Here’s a glasses trick that works for me: if you use bifocals, stand about 2-3 feet from the reference and look at it through the bottom (near vision) part of the lens. That gives me a nice blur effect. It helps to reduce the image size a bit if you’re using a screen.

Level 1 three value studies:

I made this pretzel lookin’ thing. Sketched out the idea, drew it and then traced two versions with different overlap.

I did the level 1 version a bunch of times and just posted the last two attempts. I only had time to take one stab at level 2. It came out better than I expected, but I had pretty low expectations after seeing how much I relied on being able to see the other values on the scale when doing level 1. That said, I can see how this would be a super helpful skill: when doing an actual drawing, being able to identify where a given value is on the scale without seeing it in the context of the scale seems like it would be quite useful.

This was probably the most challenging exercise I'd done. It really forced me to work a mental muscle I'd rarely used before. Honestly, it was frustrating how you had this somewhat blurry image of the object in your mind but couldn't quite capture it on paper the way you pictured- whether from memory or imagination. Still, this project gave me a ton to think about! (And 3D models were very helpful) Some takeaways: - Need more practice with those primitive forms, particularly ELLIPSES & CYLINDERS! - Would've been easier to imagine different views if I knew how to rotate planes/shapes (and by extension forms) like a rectangle or trapezoid. Perhaps I need to find a way to practice mentally rotating planes? - One more helpful skill here was drawing through (i.e. X-ray vision), which wasn't always easy. Another thing to work on. I managed to do just the whistle. Hopefully I can do more later. Thanks for a great exercise and quality resources :)

I did pose #4 from the last project. Studied the image and drew from a different angle from memory. I compared the results, made some notes and tried again from memory. I couldn't figure out how to connect the upper torso to the hips so I just left it kind of floating there. I suspect that I didn't put it in the right position. I think it should be down and to the left a bit, but not too sure about that.

I did game 3 for the anvil and meat grinder. For the anvil, I looked at it for a minute or two then drew from memory from a made-up angle. I compared my drawing to the model, made some notes and drew again from memory from a different angle. For the meat grinder, I made a few quick studies then drew from memory. I think the studies helped me to remember details but apparently did not help with the proportions because my proportions are quite different than the model. Note to self: when doing a study, pay attention to proportions. And, for the bonus, I was taking a bike ride by the bay and there were hell of pelicans flying around so I tried the moving subject. I made a few quick studies then went home and drew from memory.

Hi, I tried to break down the back part of the whistle into a cylinder and realized that I have trouble drawing a box from a cylinder. We've learned how to construct ellipses/cylinders from boxes...but I can't do the reverse, where you imagine a box based on an ellipse/cylinder. Below is my attempt - bascially, I found the minor & major axes first and then...guessed what would be the center of the box and went from there. Could anyone please tell me the right way to do this? I'm sure my cylinder and box is wrong. The back ellipse should prbly be fatter.

Week 4:

Week 3. I always thought it funny that drummers refer to the thing they sit on as a throne. And that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the assignment.