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It’s time to see how well your visual memory really is! In this critique, I’ll be going over some common issues like proportion errors and inconsistent perspective.
I’ll be looking at level 1 submissions this time and the level 2 critique will be next week.
Newest
Chauncey Holder
10d
from the criqtue it really helped me. i went back and redid alot of them and i think i see some improvements from the pervious drawings
Tommy Pinedo
1mo
These are my attempts post demo and post critique! I gotta say the hardest ones were the meat grinder and blow torch, just cause they have little tiny details that I forgot when I was doing this visual memory exercise.
In would do a little study before hand trying to identify how boxes I would need. For example on the blow torch I noticed I need 7-8 boxes, and realized how else can I remember these shapes that will go into these boxes?
not sure if you can see on the study sketch in pen, I noticed the top part looks like a telescope, the body is like a spray can, the bottom part looks like a fish lol.
i tried my best and it was hard to remember the little details, but it was a fun exercise for visual memory and perspective :)
@optix
6mo
Did the hammer. And I felt solid on the top view, but bottom view was very difficult.
I was listening to critiques and I may have an issue with perspective, but also with technicality. I tend to rush things and get impatient with the planning process. Does anyone have advice on how to be better at this?
Jack H
6mo
My third attempt for L1. The last two objects left are, in my opinion, the most complex ones. They have multiple ellipses which caused me quite a bit of trouble. I think the blowtorch turned out not bad, but the meat grinder was pretty tricky.
But I can say I've certainly improved my visual library through these exercises.
@daniellee
9mo
Is anyone else having trouble getting videos to play? For me there is no play button to click. All I can do is look at the thumbnail.
@daniellee
9mo
The play button is back. I can play videos again! Thank you to everyone on the Proko team who worked on it!
Dermot
9mo
Stan, thanks for sharing the Visual Memory Games Critiques and explaining the contours to create the illusion of a dome on a flat surface. I take onboard your point about the unnessessary need to detail the ball in the whistle. I was just curious about a sphere with surface domes.
:)
Ieva Paleja
9mo
In my opinion visual memory (i.e. memorizing how something is built) and perspective are different things. Correct perspective comes from knowledge and accuracy, but not so much from memory. I really focused on memorizing the structure of the tools and didn't think much about perspective. As it turns out the task was about perspective though.
Tommy Pinedo
1mo
I want to gently offer a different perspective on what you said about visual memory and perspective being unrelated. While it’s true they’re distinct concepts, visual memory is about recalling structure, and perspective is about placing that structure in space, they actually work together in drawing, especially when working from imagination.
Perspective is based on knowledge, but that knowledge includes memorized experiences of how forms behave in space, how they rotate, foreshorten, and relate to vanishing points. So in a way, developing visual memory also supports better perspective, especially when we no longer rely on references.
So even though your focus was more on memorizing the structure, you weren’t totally off! That kind of practice feeds into your future perspective work. It’s all connected. 💪
Just wanted to share that in case it helps frame the exercise a little differently. You’re doing great, and I admire how reflective you are about your process!
Darin
9mo
Hey Stan, one comment you made was suggesting that a student add cross contour lines to help indicate the shape of objects. One thing I have been struggling with is adding cross contour lines that blend into the overall image. I feel like often my cross contours lines just look like cross contour lines, they stand out as artificial looking. More experienced artists seem to be able to add lines that function as a cross contour while still blending to the image. Beside practice and experience is there a trick to adding cross contours that blend in more naturally? I first started struggling with this with the tree house assignment and trying to make the tree trunks look rounded, without looking like they just have a string tied around them.
Pedro Branco
9mo
While I'm not Stan, I can say that that falls into the realm of rendering. More experienced artists find ways to imply the form through details for example in the hammer, you can add a wood texture to the hammer handle and imply the shape of the form through that. Or in the blowtorch you can draw a sign saying "flammable" around the gas bottle to imply the cylindrical nature of the bottle.
There's no one way of doing this, you can also imply this through shading. It ends up being up to you. In this exercise I wouldn't worry since it's not the point but for personal projects check out rendering, shading or just tap your imagination. I believe I've seen one where the artist implies the form of branches by having vines wrap around the trees, just to hammer home how creative you can be with this.
Pedro Branco
9mo
Man I've got to work on detailing my stuff...
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
