Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
05:36
46K views
lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (182 lessons)
$159
assignments 3718 submissions
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
jpeg
level-1-pear-2.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
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.

@kyokolwk
First assignment! Before (right) and after (left) watching Stan’s demo. I didn’t realize how much I’d been oversimplifying the shadows :')
Jacob Hogarth
first assignment done any guidance or advice I’m very novice as you can see.
Bislan Arakelian
it was hard
Suryanshu Rai
@viv343
21h
My pear
Sharana Bek-Dhonre
first assignment done! Was really scared to start drawing at first. I've wanted to learn for years now and I finally started.
Melanie Scearce
Welcome! This is a great start ✨ Is there anything that surprised you or that you found interesting during the process?
Caden Y
1d
I tried a couple more after the pear, I think the bowl/egg one ended looking off but I can't figure out why. I do like how the second attempt on the tomato turned out though, I think it looks a lot clearer than the first one!
Caden Y
2d
@looming
2d
definitely more of a beginner traditionally and intermediate digitally, so i figure id do both assignments as such
Janfit
2d
That was a fabulous job on the portrait! I think you captured his face well and ever so slightly changed it to match how you see him through your eyes. Very creative. I'm going to try that.
Rachel Dawn Owens
Both of these have very nice, clean, clear shapes of value. Great work!
Logan Semien
This is my first time going through the course and my first upload. I figured completing both exercises would do me some good. I'd love to get feedback on what is working and what isn't. I look forward to hearing back! I completed my projects before reading the things to keep in mind! my bad guys! I'll read more for my next upload.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work! You've got really nice line quality. One thing I would say play around with is the core shadows, especially on the pear. That core shadow will really help you get the image to pop. Keep it up!
Roi Rodriguez
So this are my 3 tries so far, one for each model given. I feel like i still didn't get it. When drawing 1 and 2 i felt like i really grasped the shapes but then edges came not hard at all (#1) or too hard on the darkest value inside the fruit. 3 was a complete disaster, my second lighter value does not separate from the highlights (even more on the photo than on my notebook) and it has no volume at all. Will try some more fruits and see how it goes.
@mokhiya
4d
Attempt 3
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Really nice! Cherries and other "dark" fruit like apples can be super tricky since their local color is so dark to begin with. I think you did a great job of finding the different shapes of the areas of tone. Don't be afraid to get in there and go even darker for your darkest darks though! It's these changes in tone that will really help make your art pop off the page. Good work!
@mokhiya
4d
Attempt 2
@mokhiya
4d
Are you guys sure ya’ll are beginners ?🥹🥹🥹
@mokhiya
4d
been waiting to join this class for such a long time finally I’m here with fist project I feel I had the most difficult time with values
Richard van Oosten
I also feel that values is difficult but you managed well. I think it looks good.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Glad you made it! And nice work on the pear. Learning to see values is one of the trickiest things in art, but you will get better as you continue to study it. Using the trick of squinting your eyes REALLY helps, even if it feels silly at first. For this lesson, don't be afraid to experiment a little and find the shapes of those values, especially that core shadow. Good stuff! Keep it up.
@theparacosmic
Hey y'all, I have always loved drawing but got burnt out by AP Art in high school...only now getting back into it and trying to start over from my fundamentals. This assignment was very useful for me--I don't have much practice simplifying things rather than just copying them, and it feels like it uses a totally different part of your brain. I struggled between trying to capture too many minutiae and oversimplifying...I still feel that the shadows on the bottom right side aren't right, the shadow in the middle of the pear is too dark, the drop shadow of the pear got away from me a little, and some of my shadow line placements in general are questionable. Would really appreciate any critique on how I can improve this and get better at capturing the essence of things.
Melanie Scearce
This is a great pear! I tried a couple of things to see if I could figure out a way to improve it. I felt that maybe the dark shape on the top half of the pear needed to be balanced out by another dark shape on the bottom half. Also, I really like the form shadow you included on the right side, but I think it would look better a step lighter -- same with that shape in the middle of the pear. The squint test helps to see the big picture. These are just some experiments to see what would happen, I hope this gives you some ideas :)
@cipoem
5d
I really enjoyed this: the shape was easy, but I really struggled with values...Thanks for your feedback!
@gejebe
5d
Well, my first assignment completed. I'm a pretty old guy who started learning how to draw after 60. Been drawing for about 5 years now and want to finally get a solid foundation. Hope and expect to find it here!
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Hey there! First off, never too late to start learning art, and this is a great place to get those foundations! You'll be amazed at how quickly you improve. Nice work on your pear. Couple things I would think about as you're working on these exercises it to make sure your light values and dark values have good separation. Also be on the look out for the core shadow, that darker area between the shadow and light side of the form. Keep at it and it will all start to click. Cheers!
Ralee
5d
My final exercise on simplifying before moving on to the next lesson. The full body image was the last one I did, and I think I got impatient and antsy to finish so it wasn't as good of a rendering. It was harder to break down the values into 5 as well. Regardless, a very educational experience and accurate enough to feel good about moving on to the next section.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Great work. I love drawing horses! It's really easy to get distracted by all the variations in a complex form like a horse though. That combined with different local value from the coloring of the horse and it can get really tricky. I think you can push the simplification even further, especially for the full body horse. When I'm thinking about breaking down an image, and designing what I want to make, I think, which side do I want the detail? You've only got 5 values. so generally you will have 3 in one side (the dark or light) and 2 in the other. You can decide to have 3 dark values and 2 light, or 3 light and 2 dark. Generally the move is to have more variations in the light side, since that is what we can see the best, but is not a hard and fast rule. In this case, since there is so much going on in the shadow side, perhaps taking all your values there might be the move. Either way, don't be afraid to go a bit darker in your shadow side. You really want it to pop against the light. Again, great work! Keep it up.
@4grounds
Hey everyone, name is Ian and I'm taking this class to build better fundamentals so I'm trying my hand at the pear. I feel like the some of the mid tones could be better but let me know what your think.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Hi Ian! Great work. I think your mid tones look fine. What I would strive for is a little more tone in the shadow side of the pear. You really want the shadow values and the light values to be far apart from each other. It is what will tell the story of the form, and makes it feel 3d. Another step or two darker for the two shadow values and the pear will pop right off the page. Good stuff. Keep it up!
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!