Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8243 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. Youโ€™re going to draw a pear or portrait if youโ€™re doing the level 2 project. I knowโ€ฆ A fruit isnโ€™t the most exciting thing to draw, but itโ€™s going to allow you to focus on the process Iโ€™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. Itโ€™s totally fine if you're at zero. Kind of expected actually. But, you'll identify right away what you struggle with. And youโ€™ll be introduced to a lot of the skills that youโ€™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 donโ€™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.

Georgia Price
โ€ข
1h
Attempt two, I still think i did too much over complicating ๐Ÿฅน
Georgia Price
โ€ข
5h
I think I started okay then I did a bit too much, any advice would be great :)
@jaden99c
โ€ข
4h
For reference Critique #9, #11, and #16 in the "Critique - Simplify Pear from Observation" tackle similar issues.
@jaden99c
โ€ข
4h
Im still learning as well, but when watching Stan's demo and critique video on the pear, he mentioned a lot of people tend to make the same mistake of the values not being distinct well enough so they blend together. Basically the lights look dark and blend with your darker darks. I also have the same issue. In the project, we were supposed to use 5 values - 2 in the dark and 3 in the light. From my (untrained) eye, your pear looks like it has 4 values, 3 in the dark and 1 light, and the only value in the light is the highlight. If you compare your cast shadow value to the section of pear that the light is hitting, they are nearly the same. In fact, I think the edge of your cast shadow is actually LIGHTER than the section of pear that is facing the light. If you look at the reference photo, one of the darkest areas is the cast shadow. If you could reflect that in your drawing and make a better distinction between the values, I think it would be a major improvement. But like I said, I am still learning as well, so take all this with a grain of salt lol, Im just relaying the information I heard in the critique video.
@kenleigh44
โ€ข
19h
The whole sharp edges thing was really difficult for me. I felt like Iโ€™d never drawn before. ๐Ÿซฃ Aaaaaand now Iโ€™m going to watch the next video and draw it all over again.
Conor Tacopina
โ€ข
21h
My second attempt at the pear.
@kbug15
โ€ข
22h
My pear.
tati riro
โ€ข
1d
my first pear! :)
@mattr
โ€ข
1d
My attempt at assignment 1 :)
Conor Tacopina
โ€ข
2d
My first try at the pear.
Eli Bansa
โ€ข
2d
The evolution of the pear
Dimitris Davakis
โ€ข
2d
My geometric pear :)
Martha Muniz
โ€ข
2d
I like the overall shape of your pear, it seems quite accurate! When it comes to placing the value groups, we can focus on the main idea of how the light hits the pear overall, so don't worry about including the small dents/bruises on the pear. I do see a strong separation of light and shadow, which is great too! If you take a closer look at the shadow area on the pear itself, you can see that the darkest part of the shadow is closer to the middle of the pear (this is called the 'core shadow'), then it gets slightly lighter as it goes left, the to the darkest level again before getting to the ground/left side. Try capturing this change utilizing the darkest two values you already have, and it'll help give more dimensionality to the shadow side of your pear. Let me know if you have any questions!
Eleni Kamisakis
โ€ข
3d
Feedback please!
Martha Muniz
โ€ข
2d
Good start, I like that you got the division between light and shadow, which is one of the more important parts! You can still think about that area of darkness that divides the light and shadow as its own value group shape, utilizing the darkest value, rather than a thin line. By showing the shape that it forms on the pear, it will give it more three-dimensionality, whereas a flat line may break the 3d illusion instead. I would also recommend breaking up the light grey value group on the right side of your pear into two groups, with one group being the current tone and the other being a slightly lighter grey. That way, there are more value steps in the light side, which give dimensionality as well. Let me know if you have any questions!
Yann Folkestad
โ€ข
4d
I struggled with the values. Pencil control I guess. After several attempts I came up with this one which I think is ok. I got a little lost with the stem. Not sure if it still met the objective.
Rodney Richardson
After watching the demo for the pear I got inspired to try level two. I have a hard time being patient.
Martha Muniz
โ€ข
2d
Good start! I would recommend adding more shading to your tones to develop them more fully. You can reserve the lightest value (blank white page) for the smaller areas of highlight, but the majority of the skin in the light will be closer to the second lightest value, since his skin still has a grey shade to it and isn't pure white. Once you get into the shadow area on the right side, it will be a range of the middle to darkest tones, so no areas (including his lips and eye whites) will be pure white, since the shadow darkens them. Give it a try and let me know how it goes :)
@toomuchhappiness
Here are my first attempts at each pear. I've watched the demo video and can see the mistakes I've made. I only have a single 2B pencil but I'm getting an actual pencil kit in the mail tomorrow which should help me with my values and I'll post my second attempt at each pear in the comments of the demo video.
Ronin Inkhaurt
โ€ข
5d
Hello, everyone. This is my first try using Affinity Designer 2 on my iPad Pro. Full disclosure: I have some art knowledge or know-how before taking this course. I have a problem with putting value cleanly without resorting to chaos and destruction lol. Session time amounted to 3 hours and 17 minutes to complete this one. Looking forward to improving in that area and also reducing time spent. Any tips or critique are welcome ๐Ÿ‘‹.
Rodney Richardson
I tried to do it twice, just in case. Very beginner.
Martha Muniz
โ€ข
2d
Good accuracy so far drawing the pear shape! I also like that you broke it down into light and shadow, which is the main way of separating the values and the most important part to get correct. It does appear like it's only two values, light and dark, so far, but the middle tones in between get lost. Try practicing getting a fuller range for your values. If you darken your darkest tone by using more pressure, using a softer pencil, and/or adding more layers, then that will allow your current shading to act as the middle tones and appear distinct from the darker range.
Larry
โ€ข
7d
I have recently retired and decided to learn how to oil paint and draw. Just took a 6 week class for each at the community art center. This is so hard; I love it!!!! Iโ€™m new at both. I was excited when I ran across your you tube lessons. i purchased the Drawing Basics and the Portrait Drawing Fundamentals classes. I just started this one and going to start the other one this week. Here are my before and after for level 1 and level 2. Excited to move to the line section; there is a lot to learn!
Martha Muniz
โ€ข
2d
Lovely work and improvement between your before and afters!
Nicholas Allott
โ€ข
7d
I'm happy with the result, but it took 10-11 hours over a few weeks. I'm near the end of the lines section in the course, but I did this at level 1 when I started so now I'm caught up with the level 2s!
@na_talie
โ€ข
6d
Very well done!
Shubi K
โ€ข
7d
I think I was struggling with trying the get the 5 values and the chunky shadow right at the bottom of the pear is what I just couldn't wrap my head around. You'll see what i mean in the stand alone picture. I'm assuming that there's a value there that, at this point, we shouldn't be worrying with at all. Any views or suggestions are welcome.
Nicholas Allott
โ€ข
7d
The 5 values you have are very distinct and clear, which is great. ๐Ÿ‘ The shadow on the pear and shadow edge is pretty similar to the cast shadow in the photo so it could go darker. Its also good as it is if your aiming is to keep the 5 values as distinct as possible.
Melanie Scearce
โ€ข
7d
I think the first image is more accurate to what we see in the reference image. The value of that chunky shadow shape is close enough to the rest of the values in shadow to be counted as the same when we are only working with 5 values. The squint test helps when you're determining that threshold. If you squint your eyes at the reference image, and then at your second drawing with the dark values shape, you can see how much that shadow shape sticks out against the other values, compared to the reference image.
@suzatonic
โ€ข
8d
Hereโ€™s my first attempt. His hair on the bottom right got a little heavy. This was fun to do with the straight lines. I often do portraits with more of a continuous line and it was very helpful to really focus on the angles.
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