This one was much harder than I expected. It was tough to break a picture down into shapes and not end up just copying the image (or making it unrecognizably simple). I totally flopped on the hippo, so I'll give that another try after watching the demo/critiques, but I think the buffalo turned out okay!

Fantastic video. This, and the whole lines chapter, both definitely "paint a picture" (couldn't help it) that I've got a lot of work to do on improving my own line quality and confidence in laying down lines. I feel it as I'm drawing, and see it in my drawings when I'm done. I feel like I'm still trying to *copy* what I'm seeing, and stressing over my drawing not looking exactly like the reference (dimensions/proportions). As a result, my lines don't look or feel confident, and I erase and redo and end up "searching" for the right line. I guess "confident" in this case could also be swapped with "experienced", couldn't it. I'm sure practice and repetition, and becoming more familiar with shapes (next course, can't wait), will make me more experienced and therefore more confident in laying down lines. But I'd still love to hear how other people might have overcome this hurdle, and how you improved your line quality!

For this first attempt, I traced just the major/structural lines using light strokes (like we did for the rhino project), then used the original as reference for the rest. Instead of trying to get the line weight on the first try, I laid down all the lines lightly/with thin strokes, and then built them up like Stan showed in the demos and critiques. Feeling way more comfortable with it now. I'll try it again (likely with another image), and do it fully from reference (no tracing outlines). Really enjoyed this exercise!

There was definitely some choice paralysis on this one with a lot of the lines, especially on some of the skin folds (major vs minor shapes), but I definitely enjoyed this exercise. It was nice to trace something and only focus on line weight. I do need to work on my pen sensitivity settings though, those transitions from thick/heavy to thin/light aren't the prettiest in the shadow line weight drawing, but I hope it still gets the intent across.

Wanted to try this one again after the critique and demo videos, see if I could get more loose with my sketches, and I think I got much closer to the mark this time around. Fought the urge to get more detailed this time and refine lines! I'll refine this one for fun later.

Attempted the hand and VR girl. I'm very happy with how the hand turned out, still not convinced I actually drew it, but I struggled a lot with the VR girl and her proportions. It turned out okay, but I definitely got hung up on sizing, spacing, and details, and found myself zooming in and drawing contours instead of sketching with larger, energetic strokes to capture the flow. Is there an upcoming lesson on getting proportions from observation or reference down onto canvas, to avoid redoing sections midway into a sketch?

Starting with the penguin as it's all I've got time for today. I caught myself trying to contour more around the feet because of the fine details (erasing and re-doing small segments too much), but beyond that I really enjoyed trying out looser strokes at a lower opacity (digitally) to "find" the line on this one, and I felt like I was much faster at getting through the penguin compared to previous projects. Dreading the hand a bit though...

The demo and critique videos helped so much. Boxing in the shape first, and then laying down several lighter strokes to build up the value of the CSI lines (using averages) went much better, compared to my first attempt which I took to be more like a gesture drawing. Any critiques at this stage? I already see that my accuracy/consistency with repeating strokes needs work, particularly on that lower, wavy bit of the snail's tail/body, but I know that'll come with practice.

"Fight the urge and simplify," and I took that personally. I might have gone too simple and ended up more with gesture drawings with CSIs instead of contours with CSIs. I'll watch the demo and retry this one as I feel that I didn't quite get the intent the first time around. Would still love critiques either way!

This was a lot of fun. Doing it digitally made it clear how hard it is to control pen pressure, but I can feel it getting better! It was also a great way for me to try out different pencil settings (size, opacity, flow) to make lay-in easier. Also found out how hard it is for me to do clockwise circles (right-handed)! I wonder if that's worth practicing too, or if I should just stick with what's comfortable and just rotate the canvas. Love this as a warm-up.