Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-15 22:25
Hmm.. You're not quite there yet. In order to give you a better critique, could you do one drawing from [this reference: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Alder_leaf_beetle_from_the_High_Tatras_(7663242448).jpg and take three or four process pictures?
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Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-15 22:14
You generally did pretty well. When it comes to the intersections, I'm more interested in seeing how you handle putting lots of different forms, rotated arbitrarily, in the same scene. You handled that quite well. As for the intersections, I only gave them a cursory look, but I don't see anything that really jumps out as being horribly incorrect.
Your arrows and organic forms are solid. Your dissections are alright, though I can see where you struggled with ideas. You did a nice amount of experimenting though. I think my favourite is the weird insecty thing in the top left of page 5. It's got a nice balance of empty space and detailed space.
Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-15 22:12
You definitely improve considerably throughout this set. At the beginning you had a strong tendency to reverse the size relationships between the near/far ends of the cylinders. Your lines also seemed somewhat uncertain. By the end, you show far more confidence, a better sense for those size relationships, and a much nicer use of line weight. There's always room to grow, but you're definitely heading in a good direction.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-15 22:10
Nice work. Confident lines, nice variation on line weight. Keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-14 21:47
I notice that when I try to look at your user overview, it comes up with a page not found. I'm thinking there's something messed up in the reddit database relating to your account, which makes it look suspicious to the spam filter.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-14 21:42
:P It did end up in the spam filter again. I have no idea why it keeps targeting you.. did you do something in a previous life?
Anyway, your boxes look solid. I see a definite increase in your confidence as you progress. Keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2015-06-14 18:35
It's definitely getting much better - now your main problem is a matter of observing your reference. This breaks down into two areas - your proportions, which are the main reason that they're coming out as cartoony, and your identification of the smaller forms that exist in your reference.
I do believe that drawing as small as you are is hindering you from being able to incorporate some of the smaller details as independent forms that exist as part of the construction. Instead you tend to drop them on as fairly simple lines or 2D shapes.
Anyway, I think you're moving in the right direction, so I will mark this lesson as complete. Just be sure to continue practicing, and draw bigger.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-14 18:32
Fantastic. The challenges are open to anyone who wishes to do them - at times I do recommend them specifically to certain people because they need the extra work, but it is of benefit to everyone.
Usually I don't recommend drawing the boxes overlapping, largely because it adds an extra dimension of complexity (since now all the boxes have to have similar levels of perspective distortion, since by overlapping they automatically exist in the same scene/environment). That said, you handled it very well, despite the added complexity.
Great work.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-14 18:30
Nicely done! Your dissections were especially interesting with all of the care and time you put into experimenting with all different kinds of textures. The only thing I want to point out is that you should be drawing through your ellipses more when doing the form intersections. Generally they were still well done, but it'll help even out the roundness of your shapes. You should also continue to draw through your forms as you did in your first page of intersections. That page comes out much better than the subsequent ones because you have a fuller understanding of the forms you've drawn.
Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-14 18:27
Your organic forms with contour lines are much better. Your dissections are still a little weird, but they have improved. In your first page, you seem to be trying to think of what you want your dissection to be before you draw it, which is something I try to discourage. In your second page though, you draw them out as organic forms with contour lines, as I recommend, before bothering with any of the texture stuff. These come out better.
You're right, they are sketchy as hell - the reason for this is that you're exploring your forms on the page, rather than attempting to think before making a mark, considering whether or not it is going to contribute to the drawing. Try and follow the logic of the ghosting technique from the first lesson.
When you want to make a mark, first identify what kind of mark you want to make - where does it start and end, does it curve, etc. Then prepare to draw it by finding a comfortable angle of approach, and practice ghosting through the motion of drawing it. Finally, once you've done all that and you feel comfortable, you draw the mark. Once. One mark per line. By this point, you've had the chance to think through it and plan it out that if it really isn't a line that's going to either:
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Contribute to the final drawing
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Help you understand the forms you're drawing (like drawing through forms or adding contour lines)
You'll probably realize it and stop before putting down the mark. This whole process sounds really long and laborious if your'e doing it for every line, but it becomes second nature pretty quickly.
There is one other major issue with how you're approaching your dissections that is causing them to look strange - you're having difficulty differentiating form-information and texture-information. The point of the exercise is to maintain the forms you've already drawn, extract the textural information from your reference, and apply it to your forms.
One example of where you attempted to extract forms rather than texture from your reference is the octopus tentacle. Those suckers are really forms that protrude from the tentacle - they have their own volume, and rather than simply resting on the surface of another form, they come out in three dimensions.
There's definitely some grey area in terms of what is texture and what is form, but in this case each sucker exists as an independent cylinder, which you'd have to orient coming off the main form. Because you didn't do that (since this exercise isn't about that) they end up looking weird.
I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but you may want to practice these a little bit more to try and let what I've said above sink in. Once you feel comfortable, you may move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-14 18:16
Three major issues, which I noted in this overdrawing:
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Gotta draw through your forms completely. When you have two overlapping forms, I often see that you don't draw through the form that sits behind when you're laying your forms in. It's important to draw them completely, as it allows you to fully explore the form. When you break it, as a beginner you become mores susceptible to drawing the form itself incorrectly.
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You're doing this strange thing where your contour lines orbit around the form rather than sitting on its surface. Practice getting the contour lines to actually sit right on the surface, as that is their purpose - to follow the surface exactly.
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Your texturing is often very scribbly and scratchy. It gets a lot better in pages 8, 9 and 10, though. Your focus improves and you seem to pay more attention to the patterns present in your reference. I did want to emphasize the issues in the earlier ones though, like page 6 where the abdomen of the ant is just sloppy and scratchy.
One lay-in that I think you did pretty well, generally is the ladybug on the bottom left of page 1. Though you didn't draw through the forms, you still nailed the illusion of three-dimensionality (whereas with the wasp in the top left it comes out looking strange). What's most important about the ladybug though is that your proportions seem to be on point. Elsewhere I notice that you do struggle with capturing the right size relationships between the different elements of your subject, so that will need some work.
I'd like to see three more pages of insects, hopefully pushing more towards the quality of your last three pages of this set.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-13 20:41
Nicely done! Generally you've done a great job. I'm going to point out an area where you can improve in a second, but before I do I want to tell you that this is just something you should keep in mind as you move forward. Overall you've done a great job at establishing forms and working in detail where it was necessary without creating drawings that are too noisy.
So the main thing I wanted to talk about was the sketchiness of some of your drawings. In general, you could improve by exploring less on the page (with rough sketching) and try to rely more on visualization. It's a tough transition to make. It's all about identifying those rudimentary geometric and organic forms that exist in your subject, and drawing those in with forethought and a sense of purpose. Before you put down a mark, consider whether or not it contributes to:
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The final drawing OR
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More importantly, your understanding of the form. This one means that drawing through your form, adding contour lines, all that good stuff is perfectly fine and encouraged
What doesn't fall into these categories is drawing multiple lines where one will do just fine, or loose additional lines that don't really seem to serve any purpose. One good example of this is the bottom right of page 1. It's very loose and exploratory - try to move towards tightening things up, relying more on pausing and thinking rather than drawing lines on the page until something emerges.
I don't want you to suddenly change your whole approach to drawing - I just want you to think about this as you move forward, letting it gradually tweak your methods, hopefully resulting in work that continues to convey a nice sense of form, but starts coming out a little tidier.
Anyway, as I said before, great work. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-12 23:52
Ayup. When uncertain, check your flair-badge. Yours shows that you completed the basics section.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 14: Composition"
2015-06-12 23:11
I gave Mischief a shot back when it first came out. I really loved it, but at the time it cost over a hundred bucks, and I didn't think I'd use it much. I might check it out again now that the price is lower.
At the end of the day, yeah, I use Photoshop for 99% of my work. That is partially because it's the industry standard (and since I work professionally in a studio, it's important for me to know my way around the software those studios would have on hand), but it's also because I've always found it to be the most flexible. That said, in a way it's also my crutch. It's a good idea to shop around. Try some trials, see how they feel, give everything a fair shake.
Ultimately I can't think of any concept that I intend to teach that will be Photoshop specific.
Oh- I also have Sketchbook Pro, their perspective tools are fantastic. I never did like painting in that program, but their drawing engine is definitely better than Photoshop's.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-12 23:03
They're alright. I would have liked to see you draw through those ellipses to make the shapes more consistent and even, but this is good. Just be sure to make a habit of drawing through your ellipses in the future.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-06-12 22:58
Not bad. Lots of room to improve, but you're doing okay. I did notice that you have a tendency to have somewhat scratchy lines. This is especially noticeable when you're putting in texture - you tend to scribble very lightly, which tends to make things look very much as though you're drawing with pencil. The thing about ink is that it forces you to think through the underlying patterns of lines, stippled-dots and other such things to capture the texture of a surface in a way that does not create large amounts of contrast, as your current approach does. The way you approach it creates a lot of visual noise, which makes it a bit confusing to pinpoint a focal area.
Another thing I noticed is that your general constructions are lacking just a little bit. Most specifically, you don't seem to be paying too much attention to how the various components connect to each other, like the shoulder area where the legs connect to the torso. If you look at the following few demos I did for other people, you'll see that I pay special attention to how things connect in the construction phase:
I'd like you to do two more pages of animal drawings, but don't go into the detail/texture phase. Just focus on the construction. Also, you'd probably benefit from drawing significantly larger on the page. Tiny drawings have a tendency to cause the artist to stiffen up.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-12 22:53
Definitely much better. Sometimes they still end a little abruptly, but as a whole it's a huge improvement. I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-06-12 22:52
Very nice! Your forms are fantastic. You could definitely benefit from experimenting with different ways of capturing texture, rather than just using lines. Try and look at your subject matter and identify the general rhythm or patterns that exist there. It takes some time, and some practice, but you should be able to see past what ends up just being simple crosshatching to something more complex and interesting.
Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-12 22:47
These are alright. You seem to draw fairly confidently, but I do notice one major issue involving your contour lines - you don't take the time to make sure that they wrap around your forms, and instead, you compensate by drawing a lot more of them than would otherwise be necessary.
When you draw them everywhere, it becomes very much a pattern of its own - it starts looking like the wireframe of a 3D mesh. All we want to do is place a few here and there to reinforce that curvature. In order to do so, they need to wrap around the forms - often yours will simply stretch from one end to the other and stop suddenly. I discuss that in this video.
In general your plants aren't bad, so I am going to mark this as complete. The next lesson will give you the opportunity to show that you have better understood the use of contour lines.
I did also want to point out that your flower pot in page 4 isn't well done. It should be constructed from a series of cylinders, the ellipses of which should have been drawn-through (as I always stress). The crosshatching is also sloppy. It's important to give every part of your drawing the time it requires. It may not be fully detailed and fleshed out, but the construction needs to be solid, and whatever shading/texture it does receive should be applied with focus, attention and care.
As for your question about concave leaves, here's an example of concave/convex. It's all in the contour lines (which are supposed to follow the curvature of the surface), which you need to work on. On flat objects like petals and leaves, the contours will stop suddenly at the edge, so you only need to worry about their curvature in 3D space. With cylinders like stems, that curvature is a full 360 degrees, so it needs to wrap all the way around.
Go ahead and move onto the next lesson, but be sure to practice the things I've mentioned above.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-06-12 22:33
It's definitely a good start. There's a few things that I noticed where you can improve though:
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When you lay-in, I'm seeing a lot of very timid linework. There's little confidence behind your lines. You're not drawing through your ellipses, your lines are wobbling or broken and scratchy. If you think through what you want to draw, prepare and ghost through it, and then execute when you feel comfortable with your decision, your forms will come out looking more sure of themselves. Then, the forms you construct based on these marks will in turn look more solid.
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I find you drawing a lot of contours, rather than exploring the different forms and how each part of the construction comes together. For example, for a lot of the limbs you draw the shape of the whole leg, which bends at the joints. You should be drawing each section - separated at each joint - as separate shapes. A solid break at each joint will help you consider how the leg itself bends. This will also force you to consider each individual form, rather than jumping into complex forms (like a bending limb) too early. Simpler, more rudimentary forms are much easier to think about as three-dimensional elements. When you jump into the complex stuff, it becomes dangerously easy to forget about perceiving your own drawing as three-dimensional.
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Coming off the last point, it doesn't look to me as though you are convinced that much of what you're drawing exists in three dimensions. You need to be able to visualize these things as being 3D in order to convince others of it.
Instead of talking about your texturing for now, I'd like to set that aside. Instead, do another 4 pages of animals, but do not move into texture/detail. Focus on constructing them as 3D objects. Understand how the different components come together in the construction, where they fit together, etc.
Here's a few more demos I did for others that may help you. Focus on how I break up the forms.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2015-06-12 22:17
Not bad! Your general sense for forms is definitely there, and you seem to be able to break down those forms into their smaller components. The problem lays with your execution. It's not terrible, but it's very sketchy - lots of marks where only one is necessary, wobbly and uncertain lines, etc. You need spend more time thinking before you put down your marks, separating the drawing process into multiple stages. Spend most of your time planning your approach and ghosting through the drawing motion, and once you feel comfortable, the act of drawing the mark should be quick so as to avoid wobbling.
I'd also recommend looking into the 250 cylinder challenge. There's a video at the top of the challenge post that explains how to approach positioning cylinders effectively.
Anyway, you did pretty well. You clearly need to work on what I mentioned above, and there's a lot of room to grow, but you generally display enough understanding of the forms themselves for me to mark this lesson as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2015-06-11 03:09
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-10 21:59
H'okay, so your organic forms with contour lines and your dissections will have to be redone. Start off by watching this video. Your contour lines aren't really wrapping around the forms convincingly. It may help to draw a sort of center-line or spine that goes through your form, and then make all of your curves (which are really just sections of ellipses) perpendicular to that line. That'll help you improve your alignment, which is also off.
For your dissections, it doesn't look like you used much photo reference for your textures, as the exercise stipulated. Reread the exercise description and give it another shot.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-10 20:37
Always. Don't worry about where you stand, just focus on doing the best you can.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-10 20:23
uhh... That's not really a question that has an answer. You're fully capable of reaching your goal, but where you are now, your understanding is not fully developed. Your drawings are hit-and-miss, but you're getting there.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-10 20:11
Not bad. A couple things to note:
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In the form intersections, you did well, but in the future when doing that exercise, try not to divide it up into two stages (drawing the full forms then drawing on top). Just do that first step, and draw the lines confidently. You generally did that well, but often times splitting it up into two will nurture a lack of confidence.
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Some of your dissections were interesting, others gave me the impression that you may not have used photo reference. I'm not entirely sure here, but always keep in mind that pulling textural information from photo reference is a great way to train your eye for identifying the patterns and rhythms of various types of textures, while building your visual library so you can work from your imagination more easily when you need to in the future.
I'll mark this lesson as complete. As for your question, the human figure lessons only require the basics as a prerequisite - which you just completed with this lesson. So you are free to move onto those if you so wish it. Either way, it's still in your best interest to complete the dynamic sketching lessons as well at some point, as they are very useful for any type of drawing, but I'll leave that up to you.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-10 20:07
Generally well done. I think my favourite is on page 5. In the future, try not to cover every surface just for the sake of covering the surfaces. Often times the most successful drawing will balance empty space with heavy contrasty detail. It gives your eye a place to rest, along with a place of interest.
Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-10 20:05
Generally good. I did want to point out that in the first page, you definitely jumped in too early with some of the leaf details. Here's what I mean. You draw the outer outline that I blocked in rather heavily first. Then you use that to mark in the finer, more specific details. The rest is fine, so go ahead and move onto the next lesson.
As for sucking at being subtle and tidy - of course you do! That's why we're doing these exercises, so you can improve.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-10 20:01
Nice progression. Your corrections generally seem on point. You are still struggling a bit with making the far planes a little smaller than the near planes, but you are improving. Keep it up.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-10 19:57
Your dissections and form intersections are solid. Great forms, great texture work. Your organic forms with contour curves are falling short however - you need to pay more attention to wrapping those contour curves around the forms to really communicate the volume of these objects. Be sure to watch/rewatch this video on the subject.
I'd like to see two more pages of organic forms with contour curves.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-10 19:55
Pretty solid work. I did notice that your textured dissections (whose texture work is fantastic) end up falling a little short in the form category. That's the reason I tried to emphasize that you should draw it much like an organic form with contour lines first, without any clear intention of what you want to do with it afterwards. You tried to think ahead, which ended up causing you to pay less attention to your forms.
I won't have you redo them though - I think had you followed those instructions, you would have done some really amazing work. Your textures are really phenomenal, after all.
What I will have you redo however is one more page of form intersections. I just want to see if you can do them without having to rely on blocking them in with blue ink first. From what I can see, the way you did it in blue was perfect. Just skip the step of drawing over them again.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2015-06-09 21:58
Your results, though a bit cartoony (because of your proportions), aren't bad. You are however completely missing the point when it comes to the use of the box. You draw a box, but then just draw your car normally within the box, mostly ignoring that it's even there.
Your approach should be:
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Proportion study - your rectangle should match the general width and height of your object, and that object should fit snugly within it.
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Draw a box that matches the general width/height/depth of your object
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Based on your proportion study, start subdividing that box your major shapes - you can use more boxes for this, even for your cylinders. Draw deliberately - don't sketch, don't explore on the page. Think about what forms you need to draw, and then consider where in the box they are going to fit.
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Start refining your subdivided forms - turn your wheel-boxes into proper cylinders, start defining any curves you might have - but make sure you're building right off of this structural lay-in of boxes. If you ever find yourself drawing random lines floating in the air, you haven't subdivided enough and you're making too big a jump without any underlying structure.
Look at the train demo again. The video recordings for the train and tank might help as well, though I'm not sure if you have access to that.
Either way, the main point is not to jump ahead where you have no framework. It's like crossing a river, but you're slowly building the bridge under you while you cross. You lay down some planks, then take a step. Then lay down some more, and take another step. You can't take two steps, because there will be no planks and you will plummet to your death.
.. iknowthatsnothowbridgesworkbutitsametaphorD:
On another note, I too very much like your tank. It says a lot though that the front of the tank is set at a completely different angle from your initial box, though.
Give it another shot.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-06-09 21:32
Drawing from life always trumps drawing from photo reference, largely because of the fact that photos do a lot of the work for you. It's very easy to simply look at a photograph and then replicate what you see without understanding it. It's virtually impossible to properly replicate what you see in real life without understanding how the forms work in 3D space. So, forcing yourself to understand how the forms work together when working from photos does help, though ultimately you'll gain more from drawing from life.
As for your homework, what I'm seeing varies. Pages three and four are very well done, especially with your work on the aloe plant. I do notice however that in the bottom left of page 4, you are skipping steps of the lay-in process. You're drawing the little bumps and ridges and waves in the leaves - complex details - without ever laying in the simpler breakdown of the form. You should only be moving into detail once your basic shapes are fleshed out.
Another thing I noticed is that you have a tendency of being very messy and sloppy with your hatching. That's probably what you meant by 'shading is bad'. An example of this is the top right of page 7. You have hatching lines going in all different directions, as if you're just trying to cover the space rather than thinking through what direction those lines should flow. Every hatching line works like a mini contour line. It should flow with the curvature of the surface.
Generally I feel like you're just on the edge - you have a decent sense of form and shape, but you're being sloppy with some of your lay-ins, and you're not thinking enough when you put down your shading. The most important thing to consider when making a mark is whether or not it will contribute to your drawing. There are two kinds of meaningful marks - the ones that end up being a part of the final drawing, and the ones that help you understand your forms better. If a mark does neither, it should not be drawn.
I'd like to see two more pages of plants before I mark this lesson as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "John Park starts an affordable online foundational art program, "Foundation Group""
2015-06-09 13:37
Honestly I'm not entirely sure how they're structuring Foundation Group. They say they're covering dynamic sketching - which is the core of the fundamentals I teach here - but I'm not sure how they're going to lead into that.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-09 13:28
You can move onto the next lesson if you feel comfortable. Just remember that you need to refrain from thinking on the page. Prepare and plan before each mark you make, and consider if it is contributing to the final drawing or your ability to understand the form you're drawing.
Uncomfortable in the post "John Park starts an affordable online foundational art program, "Foundation Group""
2015-06-09 02:02
It does! I really appreciate it :D
Uncomfortable in the post "John Park starts an affordable online foundational art program, "Foundation Group""
2015-06-09 00:31
I really appreciate the encouragement. From what I've seen since posting this, it definitely does seem like there's room for both, so I'm going to be continuing to pursue my plans. Ultimately it's probably the best thing I can do - focusing on the community aspect of things, on building up a group of people who can benefit from each other as much as from the lessons.
As for the patreon, there actually isn't a maximum - just suggested amounts. I suppose it makes a lot of sense though, that people would be automatically going for one of the amounts I set out, so as per your suggestion, I added a few more steps.
I think at the end of the day, my goal isn't really to keep doing this singlehandedly, but rather to develop it into something self-sustaining. I want to nurture a culture of people proving themselves and then turning around to give back to those behind them. Eventually, I'd like to shift the focus away from my critique (since it's not exactly the most sustainable model). Once the new version of the website is done, the plan is going to be to allow those who complete the lessons to an exemplary level, to go back and give critiques to others.
There's going to have to be some sort of a concrete reason for them to actually put in the time to critique others, some sort of incentive, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. It really is beneficial - I've learned loads from critiquing others - but it's not the sort of thing everyone's going to jump at.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-09 00:21
Generally you did a solid job all around. Your linework and forms are quite confident, so that's good to see. Your textures are also varied and well executed. Page 9's a bit weird, not so much because of the strange experimentation, but more because of the way you applied a fairly heavy weight to some of the internal curves relative to the silhouette of the forms.
Anyway, solid work all around, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2015-06-09 00:18
Definitely improving considerably. Still a few proportional issues here and there that come from.. pretty much ignoring what I've pointed out the last few times.. but they're definitely way better than the first set you shared. I especially like the way you deal with curves. The two bottoms of page 1 are my favourites of the lot, especially the one on the right.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-09 00:15
Congrats on completing the challenge. Or, at least I assume you did - you posted up to 196, I'm going to guess that there's another 54 hangin' out somewhere.
There's a few areas where you can improve:
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First off, watch the video at the top of the challenge post. It goes over the concept of the minor axis of an ellipse, and explores a method that starts with a box to ensure that the ellipses are aligned properly.
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You have a very sketchy approach to drawing, that's something that we'll need to fix. You do improve on this considerably as you move through the cylinders, though. Still, I want to reiterate on the mentality you should have while drawing:
It's all about the ghosting technique. It forces you to think before you put a mark down on the page, by splitting the drawing process into three steps.
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Identify the line you want to draw. Where does it start and end? Does it curve?
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Prepare to draw the line. Find a comfortable angle of approach and start ghosting through the motion. Keep ghosting through it until it feels right.
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Finally, once you feel comfortable with the motion, as you continue ghosting, put the pen to the page and draw the mark in a smooth, steady, but swift motion.
You force yourself to do this every time you draw a mark - it keeps you from drawing unnecessary lines and forces you to draw one mark per line, instead of being sketchy. It also forces you to think through everything you do, instead of exploring your shapes right on the page.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-09 00:08
It's mostly just practice and getting an eye for it. You're definitely on the right track though, these exercises look solid.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-08 19:33
The form intersection is very solid. The little plant sketches look good too, so I expect to see good things from you in lesson 3. Feel free to move ahead.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-06-08 19:22
Unless you want to start getting really scientific and talking about field of view and focal lengths (which I know next to nothing about), a cylinder drawn properly in perspective can look the same as a cone that's had its tip lopped off (basically a cylinder that tapers instead of remaining straight).
The second cylinder you drew, with two parallel lines, is not an impossible shape/form - it is what you'd see with a cylinder that is smaller at the end closer to you than at the farther end. That tapering would counterbalance against perspective's distortion, resulting in straight, parallel lines.
The fact of the matter is, however, that we are in the business of communication, and in most situations, this would confuse the viewer. You usually have other objects in a scene that the viewer can compare against to help explain what they're seeing, but more often than not if you have a tapering cylinder, you're going to want to exaggerate it. That way the viewer can be sure that you're not simply making a mistake.
It is for that reason that your box/rectangular prism on the second page still reads like a box - it's still within the range of what we'd expect to read as a box. If it were far more dramatic, we'd start questioning it. If it were next to other boxes that did not show a particularly dramatic perspective distortion, we'd start be able to compare against them and get the sense that there is something special and different about this one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2015-06-08 19:11
Nice! Your second page looks solid. I really like the (external harddrives?), they look to have some weight to them, and the camera came out much better this time around.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-06-08 18:27
Good work on completing the challenge. I do have one thing to point out though, that you may or may not have noticed. The vast majority of your boxes are seen from an upwards angle - the orientations are fairly similar. You may want to try varying it up a little more in the future so you don't get super comfortable with one orientation, and not with others.
I've seen some people draw a series of boxes, gradually turning more and more with each subsequent box. You may want to try something staggered like that so each time you're forced to turn it more than the last.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-08 18:24
Generally, nice work. I only have two complaints. One is with some of the dissections - specifically the ones with the heads. When doing this exercise, it's important to ignore the actual forms and objects in your reference. You want to separate the surface textures from the forms themselves, so you can apply them to your own organic forms. You did this successfully in the rest of the dissections, so I just wanted to bring your attention to this to explain why some were better than others.
Also, in your form intersections, I would like you to refrain from drawing lightly first, then drawing the "clean" lines on top. This methodology really impedes the development of your confidence. Everything you put down should either be drawn confidently, or not at all. That isn't to say that you shouldn't be drawing through forms - you absolutely should, but do so with confidence. Don't worry about trying to hide lines that aren't supposed to be a part of the final drawing - we're focusing on understanding the forms and improving the quality of your lines, not making distinctly pretty pictures.
Once you've drawn through where you need to, you can go back and increase the line weights in some areas, but not in the sense that you darken all of the "final-drawing-lines". Rather, you can add line weight to demonstrate overlaps or to add dimension to some of your forms, as described in these notes.
Anyway, you did well, so go ahead and move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 2)"
2015-06-07 19:00
Your form intersections are actually pretty good. Your dissections and organic forms are not so much though - but before I critique them, I really do need to see stuff from lesson 1. I understand that you lost the sketchbook, but could you redo one page from each of those exercises so I can be sure that you're doing them all correctly before moving on?
When you post that to the lesson 1 thread, just give me a little reminder that you posted this one, and I'll critique it then.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-06-15 23:19
Definitely moving in the right direction. You should still probably be drawing a lot bigger, but your constructions are pretty good. I especially like the fox on page 1. The camel on the same page is nice as well, though its hump should be a separate form that connects to the torso. The added bump makes the form kind of complicated, so it's a better idea to approach it in steps as separate forms.
Based on these constructions and the work you did previously, I'll mark this lesson as complete. You definitely have a lot of room to grow, but it looks to me like you have a good sense of what you're doing.