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Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-25 20:54

Very nice work! Also I appreciate not adding your own commentary, I usually just skip over what people say anyway.

Generally you've done great work, there's just a few points here and there that I'd like to mention.

First off, in your rough perspective boxes, always remember that as long as a box runs level with the ground plane (as opposed to being tilted), its verticals are perpendicular to the horizon and its horizontals are parallel to it. Also, I recommend that everyone goes over their completed rough perspective boxes as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that every now and then, you do have some instances of your Far Planes Being Larger than Near Planes. Keep an eye on that - it's a common mistake, and I'm certain you've already noticed it, but I include this just in case.

If you'd like extra practice with these arbitrarily rotated box constructions, you can take a look at the 250 box challenge, otherwise you can go ahead and move onto lesson 2.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-25 20:36

Not bad! Your lines and ellipses are excellent. There are a few things I'd like to mention in regards to your boxes though.

First off, in your plotted perspective boxes, I noticed that you used dashed lines to show draw through your forms, showing the lines on the opposite side of the boxes. In the future, avoid using broken lines like this - drawing through your forms is great, and I encourage it, but you should use solid continuous lines. A broken line undermines any sort of flow/continuity that keeps it reliably straight.

In your rough perspective boxes, I'm really glad to see that you double checked your perspective after the fact, it's a great way to identify your mistakes so you can compensate for them later. I would however encourage you to be a little more mindful when applying shading with hatching lines. If you do choose to add that sort of thing, remember that all lines are important, so you should take the time to ensure that the hatching lines are consistent, parallel and stretch all the way across a plane from edge to edge. Nothing floating in the middle of a plane, overshooting, zigzagging, scribbled, etc.

Your rotated boxes are coming along nicely, but try to push the rotation a little further, all the way to the full 90 degree rotation on any given axis. That way you can play with the full range. It also is perfectly fine to have these boxes overlap - often people doing this exercise will be afraid to overlap their boxes and will instead space them out as you have done, which makes the result feel a little odd.

Lastly, your organic perspective boxes are coming along quite well. There is definitely room to improve, so I would like you to move onto the 250 box challenge next for extra instruction and practice with constructing arbitrarily rotated boxes. You may however consider this lesson complete. Keep up the good work.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-24 22:33

There are advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, it does stabilize your stroke, on the other, if you're not used to drawing from your shoulder and locking your wrist joint, dragging your hand like that tends to work like an anchor, and often encourages you to fall back to drawing from your wrist. Because of this, I generally encourage beginners to keep their hand off the paper while drawing until they are confident in their ability to draw from their shoulder.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-24 21:16

It's not a matter of keeping the pad at arm's length. It's about locking your wrist and elbow joints so your arm doesn't pivot from them while drawing, forcing you to pivot strictly from the shoulder in order to get the movement you want.

Here's an exercise you can try:

  1. First, find out what it feels like to pivot from the wrist. Hold your arm out in front of you, elbow bent slightly so your hand is in front of your chest. Lock your elbow and shoulder joints and try pivoting from the wrist. Your hand should flail back and forth a bit with a fairly limited range of motion.

  2. Next, lock your wrist and try pivoting strictly from the elbow. Your whole forearm should flail around a bit, though more smoothly with considerably more freedom of movement. Your upper arm should remain stationary.

  3. Finally, lock both your wrist and your elbow and try pivoting from the shoulder. Your whole forearm should remain static, though not stationary - your entire arm should move, but those joints should remain stiff and locked. Your hand and your forearm should not move independently, the entire arm should be moving as a single solid unit.

It's very natural for people to lose track of what it feels like to pivot from the shoulder while they're drawing, so they fall into the habit of drawing from their wrist again. Going through these three steps every time you find yourself slipping back into drawing from the wrist should remind you what it feels like to draw from each pivot, gradually becoming more accustomed to the different ways your body can be manipulated.

Lastly, remember that the target here isn't to ace the exercises - all you're doing is demonstrating to me that you understand the purpose and goal of each exercise well enough to continue practicing it on your own.

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

2016-01-24 19:49

People are used to drawing strictly what they see, because that's what we're generally told to do in drawing classes. Observe, observe, observe, break away from symbol drawing, etc. And that is definitely great, and you've got that nailed. You're drawing exactly what you see.

Our approach, however, is not a matter of drawing exactly what you see. We do not see a detail, and then carry it over into our drawing.

If the method mentioned above were as follows:

  1. See

  2. Draw what you see

The method we're using would instead be

  1. See

  2. Understand what we see by breaking it down into its simplest geometric or organic forms (tubes, balls, sausages, ribbons, etc - all things we covered in the past two lessons)

  3. Reconstruct the object in our drawing by capturing these simple forms, ignoring all complex detail

  4. Making several successive passes over our drawing, adding only as much complexity as the underlying structure from the previous pass will support.

Our approach is very much 'constructive' - you start simple and gradually get more complex. Based on your homework, I can see that you are not focusing on basic forms, but rather are still focused on carrying over detail from your photo reference without understanding how it sits in 3D space, or what underlying structure supports it.

Now, your drawings are very good, but they don't leave you with a whole lot of freedom if you were to stray from your reference, or if you were given a few photos of the same object, and asked to use them to create a drawing from an entirely different angle than those in the photos.

Sometimes, you do apply a constructive approach, or the beginnings of one, when dealing with things like leaves and petals, but I find that you're still treating the previous passes more like a loose approximative sketch, rather than actual structure to which you should be adhering.

Take a look at these notes.

I'd like you to do four more pages of plants, and I don't want you to go into any texture. Focus entirely on building up your various construction passes.

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

2016-01-24 17:56

Very nice work. Your exercises are definitely meeting my expectations for this point. Your dissection texture experimentation is good, and while it does leave plenty of room for growth, you're on the right track. Your form intersections generally feel very confident, consistent and well constructed. Your organic forms feel as though they exist in 3D instead of 2D, with plenty of clear volume brought about by the contour lines.

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

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

2016-01-24 17:54

Pretty well done! The only thing that I'd like to point out is that you did a lot of boxes with more dramatic perspective (especially as you got further into the challenge). Remember that you should be practicing boxes with shallower foreshortening just as much (if not more). More dramatic foreshortening implies a much larger scale (think a building where the far end is really distant), while shallow foreshortening implies a much more relatable scale like small objects that you can touch and manipulate.

It would also be beneficial for you to draw through your boxes when practicing them in the future, as explained here: Draw Through your Forms.

Anyway, keep up the good work and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-24 17:49

Yep, very well done! I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

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

2016-01-24 17:43

I'm not sure why, but the imgur link you included for your homework submission leads to a dead end. You may have pasted the link wrong, or deleted the album.

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

2016-01-24 17:40

You certainly drew 250 boxes, so I'll mark the challenge as complete. That said, there's a lot of room for improvement, and I think it was to your detriment that you didn't read some of the notes included in the challenge page. They're there for a reason, after all.

The most important tip you skipped was this: Draw Through your Forms. Also, I'd definitely recommend in the future not drawing the boxes so they overlap as you have done, instead drawing many individual boxes. I mentioned that at the top of the challenge page as well, in bold no less.

Also, it's best not to have these boxes overlap - draw each one separately. Overlapping would add complication, so lets just tackle one thing at a time.

Finally, you also skipped this:

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.

It's definitely in your best interest to continue practicing these at your own discretion, but since you completed the challenge you're free to move onto lesson 2.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-24 17:34

Much better. I'll mark this lesson as complete. Yes, you really do need to move onto the 250 box challenge next. Your box constructions need a considerable amount of practice and work before you're able to nail them consistently. Be sure to read the notes/tips on the box challenge page.

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

2016-01-24 17:33

Very nice work! Your linework is confident, and your form constructions - especially in the second page - are looking good. I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-23 03:27

Generally fairly solid work. The only concern I have is with your rough perspective boxes. This is more the case when you start off, and decreases as you move through the exercise, but at the very least your first couple compositions fall into some of the pitfalls mentioned here: Guessing, Instead of Knowing. I'm not sure if it's because you didn't grasp the points mentioned there, or if it was more because of a sloppy approach (not applying the ghosting method, so ending up with inaccurate lines), but something was definitely causing the boxes to come out less than stellar.

Aside from that, everything seems to be in order. Furthermore, since you do demonstrate the rough perpsective boxes done properly in several instances, I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. The only thing I would like to recommend is that you go over your completed rough perspective homework as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. This is something I recommend to everyone so they can identify the mistakes in their estimations and get the most out of the exercise.

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

2016-01-23 03:01

There's some improvement in certain areas, and less in others. To start with though, your 250 box refresher was well worth it - the boxes near the end feel solid and well constructed. The form intersections are generally well done as well.

When it comes to the everyday objects, you do seem to be somewhat more mindful of your forms, but I'd say you're still, at least to a degree, getting distracted by the urge to draw very much from observation. You see lots of visual information and detail, so you end up skipping steps. Remember that everything you draw must hinge on underlying structure from a previous pass.

An example of this is the candle/candle holder. The shaft is extremely flat, because you haven't actually drawn in a cylinder there to support it, or even fleshed out how the shaft connects to the base (the connection point would be an ellipse). If I were to approach that, I'd probably draw the top/bottom of the shaft with a tapering cylinder, and then another cylinder in the center, or perhaps another combination of tampering cylinders.. Either way, there would be some definite cylindrical action going on here. Then on a second pass, I'd smooth out my transitions.

Now, some of these have been done rather well. The radio's cool, the chargers are excellent, and that's a handsome carton. The construction of the object on page 2 seems reasonably well thought out, although perhaps you jumped a little too eagerly into drawing instead of thinking through some of the spatial problems in your head, so as to reduce the number of sketchy half-lines that ended up on the page.

Anyway, I do feel you still have plenty of room to grow here, but I will mark the lesson as complete. When you feel comfortable with the idea of building up your objects with successive passes of breaking down forms into greater levels of complexity, you can move onto the next one.

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

2016-01-23 02:43

There is definitely a considerable improvement. You're thinking more in terms of construction, rather than just drawing what you see. The only critique I'd give is for the first page, the head of the spray bottle. There you still seem to be trying to capture a slightly more complex form, with curves and such, with perhaps a little less underlying construction than you should.

Still, you're making good headway, so I'll mark this lesson as complete. Feel free to move onto the next one, where you'll have to continue applying this idea of construction from rudimentary forms and building up successive levels of complexity.

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

2016-01-23 02:39

Very nice work. Your forms/constructions are very well done, and you've demonstrated a lot of great experimentation with different kinds of textures. Some of these certainly make my skin crawl (page 9), and that's an excellent sign of success. Keep up the great work 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)"

2016-01-23 02:37

Here's the critique.

You're making a lot of mistakes in regards to the construction of your forms and general sloppiness. I strongly encourage you to reread the material at the 250 box challenge and the 250 cylinder challenge.

Also, the way you use hatching lines doesn't really contribute anything, it just makes things look messier and sloppier. That's partially because your application of those lines is quick and messy, but also because of where you use it. I'd recommend that you use it only on boxes, and furthermore only apply it to the face that faces the viewer. This will help you make it clear which face is which, since drawing through a form can complicate things.

I noticed that right now in order to clarify the faces in such a form, you tend to make the internal lines really thick, which works right against how I instruct you to use line weight (specifically in the 250 box challenge's other tips section).

You say that you're trying your hardest, but I guarantee you that you're not. These are not mistakes that come from a lack of skill. It's just a matter of being sloppy, not focusing on the task at hand, and not applying the material that you have learned up until this point.

I know you are capable of far better than this, I see numerous signs of that. This is boring for you, I can see that. Ultimately, you need to be able to train yourself to be just as careful with the boring stuff. Take your time and try another two pages.

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

2016-01-23 02:07

I definitely agree on all counts. Your sense of form has improved, but the integrity of your lines needs a lot of work, especially in the ghosting department. Furthermore, drawing through them is worth doing.

I'll mark the challenge as complete, but keep working on them at your own discretion.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-23 02:04

Very, very nice work. I'm glad to see that you clearly read each part of the lesson, as well as the self-critique material, very carefully. As a result, pretty much everything was spot on and you were able to catch your own mistakes.

I'd say the only area that seems even remotely weak are your organic perspective boxes, and even those exceed my expectations for this lesson. People generally struggle considerably with those, and I send them to the 250 box challenge for extra practice. I don't believe that is necessary for you, but it's always there as an option should you wish it. I do however recommend at least reading the tips there, specifically the points about line weight - they should be useful as you move forwards.

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

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-23 02:00

Not bad, though I do have a few concerns. Some minor, some less so.

First off, your ellipses are coming along nicely, but I think you should push to tighten them up, and work towards drawing through them a little lesson. Aim for two passes through the ellipse (no less than that).

On a more significant note, your rough perspective boxes are definitely weak. I'd say they still pass, because many of them show me that you understand the concepts for the most part, but your execution tells me that you're not terribly interested in investing quite as much time as you should.

First off, many of your lines aren't super straight. Investing more time in the preparation phase of the ghosting method, and then in turn executing each mark with a fast, confident stroke would help you draw straighter lines. Secondly, the shading you apply with hatching lines tends to be sloppy - they should be consistent and parallel, and they should stretch all the way across the plane from edge to edge. Nothing floating in the middle, nothing overshooting past the edges, nothing scribbled or zigzagging.

Furthermore, I notice that you start trying to change up the exercise, likely to keep it interesting. I warn against that early on in the lesson, because nine times out of ten when people do it, they think an exercise is beneath them and that they understand, but their execution falls short. As I said, I do think you understand the material, but it doesn't really matter if you can't force yourself to focus and get something done with all of the investment of time that it requires.

Now, this details some mistakes that you may be making here and there: Guessing, Instead of Knowing. I'm honestly not sure if you are, or if it's because you're just getting sloppy, but every now and then your horizontals don't run parallel to the horizon, or your verticals don't run perpendicular to it, and things start to fall apart.

Lastly, I would like you to go over your completed rough perspective box homework as described here to ensure that you identify inaccuracies in your estimation, so you can compensate for them the next time you attempt this exercise: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point.

Your rotated boxes are okay, but there's plenty of room to grow there as well. I think one of the issues there is that you're not terribly keen on overlapping the boxes - especially as you get to the outer boxes. Because of this, the resulting set of boxes starts to fall apart, because you lose the benefit of being able to relate one box to its neighbours in order to figure out how it should be oriented.

Your organic perspective boxes are generally done quite well. If you'd like more material or more practice on the subject, I'd check out the 250 box challenge.

I am going to mark this lesson as complete, but you should know that this does not mean that I don't expect you to ever touch these exercises again. Quite the contrary - it would be wise to keep up with these exercises, as they do a good job of helping sharpen your skills and keep them sharp in the long run. I usually recommend that people incorporate them into their warm up routines, doing one or two exercises to a limited extent before starting on whatever it is you're drawing that day.

Anyway, you may move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-23 01:53

Expect that you will fail. It's an inevitability, and it's a necessity. Don't panic if you find that you struggle with something initially.

Let's break down the purpose of the ghosting method. The reason we split it up into several steps is because the straightest, most fluid and smooth mark will come from drawing quickly and confidently. Unfortunately, doing so often causes one to lose accuracy. That's the issue you're experiencing.

We compensate using the ghosting method. You say you ghost through the motion a few times. When you do so, make sure you're keeping a rhythm to it. You don't want to be missing a beat between your preparing and executing - it should simply be a matter of, without skipping a beat, dropping the tip of the pen to the page and repeating.

If a few times doesn't do it, you may need to ghost more, in order to establish that repetitive rhythm, and to help train your muscles and instruct them as far as what it is you want them to do.

Last of all, if you're missing sometimes, then that's not a big deal. Like I said, it's expected. While there are better approaches to doing things, they still take a considerable amount of practice and mileage.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-22 13:30

The extra page of rough perspective boxes can be submitted in a reply to the critique comment. For the 250 box challenge, there's a link at the top of the page, "View Homework Submissions on Reddit" that'll take you to the submission thread.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-22 03:06

I don't recommend beginners resting their hand on the paper largely because it often causes them to fall back into the habit of drawing from the wrist instead of their shoulder, because your hand dragging along the paper functions like an anchor. As you get used to drawing from the shoulder it becomes less of an issue, but that does take time. I'd recommend keeping your hand raised for now.

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

2016-01-22 00:53

Wasn't so much as harder, but just less organized in terms of me being able to express it. So there isn't really another method to discuss.

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

2016-01-22 00:09

Generally you've done pretty decently. I do have one really big thing to recommend however - draw bigger. Your organic forms with contour ellipses/contour curves, as well as your dissections are tiny. The result is really stiff looking drawings, that feel wrong even though they're really not. Working smaller tends to leave you with far less room to think through spatial problems, and also in general makes your drawings clunkier because the tip of your pen is going to be really fat relative to the size of the drawing. Super thick lines in a tiny drawing doesn't leave much room for nuance.

Everything else is generally pretty good though. Your form intersections are fine. I'm honestly not even that interested in how the forms intersect, it's more about drawing forms that feel like they exist within the same space and are consistent in their foreshortening and such, which you did well enough. Intersections themselves are quite advanced, and getting caught up in them right now can be distracting. All I ask is that people take a shot, and if it works out that's great, if it doesn't, best not to dwell on it.

Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson, and remember to draw larger on the page.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-22 00:00

Very nicely done! Rotated boxes and organic perspective boxes are definitely extremely challenging, but you did a pretty solid job with both of them. You've definitely met my expectations there, but if you're interested in more practice or material on that topic, take a look at the 250 box challenge.

The only thing that I noticed that I'd like to mention has to do with your ellipses. I'm noticing that yours have a tendency to come out a little bit stiff. This isn't always the case, and some are definitely more fluid and relaxed than others, but I do get the impression that generally you're drawing them with a slow stroke that lacks confidence. By moving slowly to compensate for a fear of messing up, your brain ends up driving your hand, resulting in a lot of little corrections that shows up as unevenness and wobbling. In your case it's subtle, but it's still there.

When drawing ellipses - or really marks of any sort, it's important to do so with a swift, confident stroke. You don't want your brain to direct your actions, instead you want your muscles to do what they do best - draw smooth, flowing lines. This is actually one of the primary reasons I insist people draw through their ellipses, as it will generally free up people to be bolder and more confident with their strokes, resulting in smoother, more even ellipses. Of course, some people will still draw slowly as they go through them, negating that benefit.

Now, drawing quickly does have its downsides - one's accuracy is bound to suffer. To compensate, we apply the steps of the ghosting method, primarily preparing and ghosting through the drawing motion to build up muscle memory so our arm, once left to go about its business, knows exactly what's expected of it. Think of it like the brain giving the arm its marching orders, and the arm eventually executing those orders when drawing the mark.

Aside from that, I do want to encourage you to go over your completed rough perspective homework as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. It's an excellent way to weed out very common mistakes and figure out what you yourself are doing wrong so you can compensate for them the next time you attempt the exercise. It's something I recommend to everyone.

Anyway, fantastic work overall. Feel free to move onto the next lesson.

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

2016-01-21 23:50

Very nice work! Great forms and excellent line weights. Keep up the good work!

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

2016-01-21 23:50

In many ways you're moving in the right direction, but you are missing some key points.

Biggest of all, you're treating the lay-in like an underdrawing or approximation. It's not - it's a solid construction, all of which represents distinct masses and intersections on the animal you're drawing.

For instance, the initial three masses - by the end of your drawing, they tend to be sitting loose inside the body, like they serve no purpose. These masses represent actual solid parts of the body - the cranium, the ribcage, the pelvis. Each one should be constructed with what they represent in mind. The cranium is always a circle (remember that's not the whole skull, just part of it), the ribcage is generally quite large, and the pelvis is always has an angle to it.

Once these masses are dropped in, you build your construction around them. You construct the torso by creating an organic, sausage-ish form by connecting the ribcage to the pelvis. You create the head by extending other forms off of it. Then you add more masses and bulk to the shoulders (which sit on the side of the torso, where the legs connect to it - they do not connect at the bottom).

You never add detail that cannot be supported by the forms and structure that is already there. For instance, your approach to drawing heads and faces doesn't utilize any underlying structure or scaffolding, you just draw the features wherever you think they go. This results in details that do not feel believable or grounded, because there's nothing supporting their position or existence.

When drawing, we're not focusing on what the end result is going to be. We're not simply copying over a photograph and reproducing it with 100% faithfulness. We are understanding what's there, and quite literally reconstructing it. Think as though you're building it up with clay. Without the structure of a head, without those forms, you can't even consider where the eye's going to go. If the torso has a big hump on the back, you literally add a new organic form and pile it on top to add that sort of volume (very much like the organic intersections exercise from lesson 2).

Right now, you're still caught up in trying to draw the photograph, so you laid down your loose lay-in and then focused on drawing details details details. The result will often end up feeling flat because of this. It turns out that details are actually completely unimportant - all of the meat of the drawing comes from the lay-in and construction.

Lastly, I am noticing that you're spending a lot more time drawing than you are studying your reference. This isn't abnormal, but it is something we want to work to change. When studying a reference image, look beyond all of the detail and observe the actual forms that sit underneath. Often these things are obscured by fur, but with a little logic, you can surmise how the masses underneath come together.

Furthermore, when actually applying a little detail at the end, you never want to rely on your memory. You'll see fur, and say, "I know what fur is like" and you'll spend the next minute drawing what fur means to you. Instead, you should spend lots of time observing how that fur flows around the body, where it clumps, where it's frizzy, and most importantly, where it creates shadows and where it all fuses into one indistinguishable mass.

Here are some extra notes on your work: http://i.imgur.com/dXB0IBG.png

And, here are some construction demos I've done in the past: http://i.imgur.com/ZNSG70A.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/L3OKmgL.jpg

Following what I've said here, in the notes, and in those demos, I'd like you to do four more pages of animals. I don't want you to go into any detail at all. Focus on just the lay-in construction.

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

2016-01-21 23:12

Generally pretty good work, but I have a few points where you can improve.

Aside from that, you've done quite well. Feel free to move onto the next lesson, just keep these points in mind as you do so.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-21 22:51

Your lines and ellipses are generally very well done. I did notice though that near the end of your ellipses, you started trying to draw your ellipses in one pass, instead of drawing through them a couple times before lifting your pen - I mention in the lesson that any ellipses you draw as homework for my lessons need to apply this process of drawing through, without exception. Make sure you continue to do that as you move forwards.

Your rough perspective boxes do demonstrate some issues:

You certainly do show some trouble with your arbitrarily rotated boxes (both with the rotated boxes and organic perspective exercise). You mentioned that you didn't find the organic perspective exercise to be that difficult, though generally you actually did a better job with the rotated boxes. They're not perfect, but with your organic perspective boxes, you've got a lot of issues with your near/far planes.

Neither of these two are exercises that I expect you to do perfectly on your first attempt, anyway. The concept of being able to rotate a box construction in your head is one that takes time and practice to develop.

Once I mark this lesson as complete, I'd like you to move onto the 250 box challenge to get some more practice in this area (and more help from the notes and suggestions on that page).

BEFORE you do that however, I'd like you to do one more page of rough perspective boxes. Be sure to frame your compositions properly as well. Once you submit that, I'll mark the lesson as complete and you can then move onto the 250 boxes.

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

2016-01-21 22:43

Generally very nice. Good forms, glad to see that you're drawing through them, and your line weights were applied well. Keep up the good work, and consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-21 22:32

It's relatively simple. Shallow foreshortening means that the far end of the box - the end that is furthest from the viewer - is similar in size to the closer end of the box. It's still smaller, but not by much. With dramatic perspective, the far end is considerably smaller than the near end.

For the record, the nature of organic perspective is to construct boxes based on keeping the rules of perspective in the back of your head, and primarily relying on feelings. It's not about guessing, because you know towards which direction any given set of lines will converge, but since the vanishing points are not visible, you are estimating considerably.

Don't overthink things, don't try to narrow it down to some kind of scientific response. You know your general perspective, your previous homework has shown that - just draw and trust your instincts.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-21 18:24

Indeed you may.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-21 18:03

The issue is only apparent because you're using dramatic perspective on the boxes. The solution is quite simple - just use shallower perspective. You're not going to be getting perfect consistency across the board, but all you're really after is flying under the radar.

The thing about foreshortening is that it tends to imply information about the scale of an object. An object with lots of foreshortening is going to be considerably larger (think a tall building, where the top of the box is very small and the base is large when seen from the ground). An object that has shallow foreshortening on the other hand, is much more relatable and small, like the objects you see every day around you. Of course, you could always push the focal length of a scene to make everything super dramatic even though it's small, but that's not something you'll catch yourself doing often.. or ever.

Uncomfortable in the post "An Ongoing Record of Homework Submissions"

2016-01-21 14:48

I can't really speak to left/right handedness, and personally I tend to push my lines (drawing away) rather than pulling (drawing towards myself), but I have heard about people specifically pushing their straights and pulling their curves (specifically in regards to calligraphy - http://seanwes.com/2015/quick-tip-to-draw-straight-lines-avoid-shaky-hand-lettering/). That said, I remember when originally reading that article, the comments were full of "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T PULL YOUR CURVES" so there's definitely a largely split opinion on the matter.

I would say do whatever feels natural to you, but remember that the greater priority is that you think through and plan before every mark you put down. Put emphasis on ghosting through your drawing motion as described in the lesson, and be sure to draw from the shoulder for any larger lines. In this case, calligraphy works at a relatively small scale, so that article doesn't factor in what is required to draw longer, fluid, curving lines. So don't get caught up in the whole pushing/pulling thing and forget about locking your wrist and drawing from the shoulder.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-21 13:51

Ballpoint pen is fine for lessons 1 and 2. Also, don't do lesson 2 first - I want you to do the 250 box challenge before you move onto the second lesson.

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

2016-01-21 02:38

Two is fine, though you might want to stop and think for a bit as to why you're not keen on doing four.

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

2016-01-20 23:10

On many levels, your work is pretty decent, but I raised this issue yesterday when looking at your 250 cylinder challenge - your line quality is not good by any stretch. You regularly fall back to chicken scratching instead of applying the ghosting method covered in lesson 1.

Your arrows and organic forms with contour ellipses are fine. Your organic forms with contour curves however, are chicken scratchy as hell. They are vastly better on the second page, where you stop chicken scratching - you demonstrate a solid understanding of how they need to wrap around the rounded forms.

Your dissections are decent, with a nice variety of texture experimentation. I would like you to try thinking more and drawing less however - you have a tendency that very much ties into your chicken scratching habit - you want to jump into drawing without thinking or planning out what you want to draw. The result is that you're thinking on the page, instead of thinking of how to best economize your strokes. The result is definitely more than a little wasteful and disorganized.

Lastly, your form intersections aren't great. You're definitely heading in the right direction, but you need to work on your ghosting to achieve smooth, straight and accurate lines. Go back to the first lesson and read over those three steps detailed in the lesson section of part 1. That is the method you should be applying to every single mark you make. Then go back and reread the description of the form intersections, and do so carefully.

I'd like you to do two more pages of form intersections. I expect you to demonstrate to me that you are no longer chicken scratching your lines, and that you're putting plenty of time into ghosting through the drawing motion and preparing, and eventually executing with a quick, confident stroke for each line.

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

2016-01-20 23:02

They definitely improve over the set, both in terms of the integrity of your forms as well as the confidence of your line work. That said, I do believe you would benefit greatly from Drawing Through your Forms, as it helps highlight the mistakes you're making while giving you a better sense of how each box sits in 3D space.

Keep that in mind as you continue practicing. Consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-20 23:00

Excellent work. The issue you were experiencing with the planes kinda goes outside of the scope of the exercise - remember that it's not about keeping perspective in mind, although eventually those skills develop in that direction. At that point it's just about creating quadrilateral shapes, drawing ellipses within spaces, and ghosting lines.

Generally you nailed all your exercises, but there's two things I'd like to mention.

First off, for your rough perspective boxes, the best way to get everything you can out of it is to go over the completed homework as described here: Lines Not Lining Up With Vanishing Point. It'll help you learn what you tend to do wrong, and compensate consciously the next time you attempt that exercise.

Yoru organic perspective boxes were generally well done, except for one mistake that was done quite generally across the board: Inconsistent Foreshortening Between Boxes in the Same Scene.

Keep up the good work - I'll mark this lesson as complete, so feel free to move onto the next one.

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

2016-01-20 22:55

Your organic forms are considerably better. Your arrows are okay, but you need to work on your tendency to create sketchier lines. You cannot let your line stop, and then pick it up again, leaving a very noticeable break in the middle.

On the topic of this you going over your lines, it becomes a bad habit when you're doing it as a reflex instead of a separate, planned action. If it's an immediate reflex, it means you don't have full control of what your body is doing, and that makes for a terrible habit.

Your dissections aren't good - for the most part, they completely miss the point of the exercise, so I'm going to ask you to reread that section. The exercise is about learning to study a reference image and carry over the information. For the most part you left your surfaces blank, aside from a couple areas where you added hatching lines - which clearly weren't done from any photo reference.

Lastly, your form intersections could still use some improvement. They're better, but still not up to scratch. Here's a few tips that may help:

I'd like you to redo the dissections and form intersections.

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

2016-01-20 22:46

Decent work. The only thing that jumps out at me is that you're not consistently drawing through your ellipses as you should be. I did notice that your dissection's textures, while pretty well done, are a little bit on the simplistic side (which is totally fine for now). I do want to suggest however that you make sure you force yourself to look back at the reference every second or two, and not spend too long drawing without looking back. This often results in relying on simplified memories of the details on your reference, which aren't terribly reliable.

Anyway, feel free to move onto the next lesson.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-20 22:43

I'm going to mark this lesson as complete, but I insist that you move onto the 250 box challenge next. This will both give you the chance to continue practicing drawing arbitrarily rotated box constructions, while letting you continue to practice ghosting your lines and applying that 3-step method to drawing actual forms.

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

2016-01-20 22:21

So you do show some improvement over the set, but there are a number of things that I've noticed while looking over your homework.

The most important thing is that you are observing too little, and drawing too much. That isn't to say you're not observing - I can see that you're studying your subject and making lots of notes, but the problem is that the human brain has been developed to very quickly distill the information it gathers and simplify it to its core. Because of this, when you look away from your reference image, 90% of the information you absorbed is thrown out, and your brain focuses on that last 10% which it uses to summarize what it saw. Much of the subtle touches, the nuance and the unique aspects of what you studied are forgotten, and you're left with a generic approximation of what was seen. The bigger problem is that we do not realize this is happening - so we go on drawing, and the result is often something overly simplified and cartoony.

What you need to do is get used to looking, looking, looking, then taking a moment or two to carry over a bit of information, then immediately looking back to your reference. It doesn't matter if you think you can remember more - your memory is not to be trusted. Always look back at your reference and refresh your mind.

Secondly, I noticed that you have a habit of seriously overusing contour lines. This is more common at the beginning of your homework, but it does show me that you don't necessarily understand their purpose. These lines are intended to describe how a surface deforms and twists and turns through 3D space, giving us clues as to the volume contained within a given form. Two or three of these lines will do the job just as well as a hundred. A hundred on the other hand will cover your form in a mess, leaving little room for further development.

This brings me to another issue - based on the fact that you covered your forms in contour lines early on, and didn't use them nearly as much later on, I'm guessing that you're not fully grasping the relationship between the lay-in and the final drawing, either.

A lay-in is the first step. It is not merely an exercise, but it is the beginnings of what will lead directly to the final drawing. You're establishing the solid forms and construction of your subject, and with successive passes, you go from a simple construction to a more complex breakdown of forms. You do not merely practice the lay-in on one hand, and then attempt to jump into the most complex level of a different drawing.

To further explain that concept, we're going to talk about how to go about constructing leaves. You've got a lot of leaves there with some complex action going on - for example, leaves that are rather wavy, like on the bottom right of page six. The problem with these waves is that in drawing them immediately, it becomes very easy to lose track of the general flow of how the leaf flows through 3D space, because you're getting caught up in the waves.

Instead of tackling all of these challenges at once, we break them down into multiple passes, as shown here: http://i.imgur.com/9E8wD83.png. In this example, rather than wavy edges, we're dealing with frayed, jagged edges - but it's the same idea. The first step is to show the general flow of this flat form as it moves through 3D space with a simple curve for its center line. Next, you enclose the general shape of this leaf with two simple curves, one on each side. Once that's established, we use it as a framework or a scaffolding to build in the frayed edges, or waves, or whatever applies to your situation. Since we already have the scaffolding for the form set up, it's much simpler to add the extra deformation and detail.

Lastly, when applying contour lines, the first thing you should do is look for details in your reference that already play the same role - basically any lines that already flow continuously over the surface of the form and describe how it warps through 3D space. If you can't find any, then you can add a few artificial ones, but remember that keeping them spaced out regularly tends to imply man-made object, so it's usually best to break that kind of monotony up.

I'd like you to take another stab at this lesson.

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

2016-01-20 00:46

That quality of the ballpoints is very pencil-like, and is why you're going to undermine the confidence and control working with felt tip pens teaches you. Right now, you are a neanderthal, able to apply full pressure or none. With time and practice however, you will start to figure out how to use more finesse and subtlety, and the middle ranges of pressure will be more accessible to you.

Never go into anything related to drawing and decide to give up if it doesn't work at first. It takes practice and mileage, you need to familiarize yourself with the tool in order to unlock all of its potential.

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

2016-01-20 00:36

Ballpoint pen doesn't really give you a whole lot of flexibility when it comes to line width. That's why I encourage people to use fineliners/felt tip pens.

Uncomfortable in the post "Nathan Aardvark - A lot of great (free) daily tips/tricks that you should all check out"

2016-01-19 13:49

I actually stumbled upon that a couple months ago - it's really incredible! Feels like the sort of thing Patreon should already have within its own UI, but it's good to know there's third party tools like this.

Uncomfortable in the post "Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes (version 3)"

2016-01-19 01:58

That's a pretty good way of looking at it. The advantage of the rotated boxes is that they are all related to each other, so you can get a sense of what one should look like by looking at its neighbours. Drawing each box individually leaves you without those sorts of hints. It's a good idea to practice both - start with the rotated boxes as sets, then try venturing out into doing individual boxes when you feel more comfortable.

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

2016-01-18 23:42

Good lord your camera is weird. Your boxes are looking pretty good by the end of it though, so good work there. Continue to keep on top of this, but I'd say the next step would be to work on varying your line weights as covered in the challenge page.

Consider this challenge complete.

Uncomfortable in the post "250 Cylinder Challenge"

2016-01-18 23:41

You're getting there. The last few are pretty sloppy (I imagine you're were getting tired and you didn't take as many breaks as you should have), but you hit your stride by around page 9. I do recommend though that you take more care in drawing a straight line for your minor axis (some are a little wobbly or arcing), and also try and draw your ellipses so the minor axis cuts all the way through them. That way you get a better sense of whether or not you aligned it correctly, as the minor axis should cut each ellipse into two equal, symmetrical halves.

Anyway, it's coming along nicely, so I'll mark this challenge as complete.