Critique - Simplify Pear from Observation
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Critique - Simplify Pear from Observation
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Erin
Took some notes if anyone’s interested and can read my handwriting 🙂
LESSON NOTES

Here’s a clip taken from the premium critique of the drawing basics course.

The assignment was to simplify a pear or a portrait down to its shapes, values, and edges. In this critique, I break down some of the common issues I saw students have with their shape design. I’ll give you advice and talk about proportion, asymmetry, and improving your shadow shape design. If you enjoy this critique and would like more be sure to check out the full course.

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COMMENTS
Stan Prokopenko
Pear Critiques are here! Critique for the portraits coming Thursday, but I recommend level 2 students watch this critique video too. I give advice and demonstrate things that should be useful to both levels.
Newest
Kevin Dao
First, second and third attempts. Second attempt was after watching the demo and third attempt after watching critique (used brush in clip studio paint instead of pencil) I also switched the pear from my first and second try!
Carlos Aubine
Had one final go at the pear after sleeping on the critique video. Think it turned out much better than the first attempt. Left is new, right is pre-demo.
Rachel Dawn Owens
They both look wonderful. The one on the left stands out more because of the dark background. The one on the left also has better shape design and the values are more clear. Great improvement already! Nice work.
jagori
14d
Sharing my sketch of pear .
Eiko Fazio
17d
After the critique video, I tried to drew the pear one more time. I tried to look for the characteristic of the subject instead of copying from the demo. Sticking into the 5 values was the difficult. The hardest thing for me was to get rid of my normal habit of photocopying subject. The class was very refreshing though. Hope I'm making progress here...
@gwendolynthegay
Amazing progress!! Keep up the good work:)
Liam Trevor
Post Critique Pear. I was quite inspired by some of the other students projects that I decided to redo mine and attempt simplifying all the shadow into one value. Quite happy with how it turned out.
Melanie Scearce
Excellent pear!!
@starlingwarlock
Post-demo pear. Rushed this one a bit, critiques welcome.
Dani Torres
I like the... "halo" 😊
Sue J
28d
I know I didn't need to but after my 1st attempt pre-demo and 2nd attempt post demo, i decided to do a 3rd attempt post the critique video because this is all so new to me. I did switch to smooth bristol paper for my 3rd attempt as I kinda felt I had more control on my pencils.
Davydd Howard II
Here's my attempt at replicating this piece. I tried my best to simplify by squinting and only seeing the light and dark differences. I know both the upper right side of the pear is too big + the shading near the tip of the stem was wrong, but, I was too scared to erase and possibly mess up and have to start over again.
Meg
1mo
Came back to this again with new marker pens. Damn those pens are hard to use...but was a good test.
@lam_426
1mo
These are my attempts for the first project: simplification. The first one was without the demo, the second one was following the demo, the third and fourth one were my attempt at a different fruit/image.
Suzanne
1mo
Super excited for this course and improving my abilities. Would love to hear your critiques! Ps. the highlights are not white anymore due to copious amounts of erasing and redrawing (as are other parts of the drawing😅)
Rachel Dawn Owens
Wow. This pear looks amazing. You drew very very clear and well designed shapes of value that describe the form well. Great work!
@airship
1mo
Looking for critique.
Rachel Dawn Owens
Thanks for sharing the progress! That’s very helpful. It’s a perfect pear drawing.
@airship
1mo
I accidentally attached the images in the wrong order, sorry.
@perrito
2mo
I'm at L0 but really keen to improve my abilities. I'd appreciate any critique or tips that will help with that :)
Sofy
2mo
This is very good. Not the critique you asked for, but the on you deserve.
@azurelyse
2mo
Hi perrito! This looks awesome, I think you captured the asymmetry and character of the pear well! I also like that you used directional shading to indicate the form, and how sharp and crisp the shadows are! I noticed there's a bit of smudging on the page; I've had that same problem, especially when working with the darker pencils. Something that's helped me a lot is keeping a piece of paper in between my hand and the sketchbook paper. I think you did a great job! :)
Nova -tto
2mo
I know it's my first attempt and that I'm level 0, but when I see the other drawings I get demotivated too quickly, I completely lost my motivation hahahahaha
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Looks good! Don't lose that motivation. On thing to try is to draw that value scale at the top, and then carefully and lightly map out all the shapes first. Then all ya gotta do is fill in the drawing using your value scale as a guide. Keep it up, and you'll master the exercises in no time.
Sergiu Covalcic
Here is an apple I drew trying to follow what was said in the critique, I could have been more careful with my lines and proportions, but it was fun to apply the exercise to an other object. It was fun trying to show drapery with X,Y and Z lines and to play with composition, shape design and contrast, even though I can't really call myself satisfied. I guess the important thing is that I challenged myself and that I had fun.
Talin Saghdasaryan
The X, Y and Z lines for the drapery makes the overall image very mystical, it's giving some lightning vibes, it's very cool!
Johan Wendin
Love the video, this is very helpful! Just found it funny in critique #6, saying he kinda "cheated" using 6 values and then propose a solution with... 6 values. :)
Phương Phạm
After watching the critique, I thought I should have tried a new object (instead of the pearl from project), so I got another drawing of tomatoes. It was hard, but I had fun :)
Amatullah Jamali
love your sketch , looks fun to try !
Alan Massey
The vines are so well done.
Christopher Corbell
First post, first course! Made some of the same mistakes as those in the video critiques, but I feel good about this beginning.
Ricky Purnell
Hi everyone, I’m trying to get back to drawing after many many years, I’m a 3D artist looking to add drawing to my arsenal. I want to draw anatomy and characters but also realize my basics really suck. So, here I am. I did the pear. I’m not sure if I missed the point or cheated, my pencil sketch wasn’t so great and I think I lack motivation with this boring assignment, (in my eyes) but understand this is also essential to my learning so let’s do it. Did I chicken out from pencil because I failed? Or did I make a boring assignment fun and inventive? Did I miss the point. Any feedback welcome.
@johnnythreedee
Dude that looks so good lol I'm jealous. Shadows on the pear look clean. Only thing I see that might need tweaked is the shadow behind the pear. If I remember the project video correctly, we should break it down between the darker shadow directly underneath and a lighter shadow further away. I'm just learning too so... I could just be a dumb dumb and not remembering properly.
Peter Tighe
Definite improvement on the second pear from the first pear regarding the execution and use of values. Pear 2 also looks more three dimensional. You might consider the shape of the top right side of the pear for accuracy.
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