A little embarrassed at how messy my sketches are but I chose an owl as my creature. I started looking at owls in general but then became interested in the barred owl because it reminded me of an old woman wearing a shawl. I was thinking about drawing an elderly and kind owl wearing a shawl, and at one point, I wanted to try sketching the owl standing on one leg and drinking from a tea cup with the other (reference images of the skeleton for me to consider how it might bend). However, before I could do so, mid-way through my second sketch, I started thinking about how the head of the barred owl reminded me of a helmet... and thus the astronaut owl was born, haha. I still like my original idea though and think it would make an interesting character as well.

This tree is wonderful, Tom! I've been practicing drawing tree lately, largely from reference and field guides, which give examples of different trees, their silhouettes, growth patterns, leaves, flowers, and fruit. I noticed many areas where this drawing is succeeding. For example, the line weight is doing a great job of conveying what parts of the tree are in front of the others, especially the branches, trunk, and leaf edges in the masses of foliage nearest the viewer. Here are a couple thoughts on how to grow even stronger drawing trees! I love the serpentine forms wrapping around the trunk, as well as the roots, but they strike me as too similar in size and shape, almost parallel to one another. Try varying the thickness of these masses and their direction for greater viewer interest. Study the roots of old Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) for examples of this phenomenon. Another idea to try is to include some openings or gaps between the roots or hollows in the tree trunk, which Dawn Redwoods showcase well too. A similar problem may be happening with the foliage masses. The overall round shape for them is great, as many trees do have that general form, but we can make the foliage much more interesting and realistic if we cut into those forms to create complex edges to the silhouette of the tree. For example, trees usually grow in a genetically determined pattern unique to each species, but the unique circumstances of their growth, like storms, wind, frost, location, sun, insect predation, disease, shade, and more force the tree to adapt to the specific conditions of its location, leading each individual tree to grow differently. I think one of the aspiring artists below offered a similar insight with the idea of turning the tree into a character, which I agree with. Play around with the edges of the leaf masses. See what happens when a branch juts outward with a cluster of leaves, breaking the overall silhouette and try making gaps in the foliage around the edges and within the larger over masses of the foliage: shapes within shapes within shapes! Experiment with the patterns and get lost in them. If you do work from reference, please don't feel you need to capture exactly the pattern of branches and leaves. Just shoot for expressing the general feel of the tree, and let your imagination take over! I attached reference photos I took of a Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) and Red Maple (Acer rubrum) below you can use to see how the leaf masses work. Another source you might like to check out is J.D. Harding's On Drawing Trees and Nature. This manual is from the Victorian period, so the language is definitely old-fashioned, but I've found it helpful as a guide while studying trees. I hope these thoughts are helpful for you on your art journey!

I really appreciate all the insights into how subtle changes in the structure of the face communicates so much, especially how they dovetail into expressing common themes or tropes like "beauty and the beast." It's amazing how these timeless ideas can be tweaked and played with by experimenting with different facial elements, like a square feminine jaw in the older, embittered woman queen's portrait. Thank you, Master Patrick, for making these associations, so often unstated and unconscious, clear to us apprentices! Before I began viewing this course, I never thought to try sketching with charcoal, although I had worked with the medium before to render trompe-l'oeil style work from photographs in an art studio, but it never involved such graceful fluidity of strokes. I tried using a digital charcoal brush to spontaneously create a character from imagination, and I'm grateful for the how gentle the pressure is on my hands. My art study so far has concentrated on getting the forms right (anatomically, proportionally, and in perspective), so I haven't focused much on shading, but I wanted to share my attempt to get some thoughts on how to improve. Thank you in advance for your thoughts, community!

This exercise was challenging! I placed my attempt below. I definitely need to work on perspective and line weight, and I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks!

This assignment was both fun and challenging. I tried to draw a secretary bird in an anthropomorphic style but struggled with the wings. Any critique would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Here's my attempt. I wonder if the hand is too large in proportion to the rest of the arm, or if the ulna and radius are too short? Thanks for your thoughts!

As a quick introduction, I have been trying to learn art for around 5-6 years now, and I have taken other online courses on perspective and completed many of the early exercises in Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling's excellent How To Draw textbook, but I am still not satisfied with my skill level. I hope Marshall Vandruff's expertise and exercises, as well as the community's feedback, will help me finally meet my goals. I really appreciate the posts that others have made. It has exposed me to plenty of other artists to study! I also find Alan Lee, Ralph McQuarrie, Peter Han, and James Gurney inspiring in their use of perspective to depict realistic scenes from their imaginations. I am also a fan of many anime and manga art styles, particularly those with more realistic proportions, such as Naruto. Since so many have already shared wonderful examples of these pieces, I will focus on works less represented here. 1. Collect some of your favorite drawings by perspective masters to set a standard for skill development. 19th Century Military Genre Painting: Edouard Detaille, Francisco Goya, Elizabeth Thompson/Lady Butler, Lev Lagorio, Alexey Popov, Mort Künstler (Not 19th century, but amazing, historically accurate realism of 19th century subjects), Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, Pavel Kovalevsky, Carl Röchling Palaeoart: Pollyanna von Knorring, Mark Witton, M. Rothman, Julius Csotonyi, and Marcio L. Castro. Here's a disclaimer regarding my chosen images, just to be safe: Most of the images I picked are in the public domain, but for those that aren’t, I want to be clear that I am not the copyright holder, and that my posting them on this website is solely for my and other students’ transformative experience through meaningful development and analysis, pursuant to 17 US Code § 107 Fair Use Specific Nonprofit Educational Purposes. 2. Big picture goal - think about problems you'd like to solve that require skills in perspective. Maybe drawing something from a different angle that you don't have reference for, or creating mathematically sound architecture from imagination. Perspective Goals: I would like to craft realistic scenes similar to those of 19th century military genre painters but challenging their frequent celebration of violence, and I would also like to create figures, landscapes, and architecture from imagination. Since I am interested in 19th century technology and culture, I would like to practice constructing vehicles and objects like trains, rifles, cannons, steamships, and more using perspective techniques, with the ultimate goal of inventing my own iterations of these things from imagination, but as deeply rooted in realism as possible (such as fidelity to the actions of rifles). I also love living things, especially trees. I appreciate palaeoart that uses evidence-based reconstructions of living things now extinct. I would like to draw and paint scientifically plausible landscapes and close-ups incorporating extinct or invented animals and plants, which would demand perspective knowledge. Challenges or problems: One of the major areas I struggle with in perspective is accurately depicting complex hinged or bending forms in space, such as a bent torso or a tilted head. I also find myself misjudging the center lines of angled forms in perspective, as well as not producing enough impression of space or depth. I would very much like to be able to, from imagination, construct believable human figures and even other creatures like birds, horses, and insects from as many angles as possible, challenging myself to push toward photorealism/hyperrealism and to minimize stylization. I also struggle with objects or figures that straddle the horizon line, especially at a three-quarter angle, like the rib cage, torso, or face. These skills will demand an ability to envision and craft organic forms in perspective and go beyond the box, an area of expertise I need to hone. Flat forms or twisting forms in perspective, like leaves, banners, or clothing, are another challenge. One perspective problem similar to the “clumping” of figures mentioned in the video that I would like to master is assembling figures into lines, such as military formations, but, rather than making each figure uniform in height, vary the heights of the figures to simulate the diversity of actual people’s bodies. I understand there is a technique for taking a standard height figure and replicating that height at different distances, but I would like to practice and memorize this skill until I can achieve it intuitively and from imagination. I have not yet attempted many worm’s eye or bird’s eye shots, but I would like to be able to create compelling scenes from these angles if needed too. Another area I need to explore is the use of Dutch tilts to convey dynamism in a scene. I also like maps and world-building, and understanding 4-point or 5-point perspective can help me accurately warp landmasses and oceans around spherical bodies like a fictional planet. I’m not sure perspective techniques are exactly the same as those used in map projections, but I imagine they will be helpful when tackling the problem of converting a curved surface to a flat plane. I think it would be advantageous for me to learn how to produce technical or schematic cut-aways of buildings, vehicles, and machines in perspective too. Ultimately, my goal is to internalize intuitive perspective skills through relentless practice to reduce my reliance on perspective grids and reference and to be better able to plot out the right perspective for a scene that believably captures all of the desired angles of the characters and objects depicted. As a final word, I wanted to share a compliment regarding this initial lesson video and assignment. I am greatly impressed that Marshall Vandruff takes an empowering, student-centered educational approach to enable students to focus on what tools and techniques will help them achieve their artistic goals. I apologize for the long post. Thank you for reading!

Critiques welcome

Here's my revision based on the video. I tried to challenge myself to put the arm in a different position and construct it with the right joints and a sense of recession into perspective. Thank you for any thoughts or feedback. I appreciate your time!

Here's my attempt to revise my drawing based on the video example. I tried to reproduce as much as I could from the Skelly 3D model without looking at Marshall Vandruff's example to see how much I could replicate his process.