Hi Proko! I´m very excited to start this course. Here's my first exercise, I hope someone can comment on some constructive criticism. Thanks!

Just did my first attempt on the pear drawing (or in my case the mango drawing). I did in three different angles to see if was easier to understand the shadows. I don't know of the light on my desk wasn't good enough but to me the main difficulty was to see the shadow transition. Still also trying to not have so strong lines, erasing wasn't easy also.

Okay, after some critique from a couple friends as well as my own re-examination of this image, I made the following adjustments (in Clip Studio Paint for convenience, similar to how Proko paints over one of the student's values for their group of pears): 1. separated the way I had grouped the shadowing on the left pear, keeping the darkest part where the pears touch at the bottom as the dark accent and then using the rest of the values for the actual pears. 2. Added rebound lighting on left and middle pear 3. Redid the background based on these values, really trying to make sure that the pears don't disappear into the background I think this improves it a lot!

I've done 4 project attempts over the past 2 days so far! 1. My attempt before watching the demo 2. My attempt on the second pear image after watching the demo 3. My attempt on the third pear image, no longer using a mechanical pencil 4. My attempt at drawing my own selected reference image (see attached) after watching the critique video. I had a bit of an epiphany while watching the critique video and realized in my first three attempts, I hadn't been thinking at all about the actual forms and was instead focused on replication, which as Proko says in the video, is NOT what we are trying to do. Like this, It felt like my eyes suddenly opened to what exactly the purpose of using values. They're to communicate the volume and shape, not just where light and shadow are. And in order to communicate, I have to be wary of not just replicating and actually try to understand what I am looking at. I resolved to try it again and while there are still errors (ex. accidentally went too hard and scratched the paper on the right pear's shadow), I am most proud of this one! Thank you, Proko! I learned a lot and am going to attempt the face project next!

For anyone thinking about skipping this lesson because it is super long and you're way too late to make it into the review video: DON'T I was going to skip it but decided to give it a go, then it was over in a blink of an eye. There is SO much good information here. There is a lot of common mistakes I was able to spot on my own drawing based on the feedback Stan is giving to the others. Anyhow, WATCH IT. Seriously, it really gets your brain into problem solving mode and some things I was struggling with start to make sense.

I fini

testing out multiple sketch pencils with various executions in procreate and also testing out using the side of the Apple Pencil (didn’t know that was a feature until yesterday)

I try these long time ago and I came back to this course today. The first attempt is tried too hard, a bit too complicated. After this video, I tried anther time, which is much better. The old sketch book quality seems low, is a bit difficult to not smudge the line and keep geometric shape.

Face took me forever to get good value :d

Alright, 4th attempt. This is probably the best I can get it with my current abilities

Watched the demos realized I needed ti simplify ....wich is super hard gonna work a little more on this before moving on... please if you see anything I don't see please help me to see my mistakes.

I made 2 attempts. Not exactly sure whether the second looks better or not. Also did a pen version

Second attempt first two. First attempt is the fourth photo.

i think I have problems shading still

2/9/2024 Sorry for being gone again, had more relocations between myself & ‘The Heart’, but now I’m ready than ever to get back into Drawing! (Plus trying to be more consistent with uploads.. hehe..) so have some pears. (For some reason it won’t upload properly, so I’ll post an edited version)

Hi, guys! These are before and after the demonstration pictures I drew. I wasn't sure what to do, so I did what I can. After watching the demo, I learned how to draw in much simpler ways! Of course, I'll use that to start before doing more complex. I was in hurry for work. Anyway, if I have more time, and learned to be more patient and gentler with drawing, the outcome would be better. I'm open to any critiques you offer that would help me to improve on. Thank you!

The first two are pears 1 and 2 compared to the pre-critique and demo picture The things I fixed: made cleaner lines got rid of the outline fixed the proportions a bit The problem I ran into was keeping the same light values for the light mid-tones. Some marks seemed darker the more I drew, so I need more practice on that. Also, I may have made the light mid-tones too light since, looking at the picture, I can barely make out the highlights. I am open to critiques, so if there are other things I missed, please let me know!

Before and after watching the critique. * Got rid of the outlines * Attempted to improve the proportions * Tried shading the background

Here are my pears for the level one project. (The first was on my own and the second was along with the demo) I definitely struggled with overcomplicating the shapes. Any critique or feedback would be greatly appreciated!