Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-26 20:08
Take this (which is the one I like the most out of what I've done)... should I be worrying more about contour lines and the like, and do less/no shading?
Pretty much. It's not just about contour lines, but rather that you should have your forms communicated clearly before you move onto detail and lighting. Other people will teach you to define form by using lighting/shading, but I strongly believe that it should already be clear by that point. Techniques like contour lines come into play here, but how you define the silhouette of a form will also convey partially how it sits in three dimensions.
I don't want you to move into detail and lighting because that'll only distract you at this point.
What do you mean by "breaking down" the forms? (Sorry, I'm not familiar with the phrase, English is my second language).
The process of drawing objects that I teach basically starts off with a few general forms that capture the essence of what the object is. If you think of a tree, you might have a ball for the tree top, a cylinder for the trunk. I'm oversimplifying here, but it's for the sake of example. Then, you might break down that tree-top sphere into smaller spheres to represent the clusters/masses of leaves that make up the treetop. You continue doing this - always mindful of forms - working into smaller and finer elements and details.
The reason we do this is because you always want to have some sort of framework on which you can pin what you're drawing. If you try to draw a detailed tree from scratch on a page, you won't know where to start, and it becomes very easy to loose track of your proportions. When working with basic forms and then breaking them down into smaller forms, you always have a point of reference. You know that those smaller masses of leaves will still exist more or less within the space defined by your original tree-top ball form. It might sit a little further inside, or hang out of it a bit, but it's more or less in that space.
Bigger
You could do that. Since you're studying one plant at a time, I'd say try to draw fill the page with one drawing, and then squeeze in whatever extra study sketches/notes in the space that's left over on the page. Don't try and fit a bunch of different plants on the same page.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-26 20:01
If you feel comfortable with your boxes, go ahead and move onto lesson 2. If, while doing that lesson, you feel like you're in over your head when you get to the form intersections, try to practice some more boxes. Also, you may want to try to practice doing the form intersections with boxes only, rather than all 5 forms, to ease yourself into it.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-26 19:59
Very nicely done! Confident lines, decent use of form (a bit excessive on the contour lines in your initial lay-ins but you seem to relax and get the flow of things through the lesson), and nice details in your focal areas. You may want to think about how you might go about fading your details as well - the way you did it is totally fine, but you won't always want to have a stark border between the focal area and the rest, so it's good to practice having a smoother transition as well.
Overall, great work. I condemn thee to the creepy-crawlies.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-26 19:51
I'm glad to see how your confidence and line quality improves over the course of the lesson. Your corrections generally show a good sense of what you should be aiming for, even if you can't quite hit it just yet. You're going in the right direction, keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-06-25 19:47
No specific exercises, really. Doing more drawing from reference and life is the primary exercise I can think of, since what you really need to do is practice studying your references. It's a matter of being able to build a mental hierarchy of what you're seeing, and being able to train your eyes to ignore certain things while focusing on others.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-25 19:45
You definitely have the flairs associated with your account, so you probably turned them off at some point. Check on the side bar, under the subscriber count. There should be a checkbox labelled "Show my flair on this subreddit". I'm fairly certain I've seen your name with the flairs before - I use them for keeping track of how far a person's gotten through the material, in case they try and jump ahead. Yours would have stood out if it didn't have the flairs displaying.
As for the critique... Jesus fucking christ you just HAD to draw the goddamn spider with all the spider babies.
Anyway! Generally your work is really good - the final results tend to be very strong, but there are a few core problems. The most significant of those is that you're approaching your drawings very timidly. You're very clearly afraid of making marks on the page, so your lay-ins end up being very loose and unconfident. Because of this, your contour-curves have a tendency to not wrap around the forms properly.
It's important that you conquer this fear. Don't think ahead to the quality of the final drawing, think about the line you're putting down right then and there. Furthermore, think through each line you want to put down - ghost through it if you have to, but try to avoid thinking right on the page.
A couple other things that may help:
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Try to avoid criss-crossing lines. It's kind of why I usually say hatching instead of cross-hatching. I've never seen it done well with felt tip pens. Admittedly, the way you did it is generally better than the way I've seen it from others, but your drawings would still be better if you only drew those lines in one direction
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When you're dealing with hair, you should consider how that hair clumps together. Drawing individual strands of hair is probably good for the core of a focal point, but you'll want to fade out into fewer strands, more clumps. Consider how those clumps impact the silhouette of your forms.
As for your too much/too little detail thing, I don't really see too much of an issue with that in your work. Generally I'll use the focal point circle that I outlined in the previous lesson to target my main detail. That'll be strongest right in the center of the circle, and will fade out towards the edges. It generally helps to have a more gradual fade rather than a sudden jump from full detail to none.
That said, the amount of detail you put is kind of irrelevant. You can have a drawing with very little detail at its focal point - all that matters is that it's more detail than everywhere else. It's all relative. As long as your forms are solid and your linework is confident, how much detail you want to apply is up to you.
I'll mark this as complete, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-25 19:30
Well, you certainly did complete the challenge. I think your judgment may be correct though. You may benefit from trying to draw through some of the boxes - like, drawing them as though they were transparent, so you can see all the lines of the box. This will allow you to better assess the relationship between the near and far planes of your boxes. It tends to make it easier to spot major problems.
Other areas you may want to explore is the use of line weight - some of the notes in the challenge post relate to this, so be sure to reread them.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-25 19:28
Generally you did an OK job. I am noticing several instances where you're starting to wrap your head around the difference between believing yourself to be drawing something 3D, and simply seeing yourself as drawing on a 2D surface. With that comes a greater strength to the illusions you're drawing.
I'll mark the lesson as complete - you have plenty of room to grow, but I am pleased with the direction you're moving, and think you'll gain the most by moving onto the next lesson.
One thing I want you to avoid though is chicken-scratchy lines. I noticed in your lay-ins early on, I see a lot of lines that really should only be a single mark. Linework like that will undermine the solidity and weight of your forms.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-25 19:25
Think more, draw less. There's a few major things that I notice here that are holding you back.
First off, you're focusing on a lot of small details. You do try to start off simple, but you're not yet identifying the major forms, and you're generally in a hurry to move onto the detail part of the process.
Secondly, you're drawing small. When you draw small, the tip of your pen ends up seeming much thicker in relation to the size of the drawing. This will result in your lines feeling heavier than they actually are, generally making your drawing feel clunky. Drawing bigger will alleviate some of this, and will give you some more breathing room.
Thirdly, your lines are very sketchy and rough. This tells me that you're very much thinking and exploring right on the page, rather than thinking first, then drawing. You need to spend much more time thinking through what you're planning, and considering what kind of mark you want to make next. It's also important to use the ghosting technique to apply those marks in single, smooth executions.
In your lay-in stage, you should be focusing on drawing complete, closed forms. Before you go into breaking down those forms, you need to make sure that you are convinced that what you have drawn is 3D - it's important that you yourself are convinced by the illusion of form, because it is your own belief that you are conveying onto the page. There is a clear difference between an artist whose pen moves along the flat surface of the paper, and the artist whose pen carves along the 3D surface of whatever they're drawing.
Contour lines come in handy with this, reinforcing the curvature of that surface. They're only effective however if you're aware of what you're doing - I've seen countless people here just cover their forms in contour lines with no clear understanding of why they're doing it.
Anyway, taking what I've said above into consideration, I'd like you to do another 6 pages of plant illustrations - but don't move into the detail phase. Establish your forms and convince yourself that you are drawing 3D forms. Consider where and how those forms connect to one another as a big, cohesive construction. And draw bigger.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-06-24 20:20
Nicely done. Your forms are pretty good, and I like your constructions in general. I'll mark the lesson as complete, but here's a couple things to note:
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Your proportions sometimes need work. Your maned wolf gets taller and taller, your warthog's legs looks kind of like those of a sassy woman.
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When you draw fur, you don't have to draw every individual line for it. Try to think of ways to draw it instead as clumps, focusing on defining the shapes on the edge of the silhouette instead.
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When you do your underlines with the green pen, the underdrawing looks great (because you clearly feel more free and confident) but your black lines on top end up looking clunky. Try and achieve that underdrawing in black, and don't bother with the 'cleanup' stage. It's not necessary.
I love your rhino-frog, by the way.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2015-06-24 20:15
Lots of improvement throughout the lesson. I especially love your cars - that '66 mustang looks awesome. Your forms are also generally coming through pretty well, but I see one huuuuuuuuuuge problem.
You need to work on your line control. You're too quick to jump into making the mark, before you put in the proper amount of thought and preparation. You don't ghost your lines enough, so when you do draw, the lines are very hit-and-miss and go awry more often than not. Because of this, your lines don't often come out straight, so your forms don't read as solid and firm.
This is really important when drawing hard surfaced objects like vehicles - those forms need to be solid and heavy.
I want you to go back and do a hell of a lot of the exercises from lesson 1, especially the super imposed lines and ghosting/planes ones. Then do a bunch of form intersections. You don't need to submit those to me, just make sure you do them regularly.
Once you feel more confident in your linework, I'd like to see three more pages of vehicles. Remember that mark making is a three-step process:
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Identify. Figure out what kind of line you need to make. Is it long, short, curved, straight? Where does it start and where does it end?
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Prepare. Find the most comfortable angle of approach - turn your paper if necessary. We can't all draw perfectly at every angle, so it's fine to manipulate your page to compensate. Then ghost over your line, over and over, thinking about the line you want to draw, and getting used to the motion required to draw it. The motion should feel smooth, persistent and unwavering.
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Finally, when you feel you've got it, without missing a beat as you ghost through the line, you touch your pen tip down on the page and make the mark. You make it once and then stop. A single execution.
It takes a long-ass time at first, but is far more effective than having wavy, unwieldy lines everywhere. Eventually it'll become more natural, a quicker matter of identifying, ghosting once or twice and nailing it. But for now, you need to put a lot more time into getting used to that.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
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 in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-24 19:54
You did well, but I only give critiques for those who have submitted homework for the prerequisite lessons (lessons 1 & 2).
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-24 19:42
Nice work completing the challenge. There is a major issue that you're exhibiting though, and it probably is what you're noticing with the boxes looking awkward. The issue is that your far planes on your box are generally larger than your near planes - which directly contradicts the rules of perspective. When using the Y method, you need to be mindful of in which direction your other lines (the ones you draw after the Y) are going to be converging.
Try drawing through your boxes - that is, drawing all the lines that compose the box, as if the box itself were see-through. That'll help you compare the size relationships between the near and far planes.
Anyway, as you completed the challenge, I'll mark it finished - but be mindful of that mistake, you're making it rather often.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-23 23:47
Oh, that's relatively simple. What the contour lines do, is, they run along the surface of an object. That's it. Where on the surface they travel is irrelevant - though it's usually more helpful to run along the major directions of the object - like in Power Girl's outfit, running up and down her torso. Ultimately however that is still a design decision, for which there is no hard and fast rule.
All that matters is that the line runs along the surface of the object. Its value is that in doing so, it communicates how that surface warps through 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-23 20:21
I... don't really follow. Are you referring to how when you transition from contour ellipses to contour curves, you have to pick one half (approximately) of the ellipse as being the visible part of the contour? And how it seems somewhat arbitrary which side you choose?
I talk about that in the video that's linked in the lesson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U17SG8eYX6Y - specifically when I talk about the metaphor of turning a disc/CD in space. I also go into it in these notes.
The best way to wrap your head around it though, once you've watched that video and read the notes, is to jump in and start drawing. It may come to you more intuitively than more theoretical explanation.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-23 20:09
Not bad. Generally the cylinders look pretty well done, though you should be more aware of things like alignment to the minor axis, constructing cylinders from boxes, etc. Basically the things I cover in the video in the challenge post.
Anyway, I'll mark the challenge as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-22 22:32
You're not really understanding what the contour lines are for. You're definitely not alone on this - I see it often. When people don't fully comprehend their purpose, they have a tendency to put them everywhere.
The thing about insects is that they tend to have a lot of segmentation that creates natural contour lines. You're skipping over this natural segmentation and filling the forms up with your own. More is not always better - you've got to study your reference and work to understand where you can fit in those contour lines that falls in with what exists there already.
I want you to reread my demos - especially the wasp ones. I'm not sure if you're a patreon contributor, but if you are, be sure to watch the videos too.
Don't overthink these things, and don't draw more lines than you need. You're filling the drawings up with visual information that doesn't actually add value, but rather adds clutter.
As a side note, form-wise your ant is definitely looking better. I think this is also because you're tackling it from an angle, while many of your other drawings are from a straight side view - which tends to flatten things out quite a bit.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-22 22:11
There's one thing that I notice all across the board - your lines are sorely lacking in confidence. You have a tendency of drawing very timidly, lightly and loosely sketching your lines. It's to the point that I can see some points where your pen actually lifts off the page for an instant, because you're trying to draw so faintly.
If you are going to put a mark down on the page, it should be one that has forethought and consideration and conscious decision behind it.
Okay, back to the specific exercises.
Your organic forms' contour lines still aren't wrapping around the forms. Like this. Watch that video again, note the part specifically where I talk about accelerating your curve around the form rather than stopping abruptly.
Your form intersections are much better now that you're drawing through them, but I want to see you work on that timidness. Push yourself to use that ghosting technique for everything.
I'd like to see two more pages of organic forms and two more pages of form intersections.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-22 21:46
Your arrows are alright. I did notice that in your organic forms, you only drew each ellipse once, rather than drawing through them. In general though, I'm noticing that they're a little too.. approximate. Here and there they don't fit within the organic form - it looks to me like you drew each one rather quickly and attempted to make up for it by drawing a lot of them. I'd prefer it if you took more care with each one, even if that meant you drew fewer ellipses. That doesn't mean to draw the mark slowly - instead, it means you should put more time into planning your approach before drawing the mark.
I also noticed that you didn't do a full page of the second section of that exercise - drawing the contour lines as curves rather than full ellipses. You didn't a few attempts at the bottom of page 3, but from what I can see, they're not great. Your contour curves are not wrapping around the forms. Watch this video if you haven't already to get an idea of what I mean.
Your dissections aren't bad. A little rushed - in general you shouldn't be rushing forward to finish everything quickly - but in principle they're alright. At this point I would like to discourage you from trying to include form detail from your reference (like the mouse ears/legs). Just focus on the surface texture.
Your form intersections aren't terrible. They are somewhat rushed, however. You should be drawing through all of your ellipses, like the ellipse exercises from lesson 1. Furthermore, rather than a bunch of independent intersections, I want to see one large scene on the page, where all of the forms are connected. Start with something in the middle, and then just branch off from it in all directions until you fill the page.
As for the rushing - again, take more time preparing to draw each mark. Follow the ghosting method - identify the mark you want to make, ghost through it to get used to the motion, and then after enough time is spent to make the motion comfortable, draw the line in one quick, smooth execution.
I'd like you to do one page of organic forms with contour curves (not ellipses), and two more pages of form intersections. Don't rush.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-22 21:35
Nice work on the challenge! I'm glad to see that you've been focusing on that minor axis. You're moving in a great direction. I think that overall, I see a great deal of improvement - it drops off as you get through the last 10 (241-250) but I think that might be because you were getting tired.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-21 17:26
Pretty nicely done. There were a few issues that I noticed, though generally your final renders were fairly strong. You concentrated your details well, building up strong focal points, and put thought and consideration behind each mark you made, being sure only to draw what contributed to your drawing, or to your understanding of your forms.
Here's the two major issues I noticed.
On the left, I point out how sometimes you may not have put enough into your lay-ins. The 'dented' leaf details don't follow any clear flow, so it's difficult to start off with them. Doing so will risk drawing a leaf with little cohesive flow - the details will look independent of one another. If, on the other hand, you start with a much more general summary of the leaf's overall form, and then start building those dents and cuts in from there, your final complex details will feel more cohesive. They'll have a more unified sense of flow, which is important especially for organic shapes/forms like these.
On the right, there's a couple things - on one hand, I noticed that across the board you had a tendency to be a little too lax with your contour lines. It might be due to being slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information in your reference photos (which is perfectly normal) but the contour lines you drew did not wrap around the forms. You may have been momentarily unconvinced of the three-dimensionality of your own forms.
Secondly, make sure you close every form you draw. Consider how the forms connect to one another - the very act of closing off these forms at their connection points will help remind you that the objects exist in three dimensions.
Anyway, overall you still did fairly well. Go ahead and move onto the next lesson, but keep these few points in mind as you move forward.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-21 16:30
I think you're doing a fairly decent job. The only issue I see right now is that your perspective distortion across the boxes is not consistent. Every box tapers way too much, so it's very difficult to infer the scale of the overall scene. Check out these notes on "overly dramatic perspective".
As far as the intersections themselves go, I think it's passable. Go ahead and move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-21 16:27
Nice work! You struggle at first with the organic forms with contour curves (getting those curves to wrap around the forms) but your second page of them is much better. Your dissections are alright at first, but again, you show a marked improvement by the second page, shifting your focus more to surface texture than the forms you might see in your reference image (it's common to get distracted by the forms).
Your first page of for intersections are a bit iffy as well, but your second and third are really quite well done. I like the boldness of your lines, it shows great confidence. While you should work towards not overshooting your lines in the future, I think allowing yourself to do that here was a good decision, as it allowed you to carry through the energy without worrying too much. Confidence is always key.
Anyway, nice work, and I'm glad to see the marked improvement all across the board. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-19 23:52
Don't focus too much on how the forms intersect. The bigger priority of the lesson is actually about how you are able to draw forms interacting within a scene. Whether you can keep your perspective consistent, how you go about unifying all of the forms, and how you go about drawing each individual form as it exists in 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-19 23:12
Despite the name, this exercise isn't really about the intersections. What I want to see is whether or not are able to position forms arbitrarily in space and have them relate to one another in a realistic fashion. It tests your ability to use consistent perspective distortion within a scene across several forms. You are doing this fairly well.
What I don't want you to worry about though is vanishing points - based on the previous lesson, you have a decent understanding of the basics of perspective, but when you have to worry about a lot of different forms that are not parallel (each set of lines that are parallel has its own VP, so in situations like this you may have loads of sets of parallel lines, so too many VPs to manage), it gets too cumbersome.
Drawing through forms (connecting 'invisible sides') is a helpful way to keep a sense of how your forms occupy 3D space. If you find yourself losing track of your forms, or getting confused, draw through them.
I definitely get the impression that you're overthinking things. Relax. Based on what I see here, you're right on track. The next few lessons will ease back more into organic stuff, so you don't need to worry about understanding everything super-thoroughly right now.
Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-19 23:07
Generally quite well done. I do notice that (as I mentioned in your lesson 2 critique) that you sometimes have a tendency to draw the far plane larger than your near plane. You don't do this nearly as often here, but I do think you may want to draw through your boxes completely for a spell just to get used to the relationship between how you angle your lines and how that builds the far plane. Since the far plane isn't actually drawn in its entirety normally, it becomes difficult to gauge. Drawing through the cube (meaning drawing the far plane as well) will help you assess that more carefully.
Anywho, congrats on completing the challenge.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-19 23:06
Your arrows are looking good. Your dissections are pretty well done too. Your organic forms are a little hit-and-miss, though you get better as you go along. Sometimes your contour lines don't quite wrap around the forms, though here and there you get it right and accelerate the curve around the form instead of stopping abruptly at the edge. Here's what I mean. Keep practicing them, but I think you get the idea so I won't ask you to redo them and resubmit.
Your form intersections though are a little off. It's hard to put my finger on what's wrong, but one major issue that I see often are your boxes. Your angles are sometimes a little off (to the point where it doesn't necessarily look like the edges are perpendicular to one another) and more importantly, your far planes are almost always larger than your near planes. Your boxes in the 250 box challenge came out somewhat better, so it might be because you did them at the same time rather than doing the box challenge first.
I'd like you to redo the form intersections - first do one page using ONLY boxes, then do another page with other forms included. You may also want to reread the section of the lesson on form intersections and rewatch the video on them as well.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-18 22:11
Check out figure 2.9 in lesson 1. I'd link you to the image, but the text under it explains what I mean as well.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-18 21:51
Your forms are pretty good (primarily from fairly strong lay-ins) but your detailing/textures are kind of weak. I especially love your lay-ins from page 2 - the bottom one looks really confident and solid.
For the detailing, you're not spending enough time really studying the reference. When you see a hairy surface, you register "okay that's hairy, I know how to draw hair" and then you draw it how you believe hair looks. Instead, focus on that reference image. How is the hair arranged? Is it all distributed evenly, or is it clustered in some areas? Are there certain patterns to it, does it flow in a certain direction? How does it affect the silhouette? Can I imply this detail in non-focal areas by just adjusting the silhouette a little?
Usually I'll do a quick pass over the whole insect, implying a little detail all over, before settling on a certain focal area. This helps ground me a little. For example, there's this critique I did for someone else recently. If you look at the drawing at the bottom, that's an example of my first pass. I noticed that the shell has little pocks and dents, so I put a few here and there. If you look at the student's work though, you'll notice that they're arranged very uniformly, just a bunch of dots. On the reference, they're clustered and uneven. It's that unevenness that will sell the image to the viewer, because nature is very rarely even in its distribution of details.
Try another four pages of insect drawings and get back to me.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-18 21:46
Big improvement on your organic forms, and the dissections look really solid. Your first set of organic forms with contour lines kind of hovering over the form instead of resting on the surface are a bit weird, so keep an eye on that. Also, I'd like to strongly discourage you from using dashed/broken lines when drawing through forms. They may look better, but when the line breaks, you loose the flow of it so it can be a little dangerous. A continuous ellipse will flow differently than one with a broken line.
You're very close, but your form intersections are not quite there yet - you missed the part where I said you should draw through your ellipses (like in the ellipse exercise from lesson 1) to maintain solid and even shapes. Also, don't bother drawing over them to 'clean up' your lines with that blue pen. I'm not interested in seeing clean lines, I'm more interested in seeing how you think - the rough stage of things will communicate that to me more clearly.
Please do one more page of form intersections, drawing through your ellipses and your forms, and don't worry about drawing over them. If you notice in mine, they're not super clean, but every line I put in serves a purpose, whether it's a part of the final drawing or if it's drawing through forms so I can understand them better while I draw them. Everything should be confident and solid.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-18 21:21
I took much longer on than I should have. Not good. :(
Wrong! It's perfectly fine to take as long as you need, as long as you do the tasks to the best of your ability. There is absolutely no timelimit, nor any benefit to finishing this stuff quickly. Speed comes with practice, and we've only just begun. I'm very glad that you did put in the time instead of rushing because you felt you weren't quick enough.
That said, your work is very, very well done. I especially loved the dissections, your textures were fantastic. The only critique I have to give you is that you should draw through your ellipses in your form intersections. Generally you actually did the ellipses fairly well, but you'll notice with your spheres that the ellipse/circle often came out somewhat uneven or at least not entirely circular.
Anywho, fantastic work. Go ahead and move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-18 14:54
Reply works, as long as it's a reply to one of my responses. That way I'll get notified.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-18 01:23
I'll keep this short, because my arms feel like putty after helping my roommate take boxes to the post office. ... And bring them back because they were too heavy to ship.
Your arrows are solid.
Your organic forms with contour ellipses are okay, but there are two notable issues. First off, the ellipses aren't always filling out the entire form. Rather than sitting inside the form, you need to visualize these lines as wrapping around this 3D form, so they should sit on the surface and go all the way around. Secondly, you should be drawing through them to get a good curved shape. Right now the ellipses are uneven, bumpy and wobbly. This will be the case for a good long time, and drawing through your ellipses will both help you get a better shape (though messier) and will also help you build the muscle memory required to not have to draw through them all the time.
When you draw only the contour curves (not full ellipses), the curves don't wrap around the forms properly. They show me that you see the organic forms as 2D shapes rather than 3D forms. As such, in your mind's eye you are not trying to wrap the lines around a 3D form that warps in space, but rather simply drawing them from one edge to the other. I'm exaggerating of course, but that's the idea. This video talks about the idea.
Your dissections' textures were pretty cool. I like the tree bark one quite a bit. You did however miss the part in the exercise description where I said you should start this lesson out as an organic form with contour curves/ellipses. You jumped right into the dissection. You should draw a random organic form first, add the contour lines, THEN consider which textures you should add to it. I don't want you thinking ahead.
With the form intersections, in principle they're not bad. I do want to see you drawing through those ellipses though, and drawing through the forms as well. Each form should be drawn in its entirety, not just the parts that would be visible after the intersection. You're missing a lot of things I say in the lesson - I know my lessons are wordy, but you've gotta try and pay closer attention!
This wasn't short at all. I'm not sure I have it in me to be brief... Anyway, give the lesson another stab. You're pretty close to having it done really well, but you're missing a few key points that are keeping you from that.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-17 21:56
Do you have any tips/advice going forward to look out for while I continue the intersections? Also, do you recommend I continue practicing that part with pen and paper as usual, or would moving the practice digitally be sufficient?
Just what I pointed out. Focus on getting those angles right on your boxes. Maybe do more of the box challenge stuff, draw boxes out and then correct them yourself. As for digital, I suppose that'd be okay for your own practice since you seem to know what to aim for.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-17 20:20
Very well done! Clean, purposeful, well structured. There's only one issue that I noticed that I'd like to point out, and it's with your lay-ins.
On page 2 and 4, you'll notice that the leaves aren't simple - they're fairly complex in their little waves and serrations and whatnot. Your lay-in should start off with a simpler curve that summarizes those little details. Then you can build up those smaller variations off the simpler curve. That way you maintain a very consistent direction and framework.
Everything else looks pretty good. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-17 20:14
Generally quite good. Your dissections were very interesting, so your hard work definitely paid off. The one thing I noticed in your form intersections that came off as a little weird was your attempt to add hatching/shading lines to your cylinders. Those lines were flat, but your cylinder's surface is curved - hatching lines end up working as little contour curves, so they give contradicting information. I'm glad you only experimented with that in one place and seem to have decided that it wasn't the best route to take.
Another thing you should keep in mind moving forward is that when you're scanning in your homework, you should set your scanner's setting to "photo" rather than "drawing". Drawing tends to boost the contrast and get rid of a lot of the subtler nuances, resulting in something that looks especially harsh.
Anywho, lesson's complete. Onto the next one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-17 20:11
The wasp comes out kind of flat, the grasshopper's an improvement, and the beetle looks vastly better.
Moving forward, I think it'd be a good idea to stop relying quite so much on hatching/shading. You're doing it all over the place, and a lot of the techniques I outline in these lessons show you how to go about giving the illusion of form without having to resort to lighting.
Also, as I mentioned in my previous critique, don't add notes to your main drawing. You should be focusing entirely on the drawing, instead of distracting yourself with notes. After you finish the drawing, you can summarize what you analyzed during that process in separate side sketches.
Anyway, I think we've worked on this enough- you've made a lot of progress. You definitely have room to grow, but I'll mark this lesson as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-17 20:04
Auugh, disgusting. But very well done! But so gross. Why are you making me look through these?! I feel like scratching myself compulsively...
Your forms are really well done. I kind of like the way that you handle the contour curves, but I do think that in the long run you may want to decrease your dependence on them a little bit. If you use them too much, it starts looking like a 3D wireframe.
Still, I've seen a lot of people end up with that 3D wireframe look, and it usually made the piece worse - but the way you did it, with relatively light line weights on the contour curves worked quite nicely and still resulted in some awesome (DISGUSTING) drawings.
I'll mark the lesson as complete - go ahead and move onto the next one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-17 20:02
I think I just don't have that part of the brain that understands physical objects.
Hah, certainly would be easier if that were true. Unfortunately, it's something everyone struggles with. As far as the form intersections go, it's not your understanding that is lacking, it's your execution. Some of your intersections are off (especially when it comes to curved surfaces), but the more significant thing is that you're not following a lot of the things I outlined in the lesson.
First off, draw through all of your forms - you do that early on, but you stop doing it afterward. Secondly, don't draw in two steps - roughing them in first, then drawing on top to "refine" the forms. Don't bother with the second step. Every mark you put down should be one that you are confident in. That means that you need to think through each mark - identify where it starts and ends, if it should curve. Then ghost through that motion - this will increase your accuracy and general comfort with the drawing motion. Finally, put down the mark.
When it comes to ellipses, draw through them a few times. Don't go wild with them, always think about what kind of shape you're trying to achieve, but that shape is what's most important. The fact that you're going back to darken the "correct" lines shows me that you're too preoccupied with your drawing being clean rather than actually being right. If you notice in all of my examples, I'm not super clean. I'm thoughtful, and everything is planned, but I'm not worrying about making a drawing my parents will put up on the fridge.
Lastly, while I did mention that some of your intersections aren't right, don't worry too much about them. I recently added something to the lesson itself:
Before tackling this exercise, there's something I want you to acknowledge: The specific aspects of how to handle intersections outlined here and in the video linked below are not entirely correct. I have vastly simplified them, and this is completely intentional. This is for two reasons:
Proper intersections can get very complicated. A student at this stage could easily become overwhelmed.
This exercise is, in all honestly, not really about the intersections. It's about being able to arrange forms together in 3D space. Ultimately that is what I gauge when critiquing homework submissions, though general intersection mistakes would also be pointed out. Still, that should not be your focus.
So, while some of you may feel the desire to open up a 3D modeling program and test out the intersections yourselves, know that the results may be different, and you may end up confusing yourself far more than you need to.
Anyway, the other area where you need work is your organic forms with contour lines. The contour ellipses are solid - they wrap around the form very nicely. When you transition to using curves however, your shapes flatten out completely. They don't wrap around the forms, and you stop treating them like 3D forms. Instead, you go back to seeing them as 2D shapes, drawing the contour lines as lines that simply stretch from one edge to the other. If you don't believe that they're 3D, then that will not come through in your drawing.
If you haven't watched this video yet, do so. Otherwise, watch it again.
Your dissection's textures were pretty good, and your arrows were fairly organic (though the diamond-shaped heads were a bit weird). Please redo the organic forms with contour curves (2 pages) and the form intersections, and beforehand, reread those sections of the lesson. My lessons tend to be very wordy (I can't really help it) so reading the lessons over sometimes helps catch things that were missed initially.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-17 19:52
Generally really strong work. The only section that comes out a bit weaker are your form intersections - which generally aren't too bad.
The first thing that jumped out at me is that the shading/hatching you applied looks really sloppy, especially in the first couple pages of form intersections. The last two are a little better in that regard.
I also noticed that the angles of the lines in your boxes aren't always consistent - they don't necessarily look like they're always at 90 degrees to one another, that's something you'll have to work on. You'll also have to focus on ghosting more before putting down a mark so the lines don't get quite so wavy.
In general though, I'm pleased with the rest of your work, and your form intersections are okay. I'll mark the lesson as complete, and just ask that you continue practicing that execution on your own.
As for your question, in lesson 1 when I spoke about the use of your wrist/elbow/shoulder, I explained that each has its purpose - so it is absolutely situational as to whether or not you should be locking your wrist. Fine details will require very specific control - you'll want to draw those from your wrist. Longer lines will require a greater radius (going back to your elbow or shoulder), or else you simply won't be able to draw a continuous line without lifting and repositioning your pivot.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-16 23:22
I think the biggest problem is that you're forgetting about the fact that forms have sides to them. It's understandable, because organic forms tend to gloss over that. Whenever you're dealing with a curve, you should always consider where you might split that curve into straight lines if you had to. Always be aware of, on an organic form, where you'd split it into planes.
On a lesser note:
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draw bigger
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don't press as hard with your pen (you should be able to make both fine and dark lines with your felt tip pen)
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if you can't fit a detail into your drawing due to its size, don't try to squeeze it in there. If it's not going to read clearly, just leave it out.
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don't apply your textures evenly - I saw that you applied the little dent/speckle/things on the shell kind of randomly. You could see that the shell had those details, so you just kind of put them on there. Go back and study how those details are arranged. I don't mean that you should try and reproduce it exactly, but see if they're evenly distributed, if they cluster, if they are all the same size or different, etc.
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the legs could use a contour line here or there, just to remind the viewer that they're not flat. It usually works out nicely to put some sort of contour-line cross-hatching right where they come out of the shell. It works as shading, but also shows that the surface is rounded.
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whatever else I said on the drawing
Three more pages of bugs, please.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-16 18:00
Hm... You might be right on that count - generally when I use this method, I use the box to find the position of my cylinder's spine/minor axis, and then I follow that a lot more than I follow the planes themselves. The planes end up serving as general suggestions, but I focus a lot more on aligning the ellipses to the minor axis.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-16 17:58
It might help to make aligning the ellipse to the minor axis a higher priority than fitting the ellipse in the frame. They're both important, but the alignment is probably moreso.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-16 00:18
To be honest, your question was confusing as all hell. I did what I could with what you said in explaining how a box rotation works, but more than anything it is something you are going to have to discover by trying it.
I'm guessing the thing you were describing in terms of rotating something very slightly relative to its neighbour was along the lines of this sort of thing. Try and use that as reference and attempt it yourself.
It's much easier to explain what you did wrong, rather than to explain the specifics of how to do something as complex as this.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-15 23:28
You most certainly did rush through them. I'm glad to see that you've tried to complete the challenge, but rushing through them and thinking of it as a number to hit is not going to show very much improvement. When you draw the boxes, you need to consider the lessons and the notes and put your full attention on each one. If you do not put your all into each box, you will improve much more slowly.
I really hope you'll give this challenge another shot, and the time it deserves. Even if you draw only 10 boxes a day - but put your full effort into them - you'll see far more improvement over the course of 25 days.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-15 23:26
Not bad. I really liked seeing the constructional stuff early on. One thing that you're sorely missing however is that you're not drawing through your ellipses. Because of this they have a greater tendency to come out uneven or lopsided. You absolutely need to draw through those ellipses all the time, so you can build the muscle memory that will eventually allow you to work without doing that.
Anyway, congrats on completing the challenge. I'm glad to see that you pushed through them, keep up the good work!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-15 23:24
I'm glad you enjoyed it! That's definitely what's most important at this point.
I think the biggest issue that I can see is that your forms aren't reading as being rounded - they're coming out rather flat. If you remember how the contour lines from lesson 2 need to wrap around the organic forms, they're not really doing that here. It's possible that you're rushing through your lay-ins and looking too far ahead, to the detail section.
I'd like you to do another 3 pages, but this time stop once your lay-in is finished, before you start getting into detail. Focus on getting the contour lines (which are created by the insect's natural segmentation) to wrap around the forms.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-27 14:56
Yup. Absolutely. And it doesn't matter. The drawings we're making here aren't intended to be works of art - the process is all devoted to adding confidence to your lines and helping you understand how the world is made up of simple, but concrete 3D forms.
There are of course people who have a tendency to draw far too many lines - not because they're necessary, but because they think on the page rather than thinking before they draw. I generally tell people that there are two kinds of lines that are acceptable:
Those that contribute to the final drawing
Those that contribute to your understanding of the forms you are drawing - like drawing through forms, lay-ins, etc.
If a line you are about to draw does not fall into those two categories, it's unnecessary. In this sense, we're not being rough, and we're not sketching. Those two terms tend to imply exploration and uncertainty, where a person doesn't know exactly what they're aiming for, but they'll find it as they draw it. Instead, every mark we make has thought and purpose behind it.