Uncomfortable in the post "Video: Not the usual fundamentals-fare, but here's a digital painting process video"
2015-04-01 03:25
It becomes much easier if you regularly paint on one layer. It forces you to get accustomed to changing things just by painting over what you've already got.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-04-01 02:38
Congrats on completing the challenge. I think the critique I gave for your lesson 2 homework applies here too. Use the ghosting technique, slow down and plan your marks. It'd definitely help to take more time to think through everything you're going to do.
Uncomfortable in the post "Video: Regarding Form Intersections"
2015-04-01 02:09
Aha, good catch! Yes, you're definitely correct. Intersections definitely are not my strongest suit. I'll make an annotation on the video that links to your comment.
But you'd best be lookin' over your shoulder from now on, having called me out in public. I'll strike when you least expect it!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-31 21:31
I'm glad to hear that you've mustered up the courage to post some of your homework, but you need to start at the beginning. The reason I insist that everyone submits all of their homework is because it makes it much more straightforward for me to deal with the lower-level problems that become obvious on those initial exercises.
It has both the benefit of being much clearer for the person receiving the critique, and of being much easier for me to give the critique. So, if you would like me to help give you direction, please start by submitting your homework for lesson 1.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#2)"
2015-03-30 23:41
The line weights on that sharpie'd page definitely look much more dynamic - consider that, going forward. I suppose your reasoning for not doing it everywhere else is wise, though in later drawings you should continue to vary your line weights instead of leaving them uniform.
In general though, you're doing fairly well. Plenty of room to grow, but you're catching most of your mistakes.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-30 23:34
Pretty decent. I really like the frog in the top left of page 2. Just don't forget to 'ground' your animals, by literally drawing a bit of the ground underneath them. Usually the outline of the drop shadow is sufficient, or a little bit of dirt/grass detail, as you see in my demos.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2015-03-30 23:04
I think the biggest issue here is a lack of solid lay-ins. The benefit of lay-ins is that they don't leave much grey area in terms of correctness. There's no smooth, carved forms, there's just solid geometric forms.
Beyond that, you can (and probably should practice) block in forms with just boxes. A box can represent any other form, because it is the perfect encapsulation of 3D space. Once you've got a box set up, you can build any other form within it.
Another thing, which I demonstrate in the image above, is that you're dropping in your cylinders very arbitrarily. That's mostly because of the lack of attention to the lay-ins, but there's a bit of a technique that you can use.
If you lay them in as boxes initially, you can then find the centers of the two opposite faces, and connect those to find the 'spine' of your cylinder. That's going to align to your minor axes of your two ellipses. This will keep the alignment of your cylinder correct - most of your cylinders end up being off because you don't align them to a particular center line or spine.
I'd like to see four more pages, but don't go into any detail. Only do the form intersection construction. If you find the next step requires you to draw something that is not purely one of the major geometric forms, stop and move onto the next.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-29 23:26
Pretty good! On a subjective level, I do think you've probably pushed your detail a little too far, but you still handled it pretty well. Even though you've got a lot of detail in there, you've done it in a way that does not create a lot of competing points of contrast.
There definitely are some issues with your underlying structure though. I generally see that from people who tend to push this far with their detail - the detail becomes the focus of their efforts, so the forms end up being left a little flat or misrepresented. It's not as big of a deal here, but I do notice a lot of areas where your contour lines do not wrap around forms very convincingly.
I think the best place to tackle this issue is in the next lesson, so I'm going to mark this one as complete. When you tackle the insects, don't push your details this far. Focus on the lay-ins, and make sure your forms are readable and recognizable before you apply any detail at all.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Dynamic Sketching Completed, and the Drawabox Facebook Page"
2015-03-29 16:50
Haha, thanks, I appreciate that!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-29 05:00
Your drawings look pretty good, actually. The constructions are solid enough, and (most of them) look like actual people rather than weird disfigured messes, so that's definitely a good thing. There are some travesties here and there, but I definitely see progress throughout.
As for your questions,
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Likeness - this comes from observation, there's no two ways about it. Gradually you'll learn to pay closer attention to the features and proportions of the face. The proportions that I used in the lesson are good guidelines, but they're not hard-fast rules. For example, sometimes you'll find that the nose dips a little lower or higher. They serve as a solid starting point, though. Always pay close attention to your reference.
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Drawing women - your women generally look like women as far as I'm concerned, but the most significant piece of advice I've heard on this topic is that women (that is, young, beautiful women) tend to have very few lines to their face. That is where that 8-point mask shape comes in very handy, because it defines the form without having to use too many lines. For now though, learning the construction by drawing it out will allow you to train your brain into being able to visualize it.
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Teeth - don't draw all the lines you see. Separating each individual tooth out is going to make it look weird, because line gives you a limited gradation between values. It's very much either on (line drawn) or off (no line). With teeth, the lines that separate them are usually fairly faint, so it looks more natural if you leave those lines out. Instead, hint at them by implying little notches on the bottoms of the teeth, where those gaps begin.
I'm going to be rewriting all of these lessons, as I did the previous set, so it's up to you whether you want to wait for that or continue on, but I'll mark this lesson as complete anyway.
...Although I am going to be changing up the order and structure of the drawing people lessons, so it's gonna get a little weird and complicated. The badges/lessons are gonna be out of sync.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Dynamic Sketching Completed, and the Drawabox Facebook Page"
2015-03-29 04:28
I see. Well, on the bright side, it's a little more lax for the first two lessons. Their homework sections state:
In a pinch, ballpoint pens can be used, but I strongly advise against using pencils or working digitally for these exercises.
A rollerball is basically just a higher quality ballpoint (as far as I can tell), so it should be fine until you reach lesson 3.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: Dynamic Sketching Completed, and the Drawabox Facebook Page"
2015-03-29 03:47
Thanks! I'm looking forward to taking a look at your homework once it's done.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-28 16:45
Much better! And that's a great challenge to give yourself. I especially like that you've given yourself an end date. It's much easier to complete a challenge when you know it'll end.
Now that you're starting to get the lay-ins down, I'd like to see just two more pages of full animal drawings.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-28 16:36
I think you're ready to move forward, though there is definitely some room to grow. Here's a few areas where you can improve:
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Your lay-ins look very much like wireframes to me. Try and avoid the regularly-spaced contour lines, as they'll quickly make your drawing look boring. One here, a couple there - just enough to start convincing you that you're drawing something 3D.
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You do your lay-ins and your drawings completely differently. The lay-ins are the first step, and then you simply keep going to finish your drawing.
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If you have trouble drawing a smooth curve to wrap around your form as a contour, don't be afraid of drawing a full ellipse.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-27 15:43
Looking at your homework, you seem kind of impatient. That's one of the (many) reasons I believe it is beneficial to have people fully complete the exercises of prerequisite lessons. It helps build up the patience that is really required to properly develop one's drawing abilities. Of course, I forcing people to do so just to access the material would be kind of unfair. Instead, I limit my critiques - which take a lot of time and effort on my part - to those who show the persistence and patience demonstrated by completing the requirements.
So. If you would like me to critique your work, please complete the lessons fully. You'll find the minimum homework requirements in the 'homework' sections of each of the lessons, as well as the required medium. I see that you did a little of each lesson, in bits and pieces, but really not enough to consider the lessons complete by any stretch.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-26 23:15
Definitely an improvement. I'll mark this lesson as complete, though you definitely have a lot of room to improve, so I'll point out things that you missed out on.
Most importantly, I think you're still not putting enough into your lay-ins/constructions. Sometimes you'll do more construction work on the legs, for instance, but often times you still leave them underdeveloped. See?.
You should be focusing on the initial construction. Think back to the previous lessons. Everything is a form intersection, everything is made up of rudimentary 3D forms. We may draw them as 2D shapes initially, but we always keep those volumes in mind and try and reinforce them whenever we can. Don't let the details overwhelm you.
Though at times your proportions are still off, you do have quite a few good ones that make me confident you're understanding the general idea. #2 on page 7 looks good, as does #1 on page 9. Your squirrels and sharks are pretty well done too.
Anyway, you should definitely keep practicing the animals, but for now I think you're ready to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-26 22:44
You haven't yet submitted the prerequisites for this lesson! You must complete the basics first (lessons 1 and 2) before I will accept the homework for this lesson.
All the same, I drew a quick breakdown/critique of one of your faces (because I didn't realize you hadn't completed the prerequisites until I was half finished). Your proportions are pretty decent, though you tend to let things float in space instead of having them exist as grounded forms. You also don't pay close enough attention to the shapes in your reference. Finally, I'd recommend not using very much shading at this stage. Right now your shading is very scribbly, and isn't really contributing much of anything. Focus on the form and construction.
As for your question, the bottom points align with the end of the jawline and the chin, as I marked in the critique.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-26 22:08
You've definitely shown some improvement. Your forms are being conveyed much better, and the top of page 3 is very well done. The only critique I have for that one in particular is that you missed where I said in the last critique,
contours are good, but try and avoid making them so regular & equally spaced out. Wireframe-look is boring.
You've applied that wireframe-look to all of your drawings here, so work on breaking up that monotony.
Since you're getting a better grasp on the forms, I'd like to see two pages of plants taken to the detail stage. Remember to approach it as you did these last lay-ins first, and then apply the detail on top of it. Don't try and just cover the entire drawing with an equal amount of detail. Instead, work towards establishing a clear focal point. Also, spend a lot more time than you did before paying attention to your reference photos. Before it was clear that you were only spending a limited time observing your reference, and then worked off of what you remembered seeing for the bulk of the time. Don't trust your memory. Keep looking back and looking carefully at your reference.
Last of all, I noticed that when you applied detail, there were times when you applied textures to rounded surfaces as if those surfaces were flat. Always remember that the surface texture will warp with the surface. If you haven't already, watch this video on organic forms w/ contour lines. In there, I talk a bit about how those surfaces curve, and how the surface textures will be modified to communicate the turning of the form.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-25 21:55
Definitely a good idea to study /u/VirtualSoldier's work. In doing so, one thing you'll notice is that you're not really solidifying your forms early on. I'm noticing that you seem to be getting overwhelmed by the detail, so you quickly end up jumping into that - because it's very difficult to see anything beyond it.
Think about how you approached your insects. They all had clear volumes and forms. You used contour lines to reinforce that, and you understood how each piece connected together. Take a look at this.
Some of your drawings are good, but the problem is that they're hit-and-miss because they don't rely on any sort of underlying framework and understanding to ensure their quality.
To help you deal with this, I'd like to see three more pages of animals - whichever animals you like. This time, however, only draw their lay-ins. They should be entirely recognizable, but without any sort of extra detail. Remember to treat them like a more organic version of the form intersections, and if you get stuck, look back at your insect homework.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: YouTube Videos"
2015-03-25 14:51
I actually do touch on that in the lessons that cover observational drawings. You're right, a lot of people explain the techniques of copying what you see onto a page, but that's not what I try to emphasize. If you compare most of my demonstrations to the reference, they're not spot on. Part of it's because I'm not terribly skilled at reproduction, but it's also because I'm not necessarily trying to reproduce. I'm trying to understand.
There are many levels of information that define an object. Its construction, its gesture, its surface texture. These components serve as digestible pieces of the overall concept of that object. If you look at an object and try to understand it as it is, it's overwhelming. There's just too much being thrown at you at once, so at best you might reproduce what you see on the page, but would you be able to rotate it in space and draw it from a different angle? No, because you don't understand it.
So, instead of trying to reproduce what you see, I encourage a multi-step approach. First, try to ignore all of the details that are present. Instead, see the simple forms that lie underneath. The boxes, tubes, balls, pyramids and cones. See how they intersect and interact with each other.
Once you've been able to capture that on the page, You start thinking about how those forms can be carved to capture a little more of the nuance of the object itself. You're increasing the amount of visual information that you're allowing into your study, bit by bit. Once those forms are refined, and it actually looks like a simplified, but recognizable version of your object, you can explore the surface textures - that is, the details.
By working this way, you both understand the object much more clearly, but you also have a much greater degree of control over how you choose to present that information. You're dealing with everything step by step, so deciding on a particular focal point (over detailing the shit out of everything, resulting in an incredibly high-contrast, busy mess) can be considered before approaching that step.
But it doesn't stop there. A single drawing still only captures one particular view. You've got a lot of those basic forms though, so you should be able to reconstruct it at different angles. It is all based on one's ability to rotate forms arbitrarily in 3D space.
There's always other things you can study within the object. Specific details and qualities can be drawn out as little doodles - you will remember better if you write out actual notes of your observations. You'll remember even better still by drawing diagrams.
At the end of the day though, it's not a matter of "making them mine." That makes me think about taking a piece of reference and turning it into a piece of art. A study is a study - if you go into it intending to create a piece of art, you will not spend the appropriate attention to understanding. Why? Because often times the techniques we use to better understand forms and space means adding lines that you wouldn't necessarily want to have in a 'final drawing'. So don't go into it expecting or intending to create something beautiful. Go into it expecting to learn and understand, as though you'll be burning the drawing afterwards without showing a soul.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-24 19:24
Excellent work! Your animals all look extremely lively and fluid, whilst maintaining clear volumes, forms and constructions. Your notes are also very informative, it's clear that you studied your subjects a lot.
I believe you came in with very strong observational skills, but what's really kicked your work up to the next level is the attention you're paying to the underlying forms and how they fit together.
I really liked your winged fish by the way, it looks really believable! I ended up showing it to my coworkers.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-23 18:20
It's all about building a focal point - the circle is just a tool to make you, as the artist, remember where you want your focal to be. It's easy to get distracted.
The problem arises not so much from the amount of detail, but the result of the detail - contrast. Adding a lot of visual information in a spot will generally increase the contrast between light and dark in that area. That's what draws the eye, and if you're drawing the eye to an area that is not a focal point, you'll have competition between it and your intended focal point.
I'm far more interested in seeing peoples' understanding of depicting structure and form - so I leave the amount of detail up to you guys. All that matters to me in regards to that is that you have more detail in the focal area, and less outside of it. That doesn't mean you have to leave everything else empty - you just have to have a notable ramping up as you enter that focal circle, so the eye is drawn to it.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-03-23 02:27
Well done! Your first page of lay-ins was a little off but you picked up soon after that. I like how you experimented with different approaches for the various textures, and eventually established a nice way of balancing your detail with your rest areas. I especially love the textures and forms on the bumble bee on the bottom right of page 4.
The hermit crabs were also a great touch - you're absolutely right, they're very similar and when I was doing this lesson myself, my instructor pointed that out.
Anyway, I don't really have much critique to give. It looks like you're right on point, so keep it up.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-03-22 04:48
Don't forget that confidence is as much a part of improving as anything else. Fake it until it becomes the truth.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-03-22 03:31
Fantastic. The only thing that worries me is that you're either not conscious of what makes these drawings good, or you're just being unnecessarily humble.
You've definitely found a great balance between the stiffness you were exhibiting earlier, and the pleasant geometric, planar quality that your drawings tend to have. It does a great job of capturing the forms in a way that really presents the illusion of solidity and weight in three dimensions.
Those forms are definitely my main focus here. Your detailing is definitely sparse, but I don't really see that as a bad thing. Perhaps it might help in the future to try that circle-focal-point-marker technique to set an area that you need to detail, but I don't really find it that necessary. It's more about whether or not you feel that's something you'd like to do.
As far as your shadows go, they're generally good. You could stand to tighten them up a bit (at times they're a little sloppy), but they're generally well done.
As far as details/shadow go, the Sphinx Moth on page 5 is extremely well done, and a great example of something to aim for.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-03-20 22:27
Nice work! The impact of studying Scott Robertson's stuff really shows through.
Uncomfortable in the post "Why do I recommend doing the exercises in ink vs digitally?"
2015-03-20 21:58
Ballpoint's okay for the first and second lessons (not recommended, but I will critique it), though not for the third and onwards. It would be in your best interests to hunt down some felt tip pens.
As for the quality, photos work fine too. All that's important is that they're in focus so I can make out what you've drawn.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-19 15:45
Textures really aren't the issue here. What's lacking is the attention paid to the lay-in stages of the drawing. Essentially, you're not carrying over any of the techniques we covered in the previous lessons. Instead, you're focusing on outlining your shapes, which doesn't tell us much about the volumes and forms themselves.
Take a look at this. The first step to creating a drawing that gives the illusion of existing in three dimensions to the viewer is being convinced of it yourself. That means putting in those contour lines to help reinforce that illusion while you're drawing it. You've also got to understand how the different forms connect to one another. They can't just be floating around. You need to understand how they join together in explicit terms.
I'd like to see 4 pages of lay-ins. By layins, I mean completed to this stage: 1, 2, 3.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-19 02:15
That's debatable, I guess. There are a lot of ways to make the guide lines less visible, by allowing them to blend into the rendering, or using line weight to draw attention to other parts of the drawing and allowing those fainter guidelines to simply recede. The second approach is how we handle drawing in lessons 3-6. The results can still look great, and often times those guidelines aren't even noticeable unless you look carefully.
That said, when drawing faces it's riskier. If you're trying to draw a smooth, unwrinkled face, those guidelines can sometimes be fairly noticeable because there's nothing else to draw the attention away.
There's a lot of different ways of doing things, depending on what kind of result you're after, so I would never really discount one approach over another.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2015-03-18 19:28
They're crawling. And buzzing. And picking. And stinging. Buzz buzz buzz!
You did well! I see a lot of improvement over the course of the homework, and pages 9 and 10 look especially good. The stag beetle's textures are implied quite well, and their forms continue to dominate the drawing, instead of being overcome by the details (a common issue).
Great work. Feel free to move onto the next lesson, and keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-03-18 18:18
These cylinders look solid. That said, I don't think you should be aiming to nail the ellipses on the first go-around. Instead, keep drawing through them a couple times and aim to tighten up those lines. By which I mean, ideally you wouldn't be able to tell that you went around several times, because the lines would line up cleanly. Once you've achieved that, the ellipses you draw around only once will look much better.
As for the pace, when I did these lessons, I had one week to do each of them. Granted, I was taking other classes at the same time, and the homework I did was limited to 8 pages (I've added extra exercises where I thought they'd help), so usually I'd spend a full day or two completing them. Take that into consideration. If you were to spend 8 hours a day, I'd say a good goal would be one and a half days, perhaps. That said, it's a vague estimate, and I by no means want anyone to rush.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-18 13:52
We're not aiming to make pretty drawings here. We draw in that structure so we get used to the correct proportions as well as creating the illusion of a 3D, planar form. Over time, this kind of practice will lead to an improved understanding of those elements, to the point where you'll be able to leave out some of the lines and visualize them mentally instead.
That said, with these lessons, I stop stressing the felt-tip-pen-only rule that I enforce with lessons 1-6. That's because I generally feel that drawing humans is generally more complicated, and that restriction will result in far too much frustration for some people. But regardless of which medium you choose, I expect to see the forms/shapes/guidelines laid in.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-17 22:29
Two things:
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Structure. Imagine the different parts as parts of a machine that you're connecting together. Pieces can't just float off of others, you have to know where exactly they connect.
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Proportion. Pay special attention to the distances between different parts of the body. It might help to look at that circle you start off with for the head (which is usually the cranial mass) and use it as a measurement device. You don't have to be super accurate, but right now you have a tendency of drawing very long bodies.
I did a more detailed critique which you can see here. If you have any other questions (or can't decipher my handwriting) feel free to ask.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-17 19:46
Mistakes are par for the course. They happen, you get used to it, and gradually you learn to handle them or at least minimize their impact on a drawing.
I'm very pleased with the results - especially in comparison to the first set - so I'll be marking this lesson as complete. As you move forward, here are a couple things to keep in mind:
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You may want to draw a little bigger. You actually handle drawing small quite well (for most people it makes drawings very clunky and stiff). It might also be part of the cause of your stiffness, but that has been greatly reduced. Still, it's something to think about.
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I think I may have scared you a bit off pushing your details, so you threw in the minimum. I'm more interested in your forms, and you did great with those, but don't be afraid to push your details a little further. Put a light pass of detail over the whole thing, and then really ramp up the detail on your focal point. Finding the right balance takes some time, but I have no doubt that you're well on your way of achieving it.
In general, great work!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-16 23:01
The problems are definitely in the lay-in stage. It's kind of difficult to pinpoint what you're doing wrong though, since a lot of the clues are covered up by detail. Could you give me four or five drawings stopping before the detail phase?
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-16 22:57
Definitely a HUGE improvement, big move in the right direction. Moving forward, I'd like you to ease up on some of the contour lines. One here and there is a great way to show volume, but overdoing it with a lot of regularly spaced lines will result in a sort of 3D-mesh effect. It looks cool on its own, but it's not too great when you want to move forward.
Also, I did notice that you're still being a little timid with those contour lines. When the lines break, they lose their flow - so a broken ellipse will generally end up misshapen, or a broken straight line will come out jagged and bent.
I'd like you to try two more pages of plant drawings, taking your new-and-improved lay-in technique, applying the things I mentioned above, and pushing them all the way through the detail phase. Don't go overboard with the detail, and remember to always keep that underlying form in mind. The detail is subordinate to the underlying form.
I'm thinking this should be the last step before I can let you move on to the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2015-03-15 21:44
Your notes and observations are just fine - everyone records information differently, and it looks to me like you understand your notes perfectly. Also, your drawings are really quite beautifully done.
That said, you kind of went off on a tangent from what the lesson was covering. Your eye for detail is certainly solid, but it's the underlying forms that are lacking. The lay-ins weren't approached correctly.
Lets look at the first two pages, and compare them to your work from lesson 2. In lesson 2, you drew robust organic forms with great contours that wrapped nicely around them. There was a clear sense of volume. Your lay-ins here look completely different. The lines are timid and frightened, you don't want to risk putting down a line lest it be a mistake. Before, you weren't drawing specific objects, you were just drawing random forms. So this is to be expected.
When you're faced with a subject, it's very easy to become overwhelmed by the detail there. You've got to look beyond its little details and focus on the overall forms. You've got to draw complete forms with unbroken lines, and solid contours that wrap fully around the forms.
Take a look at this. That's what you're aiming for with your lay-in. Think beyond the details and the sketchiness and just look for the forms underneath.
I'd like you to do four pages of lay-ins only.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 6: Hard Surface Objects"
2015-03-13 19:41
Since lesson 7 is the first lesson of a different set, its prerequisites are only the basics - which you've completed (look at that shiny purple badge, oh boy!) So it's totally fine for you to move onto drawing people for now, 'til I've redone lesson 6.
Uncomfortable in the post "OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: 250 Cylinders"
2015-03-12 22:32
Congrats on completing the challenge. I do think you'll gain more from practicing these cylinders by drawing through the entire form - that is, including the full ellipse of the far end of the cylinder. One major issue that I'm seeing often is the degrees of your ellipses. In a cylinder, the far end ellipse will always have a larger degree (width) than the closer end.
I mention that in the Cylinder Basics notes that were included in this post.
Uncomfortable in the post "Who Are You? Introduce Yourselves!"
2015-03-12 02:53
Welcome to /r/ArtFundamentals! We're glad to have you. It made me cringe a bit to think about that wrist injury. I hope it doesn't hinder you from reaching your goals in the future.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: The Head and Face from the Front"
2015-03-11 21:29
Hm, I'm probably not the person to copy, since people are generally my weaker area (and yet I post these lessons, HA!). As for sketches, I've only really got the stuff I did to critique others.
When I do faces for myself, I usually do value or colour studies. Except for the three heads, those were just off the top of my head, hence the stylization.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 6: Hard Surface Objects"
2015-03-10 22:17
You actually did far better than I expected. This lesson was especially poorly written, and I've started telling people just to wait for me to rewrite it, as I've been doing to the other lessons. I should reach this one next weekend, as this weekend's going to be lesson 5.
That said, you're generally not bad. Your tank on page 2, the tractor on page 1, they're pretty solid. You start to go awry when you try to plot perspective with your damn vanishing points. Having your vanishing points close enough to do that will mess with your focal length and make your perspective super dramatic. This makes everything look crazy, so... just don't do it. Instead approach things as you did with the tractor, starting off with a box to block in the space, and then fitting all of your other form intersections within it.
About laying out the wheels, I find it helpful to block them in using a cylinder stretching the full length of the axle, then cutting them into chunks to separate out the wheels.
Finally, for your cylinder intersection question, here's my guess: http://i.imgur.com/3NIwnBN.jpg.
For now, put this lesson on hold, and wait for me to rewrite it. Then you can take another stab at the homework (hopefully with a far clearer explanation of the concepts), and.. things might go better.
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: YouTube Videos"
2015-03-10 01:37
Honestly I've never really been big on watching youtube videos for educational content - because the majority of them (like Feng Zhu and the like) tend to get into the more advanced stuff because it's a lot more fun to watch, and generates more views. I'd probably point you in the direction of Stan Prokopenko and Scott Robertson if you pressed me for a couple suggestions.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 6: Hard Surface Objects"
2015-03-08 22:09
Hm... I'm about two weeks off of rewriting the lesson for hard surface objects, just like I've been doing for the others. Rather than critiquing you now, I think it'd be best if you waited for me to post it. I'll be taking an in-depth look at what you've been drawing, as well as the struggles some of the others have had with this subject, and I'll try and tailor the newer version of the lesson to tackle those issues.
Uncomfortable in the post "LESSON 5: Drawing Animals"
2015-03-08 22:07
That was actually the instructor's way of demonstrating how what we'd been doing during the class (which was strictly constructional studies from life and photo reference) changed the way we drew from imagination on various levels.
When I started the class, my visual library was pretty limited. I thought I knew what a lot of things looked like, but there were few things I'd gone out of my way to study, and even fewer that I had attempted to understand while studying. So, when I drew that shark, it was based on virtually no knowledge of what sharks look like, nor was it based on understanding of how fish in general look, or the similarities between virtually all animals. I was in the dark.
When I finished off the class, and we did the 'drawing test' once again, my visual library had developed a fair bit. I had studied a lot of tanks for the week we were tackling hard surface vehicles (and we'd gone on a field trip to what was basically a parking lot full of all sorts of tanks and military vehicles, where I got to study them live). So, when I went up to the whiteboard to draw a tank, my visual library was full of all these little bits of information that had taken root. What I drew wasn't necessarily identical to any tank I'd studied, but because of the little bits of detail I'd retained, and the general understanding of tank construction, as well as my increased ability to combine 3D forms on paper, I drew something that was believably a tank.
This didn't come from practicing drawing from my imagination - it came purely from studying the reference, and letting that information slowly accumulate in my subconscious visual library. Essentially, you develop the skills required to draw off the top of your head by studying things from life and reference.
You certainly can see how you've come along, though, and one thing that is probably relevant that I generally encourage is doing a couple drawings of a subject you've just studied at angles other than the ones you see in your reference. You can still use that reference, but it's a way to separate the information from the reference from the composition of the shot itself.
By the way, I'm sure you've noticed that I've been rewriting a lesson each week - next weekend I should be posting the animals lesson, so you might want to hold off on starting on it. Maybe give the other lesson set (drawing people) a shot while you wait?
Uncomfortable in the post "Announcement: YouTube Videos"
2015-03-08 20:08
Hm, that's odd. I just gave it a shot on Android - I use Flow, where all three links worked fine. Then I downloaded Reddit News. The two video links worked fine, but whenever I tried opening the channel, it would crash upon attempting to open the Youtube app, or something along those lines.
Either way, looks to be an issue with the app. Thanks for letting me know though!
Uncomfortable in the post "Video: How to Draw a Box (to help with the organic perspective exercise)"
2015-03-08 04:29
That was rather interesting. He definitely runs with boxes a lot further than I have in the past, and it's neat to see him apply it to the figure.
It makes sense though that a lot of the exercises I present here come up elsewhere, because for the most part they're what I was taught. When I started this subreddit, I pretty much only regurgitated the lessons I was taught by one specific instructor. It wasn't until more recently that I started putting my own spin on it. I'm kind of curious as to Mark's educational background, and whether he came up with those exercises himself, or if he was educated as an industrial designer, or if he is a product of the entertainment design scene in Los Angeles (where I studied, albeit briefly). It's definitely neat to see those exercises and those concepts expressed with those small, personal shifts.
Uncomfortable in the post "Video: Not the usual fundamentals-fare, but here's a digital painting process video"
2015-04-01 04:13
Here's a wallpaper size - though technically speaking it's not really "finished". I'm not sure if I'll take it into the next phase or not.
As for the music - funny thing that. It's royalty free music that I actually spent $75 on, because I really liked it. It's the Cinematic Music Pack from Bonix Music, by Peter Gunder.
): Royalty free music is goddamn expensive, especially when you're making 20 minute videos. My wallet aches!