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
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.

Newest
@philsbert
Hi all, this is already my second attempt of the pear. First time i did not follow the rules properly , so I did a second try.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Looks good! I like how you rally make the light side pop off the shadow side. Good work.
Charlie Forray
Pear 2. I almost didn’t upload it but this is where I’m at. That's not true. But thats how THIS FEEEELS. Learning to draw is Aggressively Humbling. I am very exciting to be on this journey with y'all. Finally picking up the pencil is dope.
Melanie Scearce
Nice! Thanks for sharing your drawing with us. Learning to draw is just as rewarding as it is humbling, and you're starting off strong! 💪
Keith Harrison
I've done my first straight line pear plus squares example of various pencils. Added a picture of a the pair as practice of where i am at.
Patrick Bosworth
Nice work on both pears! I like that you really simplified the straight line version as well as tried a more organic approach, it's great to see!
@hassan11
Max Fortuna
Here is my very first attempt. I am glad to started this course, since I realized how hard this task alone already is.
@hassan11
Rachel Dawn Owens
I love the texture of this apple drawing! Keep that texture but clarify the values a little more. Using 5 different values is what might work best for this assignment. I made this drawover to help explain- Hope this helps. Good luck with your drawings!
Dzifa Afonu
I tried this twice as I felt my first attempt was not really showing the edges of the planes and in my second attempt I struggled quite a bit with the values definitely an area to work on.
Dzifa Afonu
Ok this is my first ever submission. I’m much more inclined to race through the course and not upload my work so this feels like a leap for me! At first I didn’t really understand the assignment and the first mango and pear drawings are more a case of me not understanding what we were supposed to do. Still really good to post them up to learn and remember where I was at the beginning of this course.
Alessio Cantarini
finally started the course! Here my first attempt
Melanie Scearce
Welcome! You're starting out strong. Good luck with your studies 🍀
Emanl
2d
Hey everyone, feels good to finally get started, first attempt with a HB pencil
@iwanttobegood
Here is my drawing and the reference I used. I used a 2b pencil. I will come back after a few lessons and try it again to see my progress.
@greengreen
before demo, using only an HB pencil
@greengreen
Second exercise before demo. The only thing I got mostly right is the posture. It looks like he has a black eye. I like the nose, even if it's too narrow. I got some life into the drawing, though it looks like a different man and the facial expression is more empathetic and less neutral because of the shape of the right eye. He is looking at the viewer. Do you get what I mean? I also got a bit lazy.
@greengreen
This is after the demo
Marina Pierce
After the pear I decided to give the portrait a go- I already feel like the edges on my values aren’t nearly as defined as I would like for this assignment, to say nothing of my proportions lol. But for a first go not too bad
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice! Love the drawing. But yeah, sometimes it is hard to keep the edges sharp and defined, but a good exercises to revisit.
Marina Pierce
Hey y’all! Here’s my go at the pear :) lunch break project
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work! (And a good use of your lunch break!)
Kevin Dao
Hello Everyone! Excited to join this course. Here is my first attempt digitally. I may attempt this again traditionally as I am still pretty unfamiliar with shading digitally.
Shohei Yoshida
Hello. I’m joining from Japan. Thanks to the subtitle file, I can learn very smoothly even though I don’t understand English. Thank you. I’m drawing in Clip Studio Paint. Unlike traditional media, when I draw over lines digitally, the color gets darker even with the same pen pressure, so the line thickness ended up uneven.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Welcome! Nice drawing. And yes, the pen pressure on digital can take some getting used to. Looks good though. Keep it up!
Scott
5d
Drawing basics! I struggled with the shadow shapes especially half tones.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Looks good. The shapes and getting the halftone right can be tricky, but that’s why we’re here! Getting the practice in is what it is all about. I think you did a good job. One thing I’d look for is the shape on your core shadow. It looks a little linear. Adding a little variety in that shape will help sell the 3d’ness of it. Keep it up!
Typho
5d
feels really rough, but that's why I'm here. I used HB for the lines, and I used [2B, 2H, 6B, and 6H] for the shading, for the fifth tone I left no marks.
Rachel Dawn Owens
This is a great start! Try getting darker with the 6B pencil in the shadows and keep those darker marks out of the light planes. The more you organize the values, the clearer your drawings with turn out. Here’s some tips I made for other students- I hope they help. Thanks for sharing!
WB
6d
My first pear. Struggled a bit getting the dark shading that I wanted. I did this with a 2B pencil only.
WB
8h
Tried the pear again after watching the demo. I also bought some more pencils and tried using them. Had a lot of problems with the page texture when working with softer (4-6B) pencils. I’m guessing since they are softer they get dull quicker and I didn’t sharpen enough. If anyone has feedback for either attempt it would be very appreciated!
@confusedscribbler326
This is my first attempt before the demo video. I am a beginner and am looking for any and all feedback. This was done with a mechanical pencil. Thank you !
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