My favorite of the first three is definitely the rooster. I originally planned to do fewer iterations on more animals but I just kept going with this spaniel.

I really struggled with hierarchy because I couldn’t figure out what or how much to emphasize in the image. I remember thinking that I was learning a lot more about how that pencil behaved as I went through the exercise than any insight about organization of weights and their relation to form. I went back and tried to tinker with it a few times but eventually made myself stop because I got to a point where I felt like I wasn’t actually making anything any better. Looking at the shadow one in hindsight and with fresh eyes, I might have overdone it a bit? At least I had a better idea of where to put the heavier lines based on the photo.

I was inspired to do the penguin at the bottom of an 18x24 sheet of warmups and other sketches, so please forgive the crowded image and ignore the orange ellipse and slight overlap on the head. I’m going to make sure to keep project drawings more isolated in the future. Not all of the lines are as searchy/sketchy as the critiques were looking for, especially in the flippers. All in all I’m pretty happy with this guy.

I had to walk away from the boots because focusing on the laces was giving me a headache, hope to come back around to them before too long. Didn’t think to include the horizontal line in my initial snail drawing, but didn’t want to throw it in there just because it was pointed out in the demo.

Something that won’t always be relevant but I hadn’t thought of is the nontrivial set of adjustments I’ve made to my screen to help mitigate/prevent migraines. There was a lot of detail in the demo/critique videos that I just couldn’t see (or couldn’t see well) until I cranked up a bunch of settings I usually leave way down. Won’t always be an issue but definitely something for me to keep in mind. Purple pencil, it was fun but I should have properly erased you instead of drawing over you. Ah well.