Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8196 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.

@sloppyninjaa
On the level 2 I realized too late of the mistakes in proportions and face rotation but I guess that isnt the focus of the exercise anyway. Just wanted to leave my first attempts here for now and I will probably try it again at a later point during the course.
@robaldana
Ooof, I don't know what went wrong with mine but I had a really hard time capturing the dimples and the dimensionality of the pear. Maybe it would've helped if my lighting was more dramatic? Would love to know how to make this better because right now, it's looking like a camouflage pear.
@mis_74
15h
first attempt! Any critique/ advice is appreciated!
Sunny Lohmann
1st project. I call it, "The Pear."
Isac Nilzon
Here's my attempt at the pear. Please rip it to shreds. Also I hope the lighting is okay.
Martha Muniz
Hi! Your values look well shaded and consistent, which is great! I would recommend to think about the values as belonging in one of two categories: light or shadow. We want to make sure that within each of those categories, the value groups feel more united and like they belong as part of that group. One way to think about it is if you squint at the image -- will you see a distinct grouping of light vs shadow, or will it appear more fractured and unorganized? Right now, the middle grey value placed between the darkest core shadow and the shadow on the ground looks like it jumps out from the rest of the shadow section. I would recommend either keeping the shadow section to either only the two darkest values, or if you want your shadow group to consist of three values instead of two, then you can darken that middle value a touch. And quick side note, if possible, try to use a fresh sheet of paper, since the lines from the back side can disrupt the consistent look of your shading--which otherwise looks very nicely rendered and controlled. I also like the shapes and simplification you translated from the pear image, so you're well on your way! Let me know if you have any questions!
Joy Rouse
This is the 2nd project choice 1. Critique and comments are so loved
Martha Muniz
Super lovely work! I would just caution that your 3rd lightest value and 4th lightest value (so 2nd darkest) look pretty close, so just darkening that 4th lightest value some more so it reads closer to the shadow group would help a lot. But beautiful work overall!
Lyn Umu
3d
This was really fun, the mouth was really challenging! Timed quick form practice 35 min
Martha Muniz
Absolutely stellar work! It's a great practice for portraits and value. I would recommend to try out a version that focuses more on making simplification choices for your value groups, with less rendering and more use of clear and contained value shapes. It's a fun challenge that can help sharpen your value control, and later on also how you design your own paintings.
Lyn Umu
3d
My attempt at two of the pears! Used minimal undoing, and didn't pick different value colors manually, instead used varied pen pressure on 100% black.
@watidude2
Any and all advice is appreciated, especially on my values. Also for some reason I thought I should try it only using boxes so I've got like a minecraft pear.
jasper Yan
Any advice?
Melanie Scearce
This is a beautiful portrait, Jasper! You got a great likeness. Your values are organized well. If you were to try this project again, I would suggest that you try to keep your value shapes a bit more contained. Especially in the lighter value range, it is difficult to pick out specific value shapes and it seems like there is a bit of rendering there.
@torres_jmail
My second attempt at the photo! :) Advice?
@torres_jmail
Any advice?
@igobygrace
first attempt + would love some feedback! going to try again after watching the demo (and using regular pencils instead of mechanical, because it was hard for me to get the values looking the way i wanted)
Lewis Lexter Yap
1st attempt 41 year old and a 9 year old
Eleni Kamisakis
My first attempt at a pear. Terrible.
@carniequeue
This is good! The shading gradient is nice. Ive only been drawing for a short time myself, but I've noticed its actually harder to draw small than big. You might have more fun with things if you went 4x that size.
@lin4
5d
have a hard time with identifying planes and simplifying values; esp with more complex subjects like the portrait -- caught myself jumping around and over rendering a lot
Dixita
5d
I am a hobby artist and most of my learnings are from online social media platforms. I am trying to be good at art and learning kind of formally or following classes. Here's my attempt at the first assignment of this course.
@carniequeue
First attempt at Pear #1. The edges really got away from me. Im going to watch the demo and try it again.
@carniequeue
Second attempt after watching the demo. I think this one is more in spirit of the exercise, and with the advice to go darker I like my gradients better. But I think it looks less like a pear than my first if that makes sense?
DK Taylor
Try to go even darker in thr shadows. It'll help out the contrast
Minimal Rage
My attempt at the level two image, following along with Clip Studio
@xolotl1973
First attempt at something more difficult. I think I completely lost the values (four rather than five) and using a mechanical pencil didn't help. Feel like I learned from it though.
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