As luck would have it, I was already finishing up a line-art master study when Stan posted this assignment, so I get to be the first one to post a submission :D This is a study of one of Carles Dalmau's illustrations, who also did art for Cult of the Lamb. The under-sketch is done in ballpoint pen (because I had not planned on sharing it until this assignment was revealed) and it was drawn on top with a pilot fine-liner (about 0.5mm). Definitely learned a lot, not just about line work, but also about patience and persevering through a long drawing (granted this only took a couple of hours). Original illustration here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZxOmdIKwrp/?hl=en

My assignment for level 2, didn't have a printer so I manually copied the first one and traced the next two on top. Also drew a figurine of Dva's mech from Overwatch for the observation part.

re-did the assignment based on the feedback, tried going looser with the lines and focused on exaggerating the shapes. (I'm critique #1 btw) interestingly a lot of the searching lines don't show up that much in these photos because I did them pretty lightly.

I think a lot of people's problem with drawing from imagination is that, in order to get good looking results, you really have to understand your subject well. You need to understand the 3D structure (form) as well as how it moves and distorts. When drawing from observation, you could get away with "copying" the photo without fully understanding why it looks that way. This way you get good results even if you didn't fully understand what you were drawing. But when drawing from imagination, there's nothing to copy, so your drawings will expose all of your shortcomings and the gaps in your knowledge. This is frustrating for a lot of people (including myself), but I think as Stan said, it's an important hurdle to get past. Because you can only improve if you know what your shortcomings are and face them head on. Drawing from observation all the time (especially from photos) allows you to hide those problems away, and I think it really hinders your growth.

My character based on a blue penguin (one of the reference images can't be attached). This project made me realize creating your own poses is HARD.

Thank you so much for the feedback! I always put cross-contours in as a sort of after-thought, but as you said, they are important in describing the form accurately, so it's not good to just draw sloppy indications of the wrapping lines. I often have trouble fully-understanding the form of something I'm drawing and I think this is a big reason why! I will definitely be more careful and deliberate with my line placements now! No more rushing through a drawing and just hatching in c-curves!

day 14: butts (from the proko butt lessons)

day 13: cloth studies

day 12: dynamic figure studies in ballpoint pen

day 11: 5 minute head sketches (some of them took 6 minutes)

One interesting thing Stan mentioned was that drawing contour lines like this only really works when drawing from reference/life; drawing from imagination will have a totally different approach. Of course, it's still important to pay attention to these contours as they train your observation skills. Also, I find that for me, contour lines serve as a guide for putting the 3d forms in the right place and orientation. Even when drawing from imagination, sometimes I start with a contour line and then figure out how the forms fit that contour from there, making adjustments as needed (e.g. when drawing the face at different angles).

day 10: pose study in fountain pen

day 09: facial expression studies done in procreate, focusing on simplifying the shadows and using lines to convey the movement of the facial skin.

day 08: portrait study done in 2B graphite pencil. shoulda used some darker pencils as well but oh well

day 07: drawings from imagination!!!! I used some poses as reference but everything else (cloth, hair, face, body proportions) is original! Very proud of these, when drawing from imagination I always had trouble fleshing out the details and shading properly and while these aren't perfect, it's good that I'm able to take the first step :D All those cloth studies paying off!

day 06: figure/cloth study but drawn at a slight different angle

day 05: hands practice in pencil (from the proko hands assignment) ironically my biggest enemy during these sketches is my own hand cuz it keeps smudging the pencil lol, might do studies in ballpoint pen instead....

day 04, turning a reference photo in perspective, it is friggin difficult lol, I'm forced to simplify everything first

day 3, ballpoint pen sketch from reference photo (with a bit of under-drawing in red pencil) Trying to freehand the dishes in perspective was a mistake lol, the shapes of the ovals are surprisingly delicate.

level 2 CSI assignments, done in ballpoint pen (no under-drawing). Very rough sketches that capture the basic form of the objects using CSI lines. I used lots of cross-contours as they help me analyze the subject better and are also great for portraying form. The skeleton had a lot of soft edges in the cheekbones so it was a bit tricky to depict with lines. The sketches are bigger than what I normally do but my line quality turned out to be decently smooth so I'm pretty happy about that :D