On Courses + Tools use code BLACK20
@toph
@toph
Earth
Activity Feed
@toph
Asked for help
I just finished this still life and would appreciate any critiques!
Rachel Dawn Owens
This is a really nice still life painting! The details and textures are so good! I think that your values look really good, but that apple in the front is drawing too much attention and some parts look a bit cluttered. You can fix this by just choosing a few areas to have the full range of values. It’s ok to let some details fall into shadow. Great stuff! Keep it up!
@toph
Asked for help
If anyone wants to critique this still life, that would be much appreciated!
Rachel Dawn Owens
Beautiful! The pot with the steam is especially great. I like the variety in edges. Your still life is artfully made. The only thing I would change would be minor. If you darken the value of the wooden plate, it will separate the spoon from the pear and make it easier to read. That is all. Keep it up! This is great.
@toph
2mo
I’m doing a challenge to get better at still lives, so I welcome anyone who wants to improve to join me!
Melanie Scearce
To address your frustration with your still life skills -- it's a muscle, and you can't expect a muscle that gets less exercise to be as strong as a muscle that you work out all the time. Don't sweat it! If you like doing still lives, do more still lives. And if you don't, try to be realistic about your expectations. Learning fundamentals and principles will give you transferrable skills that can improve your still life, but unless you practice consistently, you just won't have the mileage. And if you don't enjoy doing it, why have the mileage? I really like this composition! I personally would group the black box with the shadow shape on the table cloth because they are so similar in value. I do like how you separated the plum from the box by fading it out, it looks really interesting. Nice work :)
@toph
2mo
Thank you so much!!!
Steve Lenze
If you are going to render the values, you should render all the values- that includes the table and the background. That is the only way to properly judge if your values are correct.
@toph
2mo
I tried my best, but honestly I wasn’t sure how to go about it? Like should I have drawn the pattern, because I don’t think I’d be able to do that honestly, but the stripes count as values right?
@toph
2mo
It’s been a little while since I did a still life so I thought why not practice? I think I should consider doing a still life at least once week because I think I have a lot of room for improvement which is kind of frustrating because I thought I’d be a little farther in my drawing journey since it’s almost been 2 years since I started. But they say critiques are the best way to improve so anyone who sees this, please give it to me straight lol
Steve Lenze
Hey toph, Your proportions look pretty good and your poses are good. The issue I am seeing is that you need to focus more on the gesture of the pose. You do this by finding a gestural "S" or "C" curve that describes the pose from top to bottom as well as the limbs. I did a quick sketch to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)
@toph
8mo
@Steve Lenze I see, get a little too focused on the details, how did you get the figure to have things like an elbow and calf while still making the lines fluid a continuous? (I hope my tone doesn’t come off defensively or anything! If it does I apologize I tend to write on the more formal side)
@toph
Asked for help
I was hoping that anyone who sees this post could tell me what I’m doing wrong? I can’t tell if I’ve improved…at all, but I’m biased so. On the left are my earliest attempts and on the right are my most current gesture drawings. Btw feel free to be totally honest, I won’t be discouraged or upset.
Melanie Scearce
Great practice! I really like the gesture in 91. You captured a beautiful line from his right foot to the top of his head. Keep looking for those rhythms. Think of gesture as an action line -- it describes movement or the anticipation of movement. Feel free to loosen up with quick gestures, and experiment with 10 second drawings to attempt to capture the gesture in just a few lines. And most importantly, keep drawing :) You will continue to see improvements. Best of luck!
@toph
added a new topic
Gesture Critique
8mo
@itswaker
Day 2. Struggling with drawing confident lines, both straight and curvy. Also with making sure I have an even tone. But I will keep chugging on.
@toph
1yr
I think it looks pretty good! Drawing circles is tough though since you can’t measure it the way you would with a straight line. My approach is to create a box that the circle can then sit inside of. I do this by mesuring out the “verticle” and “horizontal” of whatever round object I’m observing.I hope this made sense
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!