Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8807 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
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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.

@birdartist
I drew the first one without the demo and the second one with with it, I feel like the shading could be better but I think I’m gettin the hang of the pencil types
Alberto
17h
Starting the Drawing basics course with the first exercise! I hope learn a lot with this course sharing my progress! Nice to meet you all! ☺️
Sarah Birkett
Good first assignment, as a total newbie it taught me a lot
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Very nicely done. One thing, for this exercise, really try to have the borders between the different value groups be sharp. In your core shadow area, there is a bit of gradient, which is great when rendering but this exercise is all about simplifying those shapes. Again, nice work! Cheers!
Rafael Drewniok
Well, it's ... something. I expected a much better result, but I guess that's where I'm at right now. I don't love it, I don't hate it. Took me way to many hours though and I have no clue how to make it better. Any tips from the pros out there?
Chuck Ludwig Reina
This looks really great. One thing to think about is continued simplification. This exercise is really less about getting every detail and more about getting the big ideas. In the hair for example, you did a great job of representing that, but I would argue with more detail than we're looking for in this. TBH honest it is hard to level any criticism of the actual work. This is one of the better renditions of this I have seen. It kind of misses the mark on the spirt of the exercise, but as a drawing looks wonderful. Sometimes, it is better to go a little simpler, because then you can do 5 drawings in the same amount of time, which ultimately will get you where you want to be faster, but again, this looks awesome! Cheers!
Rafael Drewniok
I made some corrections, not sure that makes it better.
@sloaneko
23h
I just finished watching the portrait critique video and I highly recommend it
gear3 amv
My first time trying to draw and shade idk how I’d did I think my shading is off especially on the lighter edges and the shadow
gear3 amv
Excuse the smug I’m left handed lol
@yamoshi
2d
First time drawing in years. I did it in one sitting without erasing anything.
@sloaneko
i think it looks really nice and crisp for not having erased anything!
@sloaneko
picking up drawing after many years of neglecting art and never taking art classes seriously in grade school. i'm definitely feeling like i have lots of room for growth, but enjoyed the challenge (of the portrait more than the pear lol). i'm trying to let go of my need for perfection, and posting these despite all the flaws I see in them and the somewhat unfinished state of the portrait i do feel like i need a bigger sketchbook, though. i think i'll try these again tomorrow with demo guidance but tonight it's time to put the pencil down. critique is welcome (,:
Melanie Scearce
These are wonderful! A great start to the course. It looks like you got the right idea of this assignment. I don't have too many notes, but I did want to mention this concept of symbols vs. shapes. You have the whites of the eyes super bright in this portrait, but if you look at the reference they are a lot darker and especially for the left eye in shadow, start to get a bit lost in the darkest value. Keep that in mind when you're designing your shapes; it's a bit of an abstract process but think less about what an eye looks like and more about the shapes that create the illusion of an eye.
@yamoshi
2d
I like your pear I don't know why I just started...
@sloaneko
drawing what i see vs running away creatively with a reference is hard! i already see areas i want to approach differently on my next attempt, and hopefully with sharper edges in some areas where the shapes were harder to define (looking at you mouth chin)
@coffeehater
Hi, here are my pears! I tried them all. I am open to feedback.
@sloaneko
i think they look great!
Edwin Dorado
I'm trying to learn using digital art and it was rough trying to get used to the stylus pressure, but i feel good about it so far. I'm looking forward to getting more practice in so i can get used to the tools I'm working with.
Ben Kraske
Digital art can for sure be a beast to get accustomed to! With time it'll feel more natural, but be sure to practice line confidence, which will be coming up as you continue the course. That'll help smooth out your lines and get your shading nice and neat. You've got a great shape for your pear, I'd just look out on dividing it into the 5 values and shading those! Keep it up!
Ron Milich
Drawing the shapes of the pear and its shadow was relatively easy. For me, the hardest parts of this exercise were getting the values and edges right. Using only five values made it difficult to decide which value to use for each part of the pear. In addition, I only had an HB pencil, so it took some time to achieve the darker values.
Cameron
5d
I'm newly giving digital a go after a year and a half of drawing traditional with pencils, and came back to basics because i feel so out of my depth. AND STILL THIS WAS SO HARD. I'm working on a screenless drawing tablet and clipstudio paint. Any tips would be sincerely appreciated!
Ben Kraske
Nice job! All I would say is to look out for the lighter value in the hair, it's not all one flat dark value!
Shabir Abdool-Karim
Not sure I did this assignment correctly. Feel a little unaccomplished and would really appreciate some feedback!
Ben Kraske
Nice work! I would suggest lightening up the second lightest value of your pear, since right now it's really close to your reflected light's value, and it should be lighter than that one. It also might help to shade horizontally, following the planes of the pear instead of vertically. You have some nice shapes and clean edges for your values. Keep it up!
Krisztina Eperjesi
I am revisiting the lessons after I have finished the class. Please see my first lvl.2 attempt below.
@yamoshi
2d
I definitely have to agree with @Ben Kraske
Ben Kraske
Super clean values and edges. Great work on this!
Leonardo Valdes
First attempt with the pear. Not sure if I fully understood the edges and values part. For the outline and light shading I used an HB and for the shadows I used a 2B and 6B for the darker parts. Is that the correct way to use them? Appreciate any tips!
Jon
6d
That looks pretty good. Full disclosure, I'm taking this course, too. I'm in the lines section. But from my understanding, I think that you should maybe try laying the values down without outlining them. A clean crisp value shape next to a different clean crisp value shape will have a sharp edge. If that doesn't make sense, just ignore it. Keep up the hard work and take care!
Rafael Drewniok
The values of the first pear got way to dark due to my misunderstanding of the range in value of each pencil and the application of pressure. In order to understand how each pencil behaves I made a little values experiment. With a better understanding of my tools I went for pear two and pear three.
@na_talie
All of your pears look 3D and your value scales are really good. Good job!
@picasso2
Went with level 1 pear 1; made a value scale to help out, (hopefully that’s allowed for this.) As for the drawing the main thing I struggled with was laying down the main mid/ light tone with my hb mechanical pencil, ended up using my finger to smudge that area
Ben Kraske
It definitely takes practice to get comfortable with shading using pencil strokes versus smudging. You did well defining the different values. I would just suggest revisiting the reflected light in the shadow, which will help give a bit more dimension. Nice work!!
@bradyrandall89
Level 1 pear 2. Tried to keep things simple even when everything in my brain was trying to go complex! Not sure that I got the proportions right but it looks like a pear which is good enough for me.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Looking good! And you’ve got the right idea: keep it simple. Remember, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. Part of our job as artists is to take the real world, and simplify it to tell the story or invoke the feeling we want to share. So keep at it! Cheers.
@fnefearnoevil
Just got the course and started it today, I drew the same pear image twice, any advice or critiques?
Balaperdia
Español por aqui intentando aprender
@oxymonacanthus
My best result after a couple of attempts! I need to work on making the hatching for the values more consistent, because it looks extremely inconsistent and jarring now.
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