's important that you read my instructions and fully understand what I ask before attempting each exercise.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-01 23:27

I agree, they do improve over the set. The last page seems a little bit rushed, but the page before that is nicely done. I'll chalk it up to being too eager to reach the finish line.

The only thing that I would like to recommend is that you may want to practice drawing through the boxes now and then to get a fuller sense of how they sit in 3D space. By that I mean drawing the lines that are hidden by the box itself, so all the planes are fully defined by 4 lines each.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2015-12-01 23:25

Not bad. I'd say the second half of your set shows some improvement over the fist, with a better sense of form and stronger focal points.

One thing that I do want to draw your attention to is this page. You sometimes still draw your forms as complex 2D shapes, rather than simple 3D forms. Always break down shapes and forms into their simplest components, and consider how those forms intersect. You should also be doing this when the object gets cut off on the top of the page.

I also noticed that in general, you seem to be very focused on being as clean as you can. While this is not a bad thing, it does hurt your drawings when it keeps you from drawing through your forms. This early on, you still don't have a full understanding of 3D space, so if you purposely avoid drawing through forms in order to understand how they occupy the space in your scene, your forms will flatten out. Never fear putting ink down, as long as that ink serves a purpose. Also, don't worry too much about making some lines faint. Those are the sort of things we do when we're trying to make a drawing pretty and presentable - none of which is our concern here. We are studying 3D form, that is all.

Lastly, while I noticed some rather nice weight control in your hatching, as you move forward through the lessons, I do want you to try and rely less on hatching in general, especially in lieu of texture and detail. Lots of people have the tendency of just adding hatching lines and calling that texture - it's not, no texture in nature really looks like that.

Anyway, I think you'll benefit a lot from moving ahead to the next lesson. Insects are a great subject for learning how everything is constructed from basic 3D forms, and there's also a lot of great opportunities to study interesting textures.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-12-01 23:05

Nicely done! Your boxes are well drawn, and while you've made mistakes here and there, you do seem to have caught them and corrected them on your own. I also really like that you've drawn through many of them. The only thing I have to add is that in order to push your boxes to the next level, considering how to vary your line weights would be what you should focus on next. Specifically, consider that perhaps making your internal lines less thick than your external lines (the ones that define the overall silhouette of the form) may create a greater sense of cohesion.

Overall, fantastic work.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2015-12-01 23:02

I think on one hand, you have a good grasp of 3D space. You seem to understand in a general sense how the forms fit together, and when you look at a reference image, you see more than just a flat image. This is definitely good.

What isn't good is that you lack patience and focus. You have a penchant for scribbling, and your work tends to be very loose. This looseness and sketchiness comes from the fact that you jump right into drawing as soon as you can, and you solve your problems by drawing. You think right on the page, instead of thinking before you put ink down.

This causes two key problems:

  1. Since your lay-ins are loose, your constructions have a tendency towards being weaker and less solid. You do not draw your masses as clean, complete forms and shapes, so they don't carry the illusion of weight and volume. A really good example of this are your cats, which are very loose and rough. If I had to guess at your state of mind as you drew them, I would say that your mind was focused on the next step, while your hands struggled to complete the step they were on. Focus on the step you're on, and forget about what comes next.

  2. When you draw texture, you rely a lot on hatching lines and scribbling, and they all tend to be quite loose and sloppy. Hatching, crosshatching and scribbling is virtually never present in nature, and it all serves as a shorthand for I have no idea what goes here, but I don't want to leave it empty. Your reference images are full of textures of varying levels of complexity, and it's easy to get overwhelmed and just scribble under the guise of 'implying' detail. Properly implying detail requires you to first understand exactly how those details are organized. Every texture, no matter how complex and seemingly erratic will follow its own rhythm and pattern. It isn't always immediately apparent, and can take a great deal of observation and study to pin it down. You won't necessarily get it in your first or second shot either, and it can take experimentation to learn how to organize those details in your drawing to communicate the particular texture. That said, simply scribbling loosely does not take you one step in the right direction.

As always, the theme of this critique is as follows: think before you draw. Whether it's your initial lay-ins, or your details, every mark is intended to serve a purpose, and in order to serve that purpose successfully, each mark must fit a certain criteria. There is never a situation where any old mark will do, which is really the premise that drives scribbling.

Now, all that said, you have drawn some pretty pictures. Your geese are quite nice (aside from the loose details) - their clean and carefully designed silhouettes are especially well done. I'd say from page 5 onwards, your sense of construction gets stronger, even though the forms themselves are loose and not too well thought out. Although even on that front, the wolf on the right side of page 5 is quite well done.

The only other weakness I can see is your head constructions. Remember that like everything else, those heads are made up of interlocking forms. The initial circle is the mass-in for the cranium, but then a boxy form can be connected to that to form a muzzle or a snout.

Generally in regards to construction, look at this demo I did for someone a while back. Look at how in each step, you can clearly describe what was added to the drawing. If it were loose and sketchy, steps would blend together. Because here we are thinking clearly about the purpose of each element that is added, it gets separated out fairly cleanly.

I'd like you to do 4 more pages of animal drawings, although if you want to do more than that you are welcome to. Don't forget that critiques are restricted again during December, so you can take that time to space out your practice and slow your process down.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2015-11-28 20:58

That's really not something I want to do.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2015-11-28 20:43

On a few occasions, you do go a little beyond just applying hatching lines or focusing entirely on light and shadow (using markers). You've got some stippling on the black widow and the moth, some hair on your ant, bumps on your scorpion, and so on. That's a start, but what I can infer about your process is that you look at your reference, see points or bumps or hairs, and then you go over to your drawing and you add that.

Instead what I want you to do is identify how those details are arranged - are they spread out evenly, are they arranged in groups, do they cluster to form larger masses? More importantly, how can you arrange those details in order to convey the impression they give without creating too much or too little contrast, depending on how you're composing this drawing.

This is a demo I posted to the subreddit a while ago. Each texture is not a one-to-one reproduction, it is instead an interpretation of what is there. Each texture is designed, with varying density of detail and value, and so on. There's a lot more to it than just seeing dots, and drawing dots.

When it comes to drawing from observation, the key is to spend the vast majority of your time observing. Never rely on your memory, because your memory will deceive you. Our memories are simplified and rendered useless the moment we look away - so at best, we can carry over a line or two before having to look back at our reference.

So yes, it is 'more observation', but it's certainly more complicated than that. It's about learning what to observe, and building that particular mistrust of your own memory.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2015-11-28 20:28

I strongly believe that it is a bad idea to mix different peoples' interpretation of a subject matter when trying to learn. It makes a lot more sense to learn one, then move onto the other, then when you fully understand each approach separately, you can decide what can be mixed-and-matched.

It's probably very possible to apply white ink in my interpretation of the material (though at this point I don't recommend it), but focus on one thing at a time. If you were doing Peter Han's lessons and getting his critique, I'd hope you'd do the same and focus entirely on what he is teaching you at that moment.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2015-11-28 20:16

It's coming along. Here are some things to keep in mind. I'm noticing that you've got a lot of far/near plane size issues that you've got to keep an eye on. If your far plane is larger than your near plane, then the lines between them are going to be converging in the wrong direction. Also, when you make a mistake, immediately correcting it is a terrible habit. It only adds more ink to the problem, which makes it more visible to the viewer. Often it's better to work around it or ignore it altogether. In this case however, you are expected to come back after the set with a different coloured pen or pencil and mark in your corrections. The separation of time and process will keep you from developing that habit, while also allowing you to look back on the set with fresh eyes and more strategically determine what you did wrong and how you can avoid it.

Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete - I still recommend that you go back and do your own corrections, and also that you keep up with this kind of exercise.

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2015-11-28 19:59

I often do that too, though the more I think about it, the more I realize that I'm just coddling myself. The few times that I sit myself down and just paint or draw without a TV show or movie running in the background, I tend to be vastly more efficient. That said, I find documentaries running in the background instead of TV shows shows a marked improvement as well.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2015-11-28 19:55

Not bad, but I do have some concerns you need to keep in mind as you move forward:

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one, but make sure you take these points into consideration.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-11-28 19:19

If I were to keep tracking work submitted in December, I'd end up having 200+ submissions to critique come January 1st, so that isn't feasible. So I'll start with work submitted in January and move forward from there.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 14: Composition"

2015-11-28 15:57

You'd stick with three. That's part of the challenge. If you look at the demo for this exercise, you'll notice that the background that you can see through the windows is blended between two value levels, and that they're not split up in terms of "this building is darker and that building is lighter". Parts of a building are made dark, and the rest is left to blend into what is behind it.

Rather than capturing objects, this exercise is about finding out how to describe the gist of what's there using interesting shapes and a very limited set of values. Also, the closer-dark farther-light is a good rule of thumb, but you don't always have to stick super closely to it. In the demo, if you look at the building all the way to the right side of the composition, I use a darker value to make the cut out of that building pop out.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-11-27 20:40

Unfortunately not. It's true that part of that rule has to do with the wider range of media making it more difficult to critique the work, but an even greater reason for it is that people simply learn more effectively when working with ink.

I find that it's best to transition to digital once you've completed the same lesson traditionally, so that way you have a better understanding of what you should be expecting of yourself (in terms of patience, discipline, technique and results).

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2015-11-27 00:29

Cats are bad. Chinchilla/mouse/ratthing is better, ant-eater and raccoon are much better. The only thing I want to emphasize is that your head constructions are still very arbitrary, in that you're not constructing it from solid forms, you're just kind of approximating things.

This is how I would tackle a trashpanda's head.

Oh, also worth mentioning - your ant eater's tail is not built on any sort of form. You didn't lay the mass in first ,you just kinda went to town on a jaggedy fur-thing. Never jump straight to detail, always lay things in.

It looks like you're shaking off your rust, so I'm pretty content with the last page there, so I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. You definitely do need to continue practicing it though.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-11-26 16:08

Thanks.

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-11-26 15:21

I appreciate it!

Uncomfortable in the post "During December, critiques will be limited to Patreon supporters (again). Free critiques will resume in January"

2015-11-26 13:40

Thanks!