waveclaw in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (Patreon Critique Thread)"

2019-05-14 02:43

I was worried about how far I pushed the form on the bear.

The fact that trying to do bears killed me last time in 2014 for Drawabox means I am greatly relieved to get that study onto paper.

I spent quite a lot of time studying the top-sides-front for the wolf paws but I agree the bear has little more than blobs at the end. Maybe badly formed 2D flippers to go with the shoulder tumor.

Now I have something else concrete to work on for improvement. That means a lot to me. Certainly worth the price of the review.

Thank you for the critique. Cylinders ahoy!

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (Patreon Critique Thread)"

2019-05-11 19:11

As always, thank your for the critique. I am always trying to better understand, no conflict is intended.

Drawabox Lesson 5 Remedial 2 https://imgur.com/a/ZIUNQmT

I think I took the lesson 5 wolf demo video too far in making the head smaller.

The reminder to ghost lines in the Wolf video was very helpful. Ghosting has helped with getting the torso sausage to look as intended - even if the intent was wrong. Gotta keep practicing those basics.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (Patreon Critique Thread)"

2019-05-04 05:59

Remedial Work.

Only one source image uploads to imgur, possibly due to copyright. The original bat image I used even shows up corrupted on anything I copy it to.

My reply to your critique is bellow.

Skipping some steps

You have consistently repeated this statement on lessons. I have had to resort to showing you breakdowns of my work in the past lessons. I will not do that here or going forward due to the extreme amount of time involved.

Drawing basic construction tool lightly

For the remedial work I switched from Staelder Fine Liners to the must more expensive Artistlof Pens I keep in reserve for non-study work (not homework like Drawabox.) Those do not produce the horrid faint lines of the Staedler Fine Liners and still enable very fine weight control. Considering the results with plain copier paper compared with nice 50 lbs sketchpad paper should be obvious.

Replacing Linework

If I wanted to hide a line then I do not draw the line. I try to leverage existing forms and build on them, never "replacing" them even if the end result is ugly, flat or completely fictional. However, the results of building on line work are not often successful, particularly in this lesson. I think you are still mistaking that for hiding things. This might also be caused by the lines that don't draw on the pens I have been using.

Sausage method of legs

I stuck as strictly to the sausage method of legs as I could with the remedial work. I do feel the results should speak for themselves in my resulting work.

Please clarify in the demos where you are using sausage legs. Did this change recently in the homework?

I found balloons, outright cylinders and other form-appropriate structures. For the detailed instructions prior to February the legs were considered 'secondary.' They were to be flat not to contain much detail. Has that changed?

This may be a perception issue. Unless I'm making balloon animals I just don't see sausage limb forms on anything not a cartoon. When I try to use this sausage method the results are flat, badly portioned, and neither illustrating the content in the source image or any imaginary simplification I can see.

Ribcages

I have not forgotten any of the lesson after months of constant review. I have been fighting with portions throughout the lesson, particularly with the horse heads.

I've started organizing the first shapes differently. Starting with the head sometimes helps. Forcing static 1/2 + 1/4 proportions for the torso even against the source image has overcome this occasionally.

Fur

I think with intention on the shape of the silhouette I am breaking. The results are just poor. It may simply take practice, but I do not draw animals or find them interesting to draw.

I've reduced the amount of fur much in the remedial work but most the subjects are low in fur or fur-less by nature.

I hope I'm pretty far along. DaB is the fourth art 'class' I've taken, some of them years log. I've done Drawabox up to lesson 5 twice now over the past 5 years.

I am doing Drawabox to maintain and improve my skills. But you have to keep up manual skills like illustration or they rot.

If you stopped drawing today in a decade or two you may find that you cannot draw at a level you want.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 5: Drawing Animals (Patreon Critique Thread)"

2019-04-27 14:54

Lesson 5 per instructions as of March 2019: imgur gallery.

• Started November 2018 and completed April 2019 (7 months).

• Still working on proportions of head verses body. I suffer major regression in that ability over the years.

• Still struggling with 'fluffy fur' instead of 'drowned rat.' See the kitten pictures. Direction is needed.

Lesson 5 Demos and notes: imgur gallery.

• I am aware that the outline on the tiger head contradicts instructions. This was a successful hair experiment that I have failed to replicate.

• Drawing bears for Lesson 5 in 2014 was the reason I quit Drawabox the first time. Thank you for providing demos of bears!

• The original Lesson 5 was the reason I gave up drawing for years (see the apropos vgcats).

• The lesson is much improved from 2014: the frustration level and massively increased workload are more manageable with the current instructions.

• Going 7 months on Pateron without feedback is too long. I may be too slow of a worker for the advanced series. I have developed drawing habits that need correction but do not know what those would be.

waveclaw in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2018-12-23 23:44

Thank you!

You comments on the use of fine liners is very helpful. I find in this exercise that if I fail to use my schoulder the lines are faint and scratchy. Using my shoulder on larger images leads to much more solid lines. An example is the waffle - that was not only really fun to do but each of the 'shading' in a wafle well was a small form.

I look forward to the uodates lesson 2 and may attempt it. After I forget how much work those were.

waveclaw in the post "25 Texture Challenge"

2018-12-22 05:57

25 Texture challenge: https://imgur.com/a/SBJMnNJ which killed another Staedler 0.5 Fine Liner. I have switched to an Artist Loft 0.5 Pigment Liner for the last page. This is almost the exact same fine liner but about twice the price. These were done over a very long time but let me revisit some of the textures from lesson 3.

I liked the corn, waffles and Pringles textures but really need some help with what went wrong with the wood and bark textures. They look worse than the textures I did almost six months ago for dissections. Very flat and overworked without any distinct impression of what they are.

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

2018-08-22 07:17

Thank you. And as always, thank you for the feedback.

I hope to get at least some practice in on 'confident line work' during the move.

A piece of paper and a pen. A few minutes at at time.

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

2018-08-21 15:29

Time is \~41 hours and duration was over 3 months: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qC8lchCuvL1sirYdxQm4xL_FltOcTm16

As usual the resources folder contains all source images.

There is a demos folder. This contains my versions of the lesson, demos and old demo work. Included there are some of the homework critiques for other users that I redid on my own.

Due to moving back to the continent in 8 days this will be the last of the items I have to use google drive to share. Also due to moving I will not have access to do any remedial work, challenges or lessons for about a month.

I had to compromise on which images to include in the homework. I note major problems like proportion control, confusing textures, bad shading or the 'general outlines' you hated so much from the prior lesson 3.

There was no consistency in my results throughout this homework. This required rework or two to three attempts at each image. This involves a large amount of time,, frustration and anxiety. I really would have preferred a small smaller set of lessons here with more feedback in between. I feel that even with community support I went off the rails a lot.

On a positive note, lesson 4 filled out my current Draw-a-box sketchbook (plus one page.) Lesson 1 through 4 fits in a single Arteza 8.5x10 drawing pad at 50 sheets, both sides. This does not include the practice sheets, remedial or practice homework. Those ate most of a different 50 sheet Meede 9in x 12in tablet and two Staedler 0.5mm fine liner pens.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-06-19 11:10

Thank you for the review. I will add plants and leaves to my study repetoire.

The concerns about size are noted. This is why I completed all the plant studies and requested homework over again on a large sheet as a single image. I did leave large margins for any notes that you may need to leave.

(Please consider these fully licensed to reuse for lecture or presentation purposes as CC-BY. Of course, you are protected by safe harbor as an teacher using excerpts for examples. I only mention this due to copyright issues in the past . I have been on the unfortunate side of a contract before.)

Again, sorry about using the information from 2015. I was just interested in where I got that information from and found it from my first attempts with the community support. I try to not bring stuff in from other classes and stick to what is being taught. Please add some information about what to not - specifically calling out deprecated information from old lessons. You don't need to dish on popular techniques other teachers are doing that you do not like, but I do feel bad and and sorry for bringing up the old lesson information.

The community review found few of the problems you point out regularly so I feel I am getting my dollars' worth at this point. For instance, I redid the pitcher plant twice and was very unhappy about the lack of flaring and the details on the pitcher lip. I would not have thought it was "stiffness" that caused the result. But on review the initial ovals were far to tight and rigid - a steel saxophone verses a squishy plant.

The initial form was not loose enough to capture the flare. So the construction ended up following a stiff flute shape instead of the organic flowing bowl shape. So I'm at least happy that I am starting to follow the forms I lay down more closely. I do need to take more advantage of the space the page affords.

Maybe I have too many things crammed into my practice sheets and warm-ups?

Would it be appropriate to now focus practice sheets on large single subjects?

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-06-18 14:41

Remedial work for lesson 3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LKGeyT28UEhQ1BP0ieMhGrfpRoNk6TeJ

I've got another two months overseas then I will be back in the USA. At that time can can switch from Google Drive to Imgur.

Included are:

1. 10 things I could identity as a Demo

2. 4 new plants specifically picked for leaf or branch study, form only no detailing

3. breakdowns of each image into step-by-step as I interpret them

• most plants were 4-6 step construction based on the base image

• most demos were 6-8 step construction based on steps present in video or explicitly given

• the potato plant stands out with around 16 steps (probably 12-14 realistically, you cannot see extra leaves being added after a point)

I hope to never do another potato plant again.

Lines are not very steady and weight is very binary. I failed to get the angle right on a lot of ovals for plant pots. Over and over again. But someone once said that "once are committed to a shape you need to follow through." Details will not save you.

I found the source for the original 'outlines' you objected to in my original submission plants. They are the instructions from Lesson 3 on /r/ArtFundamentals in 2015 from some guy named "Uncomfortable." I have a full page of notes based on that work in my notebook. This includes some mighty scratchy pictures of a fish and a chair I put on a curb in 2017.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-06-01 03:38

Being on YouTube means I get the videos free leaching at work on smoko breaks. After my Per Diem comes in I'll be able to re-up my prepaid SIM and look into the images. FYI having a U.S. phone carrier in a foreign country is a PITA. Also, no access to money without paying tons of fees sucks.

I had to make special arrangements to get that imgur download that was legible. I have received the comments.

After reading that I'm going to switch to play-by-play style for turning in this set of remedial homework. If you see a breakdown of the major steps I'm taking that may help analysis. I'd like to dispel some of these comments about the edges of leaves. But that would require recording a video. I'd not want to ponder the price for uploading a video from a foreign country without wi-fi access.

Edit: spelling, oh, the spelling...

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-05-31 06:06

Sorry, I'm usually at work when I get these notices so cannot do anything. My noon appears to be your midnight.

You should have access to the entire Drawabox folder unless I've revoked it while house cleaning.

If you want an imgur like experience you'll need to add one or more art apps to your Google account.

If you have a desktop drawing or note app you can open the images from drive. That will download the image locally so beware if you are in a limited bandwidth situation.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-05-31 05:43

I have limited bandwidth from my location and already spending money for the reviews. Google drive does not cost me additional money or time since that is where the large source images are generated.

I'm sorry that you are having permissions problems with the google drive app. If you want to draw on them directly you will have to skip Photoshop and link one of the many sketch a

or photo touch-up apps.

For instance, imgur made most your writing illegible. I cannot tell what your comments are on most the images. Also, the download of that image cost me about $1.90.

I will continue to use Google drive while I am stuck on forgien assignment due to the file sizes and cost.

I will repeat the videos again in my pratice sketchbook. I did skip copying the flower so need to do that.

5 more focusing on construction will be large enough I will add a new post. When I put the files into a sub-folder you will have immediate access. (I don't know who the user DreTech1 is and will remove that access if the user does not identify themself. If this is you then that explains your access issues.)

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 3: Drawing Plants"

2018-05-29 09:50

Lesson 3 per instructions as of April 2018:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1ngCnA3LmgOjxbJeNkdz9Cxnv8PAc8H6R

I appologize in advance. I rarely if ever draw plants so this review is probably not going to be pleasant for you.

I know this is about spacial skills but I spent well more than the recommended 8 hours on this. Time to fish or cut bait.

Also, I killed another Staedler Pigment Liner 0.5 five pages into the plants so realize that one looks "scribbly" and the following have work has line weight problems. I'll need to do more work with the fresh pen on some pratice leaves overlaying each other.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"

2018-05-10 03:15

Two more pages of organic intersections as requested (about 3 hours of work):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z0Klw9NMSpGGM5jAQ0ty-eONAcWC6pLp

• One is a variation on the actual intersection done in the lesson video.

• One is a totally new construction. Notice the much lower quality of the shadow and placement.

• A third "failed" intersection that was not good enough to publish was eluded. It is available on request.

• Practice sheets with 50 organic forms from the past day also available on request.

waveclaw in the post "Lesson 2: Organic Forms, Contour Lines, Dissections and Form Intersections"

2018-05-09 13:08

After 2 months I have finshed lesson 2 and am eager to critique the results.

Included the resource images (original photos) for exercise 2. License is CY-BA 4.0. I did one too many pages of organic intersections but only did one 'pile' per page.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1K8d0nkMqvnOec_F_Xo58sIHXyDGoQ8_1

waveclaw in the post "250 Box Challenge"

2018-03-08 10:47

Took much less than two months, but uploaded and completed 250 here in black fineliner with corrections in red https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1O4xcHb71ZySeUUw0MWj2AY3y2SGQirRz

I did attempt three point perspective a few times to a humbling level of corrections. I do not recall a box cityscape being so hard from the classes I took a decade ago.

New pen set arrived so working now to not retrace faint or wobbly lines. Kept the bad pen for added chalenge with practice sheets. Just got to own those mistakes and move on.