Second attempt at lv 1 after the demo. Looking for some help/critique…..I had some success around the eyes, nose and shadow side (viewers left) of face where the values make clear planes. But the right/light side of face and the beard just look flat, like I’m rendering some weird alien tiger fur pattern…! Probably due to badly designed shapes that are trying to match the value patterns I think I see, but which don’t properly consider the structure/anatomy underneath? Maybe they are too boxy and complicated (all those zig-zag edges)? Would some curves have helped? My sense is that level 1 to level 2 should be part of the same workflow - start big, progressively add in detail…as Stan has done in the demos. But, like my project submission, I cannot see how I can take this to level 2 with more values and subtler transitions. It feels like the shapes and values are fully committed and it would take a lot of erasing and re-working of shape edges to evolve to a final rendering? Perhaps my value choices are too contrasty and I should have picked the light shadow and halftones to have been much closer? Maybe I need to darken the halftones to solve? Lot of questions there but appreciate any tips from the community. 👌

Such wise words to conclude on and definitely relevant - I started the proko figure drawing course and never got past gesture because I felt I sucked at it so just went round in circles then got distracted. This was a wonderful course to expand on gesture, approaches and how it fits into the bigger workflow. Loved it. Thank you Michael 👍

Well, I got the process, just not always the result. 4 of 7 acceptable but I guess I can at least see what went wrong after the event. I think those that went wrong, either went wrong early i.e. the base/legs proportions were too off and did not spot that until finished, or I tried to change things on the fly like lengthening the ‘horn’ to make it look more ‘up close’….which of course does not work when the box/grid is not ‘up close’. Duh.

Level 1 attempt. Workflow was lay-in, then thumbnails then could not decide between bottom two thumbnails so did lighter one then converted it to darker one, which ended up being better. Played around with shading a sphere methodology for the end of the nose - mainly to indicate reflected light on underside of nose. Thought I’d then keep working it to level 2 but realised this is not possible - once you get the 5 tones down in these big connected shapes you can’t grade between forms without a ton of erasing. Lesson learned. I’m still a bit puzzled how you’d go from the big shape basic tones to lots of smaller forms with more tones without losing the connectedness. Guess there is a lot of forward planning needed as you work…kudos to those that did this!

Some things clicked after this lesson - i) orthos are not just reference, you can use them as you draw to solve problems ii) building the box and scaffolding first is a very good idea before attempting curves iii) tracing paper is great for problem solving… As the penny dropped it gave confidence to try and solve a problem I’ve wondered about and tried to freehand intuitively with poor results; a hollow open canoe-like form in vertical perspective with a lot of foreshortening…so curves in perspective. Tried a simple oblique view first then tipped the canoe vertical for more extreme ~worms-eye view. Well, the results were a lot more successful than freehand intuition…! Also learned a pencil eraser works to remove ink on tracing paper. Useful stuff. 🤩

Mind-bending….had a go at mimicking the demo then tried chasing some boxes around the page with twist connections. Takes a bit of practice to begin to understand that the curves of each contour line twist and intersect in ways that are not immediately intuitive.

Wow, that really helped with the concept of big to small forms and working systematically toward the detail. I see I really make mistakes by getting into detail in smaller areas before the big forms are described. Thanks 👍 🙏

Thanks for the critiques and learned a lot! Great point on play vs discipline…I definitely tend toward play and sometimes get too carried away by sudden ideas and concepts that I don't quite have the skills to pull off. Creates a sloppiness which I need to work on. So, will focus on more focus, in a disciplined way!

Great video of the process. Quick question; at 12:05 minute in the video, the discussion on how the rear stabilizer wings look off - initially part of the illusion, later concludes grid error- but, are there sometimes situations where you‘d be inclined to ditch perspective ‘law’ in favour of artistic license (i.e. you would thicken that more distant wing to make more similar) when that makes a visually better outcome?

Not completely convinced that I’m not just drawing outline using c and s curves to be honest….but I think I get the difference between shape approach vs gesture approach I.e. this is more part to part whilst gesture is connecting through parts with perceived rhythms(?) I think I also was too part to part in the gesture approach however as my drawings with both approaches look eerily similar 🤔