Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-22 22:02

These are looking very nice. You're being quite mindful of your constructions, have a good sense of how those leaves flow through space and are demonstrating a strong sense of observation when it comes to the core forms that make up an object.

There's only two things I'd like to recommend:

• When applying texture, you tend to get very scribbly. Scribbling is never the right answer - it basically means that you're drawing without planning those marks, and are therefore not placing your intent on the page. You aren't always scribbling - I see some nice uses of spackling and other such things, but there definitely are areas where you seem to care a little less for that level of integrity in some of your drawings. This kind of implies in general - stop, think, plan and prepare before every mark you put down. Use the ghosting method. Don't get caught up in the feeling of drawing energetically if it means being haphazard.

• Your use of contour curves/ellipses are a little sloppy. Draw through all of your ellipses. Additionally, think about the purpose those contour curves and ellipses serve. You'll gain a lot more from one or two that have been drawn with care and consideration than from a bunch that were just laid down without much thought between them.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next lesson. Oh, one last thing - I can't be sure, but it does look like these may have been done with a ballpoint pen. Remember that lessons 3-6 should be done with fineliners/felt tip pens. If you were using the correct tools, then ignore this point. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference from photographs.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2017-03-22 21:55

There's certainly some improvement. I especially like this page of dogs. That said, you still have a long way to go, especially in terms of focusing on that observation. There's still a lot of areas where you're drawing what you think you saw, rather than what is actually there. A lot of forms are oversimplified

Something that I'd be interested in seeing you try is to replicate this demo to the best of your ability. Basically follow through the steps exactly as they're shown.

Take special care at each step - for example, one thing I notice you doing is building the torso (connecting the ribcage and pelvis masses) as a fairly rigid, straight form. If you look at step 2 of this demo, you'll see that I build this form with specific weights in particular areas, with a more exaggerated curve on the bottom side and a shallower one on top, and the pelvis sitting a little higher on the underside than the ribcage.

Additionally, give these notes a read. The nature of your contour curves/ellipses seem a bit arbitrary, so it may help give a little context as to what the orientation and degree of an ellipse describes about the circle it represents in 3D space.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"

2017-03-21 22:40

Old thread got locked. Those eligible for critiques from me can submit their homework here.

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2017-03-21 22:13

I'll pour one out for the pens who gave their lives in service to a greater cause. It was a worthy sacrifice though, as your work here is superb. You've nailed exactly what I was trying to explain through the notes on the challenge page, and did a great job at both exploring different textures and experimenting with how to create gradation from a wide variety of particularly challenging configurations of detail. Your notes and observations are keen and the results on the right column are wonderfully executed. Nothing is repetitive, and they all demonstrate a really solid grasp of how light plays across these various surfaces.

Keep up the fantastic work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-21 21:52

These definitely exhibit much more focus, and feel considerably more deliberate, so good work. I'll go ahead and mark the lesson as complete.

As for the approach you were using before, it's not abnormal or uncommon at all, but it is a little misguided. Beginners are used to seeing rough sketches that can quickly and easily imply a great amount of information with a fairly limited use of linework. It feels as though excellent work is being churned out with greater energy, and perhaps less clear, targeted focus, and in turn they feel that they themselves should work towards that end.

What they miss is the fact that in order to achieve that successfully, one must first be familiar with what goes into drawing things with a more painstaking approach. Gaining a familiarity with where every leaf lies, where every petal sits, and so on. The artist quickly being able to imply the whole lot of them with just a few marks holds that spatial understanding in their heads, and are able at least to a degree to visualize them without necessarily putting all of the marks down. You haven't reached that point, as you haven't done the more in-depth study of these constructions, so your attempts at a similar approach fall a little flat and come out looking more sloppy rather than energetic-yet-precise.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-21 21:42

Looking pretty good. I see a lot of careful corrections, amongst solid linework and reasonably steady construction. You're going about this just fine, and I can see improvement in your general confidence over the set. One thing that you could explore in order to kick your boxes up to the next level would be the use of line weight. You can find notes on that topic within the box challenge page.

Additionally, you may have found that drawing through your boxes leads to an unfortunate visual illusion where we can perceive each box in two different ways depending on which side we determine to be the front-facing side. One thing to help with this can be to fill one of the front-facing faces with some clean, tight hatching to serve as a visual cue and clear up any potential misunderstandings. It also... well, it also looks kinda nice.

Anyway, consider this challenge complete. Keep up the good work.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2017-03-21 21:19

Pretty good work overall. I'm glad to see that you're playing with both constructing cylinders purely from the minor axis, as well as approaching it by starting with a box, forcing yourself to contend with the complexities of getting those ellipses into planes properly. This will definitely come in handy in lesson 4.

I did notice that with some of your longer lines, you definitely had a tendency to lose a bit of control. Not abnormal, especially considering the nature of the lines where this occurred, but definitely something to keep an eye on.

Keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete. Also, thank you for your patience.

Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2017-03-21 02:23

The old thread got locked. Those eligible for critiques by me may submit their homework for this challenge here.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-20 03:44

Hey, just wanted to let you know that your homework submission hasn't been missed. Sorry for the delay - I'm swamped at work and haven't been able to get through my backlog. Things should be back to normal in a day or two.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2017-03-20 03:44

Hey, just wanted to let you know that your homework submission hasn't been missed. Sorry for the delay - I'm swamped at work and haven't been able to get through my backlog. Things should be back to normal in a day or two.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-18 01:32

Definitely an improvement. Keep up the good work.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-17 18:18

So I can definitely see some areas where you're struggling with this exercise. Most notably, your contour curves generally fall short of really pushing the illusion that they're wrapping around the 3D, rounded sausage forms, especially as they reach the edge of the shape. As they reach the edge, that curvature needs to accelerate so that it gives the impression that it's hooking back around. Instead, since you're maintaining a fairly consistent rate of curvature, it feels more like if the line were to continue, it'd simply fly off the surface of the form altogether. This inherently weakens the illusion of form, because our brains have to reconcile two contradictory pieces of information - some things suggest that the form should be rounded, while others suggest that it may be somewhat flatter.

The next time you do this particular exercise, try applying the overshooting method described here.

There are two other points to keep in mind when doing this exercise as well:

• Be more mindful of keeping your curves/ellipses aligned to the central minor axis line, such that the minor axis cuts each ellipse (or the ellipse of which the curve is merely the visible portion) into two equal, symmetrical halves.

• Consider how the degree of the ellipse you're drawing describes the orientation of that particular cross-section of the form. To better understand that, take a look at these notes.

I want you to do at least two more pages of organic forms with contour curves, and submit them alongside your next full attempt at the homework for this lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-17 18:09

I think you may be misleading yourself a little bit in regards to drawing whilst in class helping you focus, as the work you're showing me demonstrates the opposite. I'm seeing real issues with your ability to focus on thinking through each line you put down, and considering each stroke's value in the grand scheme of things.

Take a look at these notes. You can see there how you don't put much thought into constructing or abiding by the first step in leaf construction (and sometimes you neglect to do it altogether). You need to think about how that initial line flows from one point to another in 3D space, then build your leaf around it. Don't just put down an arbitrary line and loosely draw curves around it.

I want to see two more drawings of leafy plants.

Uncomfortable in the post "Frequently Asked Questions: I compiled a bunch of questions I felt were being asked rather frequently, so read through this list before asking your own."

2017-03-17 04:20

No. The ones I recommend in the homework sections of the lessons that require fineliners (staedtler pigment liners and faber castell pitt artist pens) are simply the ones I use myself. There are a wide variety of brands available, so it's really up to you which ones you choose. Just make sure that they are fineliners - so their tips should look like the ones shown in the homework sections.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-15 23:51

I think that's a fair assessment. Some things are good, some things are less so. Overall though I do see some good signs that may not entirely have the chance to shine through into the drawings yet, but I'm pleased to see them.

Firstly, your leaves exercises are coming along decently in terms of how they flow through space. Secondly, your branches are coming along great. I think you've really got the solidity and flow of those tubes down quite well, which is important. This actually shows quite well in drawings like your bare tree (#2).

As you move through the drawings in the set however, I get the distinct feeling that you may be getting a little too caught up in your rendering, and the idea of drawing pretty, detailed drawings. This is causing you to take shortcuts in terms of construction which are detrimental to the solidity of the end result.

For example, I see a lot of petals on this page where you're not really following through the leaf-construction method. Most importantly, I'm not seeing any strong center-lines to determine the flow of the flat shape through space in at least some of these drawings. In #12. you started out by fleshing out the bounds of where the petals would reach (loosely), but you jumped way too far in terms of complexity, dealing with each individual spike of each petal instead of dealing with them as larger flowing forms. You've got to abide by your constructional steps more closely.

Keep in mind that construction is different from loosely sketching something in before making your "final decisions." Construction IS making final decisions, and once they're made, you need to see them through.

Overall, I am seeing a lot of good signs but they're veiled in sloppy decision making. While I might generally be okay marking this as complete, I'm going to hold off on that. I want to see three more pages of plant drawings, focusing on construction only. No detail whatsoever, just make sure you're careful building up complexity step by step, never jumping too far ahead of yourself.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-15 23:43

The first page was a little weak (I think I audibly grunted because it's kind of late) but the pages after that are actually coming along great. I guess you were getting warmed up or something, but it does look to me that you're getting a solid grasp of things. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-15 02:20

Most of your lesson 1 stuff is looking pretty decent. One thing that definitely stands out though is that your boxes have a strong tendency towards having far planes larger than your near planes. This is because you're not drawing through them, so it's harder to get a full sense of how each form sits in 3D space.

Additionally, I'm noticing that you don't have any examples of the organic forms with contour ellipses/curves exercises. This is a technique that is used a fair bit in lessons 4 and 5, so it's definitely something you should practice. I'd like you to do a page of those, then we'll decide on a next step.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-14 22:55

No, you're not ready to move forwards. Show me the work you do before you draw.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-14 20:12

There are definitely some key issues that are plaguing your approach, but before we get into that, I do want to point out that it has been quite a while since your last submission. Over five months. It is definitely common for people to get rusty, so I have to ask whether or not you've been keeping up with the exercises from the first two lessons. Looking at your work, I think it's fair to say that you probably haven't.

This is perfectly fine, but it does mean that you should definitely revisit that material and sharpen up those skills. By jumping back where you left off, you're putting yourself at a very steep disadvantage.

Now, I'll give you a quick overview of things that I'm seeing here that you should avoid in terms of this lesson, so you can apply them once you're back up to speed with those earlier exercises.

• Don't draw a rough sketch, then try to do a cleanup pass with more careful lines. Those 'careful' lines end up being very stiff and don't convey a strong sense of form. You get that from the confidence of your initial lineworks, so focus only on doing things in one pass. Draw through forms as necessary, don't worry about hiding lines at all. We can organize them later by adding line weight to key areas, but you shouldn't be actively burdening yourself with the need to keep certain things less visible.

• When you draw your initial masses, they are not just loose approximations of things. Think of it as though you're placing actual physical balls of matter into 3D space. Once these are present, you cannot simply ignore them and change your mind - you need to deal with them appropriately. This means carving them or cutting them, or building on them. The difference here is that when you carve something, you need to be aware of both the piece that remains, and the piece that is being cut away, and you need to be aware of them as 3D forms in 3D space. You need to yourself be convinced of their solidity.

• Be more mindful of how the different forms connect to one another. I can see a lot of areas where you don't have clear connections between the legs and the torso, the wasp's wings to its thorax, etc. This shows me that you're not really thinking that much in terms of 3D form, still primarily lines on a flat page. This is largely why it's important for you to revisit the old material, as it lays the groundwork for thinking in three dimensions.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-14 19:59

To be honest, it's not a big change from your previous set. Your application of fur is still rather scribbly and noisy, more focused on the quantity of little furry marks rather than the quality of each one. That's effectively what I was saying last time - you have to design each curving tuft of fur as though it was a little character in a crowd. As it stands, I cannot pick out any one such character amongst the furry silhouette. Notice how in this demo (also from the other demos section in the lesson) you can pick out individual tufts? I mean, sure some of them are a bit repetitive, but they're not muddled scratches. They're distinct, they stand on their own, and they each contribute something to their localized area of fur.

Try again, and this time try and really force yourself to draw less fur. I'm noticing that you've got a bit of a trend where you probably try to incorporate my advice, but whenever you feel dissatisfied with your results, you try to correct it by simply adding more. That is not a viable solution, as it makes a mess. Strategize, hold yourself back, and if things go wrong, don't just pile on more linework. If necessary, leave the drawing alone and try again.

Also, yes: bigger is generally somewhat easier to work with.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2017-03-14 19:49

Looking good! You're generally doing great. The only thing I want to mention is that there was a different approach to constructing cylinders mentioned in the video - starting by constructing a box, then using it to find your minor axis and situate your ellipses. The "perfect circles in 3D space" video also mentioned exactly how to determine whether or not you're drawing an ellipse that represents a proper circle, or if it's squished/stretched in any given axis. In order to get used to this, it definitely helps to experiment with constructing cylinders within those boxes (since you're forced to deal with the building ellipses in planes, aligning cylinders to specific orientations, etc.) in ways that will ultimately be advantageous when you reach lesson 6.

This of course is just something to keep in mind as you move forwards. It doesn't play as significant a role until you actually complete a few more lessons, so just be sure to practice it before then. What you've done here is showing a good grasp of constructing even, confident ellipses, applying the ghosting method, and a generally strong sense of spatial awareness.

Keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-13 19:42

While overall you've definitely got a lot of patience and care when applying detail/texture, I do agree that you may have gone a bit overboard - to the point of perhaps allowing it to distract you from the underlying construction, and actually resulting in some of your forms being flattened out.

One major thing to know in terms of the illusion of solidity is that it's something that you imbue your construction with from the very beginning. At the end of each constructional phase (if you consider laying in your initial masses as the first phase, and each step of building up greater complexity from there), you can either maintain the same solidity as you had previously, or you can decrease. You can never gain solidity (obviously that's an extreme exaggeration, but it's a good rule of thumb).

So, it is entirely possible to have a very solid construction, and then apply texture in such a way that you undermine that solidity, and end up with parts of your drawing feeling a little flat. I can see a few key areas where you've perhaps tried to regain a degree of that solidity (like adding those subtle wireframe-like contour lines along your scorpion at the end there), which simply weren't able to accomplish the task.

Additionally, it's not uncommon for students who are eager to get into the detail phase of things to rush their constructions or to skip some of those steps. Lastly, with detailing this heavy, it's actually very difficult to identify where there are fundamental issues with your construction.

While you're not necessarily doing badly, I do feel that there are underlying issues in certain places that are weakening your results. I'd like you to do three more pages of insect drawings, with no detail whatsoever. Focus entirely on construction so I can see exactly what's going on underneath. Make sure you draw everything with full confidence, not hiding any linework (as some people might do if they were focusing on a pretty detailed drawing at the end - which you should not be doing even if you were to detail your drawing heavily).

Before I end this, I did notice one issue that will be good to know for your revisions - when applying contour lines, you have a tendency to do so as more of a wireframe. Try to avoid this, as it always involves draw far more contour linework than is necessary to hint at the nature of the surface. I also noticed that when you do this, you tend to put less thought into the drawing of each contour line - one or two carefully planned and executed contour lines will always be far stronger than a whole mesh of sloppy ones.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-13 19:20

Not bad! In general I think you're doing well both with construction and with balancing your details and texture. It's clear that when it comes to those pipe-like branches/stems/etc. you've got some work to do in terms of getting your marks to line up so it doesn't come out chicken-scratchy and sketchy, but I can tell from the rest of your work that this is a fairly isolated area that will improve with practice.

Your general sense of form and construction shows well in many of these drawings, and you're demonstrating a great deal of patience and care. Just one minor point about your detail phase - try not to leave any white slivers in an area you've filled in predominantly with black. They tend to stand out and become quite distracting. From a compositional standpoint, this is the sort of thing you'd want to avoid. Since standard technical pens aren't the greatest for filling in space, a black brush pen can be a very handy tool for this sort of thing.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-13 19:17

Constructionally, there's some good stuff here, but there are fundamental problems with your observation. Your natural response to being overwhelmed by detail/complexity is to stop looking at your reference and to work strictly from memory. Here are some examples:

• Proportions in general

• The t-rex's arms and raised foot

• The legs

• The feet

There are other examples, but I feel these make my point. You cannot simply draw what you think you know. At this stage you do not have enough experience with these various subject matters to trust anything that you feel you already know about how they're put together.

It's not abnormal to have proportions that are off at this point, but a lot of these examples show that you're not thinking through your approach enough.

That aside, while there are some decent examples of construction like these dogs (ignoring its weird leg business), there are a lot of areas where you're just flat out skipping steps and being sloppy. For example, a lot of your torsos have no contour curves to help reinforce the volume (these aren't always necessary, but yours read kind of flat most of the time). At the same time, you're going crazy with contour ellipses on your flamingo and ostrich necks, to the point that most of the contour ellipses don't serve any purpose. Don't just throw them all over - think about what they're doing. Never just apply a 'trick' without considering how it helps your drawing, or whether or not it's needed. You're also not defining a lot of areas where the neck connects to the torso (which leads to a rather flat neck).

I want you to try this lesson again. Reread the material, rewatch the videos/demos, and follow along with them. I've also got a lot of extra material under the "other demos" section of the lesson that you should look at. It is very clear, looking at your work, that you missed a great deal of the lesson content.

When you redo the work, DO NOT INCLUDE ANY TEXTURE OR DETAIL WHATSOEVER. Focus entirely on construction. You are getting distracted by the details, and it's actually fairly common for beginners to feel that they can rely on that later phase to strengthen construction that is weak.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-13 16:51

Really solid work. I especially liked your work with the hens - you've definitely got a solid understand of 3D space. I do happen to see areas where I would generally ask students to be more clear and concrete with their constructional elements (defining clearly how the tube of the neck connects to the torso, for instance - something you generally skip). In your case, it's still not something I'd necessarily overlook, but it is obvious that in your mind you are able to visualize this relationship between forms. My only concern is that down the line, you don't want to end up getting sloppy, losing that grasp on your forms and ultimately having nothing more concrete to fall back on. Ultimately the long-long-long-term goal is to transfer a lot of drawn construction to more visualization (so drawings that are more than just exercises don't get cluttered with unnecessary linework), but it really doesn't hurt to continue to express those details more concretely in simple studies and exercises.

As far as texture and detail goes, you're doing great. While I generally warn students away from abuse of hatching lines, it's because it's difficult at early stages to grasp how to properly use it. It's clear that where you've applied it, you've done so with clear understanding of how it impacts the read of the various volumes. You've done so in key points where you've strategically flattened some things out for effect, or where you've been able to accentuate those volumes. The short of it is - keep it up, you're doing good.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Keep up the good work, but I definitely recommend putting more of your base construction marks down so that every time you do these studies/exercises you're reinforcing the spatial models you hold in your head.

Uncomfortable in the post "Frequently Asked Questions: I compiled a bunch of questions I felt were being asked rather frequently, so read through this list before asking your own."

2017-03-11 23:51

Oh, I see. When faced with physical resistance to our motions, we tend to naturally adjust our movements in order to reduce that resistance - so while it isn't inherently a bad thing in and of itself, some of the ways we respond to it can be. For example, if you're leaning on your elbow when drawing, the more likely natural transition to reduce resistance will be to start drawing more from your shoulder instead of your shoulder. This would not be a good thing.

Conversely, drawing with your hand raised in the air is certainly better, but some people find that they just haven't yet developed the strength in the correct muscles to maintain any degree of steadiness. In this situation, leaning your hand gently on the page can be a decent compromise, where the amount of resistance is considerably less than if you were to lean on your elbow. That said, there is still resistance, and we still have a tendency to switch towards drawing from our wrists in this case, so we need to be vigilant, catching and correcting ourselves whenever we slip back to drawing from our wrist.

As for irrelevant, you'll essentially find that many of your questions are really specific to you as a person. How long of a break you should take, in what state you should continue to push yourself, etc. You will be able to answer these questions yourself, once you find yourself in those situations. For now, just sit yourself at a desk or table, and give the exercises a shot.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-11 23:43

I definitely see a fair bit of improvement over the set - both in terms of construction, but also (and perhaps more importantly) in terms of confidence. On that note, I do have one recommendation. It looks to me that you approach drawing lines differently, depending on whether or not they're the primary visible lines of the box, or if they're the ones you've "drawn through" (which would otherwise not be visible if we didn't have magical x-ray vision). Try to avoid approaching any of your lines with any desire to hide or mask them. If something goes down on the page, draw them with full confidence. By being more timid, you'll find that things will go off the rails a little more often, and the solidity of your forms won't quite be up to scratch.

We always have the line weight phase to emphasize and bring forward the lines we want to draw others' attention. You'd be surprised at how far it goes towards pushing back the lines that you'd rather weren't there.

Anyway, keep up the great work. I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete, so feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Frequently Asked Questions: I compiled a bunch of questions I felt were being asked rather frequently, so read through this list before asking your own."

2017-03-11 21:46

Having your paper on your lap is likely to have a negative impact. Ideally, you should be sitting at a desk or table of some sort, where your drawing surface is firm and unmoving. This is why your lap would not be great, as it would be shifting constantly.

Not sure what you mean by resistance.

Ideally you'd want to be doing this with a balanced state of mind. Not sure why you'd be considering doing this whilst starving or exhausting yourself, but it will definitely negatively impact the value of your time spent practicing.

While creativity is certainly engaged to varying degrees, a greater emphasis is placed on critical thinking and spatial awareness.

If your arms get sore, take a break. Practicing tired, hurt, hungry, or in any other way that will make you sloppy is going to result in you practicing sloppy ways of doing things. In other words, you will be more likely to develop bad habits.

The amount of time you should rest is a matter of how ever long it takes for your shoulder to no longer feel tired. Most of your questions here feel strangely specific, and I think you'll find that most of them end up being largely irrelevant.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-11 01:28

In general, these are exceptionally well done. You do a great job of balancing solid forms and little touches of texture, while also managing to somehow achieve the impression of focusing heavily on line-economy, while somehow also feeling loose and energetic. Even writing it out, it seems fundamentally contradictory.

The fly on the top left of this page is definitely one of my favourites, despite being one of the least detailed. It's a great example of building up basic forms, and then implying greater complexity with key, well placed marks and weights. It shows that your brain understands there to be additional forms there that you haven't yet had to flesh out. While we're still going to be focusing on laying everything in laboriously, what you're doing here points more towards the ultimate goal (beyond the scope of these lessons) of visualizing those constructions without putting them down.

Keep up the great work, and consider this lesson complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-11 01:16

Better. I'm glad to see that you're now drawing through your boxes properly ,and that you're quite diligent in extending those lines and attempting to correct your mistakes. As you do so, keep trying to think about the corrections you're making, so you can gradually internalize the lessons you learn by doing that. And of course, keep working on improving your use of the ghosting technique, achieving smoother lines and all that as we discussed before.

I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete, so go ahead and move onto the next lesson. Definitely keep up with the old exercises though, as you have a lot of room to grow, and as you continue to struggle with straight lines, it will pose a challenge as you continue to move forwards.

Uncomfortable in the post "Frequently Asked Questions: I compiled a bunch of questions I felt were being asked rather frequently, so read through this list before asking your own."

2017-03-10 01:20

That's not something I plan on doing.

There's a few reasons - firstly, formatting it would be quite time consuming, considering how much I blather on in the lessons. Secondly, the lessons are living documents of a sort - every now and then an issue will be raised and I will revise an exercise, a diagram, or fill in some gaps (for example, the rotated boxes exercise in lesson 1 wasn't there for the first year or so, and I ended up rewriting that exercise description). I really don't want to have old versions of the content floating around on the internet.

Lastly, it would likely have a negative impact on ad revenue, especially since things on the internet have the tendency of being shared around freely. Right now since my content's free anyway, there's no reason to share it around. If I tried to sell it in ebook format, it's likely I'd end up losing more than I gain.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-09 20:54

While it's unfortunate that you missed the instruction about drawing through your forms initially (especially considering that I mentioned it when pointing you to this challenge), I'm glad that you went back over many of your boxes to draw those in while applying your corrections. It definitely helped, and overall I can see that your sense of 3D space has improved through this exercise.

The only other recommendation that I have for now is to play with drawing your boxes a little bigger. Overall this isn't too big of an issue right now, but in the future when you're drawing more complex things, you'll find that drawing small will really handicap you when it comes to thinking through spatial problems, so it's good to get in the habit of drawing larger now. This will help counteract the natural tendency we have to draw smaller whenever faced with something particularly daunting.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. Feel free to move onto lesson 2 when you feel ready - but make sure that you keep the principles of drawing through your forms in mind as you move forwards.

Uncomfortable in the post "/r/ArtFundamentals and Drawabox.com: A New Beginning. Read this if you're new to this subreddit."

2017-03-09 14:18

Unfortunately, no. I'm quite strict in terms of having the students whose work I critique to follow my recommendations as hard requirements. Otherwise it would be entirely counter productive. I've made those specific recommendations each because of how they impact the process of learning, so it wouldn't make any sense for me to accept students purposely handicapping themselves.

You'd likely learn more effectively if you did the lessons traditionally, in ink, then upon completing the required amount, applied what you learn by repeating the exercises on the iPad.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-09 00:45

I'm very glad to hear that you're taking dynamic sketching! Is it in person, or online? Patrick was the teaching assistant for Peter Han when I took the class, he definitely knows his stuff, certainly moreso than myself.

Generally your work looks really nice. Solid form constructions, plenty of examples of great use of line weight. I have a few things to share however that may help as you continue to move forwards:

• I noticed that when legs connect to the torso at a point that is hidden (like when they get tucked under a shell), you tend to have those legs stop as soon as they reach the edge of that shell. Try drawing through them, drawing the entirety of that section of the leg as an enclosed form, as this will help you get a better sense of how the form itself sits in space and how it relates to the larger forms of the body. It helps considerably to force yourself to consider how the legs themselves connect to the body - even if they aren't meant to be visible in your drawing. Having a stronger understanding of this will help you to draw the visible portions more convincingly.

• Also about the legs - I noticed that you have a bit of a tendency to draw legs that are a little on the stiff side. This is pretty normal and comes from an overemphasis on form (which is kind of ironic and contradictory coming from me). The fact of the matter is that rather than having the option of drawing something as strictly 2D or 3D, things exist on more of a spectrum. We can take properties of a 2D shape and apply them with a greater weight, playing down the illusions that establish 3D form (except in certain key areas). When dealing with legs especially, I try to focus more on the gestural quality of 2D shape, relying only on establishing on the illusion of form at either end. Through the length of the long, narrow form, I focus on the sense of flow, and the general rhythm that we get from one section of the leg flowing into the next. I demonstrate this a little bit in this demo of a fly.

• The last thing I want to mention is in regards to your tendency to lay forms in, then to go over them, completely replacing your initial marks with a "clean-up pass". The issue with this sort of clean up pass is that it usually results in linework that is considerably stiffer, as while producing it you're focusing primarily on accuracy. Instead, I encourage my students to draw the initial pass as confidently as possible - applying the ghosting method to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy possible, but ultimately executing each mark with confident, muscle-memory-driven motions. Once the entire thing has been constructed in this manner, we then go back to reinforce line weights in key areas - this may seem similar to the idea of a clean-up pass, but it's fundamentally different. Instead of replacing linework, we merely emphasize what already exists, organizing the lines in a sort of hierarchy, pulling and pushing them to draw attention to some and allow others to recede.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one when you feel you're ready.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-09 00:33

Honestly, not one of the references you chose were remotely straightforward. Most of them made the various forms and general construction quite difficult to distinguish, making them extremely challenging for someone with your level of experience. Try to pick subject matter that is much clearer.

Here's my critique. In addition to not biting off more than you can chew reference-wise, you're still showing a lot of signs of losing focus and drawing more from memory than observing your proportions carefully. This isn't entirely abnormal when drawing something too complex, as we have a natural tendency to look less at references that intimidate us.

Here are some references I want you to draw:

• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Carabidae_Caminara_Starred_ground_beetle_(Calosoma%3F).jpg

• https://animalcorner.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/blister-beetle-1.jpg

• http://animalia.life/data_images/beetle/beetle7.jpg

• http://animal-dream.com/data_images/fly/fly5.jpg

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-08 21:51

Would it be possible for you to supply me with the reference images you used?

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-07 23:48

There's definitely some key problems here:

• You're not drawing through your ellipses. Often times we lay in the major forms as ellipses, then turn them into ball-like forms. Ellipses are really good in this regard because of their simplicity, which helps us maintain a sense of solidity. That said, this only works if your ellipses are even and confidently drawn. We can achieve this by drawing through them. You'll notice my very heavy use of ellipsoids in the notes I gave you in my last critique.

• First drawing - we have no idea how those legs actually attach to the insect on its underside. If necessary, feel free to look up other reference images to inform these decisions better, but don't just leave them as you have. We're not just drawing the images we see, we're understanding how the critter sits in 3D space. In order to do this, we need to draw through our forms much more completely.

• Take more care with your contour curves - some are okay, but many are either not aligned to what that form's minor axis would be, or simply don't hook around enough at the edges to give the impression that they're wrapping around the form

• Additionally, be a little more mindful with how many contour curves you add. I see a lot of students focus more on quantity than quality, as you have here - a couple well executed contour lines can carry the illusion of form for an entire section, while a dozen shitty ones won't quite do the trick. Also, consider how you're spacing them out. Doing so at regular intervals tends to make them look more wireframey, like they've been man-made.

• That bumble bee's proportions are waaay off.

• The legs on the first drawing are quite stiff. Second drawing's definitely better, there's noticeably more flow there.

Try another four pages. I know I'm sending you back repeatedly, but don't be discouraged - this is often necessary to really pin down exactly what the underlying issues with your approach (both technical, and how you see these things) really are, so they can be corrected.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-07 23:38

For the most part, these are much better. The last page is still a little weak and feels kind of misaligned similarly to how the beetles were before, but your first two pages are quite strong. The first drawing was especially well done, and I think the subtle addition of extra weight to the edges of that top layer of shell really pushes the illusion of layering and overlap.

One thing that can certainly use more work though is how you tackle your legs. I brought this up in my last critique, that your legs tend to feel very stiff. I showed you this demo, mentioning that your legs should have a greater sense of flow to them. Sometimes it's necessary to invent that flow yourself (in subtle ways) if you can't quite see it in your reference. Be sure to keep this in mind as you move forwards.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-07 23:26

This is definitely more in line with what I'm after. There's certainly more room for growth and development, but that will obviously happen over time and with practice. For now however, I can clearly see a stronger grasp of construction and how all the forms fit together. In general, your forms are feeling reasonably solid too.

The biggest thing to work on at this point is observation - that is, working less from memory, studying your proportions more closely, and so on. This is pretty normal for this stage, though.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. One important thing to mention on the subject of the next lesson - it's highly recommended that you go through the 250 box and 250 cylinder challenges before tackling it.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (new 50min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-06 20:13

Definitely an improvement, but here's a few things to keep in mind:

• Draw through your ellipses. Uneven ellipses don't read as solid balls, drawing through them helps keep them a little more even.

• In some of these drawings, you've gotten a little lax once you reach the head. For instance, the rhino's whole muzzle should start off as a boxy form coming off the cranial ball, with clearly suggested planes (top, front, side). You more or less just arbitrarily placed its mouth/nostrils/eyes without much grounding in form.

• The bunny is actually generally pretty good (mostly due to the simplicity of its forms - remember that simplicity helps convey 3D form much better. The only issue I see is that there's no clear sense of how the head connects to the torso.

While there's definitely room for improvement, I think you're moving in the right direction. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so go ahead and move onto the next one. I think you'll find the next lesson to be quite different (in terms of the shift from organic subject matter to more geometric, hard surface objects). My hope is that it will continue to instill a strong regard for the solidity of objects, and the importance of building things up as form, rather than breaking away from it and drawing strictly what you see without any foundation to support it.

Oh, also - thanks for increasing your pledge!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-06 19:57

I think you've achieved varying degrees of success here, but there's one big thing that stands out to me in terms of your approach: you tend to be a timid with your markmaking. I see a lot of signs where you're drawing very lightly (at times resulting in gaps in your linework). This isn't an uncommon thing among students, but it generally originates from the student being very preoccupied with the final result, and not viewing what they're doing as a simple exercise - one of many. Don't let yourself get caught up in the idea of finishing up with a pretty drawing. We're not doing these to show them off, but rather their value lies in what we learn from them.

By drawing timidly, the solidity of your forms definitely suffers. In other ways, it also (somewhat ironically) results in linework that tends to be more sketchy and chicken-scratchy, as you end up building up forms in more segments rather than a single continuous line. For example, your hercules beetle definitely has a lot more strokes than it needs.

Push yourself to draw confidently instead. Don't think of it as though your'e sketching roughly, then cleaning up in a subsequent pass. Approach it in a single pass, and focus on each individual form you want to construct. Construct each volume with one stroke. If the form you're laying down is fairly elliptical in nature, feel free to draw through it once more before lifting up your pen, but in general avoid going over a line over and over in an attempt to clean it up.

If you look at my demos, you'll notice that up until fairly late in the process, my forms are drawn in fairly equally - nothing's lighter than the rest. It isn't till the last or second last step that I start working in my weights, purely to emphasize lines that already exist and to help organize what's going on. This is inherently different from a clean-up pass, as it does not seek to outright replace looser, sketchier lines.

You had a question there about shading. As a rule, I try to play down shading so as to keep students from relying upon light and shadow as a means to convey form. So when you reach a stage where you want to add extra detail, the forms and volumes should already be well defined using other techniques (contour lines, demonstrating the turn of form through silhouette, etc). At that point, we're very much beholden to the tools we use.

I talk about this more in the 25 texture challenge, but because we're using felt tip pens, I always build the core of my shadows to be a solid, flat black. Crosshatching with tools of this nature can really cause a lot of areas of high contrast (with white speckling against a sea of black) which becomes quite distracting, so it's generally best to fuse it all together. Then in the transition area from black to white, I use the actual texture of the object I'm drawing as a way to gradually shift values, going from dense to sparse.

Looking at how your drawings ultimately come together, I can see that you do have a solid grasp of form and a good understanding of 3D space. You certainly do need to work on dropping some of these bad habits however.

As such, I'd like you to do four more pages of insect drawings, focusing entirely on construction. I don't want to see any texture, shadow, rendering, etc.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-06 19:29

I think you've improved considerably over this set, and it really shows. I was a little disheartened by that first page, as I figured you'd skipped reading the notes on the challenge page, and went through all 250 boxes without drawing through them. I was very pleasantly surprised, however.

Overall you're doing quite well, but I do have a couple suggestions as you continue to move forwards:

• Firstly, when doing corrections, don't worry about lines that have been overshot, or anything like that. Only focus on areas where a line you've drawn was ultimately incorrect - the sort where you can actually draw in more correct lines, like box 230.

• Here's a tip that you can use to help identify mistakes when they don't necessarily jump out at you, but it may require an extra colour of ink. Basically, try your hand at extending the lines of your boxes back towards their implied vanishing point. Even extending them back to be about twice their original length can really tell you a lot about the behaviour of those lines. Remembering that each box is composed of three sets of four parallel lines, we can see the rate at which the lines of a given set converge. While ideally we want them all to be converging at roughly the same rate, ultimately towards more or less the same point, more often than not we'll find areas where two of the four lines of a set converge much more quickly, leading to that set having several points of convergence - which is fundamentally incorrect, as it means that those four lines are not all parallel.

• Also, for line weight, try to refrain from being too heavy on your internal lines. One of the benefits of playing with the thickness of those lines is that it allows you to build a greater sense of cohesion for a given form. Think of it like wrapping that form in a shell - because they're held together this way by thicker lines along the outside, we feel that the form is more than just an arbitrary arrangement of lines that happen to stick together. When the internal lines compete with the external ones in this way, this breaks that sense of cohesion apart. Also, subtlety is important when working with line weight - while we talk about thick and thin lines, the difference should be pretty slight. When things start to get too thick, we can fall into the trap of flattening out our forms instead of making them more dynamic.

• I know that you were likely using some heavier lines on the sides of the box closest to the viewer to serve as a visual cue (since drawing through boxes can make a box more difficult to understand). Another way you can do this that doesn't compromise the cohesiveness of the form is to fill one of the front-facing faces with some tight, consistent, parallel hatching.

You'd mentioned a concern with varying the rate of foreshortening of your boxes. Variation is definitely important, but if you had to choose between 250 boxes of dramatic foreshortening vs. 250 boxes of purely shallow foreshortening, I would choose the latter. Reason being, we use shallow foreshortening more often. The foreshortening of a box says a lot about its scale. Think about having a tissue box, or some other similarly boxy object that you can hold in your hands. The far plane and the near plane are pretty similar in their relationship to one another, as you perceive them from a given position. Forms that are smaller and of a more relatable scale tend to be shallower in their foreshortening. Conversely, a tall building that reaches far into the sky, seen from the ground level will have a far plane that is considerably smaller, and therefore will use much more dramatic foreshortening.

So while practicing both is definitely important, some will be used more frequently than others.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete. I hope you'll start working on lesson 1 next!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-06 19:03

Looks like you're doing a pretty solid job. I did initially have a few concerns that you may be pushing your details too hard, but in general it does seem like you're still very mindful of your construction. The worry about focusing too much on construction is that it can lead some students to get distracted and ultimately not pay as much attention to establishing solid forms during the construction phase. That doesn't appear to be a significant issue here, but keep it in mind as it can come up later on.

As far as your texturing goes, you have some rather successful drawings, and others that are a little less so. The latter usually occur when you let yourself get a little overwhelmed with all of the markmaking and end up relying more on less intentional, planned marks, and more on chicken-scratchy randomness. For example, the detail here is quite strong, especially in the leaves, while on this page the main volume of the plant feels a little half-assed.

Keep in mind that more detail is not always better, so try and hold yourself back and make the marks that you do decide to make really count.

Keep up the good work. I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Frequently Asked Questions: I compiled a bunch of questions I felt were being asked rather frequently, so read through this list before asking your own."

2017-03-05 22:52

Neither actually demonstrate an appropriate minor axis - you'll notice that the one in figure 2.10 doesn't cut the ellipse into two equal, symmetrical halves. If we were actually pursuing a correct perspective drawing here, our minor axis would actually be perpendicular to the plane itself (coming out from its surface rather than running across it), and we'd align our ellipse to that. This is something discussed in lesson 7, there's a video or two there about it.

In the case of this exercise however, it's got nothing to do with the minor axis of the ellipse. It's purely an exercise meant to have a student try and place an ellipse inside of a plane. It develops accuracy, but it also forces them to face the sense of being overwhelmed by criteria, whilst trying to keep from stiffening up.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-05 01:43

For /u/curlosm's revised submission:

These constructions definitely feel more solid and much better thought out, so I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. I do have one big point I'd like to raise however - you're waaaay overdoing it with your contour curves. I see this kind of often, and more often than not it's a sign that a student isn't really thinking too much about what each contour curve does, and is just deciding that if they add more, it'll always be better.

Contour curves give the viewer hints about how a surface flows through 3D space. What you've done here is more akin to building a wireframe that grabs the viewer, shakes them and yells "THIS IS EXACTLY HOW THE SURFACE FLOWS, POINT BY POINT, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!" It's.. it's overwhelming.

When adding a contour curve, think about where it's going to have the most impact, and how it'll best serve your purposes. Additionally, avoid spacing them out evenly, as that starts to make them look more manufactured. More often than not, one or two will do fine.

One last point that just came to mind - and this will seem contradictory compared to my earlier critique about the importance of form and solidity. Sometimes there's situations - like in legs, your antennae, etc. where the flow of that object is of greater importance than the illusion of its solidity. In those situations, I prefer to treat those sections as somewhat more gestural, flowing 2D shapes, as focusing too much on their three dimensionality can cause them to stiffen up somewhat. Adding too many contour lines will definitely make them seem more rigid.

In this case, I'll hint my form at the ends by clearly defining how they connect to the rest of the body. Often times if my flowing shapes aren't needlessly complex and focus more in continuous curves, the suggestion of form you get from the ends is enough to maintain that illusion through its entire length.

This becomes a greater concern in the next lesson, but you can check out this demo where I've demonstrated it a little bit in the context of insects.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"

2017-03-05 01:32

Old thread got locked, those eligible for critiques from me can submit their work here.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles (new 40min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-04 19:32

Ah, I must have forgotten to give you the flair badge for it then. Still, yeah - looking at your cylinders in that lesson 7 work, you would benefit considerably from doing it again, especially since you weren't making use of any minor axes.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles (new 40min intro video, 3 new demos)"

2017-03-03 21:46

There's a lot of good here, and also some definite things that you should avoid or shift your attention towards. More or less what I'd expect to see at this point.

The first thing that jumps out at me is with your bulldozer - specifically, its treads. This is a really specific thing I'm nitpicking on rather than an overarching problem, but I figure it's worth mentioning. The tread itself exists in three dimensions - it's not paper thin, it's got thickness to it. In some parts of the tread (like the bottom length) you're aware of this thickness, but in others you aren't. How the various cylinders around there sit against the tread, and how you've communicated its form has a lot of inconsistencies, where towards the top section it's reading as having no thickness at all.

That said, I think the way you started out this construction, and the way you handled a lot of the explicitly boxy forms is coming along quite well. Your understanding of how to place boxes in 3D space seems to be well developed.

The biggest problem I see across this entire set however is that you're not taking enough advantage of this strength. You have a tendency to construct really nicely, laying in all those boxes, doing your subdivisions and measurements, and then for some reason you kind of let them go. You go over all of your forms and linework with a darker stroke, replacing those lines and rounding off corners in a way that really does not maintain the solidity that existed there initially.

Rounding off a corner slightly is normal, and perfectly fine as a finishing touch. If however you need to round that corner off beyond a certain point, it starts to become less structurally solid without having laid in the correct groundwork to support it. Basically you end up jumping across too wide a chasm, and the solidity you previously had won't quite stretch far enough to support what you're trying to create. It needs more specific scaffolding.

The other aspect of what I mentioned was the fact that you're going over your linework, replacing it with a thicker line. Usually I catch this in peoples' drawings earlier, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned it to you before - but adding line weight is very different from straight up replacing lines.

The latter is what a lot of beginners tend to do, sketching something in quickly to get a feel for something, then being very slow and careful and precise (and consequently, stiff) to "clean up". Now this isn't necessarily what you're doing, but it is similar. Ultimately you need to treat your initial lines - those drawn confidently and solidly - as being more or less final. All we can do to help organize those lines is to pull and push them with line weight. This means adding additional thickness to key areas to accentuate overlaps and draw attention to certain places. We do this to specific places, not all of our linework.

Basically, since you have a tendency to do this replacement thing, you're really tossing aside a lot of the strengths in your boxes - you build them up so nicely, and then set them aside. Now while you've got some really strong boxes, your cylinders aren't quite so great, and definitely need a lot of work. Note that in the intro video, I definitely state that by this point you should have completed the 250 cylinder challenge by now, though it looks like you haven't tackled it yet - or at least haven't submitted it.

This page is a good example of a problematic cylinder. The end of that front cylinder that is closest to us is totally misaligned. I can't tell if there's a minor axis present there, but if there is, it's definitely not cutting that ellipse into two equal, symmetrical halves.

In general, but especially for you, it's best to construct those cylinders by starting them off as boxes. I say that it's particularly good in your case because, again, you're really good at constructing boxes. By doing so, we don't have to worry quite so much about the overall alignment of a given cylinder. The main problem we're left with is building our ellipses properly within the planes of our boxes, as discussed in this video from the lesson.

There's just two more points I want to raise, and I'll make them quick. First, don't just focus on the side when doing proportion studies. Especially with cars, the front is very important. Breaking down the proportions in both dimensions allows us to construct them more accurately to scale, as discussed here.

The other point is about detail. You're thinking about it far too much, and it's distracting you. I strongly recommend that you leave detail completely out of the equation for the time being and try getting each vehicle drawing as far as you can with construction alone. When we know we have detailing as a next step, we have an inherent tendency to start stamping things on as arbitrary details (thinking more about how they sit on the flat page than as part of 3D space), when we really should be constructing them as solid forms.

I'd like you to first complete the 250 cylinder challenge. Then submit four more pages of vehicle drawings and we'll see how you've progressed.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2017-03-03 21:28

So you definitely start out a little weak, a little sloppy, a little less mindful of solidity and construction - but things definitely get better by quite a bit.

The leaves where you're starting out with a more general circular lay-in aren't really too successful because they end up starting too vague (with no clear direction or flow, which is really important when working with flat forms), and then they jump ahead to be too complex in the next phase. If you're going to start out with that kind of loose general lay-in, your next step should still be to drop in your directional lines - though personally I'd start with the directional lines off the bat.

There are some leaves - like maple leaves, for instance - that naturally contain several distinct directions combined into one leaf. In that case, I'd draw the different parts as separate leaves, with separate direction lines, focusing on the flow of each one, and ultimately combining them into one.

By the time you hit that last page of leaves, things start getting better - you're more mindful of flow, and the sense that these leaves exist in three dimensional space gets stronger.

Your branches are a little hit and miss. Generally what helps emphasize the solidity of a form is avoiding any kind of odd irregularities (having forms get narrower then swell out inconsistently). As such, the first page of branches is okay, the second page feels more flimsy.

Steadily through your full plant constructions, you demonstrate a growing understanding of form, and how things fit together. One thing that I do want to draw your attention to is how you handle those sort of zoom-in bits.

Personally, I'd avoid framing it as you have. It's clear that the only purpose that sort of magnification serves is to make it seem more interesting when the drawing is finished. To be honest, it kind of messes with the presentation, but additionally (and contradictingly) you really shouldn't be worrying about how your end result ends up looking. Having it in your mind at all is really just a distraction. Focus entirely on the process of construction, as though you were ready to set the drawing on fire upon completion.

By all means, do separate drawings exploring greater detail and form of different aspects of your drawing. Just don't try to be overly fancy with how you communicate that, as it shows that your mind isn't 100% focusing on what it should be.

Anyway - by the end of this set, I think you're demonstrating a really solid grasp of how to construct solid form (the rubber tree fruit is coming along great), and flatter forms that flow smoothly through space. You're also demonstrating a lot of patience and care with the detail you work in - doing so more through construction than giving into the desire we all have to just go crazy with pasted-on details without consideration for form.

I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, so go ahead and move onto the next one when you feel you're ready.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2017-03-03 20:48

Nice work! Your boxes are looking quite solid and well constructed, and your corrections appear to be on point. I also appreciate the particular approach you use here and there - extending your lines to see how they behave as they move closer towards their intended vanishing point, tracking whether or not they're converging at the same rate. Extending your lines a little further towards that implied VP can help a little more, but you seem to be using the approach quite well.

Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete.