I wish this had discussed the mechanics of a tapered stroke. I saw something that mentioned thinking of it as landing and taking off an airplane, that helped me.

I tried doing some tapered strokes but it doesn’t feel right. Any idea how I can improve?

How do you get the lines to look like this

How do you get the lines to look like that

I don’t know how I’m doing

i don’t know how I’m doing

This is what I practiced

Do you draw confident lines with the tip of the pencil

can you draw stuff like this

Rough sketch vs refined sketch

Here is something I drew just from my head on the spot. I wanted to see if I understood what the video is trying to demonstrate. I am not moving my arm robotically to get these lines but I’m not sure if they are actually tapering like they should. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Here are my attempts at the tapered stroke. The first one was done in lead with the side of the pencil and I felt more loose but the lines were too messy. I then redid it with a dull blue carbon pencil and I had trouble feeling the taper of my strokes but I feel it came out better.

Loved the design of the turtle so i drew it too ! looks cool, but i had to redo the belly that was too big in my initial blue sketch. Also had harder time to draw clean confident lines when my pen was too sharp and thin. Much more easier when it was dull, it glide more easily on the paper :)

Paused the video and drew from reference the turtle, actually really happy with how it turned out. I started with a HB pencil, but for the final drawing I used .5mm pen.

My attempts. The hand made me miserable🤣

Critiques welcome - My first attempts at these drawings. I found the VR girl challenging and I totally botched the perspective and proportions on her right hand. I used a 2H pencil for the sketching/searching lines and a 4B to create final, darker ones My appreciation to Stan for this course. I've already gained some new skills and confidence in my line work which was not good when I started. I'd appreciate any critiques and thoughts on the uploaded drawings.

Hi, everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything for this class, but I’m back and ready to LOCK IN. I watched the tapered stroke video and tried to absorb as much as I could. I admit, it’s much more difficult than it sounds once you start putting pencil to paper. I took some references from online that interested me, preferably ones with interesting shapes and show some kind of movement…except for Mr. Hoodie in the bottom left corner. He’s just there to look cool and give emotional support. I will say that I do struggle to keep my lines steady but not stiff, also having a flow that is pleasing to the eye, similar to the Disney examples that are shown in the tapered strokes video. Another thing I struggle with is putting the various parts of my arm into drawing like the elbow and shoulder. Sometimes it would make my arm ache, almost like I’m doing a mini workout so perhaps I’m not doing it right or am not used to it yet. I really only ever used my wrist before all of this, so I’m trying to get more comfortable with that. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I struggle more with the whole arm thing when I’m using a mechanical pencil so maybe switching to an alternative would be more beneficial to me!