Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-07-25 20:43
Honestly, I was a bit disgruntled when I saw the two new messages on reddit, since I'd literally just finished critiquing and was about to head home. That said, I'm very pleased with your work on this lesson's homework, so the critique should be very easy, and your drawings are a joy to look at.
Your drawings are excellent. Your forms and constructions are solid, and they improve considerably even over the set. That scorpion is looking especially confident, as is the rhino beetle. If I had to remark upon anything you might want to work on, it's the timidity of your initial lay-ins. Looking at the initial masses you drop in, you appear to use a fairly light touch with your pen, resulting in a faded and less committal mark. I can certainly see why, but the downside is that when you draw with a lighter touch, your hand tends to be less stable, and your ellipses and organic curves stiffen up. There's no reason to be worried about drawing with confidence - you can always increase your line weights later on, and come back with nice, bold textures as you already have.
Anyway, keep up the great work and consider this lesson complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2016-07-25 20:40
One thing that jumps out at me is that through the entire set, you're not extending your minor axis through the entire length of the cylinder. The purpose of that minor axis is to align the ellipses such that it cuts both ellipses into two equal, symmetrical halves. If your minor axis doesn't cut all the way through, it becomes significantly harder to align your ellipse properly. Also, I'm noticing that you tend to either skip drawing through your ellipse entirely, or you draw through your ellipses, and then try to draw another ellipse around it to clean it up. I am strongly against clean-up passes that replace the more confident linework, as people generally draw those more slowly and carefully, leading to less evenly shaped ellipses.
Lastly, I do think you've got a ways to go in terms of practicing your ghosted lines - the lines that connect the ellipses tend to wobble and waver here and there, which greatly undermines the solidity of the overall form.
In general, I think your doing this challenge was a good decision - it's brought to light some things you should continue to work on. Don't forget that the exercises from the first two lessons are things you should continue practicing regularly as warmups as you continue to push through the other lessons.
Anyway, consider this challenge complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-25 20:27
You've got to reel yourself back - you're overeager, and are rushing through everything. When you do an exercise, your mind seems to be on the next one, trying to tear through it all hoping to reach the next checkpoint. That's not going to help you very much.
The use of the ghosting method is key - it forces you to place the starting and ending point of every line, to ghost through the motion in order to build up the necessary muscle memory on the spot, and then you execute with a single, confident stroke. You certainly have the confidence going, so your lines are smooth, but they're not planned at all. Same goes for your ellipses - you don't take the time to ghost through the motion beforehand first to compensate for the inevitable inaccuracy that comes from drawing quickly.
This isn't abnormal for beginners, but it isn't something I let slide - I'm going to ask you to do the entire lesson again. Don't try to do it all in one sitting, spread it out over several days, and give each exercise the respect and focus it deserves.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-25 20:15
Much better. A few things to keep in mind:
-
You drew your funnels rather small - drawing smaller leaves you with very little room to think through how what you're drawing fits in space, so try to avoid making smaller, cramped drawings.
-
You seem to have forgotten to go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. Please ensure that you do this, for your own sake.
I'll mark this lesson as complete, so go ahead and move onto the 250 box challenge.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-25 20:13
Your lines section is well done. Your ellipses are generally okay, aside from the stiffness of your ellipses-in-planes which you caught yourself, and the fact that you didn't draw through your funnel ellipses. Also, you failed to draw the central minor axis that should be cutting down the middle of each funnel, and to which each ellipse should be aligned (if you don't remember what a minor axis is, look back at the lesson section for the ellipses). Back to drawing through your ellipses though - you should be doing this for every ellipse you draw for my lessons. For more information on what I mean by that, you can look here: Not Drawing Through Ellipses
Your plotted perspective boxes are fine. Your rough perspective boxes are alright, though the hatching you applied to them is very sloppy and poor. You should be taking the time to ensure that the lines are consistent, parallel and stretch all the way across the planes from edge to edge. Nothing falling short or floating aimlessly in the plane.
Also, it's a good idea to go over your completed rough perspective work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.
Your rotated boxes are coming along. From the looks of it, you likely haven't yet seen the updated instructions to the exercise that I added this weekend - it would be well worth your while to take another look, as they're much more detailed now.
Lastly, your organic perspective boxes aren't great, but this exercise as well as the rotated boxes exercises are really just intended to be a first taste of the challenge of freely manipulating boxes in 3D space without using explicit vanishing points. You're not expected to nail it so soon.
I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will help you improve your sense of space, and help you further practice the construction of boxes. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular will help you understand how each box sits in 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-25 20:06
For the most part you've done reasonably well, but there are a few things you can focus on:
-
Your ellipses are a bit stiff, especially when it comes to the ellipses in planes. I talk about this in general here: Stiff or Wobbly Ellipses, and in more specific terms about that ellipses in planes exercise here: Stiff, Uneven Ellipses.
-
Your rough perspective boxes are well done (though I strongly recommend not adding greater complexity to the exercises), but you should go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. This helps identify areas of greater weakness so you know what to focus on when revisiting the exercise.
-
Drawing your rotated boxes exercise as small and as cramped as you did wasn't really a great idea. It leaves you with very little room to think through the spatial problems, and as you've done it, doesn't really teach you a whole lot about the rotation of boxes (as your boxes ended up all being very thin). I'm not sure if you drew this before or after I updated the instructions in the lesson (which I did this weekend), but you should probably take another look and try to do it as shown there, not putting your own approach on the task.
-
Your organic perspective boxes certainly need work, but this is expected as this exercise merely represents a first exposure to the challenge of manipulating boxes freely in 3D space.
Anyway, I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will help you improve your sense of space, and help you further practice the construction of boxes. Be sure to read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular will help you understand how each box sits in 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-25 19:57
To answer your questions:
-
Thinking too hard about the perspective of those leaves may not be the best idea. There's two things at play here - the leaf naturally tapers to a point, but perspective naturally makes distances between two points larger as they come closer to the viewer, and smaller as they move further away. The simplest way to think about it is that it merely impacts the rate of the tapering - things taper more gradually as they come towards the front (though they certainly still taper), and taper more quickly as they move further away. Even this can be hard to wrap your head around.
-
Drawing a different perspective with multiple references is a fine way to practice, as long as you're not biting off more than you can chew. If you struggle with replicating a single image as you see it (within reason, we're not at all being sticklers for hyper-accuracy) then obviously trying to make up a different perspective is going to be more challenging, and it'd be silly to tackle the harder challenge before nailing down the simpler one.
Now, for your homework, your last two pages are very solid. Your leaves flow through space convincingly, you actually flesh out your flower pot with a proper geometric form (a tapering cylinder), your textures are decently balanced in terms of complexity, and your forms feel reasonably solid and tangible. On pages prior to this, things are a little hit and miss, and you leave plenty of forms un-capped (that is, leaving a tube that continues on beyond the drawing as two unconnected parallel lines - you should always cap them off with an ellipse or whatever applies best to maintain the sense of form and keep things from flattening out).
It looks like you have learned a lot, and I'll be marking this lesson as complete. For the sake of your pens, I recommend that you not waste ink filling in your circles with black, there's really no point and it doesn't much improve the presentation of your work.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-25 19:47
The only thing I noticed that you haven't caught yourself is that in your rough perspective boxes, you have several horizontals that aren't running parallel to the horizon. That is, what I mention here: Guessing, Instead of Knowing. Aside from that and the things you pointed out yourself, you're doing a pretty solid job.
I do believe you'd benefit from trying the 250 box challenge next - your organic perspective boxes are about where I'd expect them to be, but your understanding of how to manipulate those boxes in 3D space could use some extra work. Be sure to read through the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This is also a good opportunity for you to practice applying the ghosting method to your lines, and to work on not automatically reinforcing or correcting your marks by reflex.
Uncomfortable in the post "Uncomfortable's Unsolicited Advice: A Box a Day Keeps the Demon Away"
2016-07-25 15:37
/u/tsak021 posted them here about a year ago. Looks like a good time to bubble them back up to the surface.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-24 20:22
223, 224, 229. Your second last page also has a lot of weird angles going on, such as 235 and 234.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-24 20:08
I don't do critiques for incomplete homework, so you'll have to very least make an attempt at completing the remaining exercises to the best of your ability. That said, if you're struggling with wobbly lines, then it means you're not applying the ghosting method correctly, and should be spending more time on the preparation phase, and less time actually executing the line. This comic talks about the issue.
Remember that the first step of the ghosting method involves placing points where you want the line to start and end. If you lay down the corners of your boxes, you'll be able to focus only on the challenge of putting a line between two points, rather than worrying about the complexity of constructing a box. Breaking difficult challenges into smaller parts like this often makes them easier to overcome.
Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"
2016-07-24 20:05
Yeah, I can imagine that the lesson pages don't read too well on a phone - but it'd take way more effort and time than I'm willing to put in right now to find a way to present my overly wordy explanations on mobile that would be easy to digest. That time would be better spent improving the material, I think.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-24 18:56
Your organic forms with contour curves are looking good. One thing that would help for your arrows is not to simply draw them within the same level of depth in space, but to experiment with having them move from very close to the viewer to very far away, generally piercing through multiple levels of depth. You'll find that this will help much more with challenging leaves.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Go ahead and try the plants homework one more time - 4 pages should do. Stick to simple constructions, nothing too awkward or complex. Stay away from trees.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-24 18:53
You've done a pretty good job of completing the challenge. One thing that jumps out at me though is that you only did corrections on a few boxes on the first page - this is something you should do for the entire set, as you have many boxes where you're showing near/far plane size issues, and others where the angles are off. Going over your boxes, identifying mistakes and drawing in the correct lines is the best way to ensure that you work to improve on them in the future.
Also, while you mentioned that your lines are a little scratchy due to the dying pens, it's important to avoid situations where you draw a mark, and then immediately reinforce it with another stroke. Drawing by reflex like this is a very bad habit, and it undermines the basic principle of the ghosting method, which is that you should think and plan before every individual stroke you put down. It's also for this reason that I insist that you do your corrections afterwards, rather than immediately after drawing a box. This way you separate the steps, and don't encourage the habit of immediately correcting mistakes (which just draws more attention to them).
Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"
2016-07-24 18:46
To answer some of your questions, I'm the only one running this subreddit. No one who submits here does the lessons with a tablet, as I have very strict regulations on what kind of media is allowed for the homework of each lesson, and the majority of it is done in ink, specifically with felt tip pens. You can read why here.
That's not to say the lessons aren't effective for people who intend to work digitally - I do all my professional work digitally, and many of the students here eventually intend to move onto digital work.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-24 18:39
There's plenty of things that you'll need to work on, but identifying the weakspots is the first step to being able to fix them.
-
In your ghosted lines exercise, it does appear that you could do with spending a little more time on each individual one, specifically investing more time on the ghosting phase. Right now, your lines are arcing a little bit, and your accuracy could use some improvement. You may want to read these parts from the self critique resources: Overshooting, Arcing Lines.
-
For all of your ellipses, you completely missed the instruction about drawing through your ellipses. This is something I insist you do for every ellipse you draw for my lessons.
-
You're also demonstrating some fairly stiff and awkward ellipses - largely in part because you're not drawing through them, though this may also be worth reading: Stiff or Wobbly Ellipses, Stiff, Uneven Ellipses, and http://drawabox.com/comic/1
-
In your plotted perspective boxes, I noticed that your verticals slant at various angles fairly often - as this exercise is in two point perspective, it's imperative that your verticals be completely perpendicular to the horizon. Basically, they should go straight up and down, and not lean to either side.
-
Your rough perspective boxes need a lot of work. First off, you're Not Framing Compositions. Secondly, you don't appear to be entirely certain of how each line should behave. Because this is drawn in one point perspective, there are only three possible ways a line can behave, and you can figure out how a line should be drawn by simply stepping back and thinking. Instead, it appears that you're guessing a lot of the time. This is worth reading: Guessing, Instead of Knowing.
-
Another thing that would be very valuable is for you to go over your completed rough perspective boxes as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. This would help you to identify areas where your estimation of perspective is at its weakest. At a glance, you're going to find that most, if not all of your lines are off by quite a bit.
Your rotated and organic perspective boxes certainly need work as well, though we'll deal with that separately - when I mark this lesson as complete, I'll as you to move onto the 250 box challenge where you'll be able to further practice those boxes, and where the notes - especially the tip about drawing through your forms - should give you additional help.
Before I mark this lesson as complete however, there are some things I'd like you to redo. Firstly, I'd like you to do the entire ellipses section over, as you did not read the instructions carefully enough, and missed a key point (drawing through your ellipses). Then I'd like you to do two more pages of rough perspective boxes.
The overall trend that I'm seeing is that you're eager to rush into the drawing, so you're not reading the instructions as carefully as you should, and you don't spend enough time thinking through each line you put down. The ghosting method in particular embodies this notion of thinking before you act, and it's imperative that you apply it to everything you draw.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-07-24 18:25
This is actually considerably better! Much less sketchy and scratchy, and for the most part your constructions feel more solid. I especially liked the top right of your second page of lay-ins, there's a clear sense of how the carapace warps around the insect's body. The drawing on page 4 is also very nice, especially where you've approached the detail and texture, though its legs fall a bit flat.
Now, with the point that you brought up about simple bugs, you bring to light an issue that I should be able to clarify. Texture will not fix a flat drawing. All of that is determined well before the texturing phase, and no amount of detail or lighting/shading will fix it. It all comes down to you understanding the forms that make up your object, and how they all fit together.
I did a little demo to show how to tackle that particular ladybug, though I've got another from a previous critique that shows the same concept. Another thing that is important to keep in mind is the silhouette of your forms. If you look at 3D form completely in silhouette, where it appears to be a solid, graphic, 2D shape, you'll find that more often than not you can infer some detail of how that form curves despite not being able to see any internal detail. Any information you can convey from the silhouette alone is going to have the greatest impact, because it is the silhouette that our eyes perceive first. The first bit of information will always carry the most weight - it's for this reason that I don't even cover matters of shading, as I find that sort of internal detail to be surprisingly unimportant (and often ends up being used as a crutch for those who haven't figured out how to manipulate the silhouette or take advantage of contour lines). You can see what I mean in this demo.
One last thing I wanted to mention was that your contour curves right now are a little bit on the sloppy side. Try to put more thought into the execution of each individual one, and consider overshooting those curves to better capture the illusion of it wrapping around the form. You can see what I mean here: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms.
Overall you're making good progress. Still plenty of room to grow, but I believe you should be good to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-24 16:46
Your individual lines are fine. They're confident, fairly straight, and smooth. The problem is that you don't think before every single mark you put down. If, after drawing a line, you feel you made a mistake, you immediately follow it up with another stroke. This leads to messy linework, and it draws attention to those perceived mistakes. You need to stop drawing by reflex - if you make a mistake, stop yourself. Don't correct it, just move on.
The whole reason that I insist people go over their work afterwards with a different coloured pen is so that they can gain something from correcting their mistakes without falling into the trap of immediately fixing a line just after drawing it. Also, when you correct after the fact, don't just circle things you think are wrong, actually draw the correct line (that's why you should do it with a different colour, so they can be separated out).
In general though, your constructions are confident, but your sense of space is still weak, in that you've got a lot of near/far plane problems that you haven't identified, and areas where your angles are off. Long story short, you're doing well, but you do have a fair bit to work on - going back over your work and trying to identify those mistakes will help, but there's more practice to be done.
Anyway, you've completed the challenge, so congrats on that.
Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"
2016-07-24 15:49
In this case, you should be drawing freehand. If a ruler is okay for certain things, it'll be mentioned in the instructions. When I allow for the use of rulers, it's usually in order to draw things like frames and generally keep a clean layout, which ultimately helps you maintain the mindset of drawing thoughtfully and planning your marks out. Getting caught up in measuring however undermines the purpose of learning to draw more organically. Don't let your little ticks get in the way of your learning - if you get too caught up in the distance between the boxes, you'll likely loose track of the goal of learning how to rotate a box in space. By the nature of our approach, things will not be exact, nor perfect. We're estimating everything, so it's inevitable that there would be some mistakes.
That said, in regards to some of the gaps, you may want to look at /u/soundslikeponies' additional tips about spacing: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/4u9pkg/tackling_the_rotated_boxes_exercise/d5octx5
Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"
2016-07-24 03:23
:D It happens to the best of us.
Uncomfortable in the post "Tackling the Rotated Boxes Exercise"
2016-07-24 03:20
These are good points to keep in mind! Though in your last overdrawing, I think you mixed up the green/red, as it appears that the green angles are placed on the near, and the red are placed on the far, but in the center you've marked that red is smaller than green.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-07-24 00:19
Very neat! I've added it to the homework section of the lesson, and have credited you with the recommendation.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-23 21:23
Looking pretty good! Keeping your elbow on the desk will function a bit like an anchor, and it's at a fairly key point so I'd advise against it. Having your wrist resting gently against the page can have a similar effect, but to a lesser degree - so as long as you're aware of it, you can consciously force yourself to lock your wrist and move your whole arm despite the drag.
Overall your form seems to be on point. Rotating your page a lot, locking your wrist, and ghosting consistently. Keep up the good work.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-22 19:47
Very nice work! Your boxes are looking pretty good. I do think you were a little lax on your corrections, though - you've got a few that you didn't catch that show far planes larger than their corresponding near planes (though they're very subtle and easy to miss). One random example would be 208, though like I said, it's a slight divergence of your parallel lines as they move further from the viewer.
Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2016-07-22 19:44
You've done a pretty good job. Your contour curves wrap around the forms well (though keep in mind that your minor axis should pass as close to the center of a form as possible, and then you should be using it to align your contour ellipses), your dissections show a good amount of detail and despite your concerns, don't get too noisy, your form intersections demonstrate a solid understanding of space and the interaction between the forms themselves, and your organic intersections are going in the right direction, wrapping around each other in ways that do a good job of depicting the individual forms' weight and tension.
On the topic of the dissections, the only thing that I'd recommend is not to use hatching or crosshatching to just fill an area in. Don't get caught up in using any sort of form shading - that is, the shadows that describe the overall organic form itself. Focus on the texture, which exists separately. It can get a little confusing at times, but the texture is more the result of the little shadows cast by tiny forms set into the surface. Like little bumps, scales, and so on - each one casts a tiny shadow. Focus entirely on those, and if you ever catch yourself wanting to fill an area in with hatching, ask yourself what exactly you're trying to capture with it.
Anyway, keep up the good work and feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-22 19:38
There's no need to be self-conscious. I fully understand that it's not entirely within your control, but consider that the expectation is for you to make mistakes, and then to reflect upon them and learn from them. Without mistakes, without embarrassment, there is no progress.
You've generally done quite well, but there's a couple things you'll want to work on as we move forwards.
-
Your ellipses are a touch on the stiff side. Work towards achieving a more confident pace when drawing, and always be sure to apply the ghosting method beforehand to build up that necessary muscle memory on the spot. Once you actually execute the mark, you want to do so quickly enough to keep your brain from trying to course-correct as you draw. Trust in your muscle memory and loosen the reins just a touch. Once you've managed to capture a degree of confidence, enough to achieve smooth, even ellipses, then you work on the second priority, which is regaining your accuracy and tightening the ellipses up. That always comes second.
-
Make sure you always apply the ghosting method when drawing your lines - in your rough perspective boxes (as well as your organic perspective boxes) I see some areas where you've fallen back to being a bit chicken scratchy with your lines. Every line should be executed with a single stroke, no more. Even if you make the one mark and it's gotten away from you a bit, don't correct it. Leave it be, otherwise you'll just draw more attention to it.
-
Also on the rough perspective boxes exercise, I encourage you to go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. This will help you identify where your estimation of perspective is at its weakest, so you can consciously work on them the next time you attempt the exercise. Also, it would be a good idea to read over this as well, just in case you're not 100% sure about how your lines should behave in one point perspective: Guessing, Instead of Knowing.
Lastly, the rotated and organic perspective boxes were included as a first exposure to the idea of constructing and manipulating arbitrarily rotated boxes in 3D space, with no expectation of any significant successes. It's a very difficult challenge, and it takes everyone some time to become comfortable with it.
I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will give you the opportunity to dive deeper into the whole rotating boxes thing, while also allowing you to iron out the issues with your use of the ghosting method. Remember, no chicken scratching, one mark per line, etc. Also be sure to read through all of the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This method in particular should help you gain a better grasp of how each box sits in 3D space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2016-07-22 15:17
Your arrows and form intersections are well done. As are your dissections. The biggest issue I'm seeing comes from the fact that you're not drawing through your ellipses. As I mentioned in the first lesson, I expect you to do this for every single ellipse you draw for my lessons. This issue impacts your organic forms most significantly, but also has some minor impact on your form intersections.
Another issue with your organic forms is that you're not drawing the minor axis (the central spine that goes through each form), to which each ellipse should be aligned.
Finally, when you move onto the organic forms with contour curves, due to the shortfalls of your contour ellipses, you struggle considerably with getting your curves to wrap around the forms convincingly. Giving this a read may help: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms.
While your organic intersections suffer from some of the same issues to varying degrees, I do see some signs of an understanding of how those forms would wrap around each other, and interact with one another. One thing to note though is that unlike the form intersections, these aren't meant to cut into each other (maybe intersection is the wrong word for this exercise). They're just meant to lay on top of one another, sagging and wrapping around their neighbours.
Anyway, I'd like you to redo the organic form with contour ellipse/curve section before I mark this lesson as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-21 18:55
You've got some nice constructions in there, as well as some nice observational drawing. There are a couple points that I want to emphasize, things that have been mentioned either in this lesson or previous ones that you seem to have missed or forgotten:
-
First off, you must draw through every single ellipse you draw for my lessons. It goes a long way to maintain a confident pace, which in turn helps keep the shape of your ellipses even and smooth.
-
Secondly, never leave a form open - for example, where the stem of a plant continues on, and you leave its end as two lines running parallel with nothing connecting them where they stop. It's imperative that you cap off your tubes with an ellipse, as without it your form immediately flattens out.
As it stands, I believe your big shadow shapes on your page of leaves lack the understanding of texture to properly achieve the gradual transitions necessary to really pull that kind of aesthetic off. Your texture in other areas are much better though. The 25 texture challenge is likely something you'll want to dive into - though be sure to stretch it out over a long period of time while pursuing other lessons and exercises, as it's quite time consuming, and doing it all at once would both be exhausting and somewhat less effective.
Aside from all that, you've done fairly well. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-21 18:50
Nicely done. A little sparse on the corrections, but the ones you did put in seem to be correct. One thing I do want to point out though is that in your attempt to differentiate the lines on the near side vs the far side of the box (to diminish the confusion that comes from drawing through your forms), you've undermined the solidity and cohesion of the boxes themselves a bit. That is, by having internal lines within your silhouette carry the same weight as those along the edges. Rather than making the internal lines thicker, a rather helpful way to differentiate the two sides of the box would be to fill one near plane in with simple, consistent hatching that stretches from edge to edge. This tends to clarify things fairly easily without undermining any of the basic solidity and integrity of the form.
Aside form that, well done! You may consider this challenge complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-21 18:47
Very nice work! Your lines are smooth, your ellipses are confident and your sense of space seems to be fairly well developed. One thing I do want to recommend in regards to the rough perspective boxes is that you go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. It helps to identify areas where your estimation of perspective is at its weakest, so you know where to focus your efforts when you attempt this exercise in the future.
Your organic perspective boxes are quite well done. This is intended to be a fairly challenging exercise that most struggle with immensely, but you've done a good job of it. As such, I'm not going to require you to do the 250 box challenge but I do encourage you to at least read through the notes on that page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. It goes a long way to help you understand how each box sits in space.
Keep up the great work and consider this lesson complete!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-21 18:44
Nice work. Your line quality is smooth and confident, while maintaining a good sense of precision. Your ellipses are also fairly even, though I notice just a touch of stiffness that comes from drawing a liiiiittle bit too slow (and letting your brain drive the motion of your hand). This is almost negligible, so just keep it in mind and don't go too far to try and correct it. Simple awareness is often enough to change your subconscious behaviour in a positive way.
Skipping down to your rough perspective boxes, your use of hatching is a little sloppy - in the future, make sure your lines stretch all the way across the planes from edge to edge, rather than having them float in the middle. Also, it's a good idea to go over your completed work for this exercise as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.
Lastly, your organic and rotated boxes are coming along well, though there's plenty of room for improvement. This is entirely expected and intended, as these exercises are merely your first exposure to the challenge of constructing arbitrarily rotated boxes in 3D space.
I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will give you the additional practice you need to really solidify your grasp of construction and space. Furthermore, be sure to read through the notes on the challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular really gives you a strong sense of how each form sits in space, allowing you to get your head around it more easily while also emphasizing and highlighting your mistakes.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-21 18:40
Overall you've done well, but there is one underlying issue that comes up across all of your work - you're impatient, and this causes you to be a bit sloppy. That said, your linework is confident, so it flows very well, and you have no wobbling to speak of, which is definitely good. The problem rises more when it comes to the question of accuracy - you don't quite take enough time before drawing a mark to think through where you want it to start and end, and generally how it should behave. Ultimately you're not using the ghosting method to its fullest, and are missing out on a lot of the benefits of taking your time with those first few steps.
Aside from that, you're doing well. As I mentioned, your lines are smooth and confident, and your sense of space is fairly strong. There are some issues with your rough perspective boxes, but this is primarily coming from sloppiness - where your lines should be perfectly parallel to the horizon (or perfectly perpendicular to it), they slant slightly.
Also, it's a good idea to go over your completed rough perspective work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.
Lastly, if you want to work on your patience and application of the ghosting method, I strongly recommend that you tackle the 250 box challenge next. Whether you choose to or not, I do insist that you at least read through the notes on that page before moving on, it's got some helpful tips that will be valuable in later lessons.
I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one when you're ready.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2016-07-21 18:35
Pretty well done! There's a few things that you can focus on as you continue to practice these exercises, though.
-
Your first page of organic forms with contour curves are getting there, but I think you're still falling a little short when it comes to wrapping the curves around the forms. Overshooting helps develop this sense of the rounded surface. Your second page is better by a considerable margin, though it's still something you should focus on.
-
Your dissections are a little on the simplistic end, as far as the textures go. Not bad, but I think you'd benefit from looking into working on the 25 texture challenge while you continue to move forwards through the lessons (it's a big challenge, should be spread out over a long period of time).
-
Your organic intersections have a lot of gaps - that is, between the forms themselves. When drawing this sort of exercise, it's important to think about how the forms interact with one another - no hoverhand here, they should be clinging to one another and wrapping around each others' contours. Try and think about how each one has weight. I like to picture dropping a sausage-shaped balloon filled with water over an outstretched arm. Consider how the two ends of the balloon would sag with their weight, while the center would grow tense and wrap right around the limb.
Aside from that, very nice work. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-21 14:55
Thanks for the kind words - but did you forget to include a link to a homework submission?
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-21 12:45
Oh, one thing to keep in mind is - don't shade. There's no need for it here. A lot of people tend to try and rely on shading to depict form, but it's completely unnecessary. Focus on depicting form by using the tools I've already shown you, as well as the silhouette of the objects. Just focus entirely on building up those constructions.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-20 23:13
Not really, to be honest. Your linework is stiff, you're not implementing some of the things I mentioned in my last critique, and you're skipping on basic things covered in previous lessons. This can at least in part be attributed to the big gap since your last submission (which doesn't really matter to me, but it's inevitable that you'd be rusty since you're not keeping up with the previous exercises as warmups) but a lot of it also has to do with you not reviewing material and following instructions. There's only so much advice I can impart, you need to put it into action.
-
You're not drawing through your ellipses, so your contour ellipses are stiff and misshapen, and don't do much to reinforce your organic forms (1, 2, 3...)
-
You're not applying the leaf construction that goes from simple to complex with successive passes of breaking down forms and adding detail - you jump right into complex wavy edges with no scaffolding to support them (4, 6, 8)
-
You're not capping off your forms. When you leave them open-ended, they stop maintaining their 3d form and flatten out immediately (2, 3, 4, 5 ...)
Some things are alright - the leaves on page 8 are decently constructed, though in general your use of texture isn't good. It's distracting you from your construction in general, so I strongly suggest that you set texture aside for now. When you do use texture, stop using hatching and cross hatching - those are merely attempts at filling up surfaces, they don't signify any sort of actual thought or observation.
If you look back at the lesson, you'll notice that a couple weeks ago I posted two additional exercises, one focusing on constructing leaves and one focusing on constructing tubes (stems and such). See that you do them, and be sure to read through all of the notes and directions before starting.
Then do two more pages of plants - don't go into any texture, focus entirely on construction and show me that you can follow the instructions you're given without skipping any points. Also be sure to start doing the homework from lessons 1 and 2 as warmups, picking a few each day before starting your main work. You can't let those exercises slip from your memory, or you'll go back to bad habits.
Regardless of how you perform on those two pages, I will mark this lesson as complete. Beyond what I've said here, I don't have anymore advice to give, so you'll have to dwell on it at your leisure beyond that point. Furthermore, there's no real benefit to continuing to hold you back - each lesson focuses on tackling the issue of construction from a different angle, so while this may not click immediately, the next lesson may have better results which may then flow back to this topic.
Still, do your best to apply what has been outlined.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-20 19:48
Fairly decent work, though I'd say at times the amount of attention you pay to applying the constructional method waxes and wanes across your work. Sometimes you stick to it firmly, other times you skip steps and get a little sloppier. Your observational skills are strong, so they help cover up the sloppiness, but this is much more difficult to do when it comes to other subject matter. It's very important that you push yourself to follow the process of starting as simple as you can, and then steadily building up complexity in subsequent passes.
For example, your wavy leaves on the left side of this page: https://i.imgur.com/RuHnQdP.jpg - before incorporating any wavy details, you should have defined the basic shape of the leaf with simple curves constructed around the central line of the leaf.
Also, the flower pot on this page https://i.imgur.com/pPDmZDq.jpg is a good example of where observational skills fall flat, and construction is necessary. The flower pot's a cylinder, so you must construct it as one. Might want to take a look at the 250 cylinder challenge to get a refresher on the importance of the minor axis, and other such things.
Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete so go ahead and move onto the next one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2016-07-20 19:28
Excellent work. Your arrows are consistent and give a good sense of depth. Your organic forms maintain a strong sense of volume, and the contour curves wrap around them quite well. Your dissections demonstrate a wide variety of textures, each one drawn carefully with special attention paid to your linework. Your form intersections are generally consistent and cohesive, in terms of the foreshortening applied to the different forms (so they look like they fit in the same space), and your use of line weight and sense of form makes them all appear very solid and believable. Lastly, you've done a pretty good job with your organic intersections, getting your head around how each form sags over its neighbours and capturing the tension between them.
I really have nothing to point out as far as corrections go - you're surging in the right direction, so keep up the great work and feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes"
2016-07-20 19:24
You certainly do have some things to work on. Your lines are generally okay (plenty of room to improve on keeping your lines straight and smooth, but you're moving in the right direction). Your ellipses vary depending on the exercise. Your table of ellipses are generally fine, though your ellipses in planes are very awkward and stiff. Remember to maintain a confident pace when drawing, and compensate for the inevitable decrease in accuracy that causes by investing more time into applying the ghosting method and preparing beforehand.
If anything, your boxes show me that you didn't read the instructions as carefully as you could have.
-
You're Not Framing Compositions
-
You could stand to put more effort/time into applying the ghosting method to each and every line you draw
-
In your rough perspective boxes, your horizontals and verticals need to be parallel and perpendicular to the horizon respectively. Read this for more information: Guessing, Instead of Knowing
-
Also about the rough perspective boxes, it helps a lot to go over your completed work as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point
You've got a decent start with your rotated boxes. The thing about this exercise and the organic perspective one is that I've included them with the full expectation that people will struggle with them. It's just the first exposure you get to the challenge of constructing and manipulating rotated boxes in 3D space without any explicit vanishing points in frame. You're not at all expected to nail it by the end of this lesson. So, your general sense of how the boxes should be formed and how they should sit in space is one thing. Another thing entirely is the quality of your linework.
-
Apply the ghosting method to every line
-
If you make a mistake, don't draw another mark on top to correct it. Leave it be, otherwise you'll draw more attention to your mistake.
Now, before I mark this lesson as complete, I want you to do another two pages of rough perspective boxes, taking what I've mentioned here into consideration. Submit that to me, and I'll mark the lesson as complete.
Then I want you to move onto the 250 box challenge next to work on your construction of arbitrarily rotated boxes. Be sure to read through all of the notes on that challenge page, especially the tip about drawing through your forms. This approach in particular will help you get a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space, and will also highlight certain key mistakes, such as your near/far plane size relationships being reversed (which you're doing a lot).
Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge - fleshed out into an actual challenge for those of you struggling with how to render different materials"
2016-07-19 23:26
Unfortunately, no. It's a matter of practicing your observational skills.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-19 20:25
Very nice work - your confidence steadily improves, and overall your boxes are solid and you're making great use of line weight to reinforce the general sense of weight. Your corrections are also all going in the right direction. Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete!
Uncomfortable in the post "25 Texture Challenge - fleshed out into an actual challenge for those of you struggling with how to render different materials"
2016-07-19 20:24
Generally you're showing improvement, though I'd say some of your choices of textures aren't necessarily that great, and reflect a few holes in your understanding of what denotes "texture". Perhaps a better word for it is "material". Think as though you are unwrapping a material from around an object, and flattening it out, or wrapping it around something else.
Fire is not a great choice, and it seems you were well aware of that yourself. Since you couldn't really understand how you'd apply it in terms of a material, you ended up thinking of it more as a flat pattern, which is not of much use to us. Then there's the bamboo - bamboo absolutely is a texture and a material, but on your detail study you actually drew a bamboo shoot, rather than filling the square with the bamboo material itself, as if you'd unwrapped it and laid it across that square on the page. Rooftop's quite similar, in that you drew objects, rather than focusing on the textures on the tiles themselves.
Here and there, your linework appears to be somewhat sketchy, and also a little impatient. This isn't always the case, but any situation where you're just mindlessly scratching lines onto the page is not of any use to you.
For the ironclad beetle's back, you focused more on the colour and pattern present on the shell, rather than the actual material of the shell itself. As I mentioned to you before, set aside colour and focus on the little bumps and scratches on the object itself, and how they cast small shadows.
You've got plenty of room to grow - as this is a challenge, the only requirement is completing the work, so I'll be marking it as complete. I mentioned this in the lesson - it takes a lot of time to do this challenge properly, so it's best to do it bit by bit while working on the other lessons at the same time.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-19 20:04
There's a few points I'd like to raise:
-
Apply the ghosting method. That is, think and plan before every line, don't allow yourself to draw by reflex (like when you immediately draw another mark after drawing a line). It's a very bad habit - not an uncommon one, but one you should work towards shaking off.
-
The ghosting method's first step, if you remember, involves placing start/end points for every line. You can get a general sense of how you're constructing your box without committing if you lay down the corner points, instead of drawing each line one at a time, and hoping the box comes together.
-
When you make a mistake, and you recognize it, don't correct immediately. Leave it be. The reason I encourage you to do your corrections afterwards in a different coloured pen is to break the connection between drawing and correcting. Generally when you make a mistake, correcting it will just draw more attention to it. By separating corrections into a separate process after you've completed the challenge, you can gain the benefit of reflecting upon your work without reinforcing bad habits.
-
When you correct, don't circle mistakes or make superfluous notes, as these aren't things you'll remember - actually draw the correct line in. Focus more on issues where you thought a line was correct when you drew it, but came back to realize it was wrong. Mistakes such as these often lead to near/far plane issues.
Anyway, nice work completing the challenge. You certainly need to focus on identifying your near/far plane issues rather than being distracted by other things, and you'd benefit immensely from actually applying the ghosting method, but generally your box constructions are becoming more confident.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-19 19:58
Generally fairly well done. The biggest concern I have comes with your corrections, in that what you're correcting isn't really a great use of your time. Don't worry about technical mistakes, focus on mistakes of understanding (where you drew a line thinking it was correct at the time, and then realized upon revisiting it that it was wrong). In this scenario, draw the correct line, don't just circle it.
These mistakes most often lead to issues with near/far planes being reversed (far plane being larger). I caught a few of these in your boxes which went undetected because you were preoccupied with identifying casual slip-ups. It's important that you go back over them and do your corrections in this manner, so that you become more aware of those particular mistakes and ultimately become more capable of consciously compensating for your tendencies in future attempts.
Aside form that, your boxes are looking quite solid. Keep up the good work, I'll be marking this challenge as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-07-19 19:54
Your work's alright. As far as construction goes, you're doing okay for the most part, though there's a couple hiccups here and there. For instance, the leaves on this plant, you didn't apply the construction method the initial exercises were meant to drill into your head. Also, you have a tendency to have your constructions fall apart when you draw smaller (which is a common problem), so you should consciously make an effort to avoid doing little square-inch-doodles. For example, these are too small. You leave yourself with no room to think through the spatial problems.
In this one, you've started off with a circle, but from what I can see, you don't actually go far enough to convince yourself that what you've drawn is a sphere (a 3D form rather than a flat, 2D shape).
As far as texture goes, you're not doing great. Luckily that's not our focus here, but I do want to make it very clear that you are scribbling all over the place. Scribbles aren't worth much - they have no planning and no thought behind them, they're just randomness, and don't go very far to capture any specific texture. Avoid scribbling at all costs. Doing the 25 texture challenge as you mentioned is definitely a good idea, though it's a fairly time consuming challenge so expect to do it for a while alongside other work. And as I mentioned: don't scribble.
I recently did a demo of that morel mushroom you drew, as another student was struggling with it. You can find it here: http://drawabox.com/viewimage/texture/3dtextures.jpg
Anyway, I am going to mark this lesson as complete. You've got plenty of room to grow, but each lesson tackles the challenge of construction from different perspectives, in the hopes that through one of these different angles of attack, you will find one manner of thinking about it that will click. From there, it's generally not hard to revisit the previous approaches and understand them as well. So, feel free to move onto the next lesson.
BUT STOP SCRIBBLING D:
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"
2016-07-19 19:46
Better, you're showing a showing a better understanding of how the forms interact with one another. Your forms are still swelling up at the ends, though, which I specifically remarked upon in my last critique.
Anyway, it's good enough for now, so I'll mark this lesson as complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge"
2016-07-26 20:29
Nice work completing the challenge. The biggest thing I believe you should be working on is the quality of your linework - rather than applying the ghosting method, I can see that you're allowing yourself to immediately reinforce each line you draw with more strokes, which is a very bad habit to develop. It's not uncommon, and most people do it at first, but you've been going through these lessons for now, and more than anything, I try to stress the importance of thinking and planning before every single mark you put down.
Another thing I would recommend is that you use hatching on one of the near faces of your box - this helps clarify which side of the box is near the viewer, and which side is pointed away. It can get somewhat confusing when drawing through your boxes. Ultimately this helps identify mistakes where your near planes end up being smaller than your far planes, which is one of the most common mistakes people make when drawing boxes. I do see a few cases of this at least, though with a lot of others it's hard to tell which side was intended to be the near plane and which was intended to be the far plane.
Anyway, I'll mark this challenge as complete.