Okay so here’s a photo dump of the past 4 projects of the 14 day challenge. Day 5 I did Baby Yoda, focusing on the line work and breaking away from wanting to add shade. I’ve currently been working on character designs which I think helps separate from wanting to add shade instantly. Day 6 I did an observational drawing of a Turtle ornament. Day 7 I did a reference image drawing from Prokos free packs which I set a 10 min timer on and really focused on the contours, CSI curves and tried hard not to do too much construction. Day 8 I did a very quick sketch of a rose, I wanted to do something different every day and I noticed I didn’t do any plant life so that was my reasoning.

Day 4 of the 2 week challenge, drew a race car I like the streamline c-curves and s-curves. Struggled with the tyres and will probably go back to these. Different to any other tyres I’ve drawn before they’re kind of square but rounded. All in all I enjoyed the challenge of something different. I think it’s important to draw something different as it stretches your abilities.

Day 3 of the 2 week challenge, I did a simplify to CSI cat, honestly hated simplifying it so much to begin with, now I’m actually applying it to my own construction sketches and seeing a massive benefit proportion wise. Now I’ve actually adopted this method outside of this course and applying to sketches in my personal sketchbooks and work, it’s showing how valuable this simplify to CSI technique can be.

2nd day of drawing 2 week challenge. Love how natural the curves in the praying mantis’ anatomy look. So I decided to do a simplify to CSI using this reference image.

Okay, so after getting a little bent out of shape over shoe laces in the simplify to CSI project. I decided to do probably one of the easiest and quickest sketches of my life. I initially chose the blue whale because of the streamline shapes and slender S-curves involved. Started doodling the little fish attached then realised how much I miss shading :’) this line course hits hard for someone like me, I’m used to drawing portraits so breaking away from shading is seeming like an uphill battle at the moment. I’m sure with persistence and determination I’ll start getting comfortable with it.

So after my first attempt, I realise that drawing the contour lines of laces on a shoe is no joke! Like seriously hard without hiding mistakes in shading. I would honestly say after attempting this I would need a lot more practice to pull this off. Maybe I will do the next boot as my day 14 in the 14 day drawing challenge and work my way up doing contour drawings. This was seriously hard, especially for a level 1 exercise.

Didn’t leave mushroom for imagination.

Okay, so after watching the demo video and the critique video, I decided to have another crack at the pear. This time paying attention to getting those shadows flat, edges soft but sharp (without outlining) and simplifying shapes of the value planes even more. I found all of these changes beneficial. However, my light halftones became very loose in line work and not as flat of a tone as I wanted. I think limiting myself to a standard HB might backfire badly for me in this course. But I look to approach the level 2 with a full range of pencil grades, hopefully I can achieve better results next time.

This was before watching the video. I used an HB pencil throughout, found myself struggling wanting to blend but forced myself not to :’) After watching the demo, I realise I went straight into the darkest value first. Whereas Proko goes for the second darkest, then builds up his darkest. Also I noticed how he simplified the shapes a lot more at the beginning of the drawing. I am open to some constructive critique please. Also do I go again? Or do I move on to the next project?