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project-organizing-line-weight.mp4
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
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![@erinbentley]()
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![Martha Muniz]()
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In this project, we'll practice organizing line weight in our drawings.
Level 1 - Trace
Trace over the provided linear version of the photo to avoid getting distracted by proportions. Trace it twice, using two different line weight approaches discussed in the last video:
- Hierarchy of importance method - Heavier on the contours of large and important shapes. Lighter on details within.
- Shadows and light direction method - Reference the original photo to identify the shadows.
Note: Don't use the depth and form method yet.
Level 2 - Draw from Observation
Level 2 students, in addition to the tracing exercise, try to trace it again, but imagine the light coming from a different direction IF you’re ready for that.
Then, draw from observation, focusing on line weight. Choose objects around you and draw as many as you'd like. If you draw a landscape with a clear foreground, middleground, and background, you can use the depth approach to line weight.
Deadline for submissions to be included in the video critique is next Thursday (4/13/2023)
Here, I found the line weights for light and shadow a little confusing. When I was watching the demo, I thought the logic was like this: shadow = dark line, light = light line; high contrast = thick (in the dark area) or thin (in the light area) line, low contrast = soft line. But then it got all mixed up as the video went on :D
So I'm not sure I get the idea.
My lines here don't have that much of a weight range as in the demo, and I did not use any soft lines, as I did it digitally. I used 3 brush sizes (I think 15, 25, and 30, but not sure). I'm pretty glad with the importance hierarchy, but not sure about the second one with light and shadow.
Any advice would be great, thanks!
First one is hierarchy, second is light direction. I’m gonna go watch the demo now and see what I did wrong.
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4h
Nice! I think you nailed it.
First one is hierarchy of importance, the second one is based on light direction.
Overall I think this came out great! I do wish I had a better sketch brush. Mine could only get darker not thinner or thicker. This assignment took REALLY long tough.
It was quite interesting tracing the rhino, considering I used to take it for granted on how lines can convey importance. I think i did well on the Hierachy of Importance part.
However, i am not sure if I drew the rhino in the shadow method. I felt like the rhino's underbelly lines were a bit too thick.
If there's any feedback I can take, please let me know. :)
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3d
These are very clean drawings! I agree with you, I think you made good line weight choices with the hierarchy of importance drawing. I think you could go a bit thicker with your line weight with both, but particularly with the light and shadow drawing. It could be the lighting of the photo, but to my eyes it looks like you made the shadow lines darker in value than the light lines rather than increased the thickness of the shadow lines. That's a very good technique in line work as well, but don't be afraid to thicken up those lines more. If those lines are too close in thickness it won't communicate to the viewer what your intention is. Too thick might look too cartoony. It's all about balance!
Never really thought about line weight before so this was new! Appreciated that we have something to trace to try and visualize onto, on to the demo!
My favorite was the third “make your own light source” one, least favorite the second (light and shadow) because I don’t think I made some of the lines thick enough.
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5d
Nice work, these all look great! The third is my favorite too, you conveyed the weight so well! :)
They both were fun but i think for personal projects I may prefer Hierarchy of importance but I'll play around!
Line weight depth approach level 2 submission. Reference was an illustration from artist Poopikat
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5d
Great job, the depth really communicates across clearly through the line weight!
Not used to using tablet but I don't have a printer on hand. Really struggled with this one due to not being able to find a comfortable sensitivity for the tablet pen and it's tiny size making it difficult to get lines down properly.
I really enjoyed this one! Maybe it was the fact of having an image already and not having to try draw it to scale or anatomically myself 😂 Just being able to focus in the lines felt more stylistic and easier (at least for me!)
The light wrapping around the form is easy enough going through the lines to see what will catch light, shading, shadow, and occlusion is not. I'd say I need to sharpen my pencil next time so most of the lines aren't the same. Turned out alright, but definitely need to work on it.
This was fun. Felt relatively easy. Once again biggest struggle was control over the lines. tried two different brushes. I should probably experiment with how I make the stroke. Maybe it will make lines easier to control in digital.
I miss the paper friction. It would be easier to do the traditional. But I am stubborn and I will learn the digital medium.
Anyway. Here are the results. I did bump up the difficulty on the light and shadow to lvl 2 and so the light is coming from the different angle.
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10d
Nice work! Your lines look good to me, but I understand the feeling of trying to nail down that control digitally.
Importance and light and shadow. 5b pencil . Not sure how much to push the thickness in certain areas.
Wow. Harder again!
I felt like my lightest lines were too light, although clearly showing the areas I wanted to appear in and out of shadow.
Perhaps I should have used light thick lines for the contour to retain the form (but then that's not really what the exercise is about as I understand it).
Fun exercise.
Really challenging.
For example I wasn't sure on the.best solution when I had an area of shadow in the background with a lit foreground object (rhs of head over shades body/neck is a good example). Shading the head contour dark maybe makes it feel in shade when it isn't. Then again perhaps that's preferable if the lightened details still convey the sense of being lit.
Hard but fun. Tried to blend from heavy thick to light thin in a few areas that transitioned (e.g. rhs of front left leg)
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10d
I think you've done a great job on this exercise! The lighter lines are pretty light, but I'd only darken them a tiny bit, if you decide to do so.
Ill try shadows and light later. Much harder than expected! I need a clearer medium importance range. Light and dark are... OK. Ish. (In places)
Haven't drawn on tablet In a while. Lines felt good at first to lay out baseline, but then very hard to feel like I wasn't just shading almost when I wanted thicker lines. More foresight would have helped here.
My choice of heavy vs not is a little muddled too. Sort of wish I'd kept the base of the horn thick and made both sides thin out approaching the top vs just front side. Some fairly noisy face details i wish I'd kept light too
Alternatively maybe I could have pushed the thickness across the whole outline, inherently making my inner lines medium! Ha maybe I'll try that...
I did like blending the toes with the grass though to make them feel part of the same scene
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10d
Nice work! I think you could even make the heaviest outline of the Hierarchy of Importance a bit heavier to give a bit more contrast, but overall these look good!
this was much harder than expected, also because I was forced to draw digitally for the first time. I think my strokes were too light on the light side of the shadow assignment, but overall it was great to learn. Never realized line weight could influence a sketch so much.
