Back from the week 5 critiques and decided to redo the assignment because there was a lot I missed I did a revised study of each reference, particularly to: * To properly understand the forms and brushwork * Capture the soft and hard edges and understand the focus of the piece, which I previously missed * Generally better values and value groups Then I did a new speedpaint of each pic, particularly to: * Simplify more - being more conscious of what information I'm conveying with each brushstrokes and how to do that in less brushstrokes * Paint in fewer, more authoritative brushstrokes for clearer forms * Paint faster/more efficiently

Back after watching the week 4 critiques. My biggest area for improvement was with value groups and making them read clearly. The saying "the lightest dark is darker than the darkest light" and vice versa is a good guideline and definitely applies here, there were a few instances where I didn't follow this guideline which I had to correct. I simplified some shadow groups and toned down the secondary light slightly so that it wouldn't distract from the primary light family of values. The changes are kinda subtle but i think it makes it easier to read especially at a distance or when squinting

Back after watching the week 4 critiques. I think this exercise was mostly successful in experiment with different colour palettes and applying them in different contexts. Main things to work on were: * Getting the values right, since they are foundational for colours - and also for the painting to read well * Hue shifting in dark/light, particularly for the more complex palettes. I think I got too caught up in staying accurate to the palette instead of following my eye and applying the previous lessons Did some paint overs on pieces I felt could most do with some improvement

Back after watching the week 3 critiques, the main take aways for me were: * first and foremost make the paintings read well, this may involve deviating from the reference or accentuating certain features * make the light and shadow families obvious and readable, start by simplifying the big value groups and work your way to smaller ones * be thoughtful using highlights and don't over do it I did some paintovers of my assignment, I notice the chin area of the 5 min paintings were a little sloppy and not reading well. I upped the contrast on the cropped features to make them pop. I also tried painting a marble sculpture as an exercise for simplifying value groups, I found it pretty helpful

Back after watching the week 2 critiques, I'm not doing new revisions cause the exercise itself involved self critiques and iteratively drawing. Its a bit tedious but this method is super useful self improvement

Doing revisions after watching the week 2 critiques. Main areas for improvement were: * Having clearer light/shadow value groupings * Increasing contrast for better readability * For the invented skulls, the cranium tended to be too boxy, the jaw too small/squished and didn't extrude out far enough I did some paint overs, and I think they're looking better now!

Doing some revisions after watching the critique video In my assignment I was a little caught up with the timer and wasn't as thoughtful with how I painted. I didn't push the colours as far as I could've and generally didn't experiment enough. As suggested in the critique, I did some studies Karen O'neil (awesome artist) and learnt a lot about not only colours but also brush work and values. Highly recommended giving it a try. I also did one more iterative painting with a pear, about 10 minutes per painting. I still didn't push as far as I'd like but I think its still a noticeable improvement over the previous ones

Doing some revisions after watching the critique video * I accidentally coloured one of the tetris pieces blue instead of yellow lol * Pushed the hue shifting in the shadows so things look more vibrant * An exploded cube!