Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
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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.

Ryan Thompson
I ended up doing a fruit (gourd) right in front of me.
Melanie Scearce
Drawing from life is great practice! Just wanted to point out that there is a lot of white paper showing through this gourd, equivalent to the lightest value, which is typically reserved for areas of bright highlight. It has an effect of washing out the gourd a bit- if you use a smaller amount of that lightest value and fill in that area with the next step down in value, you give the viewer more information to help them understand the shape of the gourd.
Marjorie
•
6h
Decided to restart the course from the start since I lacked time to continue last time ! On level 2 I felt really lost on how to define shadows so i will go watch the lesson !
Patrick Bosworth
Nice work! These both look really good, the shape break down and shading is really nicely considered. The pear is especially well done, and simplified. Remember to simplify in all things, especially defining shadow shapes. While a face is far more complex than a pear, the method of lighting is surprisingly similar! After you establishing a linear drawing, start by working with defining 2 values, what is light, and what is dark. It helps to squint down to look at your reference to remove details, and try to design the largest shadow shape that closely represents the largest mass of that value. If your image is clear and readable with only two values, it will be much easier to continue adding values to clarify the form. Keep up the good work!
Jiří
•
1d
Ended up doing both levels and following along with Proko's demo on level 1. So far I only watched the level 2 demo, but took a bunch of notes and will attempt again in the near future. Afraid to put down the values originally on level 1 and then rushing with proportions on level 2.
Camille Varner Kolafa
Regardless of proportions on level 2 (since that isn't the main focus on this project) I think you nailed it, nice work!
@flok444
•
1d
Started some weeks ago with drawing. How could I improve? I used 4B, 2B, B, 2H and 4H
Anastasia Pashkovska
Here are two attempts. Unfortunately, I now have only one pencil
Rachel Dawn Owens
Get more pencils! Paper too!! Thank you for sharing. This is a great place to start. I hope to see more!
@viettam
•
2d
First attempt at pear drawing
Ryan Thompson
Pretty good range of shading! I like the legend, that's a solid idea.
Camille Varner Kolafa
Nice job on your first attempt! You should try drawing your value box scale with each of the values directly next to each other (touching). If we draw it with the spaces between like you did, the white of the paper can affect how our eye is seeing the values and they can turn out too similar to each other. Good job finding the value shapes on the pear, but I think you can definitely get the darker values in there to balance the whole thing out, because right now my eye is immediately drawn to the drop shadow since it is so dark and the pear so light.
Mariah Gewin
Did part of this on my commute on a bumpy train. Finished the shading just now. I used an HB for the two lightest shaded values, a 2B for the lighter dark value, and an 8B for the darkest value. How long do you recommend warming up before drawing? I have trouble drawing straight lines, and tend to add a slight curve to longer lines.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Wow this looks great. As someone who learned to draw doing sketches on the NYC subway I know how hard it can be to draw on a moving train. Your tone is really even and the shapes read really well! One trick I learned for drawing straight lines that has really helped me, is to put a small dot where i want to finish the line, then put my pencil where I want to start. Looking at the dot, and not my pencil draw the line in one stroke using your arm. It took a little practice but my straight line quality has gotten WAY better. Maybe it will be helpful for you! And again, really nice work. Some of the cleanest tone I've seen in this exercise.
@cybiedeemun
Wanted to try both. I'm still not accustomed to CSP's pen options so I tried to do harsh and scratchy like I used to do before I quit ~5 years ago. Trying desperately to get addicted to drawing like I was in high school. Thanks for the lessons!
@newbie43
I used 5 different types of pencils from 2H to 6B but noticed it was very easy to press too hard with a lighter pencil and end up getting the darker pencil’s results. So I had to be careful to be consistent with the pressure I used. I struggle with perspective and I maybe overdid the sharp edges part by drawing strong lines between transitions, oh well. Overall this was a very useful exercise especially helping me see values in an object.
Vladimir Chernenko
Hey, i've tried few times and picked best looking option. I noticed it's hard to recognise different shadows depth and darkness, even using the simplified scale. Also the shadows on the borders of the pear makes quite big difference, that's cool. I did it without watching the Demo.
Camille Varner Kolafa
You did a great job! Some of your values don't have clean edges, most notably the outer drop shadow and the highlight within the left side of the pear. Keeping all of your edges like you have them for example along the outer contour of your pear will help keep the whole thing cohesive :) I also think your 2 darkest values are a bit close to each other, so try darkening the darkest one some more! Just as a little tip, sometimes if you're having trouble recognizing the different values like you mentioned, it's good to just take a break and try again in another day or several hours. Giving your eyes a break does wonders!
Oliver
•
3d
I also did the Level 2 one. I think I may of taken things too geometric with the planes, but other than that I think I did alright. Observing the solution from the demo afterwards felt like a no-brainer.
Oliver
•
3d
Did all three images. I'm pretty proud of these and slightly adjusted my approach each time. I do think I need to get out of the habit of erasing little mistakes, though, as it left some smudges on the third one.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
These look wonderful. Great consistency in your tone. And I feel you about the eraser! it can become too easy to try to make things "perfect" but I've learned over the years, that often it is the little mistakes that give sketches their charm and human feeling. That's a feeling we need more of every day! Good work. Cheers!
Anthony Frank
Just completed level 1. Very beginner to drawing, I think I struggled with getting 5 distinct values in my drawing, and especially with the second lightest value. It was tough to get it close to the lightest value that has no lines at all. I also wasn’t sure if I should have had some directionality to my lines. I ended up going horizontal for the pear and diagonal for the shadow, but I didn’t do any cross directional lines for any of the darker values. Should I have been?
Marina
•
3d
Hello! Here are my pears. The first one is before I watched the demo, and the second one is after. For pear #2, I had trouble spotting exactly where each gradation of shadow should be cleanly divided. I’m looking forward to learning more about values in this course. Any critique is welcome!!
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Great work on these! Really excellent rendering of your tone. That second pear IS really tough because it is hard to see where the core shadow is but I think you made exactly the right choice in adding it even if the photo was slightly unclear. These are the kinds of decisions we need to make as artists, and you nailed it. Well done!
Robin
•
3d
My pear attempt. Will try the other pears.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work. I love that you drew your tone scale at the top of the page, I find it really helps. Two things I find really helpful for this exercise is to really focus on getting the shapes of the different tones right, drawing their outlines in very lightly. The other thing that really helps is consistency within a single tone. What I find helps me for that is to draw just lots of lines all in one direction lightly, building up the tone slowly and filling in any inconsistencies in the area. Again, nice work, and keep at it! Cheers.
Robin
•
2d
Level 2 attempt
Robin
•
2d
Pear 1 & 3
@sprakatututz
I tried several times. Could not get a handle on the values and how to apply them.
@lifang
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4d
Level 2 attempt after watching demo
Captain Bracegirdle
Wow! Well done!
K S
•
4d
3boodm4
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4d
I half assed my first go around so im gonna repeat the course
f12
•
4d
I attempted the first and second pear left one is the second one and right the first one, where can I go from here? (These were done a day apart)
Help!
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