Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-04-12 23:46
Your grasshopper there certainly marks a weak start, but by the end of your homework set your constructions are much more solid and confident, and you demonstrate some fairly decent texture work. I really like that scorpion fly - the general construction would have been quite challenging, but you pulled it off quite nicely. Your linework's a little sketchy here and there, so do I want to stress the importance of ghosting through your lines and thinking/planning before every mark you put down. Fight against the natural urge to be loose, and never chicken-scratch (as you did with the scorpion fly's drop shadow.
There's one other minor thing that I want to point out - in the fly you drew at the beginning, you've got a line going through its torso. That line represents the minor axis of all of the contour curves that wrap around the form, but your contour curves (which are simply visible sections of entire ellipses) do not align to it. Be mindful of these sorts of things in order to achieve really solid feeling forms. Here's what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/PBAoox2.png
Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-04-12 23:40
Not bad! Your texturing is generally very nice, and your forms are okay although in some places they can certainly use a bit more work. The biggest thing I need to stress is that you need to constantly be thinking in terms of 3D - all the little components of your construction are 3D forms, and when two 3D forms touch, their intersection is a 2D shape. It's not quite enough to understand that intersection in terms of a simple line, you need to really think about how those forms come together in three dimensions.
I notice that when it comes to skinny forms (legs mostly) your contour curves tend to get rather sloppy, due to the limited space you've got. All the more reason to put more focus in these areas, not less.
I noticed in a few drawings you jumped into texture/detail before even finishing up your construction. Keep in mind that texture is nothing when compared to the importance of your construction/lay-in. No detail work will save a poor construction, while a strong construction will be fine without any texture at all.
Here's some notes on how you approached your mantis, and how I would approach the lay-in myself.
One other issue I noticed was that you have a tendency to go way overboard when it comes to hair. When it comes to hair (or really any texture) less is always more. Attempting to capture every individual strand will result in far more contrast and far too many distracting tangents. Here are some additional notes on how I tackle hair/fur: http://i.imgur.com/Eb6hr0h.jpg
I'm still going to mark this lesson as complete, but I want you to very much focus on your form/constructions as you move forward, and also I insist that you spend some time going back to the organic intersection exercise from lesson 2. This exercise should help you get used to the idea of dealing with all of these construction forms as 3D objects that interact with one another.
Uncomfortable in the post "Added some notes on how to approach rotation in perspective - beware, I have no idea if this is technically correct, it's just what makes sense to me, and that's the best I can offer"
2016-04-10 16:31
That's definitely at the core of drawabox - there's plenty of resources out there about all of the technical parts of perspective (like Scott Robertson's books) but not a whole lot on how to make the transition between knowing the important rules, and being able to apply them without stalling creatively. A lot of people tend to experience a creative block when they're bogged down by plotting and measuring every single line. With the approach drawabox employs, you're able to work in a more fluid manner that is more conducive to getting your ideas out of your head and onto the page. If necessary, you can always go back over a drawing and lay out the correct perspective once all of the creative work is done.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-10 02:29
You're not quite ready to move onto the next lesson just yet. Your plant drawings are alright, but you're missing one fundamental aspect of the lesson - based on how you're approaching these drawings, you tend to stick very much to thinking about these plants in terms of being 2D elements moved from a 2D photograph to a 2D drawing. There's very little understanding of how they exist as 3D forms. Furthermore, you're also not applying any of the constructional drawing principles (the link to this article was included at the beginning of the lesson) - instead of starting off simple and building up complexity in successive passes, you tend to just jump into complexity far too early.
This demo summarizes much of what you're missing. First and foremost, plants are made up of both geometric forms (there's a lot of cylinders), and flat forms (like leaves). The geometric forms should be constructed carefully and deliberately - think through every mark you put down, apply the ghosting method and so on. Your flat forms should be drawn like this. Start by defining the center line, which establishes the general flow of the leaf through 3D space. Then establish the edges with simple curves, regardless of how much more complex the actual leaf's edges are. Then build your more complex edge detail on top of the scaffolding you've already laid down.
You may want to also look into the 250 cylinder challenge, as your cylinder construction seems to be rather weak at the moment. The notes included on that page will refresh your memory as to how one goes about constructing a proper cylinder (specifically the use of the minor axis to align your ellipses correctly).
Once you've had a chance to read through the article on constructional drawing, I'd like you to do another four pages of plants, keeping what I've mentioned in mind. Remember to apply the concepts mentioned in previous lessons, as each lesson builds upon the last.
Edit: I just remembered one last thing that I didn't mention - when applying texture, you have a tendency to fall back on using a lot of hatching where hatching lines aren't necessarily the best option to reflect the texture you're trying to capture. Hatching lines really only correspond to a fairly limited range of textures - you should be more careful about spending much more time observing your reference images, trying to identify the visual patterns present there, and thinking about what exactly makes a surface appear to be rough, wet, smooth, bumpy, etc, and how different kinds of marks can impact that illusion.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-04-10 02:09
There's definitely something not quite correct about your approach, but I'm having trouble seeing it from your final results. I'd like you to do one more drawing, specifically of this beetle.
Take several photos as you move through the stages of construction so I can see exactly how you're approaching the drawing.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-04-07 23:05
Some of these are quite well done, others a little less so. Overall, your form and construction are pretty decent, while your texturing - especially when it comes to hairy subjects - needs a fair bit of work. Our focus is always going to be on form, which is infinitely more important than texture, but I'll give you some tips on how to tackle furry and hairy things.
Before that, I want to talk a little about form - looking at your wolf spider, you've done a good job with the main body - you started off with two ellipses, drawing through completely and establishing forms that feel fairly three dimensional. You may want to apply one or two contour lines here, though, just to drive that message home. The line on the abdomen definitely does a lot to define the volume of the form, while the thorax/head section is missing that a little bit.
Ironically enough, when it comes to long, thin forms like legs, the visual impact of contour lines tends to be much more stark, so here it's important that you really push the sense of that curve wrapping around the form, and that you limit how many contour lines you apply. Applying them at points of segmentation is totally fine (as long as you try to nail that wrap-around illusion), but adding more than that can start to make things look a little stiff. We see that in some of your other insects.
I certainly hope you're continuing to practice the exercises from lessons 1 and 2 - in this case especially the organic forms with contour curves. It's a good idea to pick a few of these exercises and do them as part of a warm-up regimen each day, alternating which exercises you choose.
Anyway, onto texture - the problem with hair is that if you try to draw every single strand, or even half as many, you're going to end up with loads of visual noise and contrast. It becomes very distracting and unpleasant to look at. Furthermore, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of just scribbling randomly to capture a sense of hair, because we naturally think hair is fairly chaotic. In fact, hair is not - it tends to group and clump together, flowing in predictable directions.
When things group together, we can avoid drawing every individual, and instead capture the groups as shapes and forms themselves. If you take a look at these notes, you can see that these clumps can be used along the silhouette of an object to get the greatest impact with the smallest amount of actual detail. The silhouette is actually what the eye notices first, and as such, even little discrepancies along the silhouette's edge will have considerably more impact than all of the detail contained within the shape.
Anyways, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete - be sure to continue working on those contour lines, and remember most of all to focus on constructing solid 3D forms as parts of your constructions. If you haven't had the chance yet, be sure to read the article on constructional drawing.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2016-04-07 22:20
Your cylinders are coming along well! The only thing I want to mention is that when you draw ellipses with a smaller degree (the narrower ones on the end of the cylinder closest to us) you have a tendency to bring the ends of those ellipses to a bit of a point. Keep striving to maintain an even, smooth roundedness to them.
Anyway, keep up the great work, and consider this challenge complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2016-04-07 14:25
The shadow's a good example of considering everything in your drawing as a potential tool, rather than something to copy over one-to-one. The shadow that I drew in is by no means an accurately measured or plotted one - it's a roughly approximated shape that exists only to help ground the object in its environment. There's no need for it to be accurate.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-04-06 22:57
Very nice work! Your drawings are coming along really nicely, and you seem to be demonstrating an excellent sense of form. I'm also liking your subtle touch when it comes to texture - the little tufts of fur here and there, and the wrinkles along the elephant's trunk are very nice touches.
While I'm perfectly satisfied with the quality of your work, I do want to share this with you, just as a loose suggestion of another way of approaching construction. I can see that in your drawings you sometimes play with contour lines, but often times you'll also apply the initial masses and the torso as flatter shapes. When tackling these kinds of constructions, I like to jump into 3D as early as possible, considering each form as a separate mass that I can add.
I extend this concept all across the board, even when constructing the head, where I'll attach a box-like form to the cranial ball. Working like this ensures that every detail is grounded within the construction, and nothing floats arbitrarily.
Anyway, keep up the great work and feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2016-04-05 18:12
Honestly, I think your first 100 were your best. It's possible that you did rush through them in general, but in your later cylinders, you seemed to be spending a little too much time when actually executing your marks. As the ghosting method states, you should be investing most of your time in the preparation stage, and then drawing the actual marks with a quick, confident and persistent pace.
One thing you need to remember is that the box method's purpose is to construct the minor axis - often when constructing a cylinder as part of something larger, it can be difficult to place this line so that it is oriented properly, so using a box can be much more effective. Afterwards, you do not want to be constructing your ellipses to match the box, but rather to align them to the resulting minor axis. I believe that many of your box cylinders have ellipses that are slightly off in their alignment.
Overall, I'm very happy to see that your'e attempting to apply the various techniques. I think the best approach is to invest lots of time into preparation, and internalizing those rules, but when it comes time to draw, allow yourself to relax and rely more on your muscle memory.
Anyway, congratulations on completing the challenge. Keep up the good work.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2016-04-05 17:59
Well done. Keep working on tightening up your ellipses, though I'm glad to see that yours are driven with confident strokes, and are generally shaped quite evenly. That is a higher priority than tightening your ellipses, but once those points are hit, you'll want to work on getting those multiple lines to come closer together.
I'm glad to see that you've been applying the concepts of the minor axis across the board - as a result, your ellipses look fairly solid and well constructed. Good work completing the challenge.
Uncomfortable in the post "Added some notes on how to approach rotation in perspective - beware, I have no idea if this is technically correct, it's just what makes sense to me, and that's the best I can offer"
2016-04-05 02:13
Oh wow, that's dense. I'm going to have to take some time to really read over that in detail, but thanks for sharing!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-04-04 20:25
I'd say my favourite of these is the wasp. It demonstrates a decent grasp of form and construction, and a pretty well developed eye for texture. This leads me to believe that with many of the other drawings, you were not necessarily doing your best.
The example I decided to focus on was your scorpion - you can see some notes I drew here.
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You're not constructing your object with solid 3D forms, you're drawing loose, approximative marks that come out more like flat 2D shapes.
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Your contour curves aren't wrapping around your forms convincingly, so they're not really serving their purpose.
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You're not drawing through your ellipses
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You're overly dependent on hatching lines, using them for all of your textures instead of really taking a close look at your reference images and conveying elements of what you see there. Hatching lines capture one possible texture that we see in the world, but there's far more than that. Here's a demo I did a while back about insect textures.
The beetle on the left side of the last page is pretty good too, form-wise, though it falls apart due to the overuse of hatching. I'd like to see you do another four pages of insect drawings, focusing first and foremost on your construction - building up your objects with solid 3D forms. Secondary to that, spend more time observing your reference images to identify the various patterns and repeating visual elements that exist. Construction is always your primary focus, so don't jump into texture until your construction is solid.
Uncomfortable in the post "Added some notes on how to approach rotation in perspective - beware, I have no idea if this is technically correct, it's just what makes sense to me, and that's the best I can offer"
2016-04-03 17:49
Technically speaking it still works, but the box would come out heavily distorted. If you think of the line between the two vanishing points as being the diameter of a circle, anything within that circle will have fairly little distortion applied to it. As soon as you start going out of that circle however, things get warped and weird. See?
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-04-02 18:11
You're moving in the right direction, though there is a fundamental shortcoming that you're exhibiting - you're still thinking in terms of 2D, rather than 3D. What you're drawing is in your mind, composed of shapes, not forms. This isn't abnormal at all, but it is something you have to overcome.
The first thing I want to emphasize is how you look at those initial masses you construct, the head/ribcage/pelvis. We draw them as ellipses, so it can be very easy to mistake them for simple 2D shapes, but really they represent 3D balls. The best way to emphasize this is to use the ribcage/pelvis balls to construct a simple 3D sausage form (just like lesson 2's organic forms) with one ball at either end.
Once you've established that form as a base, it's just a matter of adding more organic forms on top, such as the shoulder masses, and then extending forms off of those. The whole process looks something like this: http://i.imgur.com/O18BDIx.png
The other important thing I want to stress has to do with the same thing - when you approach your heads, you have a tendency to draw the basic ball form, and then all of the other details you add just float on top. You do this to varying degrees, sometimes leaning more towards establishing 3D forms, but usually (like with your cheetahs) there's no real basis for where those facial features are sitting. What you want to do is extend the 3D form of a muzzle (which is often rather box-like) off the starting head/cranium ball.
I'd like you to try another four pages of animal drawings, keeping what I've mentioned above in mind. Don't add any detail/texture to the first three pages of those, just focus on the 3D construction.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-02 17:59
Fundamentally this work is pretty decent, but there are a couple concerns that I have.
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First and foremost, your drawings are really small. I'm basing this off the relationship to the thickness of your lines, as well as your handwriting, but I'm definitely getting the impression that they can't be more than a few inches across. You absolutely must draw larger. Drawing bigger will give you considerably more room to think through your spatial problems, while also giving you more room to tackle textural problems - which you are clearly struggling with.
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The first page was really the only example of any sort of complex, wavy leaf forms that I saw. The rest of your homework demonstrated a greater understanding of approaching things in a simple-->complex manner, but I want to reiterate the importance of the constructional method, especially when tackling the flat leaf shapes. You want to be establishing them at their simplest levels, then gradually incorporating more and more complexity in subsequent passes. If your leaf has wavy edges, your first pass will summarize those complex edges with a simple curve. Then you can use that as a scaffolding for adding the more interesting information. This will result in more linework being present, but that's simply part of the method. The trade off is that you gain a fuller understanding of how that form moves around in 3D space.
Anyway, consider this lesson complete but be sure to apply what I've mentioned above when you attempt the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2016-04-02 03:06
Generally this is rather good work. I think right now while your sense of construction is pretty solid, this subject matter definitely brings to light a need to continue practicing your more basic and rudimentary skills - specifically the ones covered in the first lesson. The construction of simple boxes that sit properly in 3D space (no far plane larger than near plane issues), clean straight lines executed in a single stroke, and tight ellipses that are aligned to a set minor axis, and so on.
Of course, that's the sort of thing that will develop by continually doing those simple exercises over a long period of time. For now, your constructions are looking good. The clock at the beginning was a bit of a failure, but much of the rest came out quite nicely. The PS Vita and the object above it are looking solid, the deoderant is fantastic, and so on. With the lamp, if you look at the long cylinders where you shaded with a bunch of tiny curving hatching lines, I'd definitely recommend using longer lines length-wise along the form instead. Short lines like that tends to make a surface look rough and bumpy, while longer lines implies a smooth texture.
For the spray bottle, I have a demo I did for someone else for a similar subject matter. This applies to all constructions - focus on the rudimentary forms in your object. Even if there are smooth curves in your bottle, construct them first with clear, hard edges, then round them out afterwards. Smooth transitions tend to be much harder to pin down on their own.
Anyway, consider this lesson complete. Feel free to move onto the next one, but be sure to keep up with those early exercises as warmups so you can continue to grind away on your lines, ellipses and boxes.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-02 02:30
You've got some good work, and some less good work. This page came out great - there's clear attention being paid to the geometric construction of the forms, and you've added enough contour curves to establish how those forms exist in 3D space. Your textures are also coming along nicely.
On other pages, the solidity of your cylinders can be a little lacking, so you've got to be on top of that. Draw through your ellipses, make sure your contour curves wrap properly around the rounded form, don't overuse contour lines or space them out too regularly (that tends to make things look man-made), and make sure that you cap-off any cylindrical forms even if you cut them off in your drawing. Basically having an elliptical cap will reinforce the idea that the form is a cylinder. If you leave it open ended, it'll read as flat.
The other concern I have, has to do with how you approach complex leaves. You tend to jump into complicated shapes and forms way too early, rather than building up from simpler forms. In the lesson I linked to the article on constructional drawing. When it comes to anything, you've gotta start off simple, and then in successive passes build up that complexity. This will result in a lot of extra lines from previous passes in your drawing, but that's part of the process.
So be sure to read that article. Aside from that, you've done well, so feel free to move onto the next lesson where you can continue to practice constructional drawing.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-04-02 01:51
You've got some good stuff here, and some less good stuff. I think the biggest thing that jumps out at me is that I'm not 100% sure that you're fully understanding how the early masses you lay in exist in 3D space. Based on what I'm seeing, I believe you're still leaning towards interpreting these shapes as being 2D on a page, rather than establishing a construction. Always remember that you want to be building up 3d form, so you've got to be aware of how each component exists as a separate addition to this construction in 3D space.
That said, I do think that an understanding of 3D space is starting to show through, even though your steps don't necessarily reflect it. Your texturing is also coming along nicely, especially at the far end of the set. At the beginning you seem to be struggling a little, but with the lizards and the mice, you seem to have developed a much more solid understanding of how to organize those textures in a way that conveys the visual information to the viewer without overwhelming them with contrast and noise.
Keep up the good work, and consider this lesson complete.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2016-04-02 00:46
Exceptional work. I'm really loving how you're clearly approaching these complex objects in terms of rudimentary boxes and cylinders, without getting distracted by the superfluous detail. The drawing of the ship on page 3 is by far my favourite - both for how you constructed it, as well as for the unconventional subject matter.
The only real suggestion I have at this point is to be mindful of your lines - you have a tendency to mess up some of those that should be straight, especially when constructing your subdivision grids. This is natural, of course, but be sure to keep up with some of the exercises from the earlier lessons to continue sharpening those skills at a base level.
Really at this point, you clearly have a strong understanding of space, it's just a matter of sharpening the rudimentary skills. I'm very glad to see that you're practicing wheels and ellipses, as those can be some of the toughest elements to contend with.
Anyways, keep up the fantastic work, and congratulations on completing the dynamic sketching lessons.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-01 20:38
Just send me a message from your other account and I'll transfer the completion tracking over to this one.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-01 19:14
If you're interested in receiving a homework critique for this lesson, you'll have to have the prerequisites (lessons 1 and 2) marked as complete first. Each lesson is geared towards identifying certain core problems that tend to become more and more hidden as the subject matter becomes more complex.
Uncomfortable in the post "Added some notes on how to approach rotation in perspective - beware, I have no idea if this is technically correct, it's just what makes sense to me, and that's the best I can offer"
2016-03-31 15:52
Here's a dumb sketch to illustrate the point: https://i.imgur.com/nY6q15q.jpg
Basically, whenever you have any sort of pivot, hinge, or other element that causes two parts of the same object to sit at different orientations from each other, you're adding vanishing points. As I mentioned in the lesson, each vanishing point governs a set of parallel lines. The vast majority of objects are made up of far more than just three sets of parallel lines, and therefore will have more than three vanishing points.
Remember that in this count, you have to include all of your vanishing points. While you might draw a simple box in 1 point perspective, it's still made up of three sets of parallel lines, and therefore still has 3 vanishing "points" though in that situation, two of them exist at infinity and cannot be represented on the page (as I discuss in the notes on rotation).
In the example sketch I linked above, you see four vanishing points, but there also exists one other that governs the vertical lines, all of which are parallel.
Beyond just pivots and rotation, you'll see that there are little flaps that come out on the front and back, and hang at a 45 degree angle from the horizontals around them. Those too are governed by entirely separate vanishing points that were not drawn in. If I had drawn in those VPs, they would be sitting above the horizon.
Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"
2016-03-29 21:51
Very nice work! I'm glad to see that you played a little with constructing your cylinders in boxes, and that you focused especially hard on aligning your ellipses to their minor axes. I see no glaring issues here, just a lot of great practice. Keep it up, and consider this challenge complete!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 7: Drawing Vehicles"
2016-03-26 01:18
Old thread got locked, post your homework here.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects"
2016-03-26 01:17
Old thread got locked, post your homework here.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-25 00:03
There's some improvement that I'm seeing here - your application of texture on the second set there has definitely improved considerably, and you're moving in the right direction as far as that goes, paying more attention to your reference images and relying less on memory. Keep that up.
Your general construction of forms is still a little uncertain though. Rather than having to do with the forms themselves, I think it has to do with your line quality. Looking closely, I can see that your lines are rather shaky and lack confidence. You're really stressing over trying to nail every line, so they come out stiff and uncertain. You're drawing them slowly, rather than spending all of your time ghosting/preparing, and executing the marks themselves with confidence and speed.
I'd like you to take a look again at the organic intersections exercise (the last exercise from lesson 2) - I think that's a great way to warm-up and loosen up. Take a look at these notes I wrote for someone who was struggling with them (the right side) and do two pages of organic intersections. Focus on the volume and solidity of each organic form, and make sure you start off by defining a simple ground plane on which to drop these forms. Loosen yourself up, don't draw your lines slowly and carefully. Let your lines flow smoothly.
Then, I want you to draw one more insect - take it all the way through the process, from lay-in/construction to detail, but take photos of it as you progress, documenting the steps you take.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-22 23:19
Second page is a bit weak, but your first page is spot on. Feel free to move onto the next lesson! I think you'll find insects to be much more interesting in terms of their forms and constructions, as well as their textures. Try to keep up the no-hatching thing into there as well.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-22 22:17
Your forms are excellent - this shows through in all of your drawings, but especially the first couple of lay-ins. Your application of texture is pretty good as well, but there is one considerable area here where you can improve.
From what I can see, you are playing with applying texture using a variety of methods, but you have a tendency to fall back to using hatching lines very, very liberally. If I had to guess, I'd say that whenever you feel a space should not be blank, that is the first solution that pops into your head - just scribble some hatching on it.
You've got to fight against that reflexive urge. First and foremost, less is ALWAYS better than more. It's okay to leave surfaces blank, and sometimes it's really necessary to strike a good balance. Don't be afraid of leaving surfaces blank.
Secondly, if you are going to put some sort of texture on a surface, don't scribble, don't be loose, think through your approach. You've clearly demonstrated some areas where you've taken some time to observe your reference image, but I think you can push that much further. Put your pen down, don't give into the urge to jump into drawing. Just sit and look at your reference image, study it, try and ask yourself questions about it. Why does it look so smooth? What makes it look bumpy? And so on.
When you pick up your pen again, think before you put down any ink. If you read the notes on texture, you'll see that I generally encourage people to think about where their shadows are going to be, and to really spend time designing those shadow shapes. Then, texture should only be applied where you want to gradually transition from pure black shadow to light. Texture is just another tool, and in this case, we use it because we generally can't use middle greys or colour - we're stuck with full dark, or fully light. In order to achieve transitions between those two tones, we have to create patterns whose density gradually decreases as they move towards the light.
Another thing to remember is that hatching lines function as little contour lines - they describe the surface of your object, so if you half-ass it and draw straight lines over a rounded surface (which you did a couple times, though not too often), it's going to flatten the object out. Admittedly, there are times where I do this purposely, but right now it's unlikely that you're going to be doing that yourself.
In general, I think it'd be a very good idea to try drawing for a while without using any hatching lines at all, because you have a very clear reliance upon it that you're gonna have to shake. Above all, an artist needs to be in full control of his or her tools, and every single part of a drawing should be the result of a conscious decision on their part.
Your digital work is coming along nicely too - I won't touch on this too much, but one thing that jumped out at me that you can work on is your edge control. Your rendering tends to lean very much towards very, very soft rendering across the board. When you apply colour or value, all of your edges are very smooth and gradual. It's important to balance your soft edges with hard ones. Generally soft edges tend to make it very easy to be vague about your form definition and they all imply very smooth surfaces. Hard edges require decisions - it's the same as what I mentioned before, about everything being the result of clear, conscious decisions. You may want to try starting your rendering off purely with hard edges, and then making the decision to soften certain edges up while leaving others firm.
Anyway, as you requested, I'm very much nitpicking at this point. Your forms are great, and that is the primary focus of all of my lessons - texture and rendering is a distant second. You're doing well, so keep it up and feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Oh, one other thing - when you submit homework, there's no need to notify me via patreon. I get notified when someone submits a comment to any of these posts.
Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"
2016-03-22 18:51
Pretty much. People submit their homework as a comment to the corresponding lesson's thread (so for example, lesson 1's is https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/454qvk/lesson_1_lines_ellipses_and_boxes/, each lesson's got an orange button at the top that links to its post). Then I record the submission in the spreadsheet. It lets people know that their submission's been received, and it also helps me avoid missing submissions (which used to be a problem).
... it also lets me show people how hard I work! Almost 1000 critiques in 6 months!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-20 23:18
You're getting there, but yes- you're rushing. A lot. I think you might be mistakenly interpreting really wanting to move ahead for being motivated, and it's causing you to be sloppy. Remember to think through every detail you put down. The last image, the leaf on its own, is definitely an improvement, but your little details are drawn without thought. You think about the marks as groups - "a lot of circles need to go here", so you scribble them down. Think about them as individual marks, each one can contribute to the overall sloppiness of a drawing.
Do another two more, and take your time. Don't do them both in one sitting. Also, I want to challenge you not to use any hatching this time. You're still relying on it as a means to fill space. If you want a shape to be solid black, it should be solid black. No little white bits inside of it.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-20 18:49
I believe this is the first instance where your digital work came out better! Looks like your line quality and control is improving.
There's two main issues I want to raise:
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Your construction of complex leaves - through your work there's a few examples of 'wavy' leaves with edges that are more complex than a simple curve. As per the constructional drawing method, you must always start off simple, and add complexity in successive passes rather than attempting to jump into that complexity right off the bat. So, you would first capture that leaf with simple, singular curves defining the edges of the form, then you would add the waviness afterwards in a subsequent pass. This example tackles frayed/jagged edges rather than waves but the concept is the same.
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You have a tendency to overly rely on hatching lines when conveying texture. This kind of pattern implies a fairly small subset of possible surface textures, so you're really pigeon-holing yourself. You need to try and play with a larger variety of patterns and textures, and this begins with taking a much closer look at your reference images and looking for repeating visual elements that are present. I talk about this, as well as how to organize these textures, in these notes. I'd say in general your texturing is much cleaner and less haphazard in your digital work - you're still strictly overusing hatching lines, but your application of them is much cleaner. In your traditional set, you have a tendency to be quite messy and disorganized when applying those details.
I'd like you to do three more pages of plant drawings, in ink. Focus on plants that will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of how to apply the constructional method to leaves with somewhat more complex details and edges.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-19 15:56
Unfortunately, this month I'm taking a break from free critiques. If you happen to be a current patreon supporter, be sure to send me a message containing your reddit username through patreon's messaging system. Otherwise hold onto your homework and resubmit it on April 1st.
For more information, check out the announcement.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"
2016-03-14 18:32
You're definitely moving in the right direction, and are applying a lot of the tools and concepts that have been pushed here. There's a few things that I want to mention that may help keep you on the right track as you move ahead:
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Especially when dealing with these objects, which are largely geometric, it helps immensely to try and stop looking at what you're drawing as a single entity, but rather try and perceive it as a lot of individual basic geometric forms. You actually do this already to a good extent, though more in some and less in others. Try to ignore any and all detail, and focus entirely on those forms. For the most part, these objects are composed of boxes and cylinders - so draw boxes, and draw cylinders, much as you would for the form intersection exercise from lesson 2.
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When drawing an individual box or cylinder, make sure you're focusing on constructing it as a solid form with structural integrity. I noticed on some of your boxes, you had a tendency of not quite constructing solid boxes with their near/far plane size relationships sorted out correctly. Making mistakes on those fronts early on will trickle down through the rest of your construction. I strongly encourage you to take a look at the 250 box challenge and 250 cylinder challenge, both to read over the material there and perhaps to attempt the challenge portions as well.
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There are some objects that still tend to be a little more organic (like the shoe), so in that regard a slightly different - but still quite similar - approach may be preferable. Check out this demo I did of a computer mouse. I start off by laying in the overall box to enclose my space, then I jump in to define a cross-sectional plane of the form, as well as another for its base.
Anyway, I'm marking this lesson as complete, but again, I strongly encourage you to tackle those two challenges before moving on.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-14 15:58
Yeah, I'm a bit on the fence about plants being the first dynamic sketching lesson. It started off that way because it's how my instructor organized it, and at this point changing the order would be a little problematic, and dealing with the flat leaf shapes in 3D space early is probably a good idea... But still, insects are definitely more comfortable for most people.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lección 1: Líneas, Elipses y Cajas (Drawabox in Spanish!)"
2016-03-14 15:56
Thanks for the offer! I'll keep that in mind.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lección 1: Líneas, Elipses y Cajas (Drawabox in Spanish!)"
2016-03-13 04:13
A couple months ago, I had someone translate the first lesson into Spanish. Unfortunately I couldn't get around to actually implementing localization in the website until now (formatting the translated text was time consuming to say the least).
The plan is to keep an eye on my analytics, to see if there is enough benefit from having the lessons translated into various languages to warrant the cost. Over time, I do hope to one day have everything translated into Spanish, French and German (then maybe Japanese and Korean!), but we'll see if it's worth it.
Of course, critiques will still be in English only (and homework should not be submitted in this thread).
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-03-12 15:56
Much better. That elephant looks a bit juvenile (foreleg doesn't actually have a joint at which to bend) but the rest are much better, especially the koala, horse and dog. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
As a side note, I only saw this post because I glanced at this thread - if you reply to your own comment, reddit doesn't notify me.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-03-11 23:14
This is a response to /u/FromageMoustache's homework submission which was posted before the last thread got locked.
Your animals in general look good as far as drawings go. Your observational skills are definitely strong, and you have a good sense of gesture and movement. The weaker areas I'm seeing have to do with construction, and a general looseness or sketchy quality to your approach.
Now, that is a valid approach, and may be one that you want to continue pursuing down the road. What this lesson is largely about however is being more meticulous, as that is in my experience the most effective way to gain a full appreciation for the solidity of a construction. That knowledge can ultimately be very useful when doing a loose drawing down the line, but in order to learn it you must take the time to think before putting down each and every line.
You mentioned after the last lesson that you were going to experiment with looser drawings, and I was curious as to what you meant by that - but wanted to see how it manifested in your drawings. From what I see, looser seems to mean relying more on instinct than forethought, and skipping the stage of planning before putting a mark down. If you look at my demos, I put specific emphasis on thinking through each step, and focus on executing each step on its own. I never look ahead to a step in the future - it's important to always pay full attention to what you're doing at that very moment.
Here's a demo I did a while back that conveys the idea of thinking through every step, rather than just working by instinct. You very clearly have exceptional observational skills, and your first steps are usually on point, but after that you have to continue thinking through constructing the animal.
To further that point, another suggestion I have is that you clearly define the connection points between major forms - for instance, the point where the shoulder/hip connects to the torso of an animal. Marking this out with a contour ellipse, or a contour curve, will go quite a distance to reinforcing the fact that there's volume there, rather than an imaginary, flat intersection. You'll notice that in the rhino demo I posted above, I lay in an ellipse where that limb is going to connect before fleshing the rest out.
I'd like you to do another couple pages of animals - focus entirely on the construction, don't worry about going into any detail or texture at all.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals"
2016-03-11 22:54
Old thread got locked, submit your homework here.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-10 00:12
Very nice work! Your textures have really come a long way, with a wide variety of them present across your insects. Your forms are also fairly solid, but I have one concern that comes into play here. I'm not sure if it is perhaps because of your scanner's settings (it's best to use photo presets, drawing presets tend to boost the contrast and get rid of some of the nuance in your work), but the linework you use for your initial lay-in feels quite timid.
This doesn't exactly cause issues with the solidity of your forms (though it CAN, you're compensating for it just fine) but in the final drawing it leaves some lines almost invisible. You may want to consider adding a touch more line weight to some of those marks so they read more clearly.
Anyway, I'm really pleased with the sense of experimentation and development that I see from this set. Your early pages aren't that great, with some of the forms falling flat, or the textures coming out a little cluttered, but there's noticeable improvement with each drawing.
My favourites include the snail (that texture along its body where it meets the shell is really nice) and the house fly's got an excellent focal point developed around its head, with the gradual increase of detail as you zero in on that area.
Keep up the great work! Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-10 00:07
Sadly, just the old stuff! I have to repost lessons every six months because reddit archives them and locks the thread. I am hoping to revamp the figure drawing lessons some time this month though, so look forward to that.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-10 00:01
Unfortunately for you, I have few beatings to offer. Your work is extremely well done, and your general sense of form and texture is highly developed.
There are mainly two areas that I'd like to talk about, both are issues where you're not following the constructional drawing method as closely as you could.
The first is your leaves, specifically the ones that are very wavy like on this page. The construction method is all about moving from simple to complex. With a leaf, the first thing you want to focus on is how that flat form flows through 3D space. You don't want to get into the complexity of how wavy it gets. Once you've established the simple structure of the form, then you can start adding more complex detail on top of it. Like this: http://i.imgur.com/5EUp7ro.png.
Now, your leaves are already looking pretty good despite not followng those steps, but it's definitely something to keep in mind.
While in general you're applying construction pretty well (like the palm tree's leaves and such), there is one other point where you're falling a little short: this page. It's a minor issue, but if you look at where a branch forks off into several branches - those joints start to feel a little flat. It's always a good idea to actually show exactly how one of those branch-tubes connects to another. A contour ellipse or a contour curve right at that joint helps to maintain the sense of 3D form.
Lastly, I like your use of texture, but these notes may help you push how you tackle subtle things like leaves to the next level. Look closely at the vein patterns - you'll notice that the lines that are present there are actually not lines at all. They're shadows that can take various shapes and aren't limited to single strokes. Knowing this can help you add more subtle and more convincing detail.
Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson. You're doing great, and your sense of form and space is excellent. Keep it up!
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids"
2016-03-09 15:21
Old thread got locked, submit your homework here.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-08 00:54
That's not something I'd recommend. I usually push people to use a single thickness of pen so they're forced to learn to control the amount of pressure they apply. In the right hands, a 0.5 can still make a very slender line.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-07 23:55
0.3 is definitely on the thinner end. Stick to the 0.5, but if you need to fill in heavy blacks, a thicker one would be fine too for that. In that example drawing, I actually used a brush pen to fill in the space.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-03-07 23:39
Great work, generally. Your forms and constructions are quite solid, and are going in the right direction. The only issue I see is on page 8 (the Rhododendron one) where you're definitely getting hit hard by the seemingly overwhelming nature of the tree.
Before discussing tackling the texture, it's important to note that you've approached that whole tree in a very rough, sketchy manner. That certainly has its place, and I don't want to say that it's wrong (it isn't) but it isn't quite the approach the lessons are about. Here your lines are all loose and floating, rather than coming together to produce solid forms. That is unavoidable for the foliage in the treetop, but the trunks certainly should be more solid.
The trick to building up foliage like that is largely to grow more accustomed to working in three tones - solid black, solid white, and a textured transition between them. Here you're relying on fairly scribbly hatching to block in dark areas - you should be filling that space in completely. From the looks of it you might not be using a fineliner/felt tip pen as required by the lesson - if you aren't, be sure to pick one up. The approach of splitting up between pure black and white white is covered in the notes on this page: http://drawabox.com/lesson/texture.
You're certainly not going to be drawing texture all over the whole treetop - instead you'd be applying it where you want to have smooth transitions between light and dark - so this is still focused on how your form turns towards and away from the light. The undersides of your treetops would be completely black, creating a solid shape. The edges of this shape would have 'bites' taken out of them, reflecting the shapes of the leaves themselves. It's the edge of the silhouettte that really implies the detail within the shape, so you want to make sure you use it to your full advantage.
Here's a loose example of a tree that drew when I was going through this lesson myself, a couple years ago: http://i.imgur.com/VevR5ax.jpg. It's not an ideal example, but it does demonstrate the use of solid black and 'designed' shadow shapes used to imply existing detail.
When applying detail, you can afford to be a little more loose, but absolutely do not apply hatching lines the way you have here - you're totally flattening out your forms by applying straight lines on them - they function like contour lines, and tell the viewer that they're looking at a 2D shape. In general, hatching lines represent a specific kind of texture - you'll want to be looking carefully at your reference image to identify the textures and patterns that exist within them, rather than just applying this sort of catch-all approach.
Anyway, as I said, you're generally doing great. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.
Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"
2016-04-13 19:03
It looks like your account isn't listed as having completed the prerequisites for this lesson (lessons 1 and 2) - is it possible that you completed them on a different account?