Not quite sure that I know what I’m doing, but hopefully in the next one.

I was very intimidated by this! I made the mistake of scrolling and seeing what everyone else was submitting, and I got major imposter syndrome. My first attempt was tough, and I wasn’t happy with it. I decided to slow down for the next attempt. I’m not finished with my second attempt, but I wanted to show how it’s going mid process. That is about three hours of work. Am I moving too slowly? Am I starting the process correctly? I am struggling to keep everything organized, clean, and interesting. I know how valuable this is because of how challenging it is!

Followed Lin’s idea to use the ortho. That helped in drawing along with the video, although I mostly did rely on the instructions. It’s already hard enough to find the right grid, the proportions, all of it. It not perfect, but still… Ta-daaah…. :-)

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!

This does not come easy to me, so…here some first attempts. nr. 1 Just drawing for studying the subject. Markers (4) on tracing paper. (Too many lines and no planes) nr. 2 Tracing the planes/values in a different color, also just for study. nr. 3 playing around, more focused on planes and see what I could leave out. That was the most fun :)

2 attempts at designing value groups. This exercise was an opportunity for me to put @Michael Hampton 's Head Drawing and Construction course into practice 😉. So I started by studying the structure of the head, then I related that to the light direction and the shading. And I tried to design all of this with today's lesson in mind. I first separated the shadows from the light, then I went into the details and nuances. I didn't have the courage to work on a whole page (for fear that it would take too long), but it is true that it bothered me a little in the details

Some were quick warm-ups (and redrawn for cleanliness) and for some I lost time. I did not use any reference, and forgot why. :-) It’s nice to step into this world where you can build anything.

I haven't been sharing my drawings since i feel behind a little bit and was thinking it didn't matter because I always miss the crit deadlines but now i think that's very silly.... I think I was just intimidated but how skilled everyone is! I was kind of shocked how easily this came to me. Even though I've studied perspective before, I still always struggle with foreshortening and get very confused? overwhelmed by all the lines that grids cause. It felt really good to not have that happen this time. Drawing the orthos really helped with understanding the forms and made it much easier to visualize the parts later. I am still struggling a bit with extreme foreshortening and overlapping shapes, I think, but i'll keep practicing :) Does anyone have any tips? For this class, I adopted a small gecko toy I got in a gatcha machine in Japan. It articulates really well and, I suppose, can add a level of difficulty for it but the spots where the parts connect also provide nice visual reference points. I was originally practicing from a stuffed toy but I think I had chosen something that was too safe; it wasn't particularly challenging so I don't think I was taking full advantage of the lessons... I'm glad I chose this toy even though, at first, I was afraid it would be too difficult for me to draw.

Yes Marshall, thank you so much for all the detailed critiques. We all are happy and eager to learn from you :)

Before bending the arrow I was searching for a formula for the twisting to understand that first. I think I found it. Somehow it turned into yarn….