Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8857 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
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.

Mitch Legrow
โ€ข
4h
First attempt.
wren randall
โ€ข
15h
First time drawing in a long time. My attempt at the level 1 pear. Learning entirely on an iPad, but I find it hard to keep the values consistent between strokes. Critiques welcome.
Quincy Cooke
โ€ข
13h
Pretty good, Wren!
Quincy Cooke
โ€ข
15h
Level 1 - The Pear. I was in a funk today and almost didn't do the exercise. But, I want to get better, so here it is. I welcome actionable critiques.
Aaron Mascarenhas
โ€ข
19h
My first attempt. Took about an hour. Takeaways: - Was so much easier to keep the strokes as neat as my inexperienced hand allowed with a mechanical pencil than with the regular wood pencils. - Keeping to 5 values is hard! Will try the portrait next. That assignment seems like a much harder value game! I've never done a portrait before. Wish me luck :)
Aaron Mascarenhas
โ€ข
17h
Modified things a bit after watching the demo explanation about how to separate the 5 values. That was helpful!
kari starry
โ€ข
1d
Hi! Here's my shot at the pear
Iris Rosa
โ€ข
2d
I accidentaly aged the boy.
Rising stars chowari
Hello Sir Iโ€™ve enrolled in your drawing classes, and Iโ€™m attaching my first drawing. This was my first attempt at drawing a real-life object, so I know there is a lot I can improve. Iโ€™m really excited to learn from you and improve my skills. Iโ€™ll keep practicing consistently and work hard to become a great artist. Thank you for guiding me!
@thefool
โ€ข
2d
Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well โ˜ป Here are two attempts I did, the first from the end of June and the second just today. I didn't follow the instructions properly in my drawing of the first pear so I decided to try again with the 2nd reference pear. Any feedback is appreciated!
Rain
โ€ข
4d
If I could get feed back on my simplifying of the two observation projects thank you.
Kevin Coalwell
โ€ข
4d
Here is my first attempt at the pear that I did in Photoshop ๐Ÿ‘ I appreciate any feedback.
@dougwt
โ€ข
4d
I've been putting off the first project for a couple weeks but I made myself sit down and tackle that pear! Whew. That wasn't nearly as painful as I feared it would be. Feedback is welcome.
@sophialia
โ€ข
5d
My first try at the second level portrait, I have never drawn a person before and it was a real challenge to me, I dont know if I am already advanced enough for level 2 ๐Ÿ˜‚ what do you think? I highly appreciate any feedback ๐Ÿ˜Œ
@sophialia
โ€ข
5d
My first try at the pears, had some problems to get the differences of the values, it looks a bit mushy to meโ€ฆ I appreciate any feedback ๐Ÿ˜Š
Ben Kraske
โ€ข
5d
Just through these, you're expanding your understanding of values! In your first pear, you've got really nice dark values for the shadows, and then in your third, you did a great job at lightening up the light halftone that's around the highlights. Keep it up! It might be of value for you to make some value scales with the pencils that you're using, that way you can explore how to get them as dark or as light as you need the values to go. Nice job!
Sinister
โ€ข
5d
After trying the 2nd level, I got some pretty satisfying results. I focused on getting the contour lines right, then I started with main shadow, then a darker half tone, then the core shadow, then the half tone, and then i added some highlights to it, or left it while doing the half tone. Then I added some detail to the hair by using the core shadow's color, and I got this. Even with the outline it looks pretty decent! Although it is not good by any means, it is a lot better than what I expected myself to do. Excited to challenge myself more.
Cary
โ€ข
5d
Completed before watching demos.
Sinister
โ€ข
5d
I've decided to do this project on Clip Studio Paint, as I'm taking a digital approach to this course. At first, I drew the outline and the terminator, then I made a new layer and started coloring in that. This resulted in me having two versions, one where the outline is visible, and one where it's not. Because I wasn't satisfied with this result, I went back and redid it, observing a lot closer than before. I decided to use a charcoal brush to have a shaper shadow, and in the end, I actually got a pretty satisfying result. The fun part was realizing that I accidentally drew everything on the outline layer, but I'd say it turned out a bit better like this. I'll be more careful in the future though. This does help put into perspective where I've yet to improve though. Hell, I might try again tomorrow! Take a look at my little pearlings! If you have any feedback, let me know!
@klmsleepy
โ€ข
5d
I tried out the portrait after doing the pears the other day. My proportions are definitely off and Iโ€™m not sure if completely blacking out the eyes was the right choice but I thought it would look interesting so I went for it. Iโ€™d love to hear anyoneโ€™s thoughts, feedback, or tips thanks.
Pedro Gaspar
โ€ข
6d
I struggled a lot with the eyes on the portrait and getting the tones right (i'm a beginner)
Thom
โ€ข
6d
First attempt. I struggled with the value parts and keeping them clean.
Sam
โ€ข
6d
its a bit smudgy from drawing on the other side of the sketchbook page, but the second pear was my first try. The portrait took way too long, then I tried redrawing the pear while watching the demo, that one looks cleaner I think.
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