These are really good attempts.

Very nice! Each iteration of the boots adds a lot of clarity and simplification of the forms! The laces can definitely seem like a lot at first, but take your time to study them as individual lines, and eventually it'll get easier to simplify a noisy area like them. Keep up the good work!

It is not awful its practice! If your big take away is pencil to paper and let go that in and of its self is really good! the c curves are great. It is simple and I see the camel. Remember its a basic beginner course so dont be too hard on yourself as getting better takes time and its important to not get distraught as that can lead to not wanting to continue. Overall have fun and keep going!

This is a tough reference, really nice work! I think you did a great job simplifying, my only critique would be the left boot is much thicker at the ankle than the right one. Just be sure to check and double check the measurements of your initial lay-in for proportions before adding the details like laces and line weight. The time it takes to complete a drawing doesn't necessarily translate to its "simplification." Those laces are diabolical, so this one takes some time. The more you work with this CSI Method, this will start to become second nature and your overall speed will increase, but don't look at speed as the goal. The decision making process when simplifying is surprisingly involved, and anything but simple! Keep up the good work, don't forget to check out the demos, and critiques for this one.

Wow, nice detail on the snail! Although, keep in mind for this project we are focusing on simplifying using the CSI lines, so hopefully that's how your drawing started out! Your boots are looking great too, I can definitely see the use of CSI there :)

We're definitely keeping it simple for this one but still trying to keep all the parts in, so I would suggest trying to get the laces more accurate! I also suggest loosening up with your lines, as the focus for this project isn't to make them clean. Really utilize the CSI lines, drawing with more energetic and tapered strokes.

Í love it. I think your lines are ok actually. The y look clean and well done!Good proportion and structure 🙂👍🏼

Haha, no traps here! It is a complicated reference for sure though, no kidding about that. But it does help to practice tackling a complicated subject matter via simplification, which this assignment is perfect for. I definitely recommend using up an entire page per drawing if you can (you can even turn your page sideways for these references to fit them better), as that will give you more room to make choices at the shoelace level. Your simplification choices are pretty spot on already though. I think working larger and also ghosting (hovering your pencil over the page to practice the motion of your planned line before you actually put pencil to paper) can help execute your line choices with more confidence. Working smaller though does help capture the big picture and not get lost into detail, so this is good work nonetheless, if you feel ready to move on to level 2! :)

These look really nice. I think in the pencil drawings you focused a little too much on getting the outer contour lines solid, so you lose that looseness of the CSI. This may just be because you went back over after the initial sketch. Good job overall, using pen was a fun idea and I can see some line weight starting to show with those :)

Don't stress, practice makes progress! It looks like you focused on keeping the outer contour lines connected and clean, I would suggest loosening up and being more expressive to really let the CSI lines shine :)

Attempt #2