Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
05:36
49K views
lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
-20%
$127.20
$159
You save $31.8
assignments 8311 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.

Harold
12h
Before and after watching the demo
@wonkbunny
15h
Here is my pear before watching the demo and critiques.
@bogart55
@naynieto03
One belongs to my brother and the other is mine.
Sarah
3d
Edit: I guess I should have waited to submit since you can't edit a comment so much later. I did the black version after I watched the demo. It's maybe better... I have such a hard time shading evenly, especially at edges and borders. But I do feel like the highlights are easier to see this time. Original comment: I think you can tell it's a pear so that's good! I had a lot of difficulty picking where the planes should be and I think I ended up kind of straying from the chiseled carving feel.
Larry
2d
Im new to drawing and have submitted my 1st couple of drawings. Working on the penguin now. It’s good to see others trying to do the same work. im enjoying the course. i like your drawings they both seem to have good proportion and shape. The shading looks good also. keep working on these skills in the course.
Gabriel
3d
Here's mine, happy its recognizable as a pear at least
Dudts Draws
I did this one before watching demos and critiques. I would appreciate it if someone can give a critique on this sketch. I struggled to chose correct values so i kept darkening to make sure shadow family is darker than light family. I also found it challenging to decide on shapes in general and especially shapes of dark shadows and dark halftones.
Bryan Reed
I did 2 pears, one before watching the demo and one after. This is the second
Balázs Tápai
I think I ended up with more than 5 volumes at the end. I tried using 2B,4B,6B,8B pencils and I started the linework with a mechanical pencil.
Balázs Tápai
Tried a second time based on the the level-1-pear-3.jpg
Rob Simmons
Did it mostly with an HB pencil, then realized my dark mid-tone was pretty much the same as my shadow. Went back over the shadows with a 2B. It was hard for me to see the 2 tones in the cast shadow -- it all just looks black to me, so I kind of made it up.
Rob Simmons
And here's another after watching the demo and critique video. I used more pencils, got the contour a little more accurately, and got rid of obvious outlines that didn't match (e.g. around the highlights).
Melissa Dunworth
I did it twice, once before watching the demo video and once after. Not sure there is must difference between the two, but I am trying.
Sunny Lohmann
I wasn't going to do number 2, but decided to take a stab at it. I can see that it's kind of beyond my ability but I enjoyed trying and I'm sure I will now learn more from checking out Stan's version and his critiques.
@sprhnns
6d
Hi, here comes my first sketch. (and steps on the way) In the first (last) you can see that my first sizes and relations were really off. I only got them hopefully better through measuring with my pencil. I found it very hard to get 5 shades that have hard edges with the pencils. I could not really get distinctive separate shades. therefore is very soft – which was not the task and also not what i wanted.
@jerichomamoe
Definitely a lot harder than I expected but loving everything about this course. Any & all feedback is welcome.
Doctor Unstoppable
My first image with a tablet. I ran out of values on the light side. I had to use 6 values for the shape and 2 for the shadow. That's 8 total values. If I had used the lighter shadow value in the shape and planned better I probably could have done the whole image with 6 values total. Also I hope to make my lines more confidant in the next image.
Chloe Stevens
First attempt at the portrait project!
Chloe Stevens
Here's some pears!! Any constructive criticism or feedback is welcome!
Alissa C
7d
Never learned to draw, using Supernote tablet. First attempt. Haven't figured out blending yet on the device - shading obviously needs work. Posting for accountability (but would also welcome feedback)
Alissa C
4d
Here's take 2 after watching the demo. The difference in values isn't as clean...
Josh Hrycek
Hello everyone, Here are my two attempts on the project. The first one was done after watching the project video and the 2nd was done after watching the demo, which I found very helpful. This is my first time sitting down and really focusing on a drawing. All and all, I'm happy with how it turned out. Any feedback would be appreciated.
@fmb
7d
First attempt at drawing in nearly 50 years. Everything needs improvement
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!