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Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-03-02 02:06

I'm always glad to hear that!

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-03-02 02:06

Haha, thanks.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-03-01 00:47

Thanks for the kind words! I actually just got my keys and checked out my apartment one last time before moving in. I'm ever-so-excited.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-29 16:26

Thanks!

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-29 01:59

Thanks! Here's hoping it'll go smoothly.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-28 22:59

*Salutes*

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-28 22:36

Any number of reference images as long as they're for the same animal.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-28 21:45

Fantastic work. Your forms and constructions are coming along great - I can feel the solidity and three-dimensionality of each component of each insect, and you're leveraging those contour lines in a great way that doesn't overuse and abuse them.

When it comes to texture, I think you're making great progress - it's important to experiment with different approaches to conveying texture - I see you playing with little marks and details (hatching, stippling) then playing with large solid areas. All of this experimentation is imperative to find your own particular way of doing it.

When it comes to texture, your observation about things being quite binary is pretty accurate. That said, you can think of it in terms of there being 3 possible states. Solid black, blank, and a transition area in between. That transition area is generally where I apply a texture composed of both dark lines and blank spaces. I demonstrate the concept here (though you may have already seen this). If you allow yourself to get comfortable with using large swathes of black in your drawing (as you seem to be by the end), you can leverage that to keep your actual higher-contrast, noisier texture information only in those limited transition areas. This allows you to communicate what kind of texture exists on a surface to the viewer (which is the ultimate goal, communication) without being overbearing and overwhelming. The rest of the form ends up being relatively light on contrast, leading to a more organized and pleasant-looking drawing.

Anyway, texture is always secondary to form. You're nailing the form, and making great strides with texture. Consider this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-28 16:08

Thanks!

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-27 23:06

I'll definitely keep you in mind! Best of luck with your move.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-27 22:33

Thanks, I appreciate that! And thank you for the well wishes.

Uncomfortable in the post "March Break - Free homework critiques on hold from March 1st to April 1st"

2016-02-27 22:33

It's my pleasure. Thanks for the well wishes.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-27 05:01

Being off a little isn't a big deal - remember that your observations are meant to inform your construction, and once those forms are down, there's no erasing them - so you have to just roll with the punches, and build around it. I don't usually stress too much about nailing exactly what's there in my reference image - I usually focus on drawing another instance of what that thing is, if not the same one.

This means studying and observing what gives it its identity.

As for analyzing, it's not about just staring for 20 minutes straight, then drawing for another 5 minutes and saying you're done. It's about not relying on your memory. The second you look away from your reference image, 99% of what you gathered while looking is going to be immediately simplified in your mind and rendered useless. You might get a line or two off before you start working off simplified memory. The problem is, most people don't realize that they're now working off their memories, and so they keep drawing symbols. You have to force yourself to look back again and again.

It's less significant when talking about forms, because there's a lot less going on. You have to look beyond all of the detail in your image, which is the challenging part. The forms themselves are always going to be fairly simple.

In the image you just posted, I see a whole lot of ellipses that you did not draw through at all, and a whole lot of contour lines that look to me as though you've thrown on just for the sake of it, not because you are actually benefiting from their presence. The previous lessons teach you a set of tools you can use - not a recipe for every single instance that you can thoughtlessly apply across the board. The most important thing is that you need to be convincing YOURSELF that you are drawing 3D forms, not flat shapes on a flat page. Contour lines can help immensely in this, but if you're just applying them all over without trying to convince yourself of their curvature and their volume, it's not going to do much. The first task is to fool yourself, so you buy into the illusion.

Here's how I approach forms like the one in your image. I start off with simple organic shapes - you should probably be practicing those, since yours are wobbly and rough as all hell. They're only going to come out smooth if you don't let your brain interfere with the act of actually making the mark. The simplest way to deal with that is to speed up your pace a little. Eventually you'll be able to shut off your brain at slower paces as well, making control a little easier, but for now you'll have to compensate by ghosting through the motion and drawing through your elliptical/organic shapes.

The last thing I want to say is, be careful of having your drawings go way off the page. Drawing big is definitely the way to go, but if a form's gonna go off the side of the page, see if you can just amputate it altogether and not include it. Or better yet, plan ahead and try to keep your drawing within a set space, like a frame drawn ahead of time.

Anyway, that's all you're getting out of me until your next submission. You certainly are getting your money's worth, and then some.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-27 03:11

You're not supposed to make them lighter. You're supposed to draw all of your strokes confidently, without trying to make some lines lighter and less noticeable. Don't get caught up in hiding your marks. Then once you're finished laying in your forms, you can start adding line weight to some of the lines to emphasize them and bring them forward, which in turn pushes other lines back. Drawing larger will also help considerably, since your lines won't be quite so thick and clunky relative to the overall size of your drawing.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-27 01:14

Hrrm...

I followed your advice as paying more attention to the forms and construction and drawing through my ellipses

You're missing boatloads of the things I've mentioned on the topics of form and construction. I decided to compile all of your homework and just draw over all of it, building up a list of things you need to keep in mind. Give it a good look through.

Yes, you are heavily symbol-drawing when it comes to your details, but we'll deal with that later. Right now we need to sort out your forms. I want you to try this homework again, from top to bottom, but do not apply ANY detail. All I want to see are form constructions, and I want to see you drawing bigger, drawing through your forms, drawing through all of your ellipses, and focusing on moving from simple to complex. 90% of the time with your leaves you are jumping straight into complex shapes that have no underlying supports. You're tackling a multitude of challenges simultaneously, instead of breaking them up and dealing with them one at a time as I described in the constructional drawing article. I definitely think that at least part of it is the fact that you're focusing on detail well before ever reaching that stage. Focus only on the step you're on, do not look ahead.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-26 23:34

You've got some nice drawings in here, and I can see that you're getting accustomed to the idea of construction, and you're doing a pretty good job of it. One suggestion I have in that area is to always be mindful of points where two forms connect - for example, the cactus-ish forms on the left side of your first page. You've got a cylinder as the base, and each form connects to it. It helps considerably to get a sense of those plant forms by drawing the connection point with, in this case, an ellipse, or even a curve. Leaving it open as you have leaves the form without being capped-off, which can start to give the impression that it is actually just a flat drawing.

Secondly, as far as ellipses go - you're not drawing through them at all, so they're often coming out bumpy or uneven. You should not be trying to draw these slowly-and-carefully, because that's going to make your lines wobble. Whenever you have an ellipse or a circle, draw through it and get a confident pace. Instead of drawing slowly, you'll compensate for the inevitable lack of accuracy that comes from drawing faster by applying the ghosting method.

I think page 10 is an excellent use of texture within your focal point. The only thing here I want to mention is that outside of your focal point, you seem to have made a sort of half-assed attempt at marking out the veins. Remember that what's most important are your general form constructions. Once that's established outside of your focal point, you'll find it's not actually necessary to flesh those out further. Regardless, never half-ass any part of a drawing - that is, don't carelessly mark down a few lines without keeping an eye on what those lines represent, and trying to represent them as effectively as you can. A detail can be captured in high definition, or in low definition, but an effort is always made to arrange those details in a way that captures some aspect of the original detail. With those veins, I can see that you had the idea of a leaf's veins in your head, and you loosely drew that idea - but did not actually reflect upon what the veins in your reference image looked like.

Frankly, in that situation I wouldn't have drawn the extra veins at all. Outside the focal circle I'd have just focused on establishing solid forms and capturing the sense of those leaves flowing through space.

Anyways, those are some things to keep in mind. You're doing a good job, so keep it up and feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "ArtSchoolDB - A remarkably comprehensive listing of art schools of all kinds"

2016-02-26 13:32

Wow, it's even got a handful of Canadian schools. Definitely a great list for accredited institutions.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 6: Drawing Everyday Objects (version 3)"

2016-02-25 22:24

Very nice work. Your drawings demonstrate an excellent balance of strong observational skills and clear, well thought-out constructions. I will always stress the importance of drawing your construction lines confidently and clearly, and then worrying about dealing with how confusing that tends to make the resulting drawing afterwards (or not at all), but you're doing pretty well despite that. I will say that in being more timid and faint with your construction lines, lines that should be straight sometimes arc, and in general there are some minor inconsistencies in your forms - but they're not entirely noticeable to the naked eye.

I am noticing a few minor signs of drawing from the wrist when you should be doing so from the elbow or shoulder, though. A bit of wobbling here and there, some lines that don't flow quite as well as they could. Always remember to force yourself to draw from the shoulder for the vast majority of your lines, and do so with confidence, speed and pre-planning in order to keep them even and smooth.

Anyway, I'm being picky. You're doing great, so keep up the good work. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "ArtSchoolDB - A remarkably comprehensive listing of art schools of all kinds"

2016-02-25 16:22

I'd assume that SVA isn't listed because the guy who runs the site hasn't come across it yet. I certainly don't think for-profit schools are excluded, as the school I attended (Concept Design Academy) is listed and was definitely for profit (although I certainly had a great experience there). There's also a handful of other for-profit schools I recognize there on the list (3 Kicks, Gnomon, etc.)

Uncomfortable in the post "ArtSchoolDB - A remarkably comprehensive listing of art schools of all kinds"

2016-02-25 03:22

Oh there's plenty of those. It's just nice of them to be labelled so clearly.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-24 22:13

Sorry to say this, but you did the wrong one. I asked for "organic forms with contour curves," these are contour ellipses. Although I do want to mention that your ellipses are looking pretty stiff and uneven. Remember to draw through them and to draw them with a confident stroke that is quick enough to keep your brain from trying to interfere and make little corrections as you do it. You don't want to be drawing these slow-and-steady.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-24 21:06

Your arrows and organic forms are looking solid. Your dissections are also quite well done, but I did notice that you have a tendency to use little lines in every case. There are a wide variety of marks that one can use when approaching different textures, with short lines being only one of them. Keep this in mind as you continue to move ahead. I'm still very pleased with your textures (you establish strong focal points and manage to capture a wide variety of textures despite the limitation).

Your form intersections are well done as well, though based on the little comment you added about figuring out the intersections and using 3D software to double check tells me you didn't read the lesson as carefully as you should have. This is right at the beginning of the exercise description:

Before tackling this exercise, there's something I want you to acknowledge: The specific aspects of how to handle intersections outlined here and in the video linked below are not entirely correct. I have vastly simplified them, and this is completely intentional. This is for two reasons:

Proper intersections can get very complicated. A student at this stage could easily become overwhelmed.

This exercise is, in all honestly, not really about the intersections. It's about being able to arrange forms together in 3D space. Ultimately that is what I gauge when critiquing homework submissions, though general intersection mistakes would also be pointed out. Still, that should not be your focus.

So, while some of you may feel the desire to open up a 3D modeling program and test out the intersections yourselves, know that the results may be different, and you may end up confusing yourself far more than you need to.

Intersections themselves are very complex and are not something people at this point should be worrying about. The bigger concern is drawing forms with relatively consistent foreshortening within the same scene - something that in and of itself is not easy either. I'm glad to say that you did a solid job of it all the same, despite being clearly distracted by the intersections themselves.

Your organic intersections are excellent - I'm glad to see that they all hold clear volume and it's very easy to see how they interact with one another, warping around their neighbours and sagging where there isn't enough support to hold them up.

You've done well in general, just make sure to read my lessons more carefully in the future. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2016-02-24 20:46

Your boxes are alright - the issue isn't that you're a slow learner, it's that you didn't read the material on the challenge page in full. You skipped a very helpful tip that would have helped you develop a stronger sense of 3D space much more effectively: Draw Through your Forms.

I'm marking this challenge as complete - your boxes are coming along nicely, though there surely is plenty of room for improvement as well. Make sure you read the instructions more carefully in the future!

Also, another point you seem to have missed is mentioned at the beginning:

When you finish a page, go back with a red pen, or a highlighter, or whatever, and mark out your mistakes. Half the battle is being able to quickly pick up what you've done right and what you've done wrong.

You might want to use that different coloured pen to draw through your boxes so you can see the inconsistencies in form constructions more clearly.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-24 20:42

Very nice work. Your forms are coming along really well, and you've taken full advantage of the segmentation of the insect's bodies to emphasize their contours.

As far as texture goes, I do believe there's plenty to work on there. You tend to fall back on hatching lines across the board, which tends to give a fairly similar impression to all of these diverse creatures. It's important to take the time to really observe your reference and see what's going on. Here's a demo I've done in the past to demonstrate the wide variety of textures one can find on subjects like this: http://i.imgur.com/a3Lh6ER.jpg.

The only other thing I'd like to mention is that for the spider, I think the legs on the far side are coming out rather long - due to perspective, they'd probably shrink down a little bit.

In general the priority of these lessons are based in form, with texture coming in as a secondary concern - I'm glad to say that you're nailing the main focus, and you'll be able to continue practicing working with texture and detail as you move ahead. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2016-02-24 15:11

I see. It's kind of understandable - I use the same terminology for both things. In the context of 3D forms, drawing through is as you said. In the context of 2D shapes, like ellipses, this is what I'm referring to.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-02-24 01:26

Nice work! Looks like you're applying the concepts outlined in the notes well, and you don't seem to be missing anything significant. I'm all so glad to see a wide variety of lengths and sizes, as well as rotations. Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2016-02-24 01:24

Better, somewhat. You didn't entirely follow my instructions - for example, in my last critique I wrote in capital letters, "draw through your ellipses", but for the most part you didn't. You are however moving in the right direction - still plenty of room to improve, and it's really not my concern if you follow my instructions or not.

I do have one tip to offer though - a lot of your fur tends to come out like short spikes. The lines are stiff and hard, and don't flow too well. You may want to consider drawing longer lines when drawing the clumps of fur, and reducing the number of clumps you decide to flesh out along the edges. Also, with those longer lines, soften them - let them curve a little more, and draw from your shoulder so the lines aren't stiff and harsh.

Anyway, I recommend that you reread the last critique I gave you, but you're free to move onto the next lesson when you feel ready.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-23 21:25

Definitely moving in the right direction - the contour curves are wrapping around the forms much more convincingly. 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 (version 3)"

2016-02-23 21:03

Very nice work. I did feel at first that your organic forms with contour curves were a little on the weaker end, but they improved considerably over the set. By the end of that section you seem considerably more confident.

Your textures are very well done, despite the challenges you faced - you pushed through them, and were able to strike a solid balance between capturing detail with a variety of unique, case-by-case appraoches (instead of applying the same kind of technique across the board) and maintaining clear focal points. You've established a fair bit of detail without giving into the urge to just slather everything in high-contrast detail, overwhelming the viewer.

Your form intersections feel very solid - each form feels as though it has weight to it, and as though it exists in 3D space. Your organic forms are also quite well done, and I'm beginning to get the impression of how each one impacts its neighbours - how they sag over one another, and so on.

I don't really have anything to suggest at this point - I think you're moving in the right direction with everything, so all I can say is keep it up and feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-22 23:01

Fairly nice work. Your dissections are demonstrating some nice texture experimentation, your form intersections are remarkably well done (although there's a minor issue I'll mention below) and your organic intersections are pretty solid.

The main issue I'm seeing is with your organic forms with contour curves - those contour curves are not at all wrapping around the forms. Rather than giving the impression that in your mind you perceive these forms as 3D objects, I'm led to believe that you yourself still feel as though you're drawing those contour curves across a flat page. This is a fairly normal and common problem, but it is one we need to work towards fixing. Take a look at this section of the self critique resources for more information, and a link to a demo video that discusses the topic: Contour Curves Do Not Wrap Around Organic Forms.

The other issue is actually one I wrote about in another critique - so instead of rewriting the same thing, I'll quote exactly what I wrote here.

Your form intersections are looking pretty decent, although I have one suggestion in that area as well - I strongly disagree with your decision to outline all of your forms so solidly in black. I generally am in favour of applying additional line weight to existing lines to add a sense of dimension and dynamism to your drawing, but this is somewhat different from what you did in two ways:

  • First and foremost, adding weight means taking existing lines and emphasizing them. Your approach leaned more towards replacing existing lines, a technique people often use when doing "clean-up passes" over their drawings. You want to be able to take ownership of every decision you've made throughout the drawing - so instead of replacing/erasing lines, we emphasize some over others to help visually organize all of the marks on the page.

  • Secondly, when adding line weight, you generally want to do this on specific sides of forms, or on overlaps. Adding a heavy line all around the forms will actually flatten things out.

There's some more information on the use of line weight here: Line Weight

There's only one other thing I want to mention in regards to your form intersections that I didn't cover there - make sure you draw through all the ellipses you do for my lessons. This includes form intersections, contour ellipses, and anything else that involves an ellipse later on.

I'd like you to do two more pages of organic forms with contour curves before I mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-22 22:48

Nicely done! I actually quite liked your dissection's textures. Technically speaking everything will always need work, but you're very clearly moving in the right direction, observing your references carefully and attempting to approach a given texture on a case-by-case basis, instead of applying the same sort of techniques and marks to everything. At this point it's just a matter of refining your approach, rather than learning something new.

I did notice that your organic forms' contour curves jump between being decent, and not quite wrapping around the forms convincingly. Luckily the former was more often the case, but I can see that you're likely in a position that you might slip back if you don't focus on those issues. This is what I mean. You've got a lot of instances where your curves overshoot off the form itself - I generally encourage people having trouble with the curves to overshoot and hook back around the form, keeping it within that shape. I think what's most important is just to take more time when you apply those curves - I notice a fair bit of sloppiness in that area that's holding you back.

Your form intersections are looking pretty decent, although I have one suggestion in that area as well - I strongly disagree with your decision to outline all of your forms so solidly in black. I generally am in favour of applying additional line weight to existing lines to add a sense of dimension and dynamism to your drawing, but this is somewhat different from what you did in two ways:

There's some more information on the use of line weight here: Line Weight

Lastly, you actually did an excellent job with your organic intersections. Contour curves aside, the forms really feel as though they have weight, and that they're interacting with one another. I can feel the tension that comes from one form sagging over another, which is excellent.

Keep what I've mentioned here in mind, but feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (version 3)"

2016-02-22 22:33

I'm actually pretty pleased with the variety of ways you experimented with when rendering your texture. Your forms/constructions are really solid as well, and the best test for that is your hybrid lizard-bird-thing. It feels reasonably believable because all of the forms fit together nicely.

My only concern is that you seem to have been using two pens - one for roughing in your forms and another for your clean-up/texture/detail. That's generally something I try to discourage, as it has a tendency to distract people from investing the appropriate amount of time and focus on their underlying form constructions, and makes them too preoccupied with the 'final' pass. This didn't really happy with you, but it's still something I wouldn't want to encourage.

Instead of doing a 2-pass approach, it's better to lay in your forms with the black pen, and then later on add weight to the important lines to emphasize them - this in turn causes the other lines to recede, making the drawing considerably clearer. The difference here is that instead of outright replacing all of the lines in your drawing, you're merely emphasizing lines that already exist. This means all of the marks you draw throughout the entire process are lines that should be well thought out and planned, and ultimately contribute to the end product in one way or another. This approach demands a great deal of focus and forethought.

Anyway, keep up the good work and feel free to move onto lesson 6.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-22 22:19

Excellent work! Your forms and constructions are very solid, you can clearly see the volumes depresented. I'm also pleased to see that you explored a lot of different approaches to capturing the unique textures, and the fact that you allowed a lot of those textures to merge together into solid masses, focusing the detail on the transitional areas.

Very well done. Keep it up, and feel free to move onto the next lesson!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-22 22:16

That's getting better - just don't forget to focus on wrapping your contour curves around the rounded forms. Sometimes overshooting the curve will help get you used to the curvature required to really hook around convincingly.

Go ahead and move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-22 20:42

Pretty nice work. I especially like the texture work in your dissections. Well detailed, and those details are nicely organized to establish focal points and diminish competition/noise.

The only issue I want to raise is with your form intersections. Fundamentally they're fine, but it's more about the approach to drawing where you drew faintly on your first pass (which resulted in more confident linework), then went over it again to 'clean things up' by drawing darker lines over everything. This is not a great approach, because it results in the most visible lines being the result of drawing slowly and carefully - a method that generally diminishes confidence and causes lines to flow poorly.

Instead, draw confidently the first time as you did, but not faintly. If you decide to put a mark down on the page, that mark needs to contribute to your drawing in some way (this includes drawing through your ellipses and through your 3D forms). If it contributes something, it should be drawn with confidence, rather than trying to hide it like a preliminary sketch.

The result will be a little visually confusing and cluttered, so you can then reinforce some lines with additional line weight to help organize them. Adding weight to some lines will cause others to recede. The difference between this and your method is that in yours, you were replacing the linework with new marks - in the method I'm suggesting, you are emphasizing lines that already exist, simply adding a little thickness to them. The difference in result is quite noticeable, and your forms end up looking considerably more solid.

Anyway, keep this in mind as you progress. I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, so you may feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "With the start of a new year, comes the reopening of critiques and a bunch of updates to the website!"

2016-02-22 15:31

I'm glad you like it!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-21 20:56

Nope, I haven't read them. I've heard of Hampton though, in passing.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-21 20:29

Looking okay. Keep in mind that each volume has weight to it, so they're going to sag into each other, rather than float gently against one another.

Anyway, yeah, feel free to move onto the next lesson. I'll mark this one as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 4: Drawing Insects and Arachnids (version 3)"

2016-02-21 18:41

You're moving in the right direction, but there's a few things I'd like to deal with before we move onto the next lesson.

First and foremost, your contour curves. I can see that you have a tendency to add a lot of them, but you don't necessarily put as much effort into each individual one as you probably should. The result is far more contour curves than you need, where each one doesn't necessarily carry its weight.

To start with, before you start drawing your own contour curve, take a look at your reference and try to identify details that may perform the task of a contour curve - that is, a detail that wraps around the form, describing the turning and twisting of its surface by its very existence. If you can find one - and trust me, insects are full of them due to their segmented exoskeletons - draw a contour curve where that detail falls.

If you can't find any natural contours however, then you can start adding your own - but don't add more than two or three, and make sure they're not spaced out evenly. Man-made things tend to space details out at regular intervals, it's not a feature you see often in nature.

Now, when you actually draw your contour curves, I've noticed nine times out of ten that your curves don't actually sit inside of your forms. You tend to draw them as if the curves themselves were hovering just above the surface, rather than resting directly on it. This is something you need to work towards fixing. This example from lesson 2 discusses this issue. Note where it says "keep your curves snug against the organic shape."

Another issue I noticed is how you approach drawing legs. If you look at this spider, you can see that you've drawn each section independently. While this certainly is one valid approach, I don't believe it's one that's working for you right now. Reason being, you're having trouble keeping your lines under control. We can see some of these segments bulging out awkwardly.

A better approach may be to start out by drawing the legs as a single form up to each joint, breaking them off only where the legs actually bend. Then you can build up your segmentation on top of this. Relying on a simpler, underlying scaffolding can help keep your lines in check.

Last of all, your sketchpad appears to be quite small, which in turn is making your drawings very small. Drawing at this size can be adding an additional challenge to your plate, as the smaller you draw, the less room you have to work through spatial problems. This, along with perhaps not spending enough effort on applying the ghosting method to your mark making, could also be another major factor that is causing you to lose control of your lines. It'd be a good idea to work on something larger - I usually encourage people to work on loose leaf printer paper, since most people have access to it, it keeps people from getting too precious with their work, and it offers a fair bit of space.

I'd like to see you do four more pages of insects.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-21 18:25

Very nice work. The extent to which you push your details and texture is quite interesting. You manage to capture a whole breadth of information without sacrificing the integrity of your focal points or overwhelming the viewer with information.

Across your work, I see both drawings that do a good job of demonstrating the principles of constructive drawing, as well as some that don't. In general you do a great job of applying contour lines, but I want you to always remember that everything must start off from simple forms, gradually building up complexity in successive passes. Never jump into overly complicated shapes/forms right off the bat, make sure there's always some kind of underlying structure to support it. One example of doing it wrong is the leaf on the bottom right of this page. The leaf's outline is quite complex, and since you didn't build up to that stage from simpler shapes and forms, it came out feeling rather flat.

This article on constructional drawing goes into the concepts quite a bit, and includes a lot of additional demos on how to apply it.

As I mentioned, you generally do approach it in a fashion similar to what I'm after, but the instances when you draw more strictly from observation than from construction are things I'd like to highlight.

Anyway, you've generally done a great job. Make sure you read that article, and feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "How to Approach Drawing Texture"

2016-02-21 18:19

I could have sworn I answered this question... Maybe I accidentally closed the tab before hitting save. That's so friggin' weird. Either that, or I accidentally posted it as a response to someone else, but I can't find it now.

Anyway, I did some experimentation with that eagle and I came to the conclusion that I would pretty much fill in the dark feathers completely - making that entire section a solid black. Now, the feature texture between the light and darks aren't actually the same - the light feathers seem to be softer, perhaps a little fluffier, but the decision of blacking out all of the darker feathers comes from a consideration of the tools we've got at our disposal.

We pretty much can capture three major tones - white, black, and a transition between them. A situation like this requires a minimum of four tones (lights/darks in the light section, and lights/darks in the dark section), which we simply don't have. So, you have to decide what your focal point is, and where you want to draw the viewer's attention. In all likelihood, that's going to be the face of the eagle, around it's eye. So we want to cram the most detail we can into that area - and in turn, that means we're going to have fewer resources for the detail in other areas.

Now, you could try to include very subtle areas of non-black in the dark section, but I found that it becomes very, very distracting. As soon as you have even a little bit of white in a sea of black, the contrast from that is going to steal your viewer's attention, undermining your focal point. At the end of the day, guiding your viewer's eye to where you want it to go is your top priority.

As for your other question, the expectation is that even after completing lessons 1/2, that students keep up with those exercises regularly as warm-ups to keep sharpening their skills. So, it'd be a good idea to go over those exercises on your own and reacquaint yourself with them and what they demand. You may also want to do a few drawings from lesson 4's material to get back in the swing of constructional drawing and capturing texture, as insects are a great subject matter to approach both of those concepts. You don't have to do the full lesson's worth by any means, just a page or two to get back in the swing of things.

This sort of thing will get rusty, and I pretty much expect that anyone who stops doing the exercises from lessons 1/2 will forget small, but important aspects of what they should be keeping in mind. They might get a little sloppy in areas without noticing.

Either way, all of that is up to you.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-21 18:08

Your first page of dissections is quite well done, the second page is decent. You definitely struggled with your form intersections but I'd say that the last page is pretty good. The only thing I'd like to suggest in that area is to draw through your boxes to get a better understanding of how they sit in 3D space. This'll help you notice mistakes where the far planes are larger than your near planes.

The only area I'm not satisfied with yet is your organic forms with contour curves. You have started using simpler forms, but perhaps you'd benefit from starting off with the spine/minor axis as shown here: http://i.imgur.com/EeK6Igc.png. Start with the minor axis, then construct a simple sausage form around it, keeping the minor axis in the center. Lastly, focus on aligning your curves to that minor axis - they are after all just the visible section of an ellipse, so you should be able to line them up to the minor axis just as you would any other ellipse. Also, overshooting slightly will help hammer home the idea that you're drawing a portion of an ellipse, not just an arbitrary curve.

I want you to do one more page of organic forms with contour curves.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-21 17:45

Excellent work. Your arrows, dissections, form intersections and organic intersections are all exemplary. I especially liked all of the experimentation with texture and rendering. Your organic forms with contour curves do some some minor issues when it comes to fully wrapping around the rounded forms convincingly, but I think you're going in the right direction. The only thing I'd recommend there is to try overshooting your curves just a little bit as they wrap around the forms (as depicted here), and also to be more mindful of the minor axis/spine passing through the organic form - your curves are really just visible portions of ellipses that are aligned to that minor axis, so it's important when getting the angle of the curve right.

My biggest concern is that you might not be reading the lesson as carefully as you should, and you're perhaps applying your own standards and expectations of each exercise, which differ from the ones I've stated.

The biggest example of this relates to the stress you experienced with the form intersections - you're absolutely right when you say that the understanding of how different forms intersect with one another is something that should be left to a different lesson. The only problem is, that's not the focus of that exercise. This is something I state right at the beginning of the exercise description:

Before tackling this exercise, there's something I want you to acknowledge: The specific aspects of how to handle intersections outlined here and in the video linked below are not entirely correct. I have vastly simplified them, and this is completely intentional. This is for two reasons:

  • Proper intersections can get very complicated. A student at this stage could easily become overwhelmed.

  • This exercise is, in all honestly, not really about the intersections. It's about being able to arrange forms together in 3D space. Ultimately that is what I gauge when critiquing homework submissions, though general intersection mistakes would also be pointed out. Still, that should not be your focus.

So, while some of you may feel the desire to open up a 3D modeling program and test out the intersections yourselves, know that the results may be different, and you may end up confusing yourself far more than you need to.

I think you may have missed that, which led to you spending a lot more effort on understanding the specific nature of the intersections. On the bright side, you're not the only one who's done that - but most of the others do so while ignoring the main focus of the exercise. You on the other hand nailed what the exercise was all about, and then went waaaay beyond it. So, while you may have spent more time on it than you might have liked, I do think that at the end of the day you've benefited from it all the same.

All that said, I seriously think you're being too hard on yourself. Everything I see here is very well done. Humility is definitely a virtue, but it can be problematic when it starts chipping away at your confidence.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2016-02-21 16:55

I'm really happy to see how the confidence of your line work and sense of 3D space has improved over this set. I'm also very happy to see that you applied the tip about drawing through your boxes, you've definitely benefited from it considerably. The last few pages are especially well done. Keep up the great work and consider this challenge complete!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-21 02:42

Pretty good work. Your arrows are solid (despite your neuroses regarding drawing through them), your organic forms with contour lines are pretty decent and your dissections demonstrate some nice texture work. Your form intersections are fairly well done, although there's a couple things that I'd like to draw your attention to.

First of all, you seem to have missed the warning against using stretched/elongated forms:

For now, I strongly encourage you to avoid forms that are stretched in any one dimension. For example, long tubes, long boxes, and so on. At this point it is far better to stick to fairly "equilateral" forms. That is, forms that are roughly the same size in every dimension.

Also, your spheres aren't particularly well done - that's definitely something you'll want to work on. When drawing a sphere, you want to do your best to draw a circle - not just any ellipse, but a proper circle. There's some room for error, but you're going a fair bit beyond that.

Anyway, you're generally going in the right direction, so I'll mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one when you're ready.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants (version 3)"

2016-02-21 01:39

I see some good and I see some bad. I see a considerable amount of improvement when it comes to how you deal with texture/detail - I especially like how you've handled page 7. You've captured the texture very nicely without overwhelming the viewer with noise/contrast. Very well done.

Page 4 is an example of things you should avoid. Most notably, how you've handled the branching out from the stem. You're drawing it as a single continuous, complex, flat 2D shape. You should be drawing several 3D forms that are joined together. Here's a more visual explanation: http://i.imgur.com/TVRkVAx.png.

This does make me think that you have not yet read the article on constructional drawing that was linked in bold and red at the beginning of this lesson. My assumption is that this is not at all your fault - you probably started the lesson a while back, this was a fairly recent addition. But definitely be sure to read it now. There's also some helpful demos there that you should look over.

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, primarily because of how much I like page 7, and also because the idea of constructing with form is further explored in the next few lessons - perhaps more effectively than with this subject matter.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2016-02-19 23:47

Nice work. I do notice the sloppiness you mentioned, though it decreases throughout the set. By the end, your forms feel more solid, and your lines are cleaner.

The only thing I want to mention is that when you start tackling drawings with multiple boxes within the same scene, the amount of foreshortening (the rate at which the boxes get smaller as they move further away) definitely becomes relevant. A lot of the boxes you've drawn here have really dramatic foreshortening on them, so the far end tends to be considerably smaller than the near end. This generally implies massive scale (like the top of a building being tiny when viewed from the ground). You'll find that when you're putting lots of boxes in the same scene, you're going to want to use shallower foreshortening most of the time, to imply a much more relatable scale - like these are forms you could manipulate with your hands. So, it's important to practice this as well.

Anyway, you've done a solid job of completing the challenge, and you've clearly grown a lot through it. Well done!

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-19 23:42

I like what I see. With many of these exercises, you struggle in the first page, but you improve and seem to grasp the concepts solidly by the end. That's really what I'm interested in seeing. The only thing I noticed though is that you didn't complete the organic intersections exercise. Submit that one page and I'll mark this lesson as complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections (version 3)"

2016-02-19 23:40

You've done a decent job of it. There's room for improvement, but what's important is that you're going in the right direction - it's really a matter of practice beyond this.

The weaker areas are your dissections and your form intersections, which you pointed out yourself. I'd say with your dissections, take more time to really observe and study your reference images. You're identifying various repeated visual elements that exist in your reference images already, but I think there's more to be seen, and that you'll start noticing more and more going on there as you continue to practice. I am glad to see that you are applying these textures with a sense of the form underneath.

With your form intersections, they're alright, but I do have two tips to offer:

Anyway, I'll mark this lesson as complete so you can move onto the next one when you feel comfortable.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Box Challenge (#3)"

2016-02-19 19:58

You should be good to move onto lesson 2.