Helloooo again :) It's been a while and I really need to be more consistent with my practice. I finally got around to doing the camel and skull for this project. This was my first attempt, without watching the demo videos because I wanted to try and figure it out on my own first. This project is a simple concept, but pretty difficult to execute properly for me. I find myself fighting to not overcomplicate what I'm seeing, and deciding on what to include or not to include in the drawing. I also notice that I struggle to keep my lines flowy and free instead of stiff, and I'm not sure if it's from my shaky hands or the unfamiliarity of making longer/more confident strokes. Proportions were also a challenge for me, and I sometimes get a bad habit of making sketchy, almost chicken scratchy lines to compensate for it so I'm trying to work on that. Overall, this project definitely challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and to be aware of what I'm doing instead of just mindlessly scribbling!

Hello everyone! Today I attempted to do the first two CSI drawings (the snail and the boots. Dang those boots.) I felt myself getting lost many times and debating on how to tackle it in general, and where to begin. I am not the biggest fan of how my work turned out, but it was my first attempt and I'm going to try it again after viewing the demo and getting a better understanding. The boots for some reason came out different sizes, and I think the laces just have no idea what they're supposed to be doing in my drawing lol! Any advice or words of encouragement would be appreciated. The boots broke me and I will need at least a month to recover.

This is my 1st attempt for level 1 assignments. I feel my lines are not confident enough: I see a lot of short and shaky lines, especially in the snail. Also, I am aware I went overboard with the boots drawing, and it was really hard to stop myself from adding unnecessary details. I tried to add intention to my lines, but I gotta say this was pretty challenging. I had to stop several times to make sure I was actually seeing and thinking before executing using the CSI method. I will attempt these again (or something else) after watching the demo, and I will make sure to stick to the contours of the shapes for level 2 assignments. I know confident, intentional, and flowy lines will come with practice, but it is really hard to make amends wit the fact that it will take time. It is in my best interest to improve the quality of my lines so I'll make sure to keep practicing. I will appreciate any constructive feedback.

Behold, the mushrooms. This little warmup was actually very difficult for me, which kind of surprised me because it's just a variety of ellipses. I definitely need to practice drawing those steadily. Also for some reason I became extremely aware that I was gripping that pencil like my life depended on it. Like what did my pencil do to deserve that? Anyway, despite the difficulties this makes drawing ellipses so much more fun and I'll for sure be doing more of these to practice ♡

Hello again, artists. After watching Mr. Stan's video and taking in some helpful critiques, I re-attempted the pears with newfound knowledge. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about them. I think it's because me personally, I don't see too big of a difference between my two attempts. I have a hard time with getting carried away and overcomplicating the different values. I'm trying to not be too hard on myself, especially at the beginning of the course and there's going to be plenty of improvement later on! Just got to keep applying what I've learned and practice. I did find the demo and advice extremely helpful, and while putting it all into practice can be a challenge I've been having a lot of fun! ♡

I reattempted the pears after watching the demo. I tried really hard to keep the shapes simple (I always get suckered into the details). I think I eventually got there with pear-3 (the one with no background) but maybe to simplified now.

I simplified from a different pear in the downloads. Struggled a bit with the plane changes in the middle of the pear - where its hard to determine light/dark 😁

Hey, everyone! This is my first official post to the discussion board and I am very excited to be here :D I just completed the first project with the pears and had a lot of fun with this attempt. It was also quite humbling. First of all, I have a little bit of trouble sometimes determining where to start with the shading exactly, as in should I begin with the darks to establish them or focus on the lights first and build it up. As I continue on, I aim to get more comfortable with decisions like that. Another thing is that I used quite a thin mechanical pencil, as it was the first thing I grabbed and had on hand so I think that it affected my shading quality a smidge. Other than that, I'm pretty impressed with my first attempt at these little goobers. Any and all critiques are appreciated as I am trying to improve my art! Also, does anyone have advice about avoiding smudges from the pencil in your sketchbook?

Pretty new to shading and values I wasn’t to happy with my first attempt so tried again with the second pear, I feel like it came out a lot better but critique a comments are welcomed. 😅