Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 9167 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
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.

James
•
6h
My second attempt at simplifying a pear in digital art. I'd appreciate any feedback!
Gino Belliveau
First time drawing something in 3D with shadows. I was surprised with how much time you can put into drawing such a simple object. Did this all with a single mechanical pencil, and I might need a set to help with different values.
@byunny
•
1d
I feel like I struggled a lot with getting an even tone, I'm not very experienced with this.
Melanie Scearce
That's okay! It will get easier with practice. Something you could try to get more comfortable with shading and pencil control is a value scale: draw up any number of boxes, leave one pure white and then make the box on the other end as dark as you can get with your pencil. Then, fill in rest of the boxes with the middle values at an even increment. You can do this to warm up for a drawing, or just as regular practice.
@rnezarati
My attempts at pears 1 and 2
Melanie Scearce
Very nice 👏 your values read super clearly.
Melissa Hargrave
Hi, I am brand new to learning to draw. This was my first drawing, and I had a tiny bit of help, and it took me longer than expected. I am fairly surprised how much I like it, and I have a better idea on how to keep practicing it!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Nice job, and welcome! I like your soft shading :) On your next attempt, remember to break your values down into shapes with straight lines only, including the shape of the pear (I see you have some curves going on in the outer contour right now). I also can only make out 4 values right now, so try to meet the goal of 5. It helps to draw a value box scale somewhere on your page to figure out your 5 values and kinda be able to refer to it as a key. Keep up the good work!
@ursohn
•
2d
I do the assignments digitally because it's the medium I want to practice in.
yotam houtmeyers
first attempt at a pear
Camille Varner Kolafa
Great job!
@marzzz
•
2d
I don't hate this but I definitely struggled with the values here, specifically with the lighter mid-tone, I also could not get a consistent and even tone with just pencil alone and I had to use my eraser to lighten up everything. I also lost my sharp edges when adding the tones, any tips to improve upon that?
Camille Varner Kolafa
I see what you mean, your dark values are all close together and I can only see 4 different values, so you're missing one more. It helps to establish your values by drawing out a value box scale somewhere on your page, if you haven't already. I find that doing that helps my hand get a feel for what pressure and amount of coverage is best for each value. You definitely have a great start though!
James
•
2d
My first attempt at simplifying a pair in digital art. I’d appreciate any feedback!
Martha Muniz
Nice shape simplification! It's also great that you are able to render consistent values, especially in digital. Just keep in mind that we want to aim for the pear's side in the light to read distinct from the shadow side. To do this, you want to make sure the three lightest values are on the light side on the right, with only the two darkest values on the shadow side (so only the dark division area and anything to the left of that). I would also recommend that you use a lighter grey for your lightest grey value, so the progression from light to dark is more evenly divided at each step. Let me know if you have any questions! :)
Jerami Ballard
I called it after a lot of trying to fix the values since I know that I went too dark on some of the shadows. Though I will say that I'm a lot more impressed with myself than I thought!
Camille Varner Kolafa
I think it might be the lighting causing the graphite to shine, but I think you could actually get darker on your darkest values! Right now your 3 middle values look really close together. Try drawing out a value box scale somewhere on your page to establish your 5 values. I mainly suggest lightening up the light halftone (2nd lightest value) first and then darkening the dark shadow (5th value) and adjusting the dark halftone (3) and light shadow (4) from there. Keep up the good work!
Jamie
•
4d
I typically work digital but I wanted some traditional practice. I prefer to sketch in a 6B but with this assignment it was difficult to create 5 values with a darker pencil. I felt like my end result was more like 3 in the shadow and 2 in the light. Would've been much easier to control the values in digital, but it's all good!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Definitely harder to control the softer pencils! I think if you increase your pressure to darken the darkest value, it might help balance things out :)
Benko
•
4d
Here's my pear. I'm happy with the overall shape, not so much about my values (sp. the middle tones). But it was fun!
Melanie Scearce
I think your values read very clearly! What was your struggle with the middle tones?
@boomerang
Got my tools and made my first attempt on the pear. Still exploring, but any critique is welcome 🙏
Axel Gyllenstierna
Nicely done! Great use of blocky shapes and beautiful thin outline on the light side. Very appealing result. The only minor critique I can imagine is using less gradients in your values/shadowing (but only to follow the assignment, the result looks great).
@tpeaslee
Made two attempts - the pear first before watching anything, then the portrait after watching Stan's demo of the pear. Struggled a lot with discerning values and getting it simplified down to only 5 with the pear. After watching the demo, I felt like I understood it much better. On the portrait, I then wasn't sure how to treat the hair. I cheated a bit and gave it a stark outline so that it wouldn't melt into the face shading. Maybe not in the spirit of the exercise, but I thought it looked better. Facial proportions are tough to nail! Quite a few errors when I compare - namely, face is just too long in mine.
Camille Varner Kolafa
I definitely see the improvement on your values with the portrait, nice work!
Jill Bascome
I messed up when i started erasing the eye and mouth, learned the value of the kneadable eraser (my original attempt was better...but any feedback would be greatly appreciated
@meebo
•
5d
for sure youi can recognice him
@kindacolourblind
I was a bit hesitant to try the level 2 drawing but I like it more than the level 1. What helped me was the fact that Stan said that he took 1.5 hours for the basic form and shadows. As beginner and the short form videos nowadays it's good to hear that it takes a lot of patience. That's one of the hardest parts for me, not rushing. I think the right eye needs to sit a little lower.
Camille Varner Kolafa
You did a great job!
jasmin
•
6d
Critique away!
Martha Muniz
Pretty solid submission, nice work! If we were to keep pushing this though, you can darken the 2nd darkest grey a touch, so the value progression is more even and the difference between light and shadow reads more clearly. I would also recommend using more of the side of the pencil, especially when rendering light values, so it gives a softer effect and each individual stroke blends better into a consistent value during your rendering. But overall good work! :)
Brennan
•
6d
@uncannievalley
I don’t know if I managed to get it to just 5 values, and maybe I didn’t simplify my planes enough, but I’m a little satisfied with this as a first assignment. Tried not to take too long doing it either or I’d end up thinking too much
Camille Varner Kolafa
Great job on your first attempt! I think you might be able to fit that darkest value in some spots within the furthest left value on the pear. Otherwise I think your values read nice and clear and you were successful in meeting the project goals!
@bismarck
I did level 1 earlier, decided to give level 2 a try for practice. Thank you for any feedback!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Hey this is looking great! I think you should revisit your value scale. Your values are really close together. You 2nd lightest value is in a good spot, but you could darken the darkest value some and then adjust the two values between that and 2nd lightest accordingly. Those two (you have them numbered as 2 and 3 appear almost the same to me. After making those adjustments, try and work them in to your portrait. Most notably, I think you could definitely get darker in the hair, the neck, and the right side of the face.
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