Pushed myself to create more thumbnails from a single reference this time. I think I'm starting to get the hang of experimenting with different value compositions, and the thumbnails have more variations from each other.

My attempts for this project. It was a really difficult project, and while I think they came out okay, there's still much to improve on. I encountered two main issues. I didn't know how to actually properly design shapes that were clear and able to guide the viewer. I also wasn't sure how to know if the design choices I made for the shapes were good choices or mistakes. I would appreciate any advice on this, or any other critique or feedback. Thanks!

Did some more practice on still life using online references. Overall, I think I'm making more decisions on what value to use, but could improve on simplifying the shapes and ignoring the small details. The one with the pears was 3 values, but my mid value disappeared in the lighting I guess.

Did the last few references as I watched the critique. I feel like I've improved compared to my first attempts at L1. At the very least, I'm now able to see the values more clearly and can better choose whether a particular color belongs to light or dark. I also compared my attempt to a gradient map version of the image for quicker feedback. Still have much to improve on though.

L1 and L2 projects. This was quite a challenging project for me. For me, I think I struggled balancing between choosing the proper shapes and covering the small shapes with a single shade. I wonder if the size of the thumbnail was too small? I did L2 of a still-life I found online. I was pleasantly surprised at how the positive shapes and negative shapes created by the shades could actually capture the form of the fruits, even without any contours. But it still needs work. Any feedback/critique will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Level 1 and Level 2 projects. I think I did okay for level 1, but level 2 was a bit tricky as I noticed I tend to shade number 2 darker than usual, and certain values were flipped/too similar to each other. I wonder what's the proper way to improve at this? Or is it just intuition, like "value 6 should be this color, value 4 this color, etc."? For lv 2, I cut a square out of another piece of paper to cover and isolate the individual squares. Order was also randomized. Would appreciate any feedback/advice on this, thanks!

Back after a month's break and time to start on value. Value is one of my greatest weaknesses so I'm excited to dive in to improve my skills. This warmup was nice and relaxing, though I'm still trying to figure out the best way to shade consistently.

My third attempt at L2. Compared to my first attempt, I can say that I've definitely improved. In particular, I like 14 best. For this attempt, I tried increasing the time between studying the reference and drawing from memory, separating them by an hour or so. It certainly increased the difficulty and I found myself having to invent certain parts as I totally forgot how that part of the reference looked. I'll certainly incorporate this into whatever I want to learn to draw in the future. But for now, I think I'll take it easy since this project is so mentally draining...

My third attempt for L1. The last two objects left are, in my opinion, the most complex ones. They have multiple ellipses which caused me quite a bit of trouble. I think the blowtorch turned out not bad, but the meat grinder was pretty tricky. But I can say I've certainly improved my visual library through these exercises.

My second attempt doing the level 2 of the project. I think they turned out not too bad. I realized that immediately drawing a thumbnail of the original reference after removing it helped me focus on designing a different pose. However, I wonder if its against the intentions of this project? Would it be better to just start on the pose immediately? Also, changing the proportions was also quite difficult for me as I didn't know what parts to change and make the pose still seem believable.