Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
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Vance Viggiano
When you can't decide on Level 1 or Level 2. I thought it might be fun to try it on gray paper. Everyone's work is inspiring! Happy to be learning with you all!
LESSON NOTES

Alright guys, let's jump into the deep end and see how you do! I feel like we've been talking a lot and not drawing enough. So, before we move on to learning about Lines, I want to give you an opportunity to spend some time doing a simplified drawing. You’re going to draw a pear or portrait if you’re doing the level 2 project. I know… A fruit isn’t the most exciting thing to draw, but it’s going to allow you to focus on the process I’m going to show you, instead of being distracted by a difficult subject matter.

This will let us see where you're at with your skills. It’s totally fine if you're at zero. Kind of expected actually. But, you'll identify right away what you struggle with. And you’ll be introduced to a lot of the skills that you’ll be working on improving in this course.

You can draw from the photos I provided in the downloads tab, or find your own fruit and draw from life. Pick a fruit that has an interesting shape you like. Put the fruit on your desk and shine a light on it. Move the light around until you like the balance of light and dark shapes. 

If you don’t want to draw the photo I provided, or you want to do more than one, feel free to find your own photo. Just make sure you choose a photo with a strong single light source that creates a clear separation of lights and shadows. Many moons ago I wrote a blog post about good photo reference.

Make sure you take a photo of it from your point of view, so you can include it when posting your drawing in the community. If you want to be critiqued by me or others in the community, we'll need to see what you were drawing. 

Join us in the premium course to get access to this lesson, full lesson notes, assignments, demonstrations and critiques!

DOWNLOADS
jpeg
level-1-pear-1.jpg
2 MB
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level-1-pear-2.jpg
2 MB
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level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
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level-2-portrait.jpg
1 MB
mp4
project-simplify-from-observation.mp4
183 MB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
5 kB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
6 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-english.srt
9 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
8 kB
ASSIGNMENTS

Use the reference photos in the downloads tab or go find your own reference and start drawing! Remember, this project is all about simplifying to clarify.

Make sure to keep these 3 things in mind:

Shapes - Draw your shapes with straight lines
Values - Use only 5 values. 2 in the shadow and 3 in the lights
Edges - Make every single edge sharp!

I'll publish my drawing demos of both levels next Tuesday so you can watch me go through the problem solving process. For a chance to be included in the critique videos, you must submit your drawing to the community by January 26th, 2023, so I can begin filming and producing the critique video.

Nicholas Allott
Post demo and critiques redo. 😎 My aims this time around were to: • Use a range of pencils • Indicate planes with shading angles • Even pencil shading with the tip ◦ One direction per plane ◦ Multi-pass in layers to darken • Consider adding a background tone.
Edwardd
8h
1st attempt of the pear! I'm still finding a way to manage about Values and Edges more. I try to make the shapes sharp, and the edges look sharpy too.
@elenaarmstrong2012
Used mechanical pencil with 2B lead
@everettl
17h
terrible
Lux Lynn
15h
I don't think it's bad at all! You did a good job at capturing the general shapes of the pear. The only thing I would suggest is to push the value of the shadow on your pear to be closer to the nice and dark cast shadow of the pear that you already have there. I'm looking forward to seeing how you improve after watching Stan's demo!~ :D
Michael Bonifacio
Level 1 pear. It's tough keeping sharp edges; I tend to blend the values too much. It's been a bit over a year since I did this the first time so wanted to start from the beginning again.
Jay Man
17h
my simplify from observation, I did pear 3! knocking the rust off!
Lux Lynn
18h
Here are my attempts before watching Stan's demos. Definitely was challenged by the portrait; trying to simplify the values AND get a likeness was hard, and I think that led to some shapes that are too complex for the assignment, haha. Excited to see how I can improve! :)
@everettl
17h
rly good
Rachel Lee
22h
This was harder than I anticipated!
@sketchenstein
4th and last try! Brand new to drawing and I've learned a lot in this lesson. But I've had enough of this pear and am moving on. Key take aways: * simplifying things is better than complicating things! * managing 5 tones and selecting where they go will take "seeing" things better than I do now * control of shading seems elusive, hope I can get better * making good edges between shades is challenging
@persistencehuntert
value grades are new to me. I have never even thought about pencils choices before. I am not comfortable with submitting these.
Sally
1d
Darren
1d
Jon B
1d
100 percent beginner trying to learn something new in mid life! Using a digital tablet with stylus (going to try paper and pad this week). What I found - shading is hard to do neatly and consistently! Id continually get darker and lighter lines slipping in. Sticking to the 5 tones sounded simple but actually gets more confusing than expected (find myself slipping into the wrong tone)! May draw a tone chart next time Also really hard to fight the tenancy to shade a gradient based on what I'm physically looking at
@sketchenstein
Also 100% beginner here, a bit past "mid life". Feeling the same challenges as you about: 1) consistently in shading, the darker and lighter lines issue. 2) managing 5 tones not so easy.
Alex
1d
Looks good! Crazy how creative we can get with shadow shapes, everyone's looks different! Sometimes very much so! As someone also trying to learn something new in my 30s, can only say keep at it! 💪
@sketchenstein
Unfortunately the pic I took put the shadow right down the middle which you said to avoid.. so i moved it over to the left anyhow. Just watched the Critique vid and see these problems: * shading is a mess, not consistent lines. * not clear distinctions between the 5 shading values * shouldn't draw outlines around the highlights * all those grid lines are unwanted * not clear edge control between values
Jon B
1d
I know right? I kept drawing lines around things like the highlights and had to fight to erase them. Almost felt it was easier to carve out the highlight from the shading
Jonah Jenkins
Had no idea at all what I was doing on the first attempt. Nice to learn a bit about proportions and shading in a hands-on experience
Howard Chiang
My pear
@everettl
17h
you did good
Alex
2d
Really should have read the assignment description first haha. My learning here was to create a value scale before hand because I got a bit lost in the different shades. Overall I feel pretty good about it though as a beginner 💪
Jon B
1d
Nice! Yeah same for me with thr value scale!
@onsugarhigh228
Hereby my attempt at the pear.
Bell
2d
Absolute begginer here Here is my pear
Sophia Chen
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