I've had some project deadlines recently, so I'm just now getting to the latest batch of assignments. I'm still working through this exercise, but here's what I have so far! When I first started trying this approach, my drawings felt a bit stiff. Something wasn't quite clicking. So I thought I'd go back and restart by trying something simpler, to try and become more comfortable with the tools for this task. I tried to build individual forms, and try some variations including: • Height. • Rotation. • Curving. • Tapering. • Crossing the horizon line. • Twisting. • Two forms bumping / interlocking. • Connecting two planes of different shapes. I like to sketch in quite a scribbling manner, with slower phases also to try and carve out forms or details. I also tend to build in layers as I move things around and close in on final decisions. (My kneaded eraser is seeing some work lately!) To move onto a compositional stage of this exercise, I've started to try and fold this type of form building into this sketching process, in particular the slower phases. Despite a rough start, I'm really enjoying this exercise, there's a lot to explore when playing with combinations. I'm looking forward to cleaning up some sketches before moving to the second part of the assignment. Thank you Philip for sharing this appraoch!

Putting some more practice in over the weekend!

Thank you for the demo, it feels so well timed! It's really interesting to see what we're currently learning extended in this way.

sorry late to the party, but how do I access the community assignment collections like shown in the video?

Awesome critique vid, lots to learn! After seeing the other assignment submissions, I felt I could push myself a bit more. I've picked out some more things to be practising now.

I was happy to see atmospheric perspective get some time also, thank you for the extra explanation Marshall! Since this lesson came out I've been wanting more control over it in my drawing and painting. So I decided over Christmas to create an admittedly lengthy explanation of it for myself, to try and understand it a bit more concretely and make it more intentional in my artwork. I've shared this below in case it's helpful for anyone in any way (and in case anyone has any thoughts on it!): As an object moves away from a viewer, there is more atmosphere between the object and the viewer. As a result, the object's appearance is more affected by the atmosphere. The object's appearance: 1) Changes colour (including value). 2) Decreases in contrast. 3) Decreases in clarity. 1) The object's appearance changes colour. Assign a colour (and value) to the atmosphere. As the object moves away from the viewer, the object's colour (and value) moves on a path towards the colour (and value) of the atmosphere. The further away the object is, the further along this path the object's colour is. (Thinking of it this way allows you to try out different atmospheres rather than always using a light blue atmosphere that is common in outdoor scenes for example.) 2) The object's appearance decreases in contrast. If the object's colour is on a path towards the colour of the atmosphere, then the contrast between the colour of the object and that of the atmosphere will decrease. As the object moves away, colours on the object that have a higher contrast compared to the atmosphere will move more quickly than colours that are already similar to the colour of the atmosphere. Therefore we will also see a decrease in contrast on the object's appearance itself. 3) The object's appearance decreases in clarity. You could consider this as a result of the previous two points (especially when we group / simplify similar colours and values in a painting or drawing). But it can be helpful to consider it separately also. For example, changing the amount of detail to include in a line drawing as objects appear to recede into space.

Thanks for the all the critiques Marshall, it's awesome to see all the analysis being shared in the community! I had so much fun with this lesson, and have already found it really useful in my illustration process. Having the methods defined, and seeing them used in all these pieces, I now feel more comfortable exploring possible choices for a drawing and seeing what effect they have on a composition. I've also created this thumbnailing page as a demo for myself to refer back to. I now try and do at least one page like this before working on longer drawings.

I wasn't sure how characteristic to make the boxes but I really need the practice so I tried to keep it simple. I found I mostly struggled with keeping the proportions and angles of lines consistent. I did swap to a mechanical pencil partway through also, I found I really needed some more precision with the lines. After looking back at the scans of my assignment, I can see some corrections I would make - I think practising more of these would be really beneficial. Plus, I had a lot of fun with the assignment, perhaps more than I was expeting to!

30 minutes is a real stretch for me! This is how I usually start my illustrations though, it's a lot of fun to sketch the ideas out first! Before Christmas I went shopping and the supermarket was hectic - much respect for retail workers, especially during this busy period.

This was a tough but fun project - it's pointed out a lot of things I need to work on! I will need to keep practising to hammer home the things I've learnt. I struggled seeing and simplifying some of the values, especially in the portrait - in particular I mistook the darker halftone on the cheek and neck for a shadow value and ended up assigning three values to the shadows instead of the light. Watching the demos and critiques really helped, so I gave it another go. I also spent a long time trying to measure on the second time around!