First attempts. I think I’ll watch the demo for these, and then attempt the camel and skull.

That was enlightening. I did both assignments, because I figured more is better when it comes to intentional practice. My first attempt, followed by a second go after watching Stan’s demos. I think the pear went well, however, my first attempt at the portrait looks like I was channeling Braque, or Picasso, and not in a good way! lol! Anyway, the second portrait is much improved, although I still see plenty of issues with it in specific areas, especially the nostrils. That was a struggle, and I definitely overworked the paper there. I may change paper, as I don’t much like the texture of what I used for this project. Also photo 4 is just to show the smudging that takes place once a spiral sketch pad is closed. Happens with all graphite, I know, but it seems worse with spiral bound books because there’s more movement. I found the demonstrations to be extremely helpful, especially helping me to define the values, and see relationships. Also, I loved that Stan talked about time, correcting and adjusting, and making choices throughout the drawing. Really excellent lesson! Very happy for any feedback folks would like to offer

The struggle is real. I’m into lesson three of Drawabox, and the advice there is to constantly turn your paper to line up the stroke. (I’ve put that on hold while I do this.) So…I found it strange to maintain the paper in one position and draw various angles. Not sure if this is a lefty thing, but it also took a bit of figuring out to determine which direction to go, push or pull, or maybe toward or away from my body, and finding an angle to draw that let me see the endpoint of the stroke without my hand or arm obscuring it. Marshall, thanks for this, I really enjoy your teaching, and especially the reality checks that this is going to be a lifelong journey with no effortless MAGIC drawing excellence. There’s already too much of that out there in the world. Oh! I also started the Drawing Basics course, so thanks for reminding me of that. I’m enjoying that as well. Working to get the solid drawing foundation that I didn’t get in art school.

Sometimes I feel like the “scribbles” are better than the final drawing. Case in point from Birdtober.

Here's my take on this assignment!

These are basic, but, that’s usually where I like to start. They were fun to do!

Right off the bat, those illustrations from your advertising days are absolutely stunning. They're precise, realistic-looking and so beautifully rendered! They look so tactile! And it's blowing my mind that you achieved that level of rendering on the photo filter disc image overnight. One of my profs from my uni days was instrumental in instilling the habit of keeping a sketchbook and drawing regularly within it. I have a sketchbook but I'm nowhere close to as regular as I should be. Additionally, I run into the problem of doing the opposite as you describe in this video with sketchbook drawings which is to do less thinking and be 'uncareful'. I tend to want to get it right as soon as I put pen to paper but I realise now how futile a mindset like that is. I'm so grateful for videos like these as they not only teach process and technique, but also discipline.

Yes! I have the pow….er…tools.

I like this. In the kayaking world this would be called practicing hard moves in easy water, or, as one of my coaches likes to say, if you can’t do it in the small stuff, you won’t do it in the big stuff!