I had another attempt of a different pear after watching the demo and the critique. Even though I did a better job I liked this picture less when I finished as now I can see all the problems with it! I made some errors with the initial outline and the angels of some of my shaded shapes are off. I really learnt the benefit of walking away and taking a second look at your work. After I thought I was finished I went back and filled in some more shading simplifying my pear further. I wish I had taken a break and waited for fresh eyes before moving on from my initial outlining.

Final attempt before moving on to the next lesson. This one was done after watching both the demo and the critique. Overall fairly happy with it and I'm definitely beginning to see some improvement in my shading.

I had a lot of fun with this. The first one was done before watching the demo and critique. The second pear was done after watching the demo. The pomegranate was done after watching the critique. Would appreciate some feedback :)

Fixed the shadows to a better extent after watching the the critique video. Also after this one I will be trying my own without the reference to see what I can learn and improve on. I see I misinterpreted and exaggerated the sharp black tone like most did. Any extra input is very welcome would love some feed back this time :)

Hi. Here is my third attempt at this project after watching the critique. I changed the rule and added only one value to the shadow. I did this because I wanted to emphasize the plane changes more. Any advice? 😊

Decided to truly sit down and take what he said about value ranges and incorporate them into a digital version this time. Really liked using colors in this as opposed to greyscale!

My first attempt is the one without the value scale.

Second attempt after watching most critiques and demos... I like the added background, I'm a bit unhappy with my midtones still. I used HB, 2B, and 14B and 2B & 14b behaved OK but HB was super sharp comparatively. Maybe just a note to be slower and more careful. I also *still* find finding the darkest shadows a confusing fools errand. Fun though!

I find it pretty interesting that you pointed out how simplifying an image can help an artist learn to portray values, lines, shapes, etc. more effectively. Over the last few years I've been drawing, one of my problems has been that I've gotten lost in all the detail of a reference image and been frustrated trying to capture everything accurately. I've had a hunch that I should be narrowing my focus more for a while, but it's nice to get that confirmation from an expert.

first attempt with graphite. realized afterwards that i didn’t really simplify as much as i should have. second attempt was digital with procreate, limited myself to 30 minutes to force the simplification

Here is my first attempt at the three pears. I believe I did ok but went in to the detail a little too much and didn’t use the straights enough. The second attempt after watching Stan’s demo and the critique I simplified the shapes more trying to get a sharpe edge between the values and creating the shapes with straight lines.

Please some feedback?

One area I struggled with was pencil technique - getting good separation between the lightest dark and the darkest light, while still getting good separation in the lights. My most successful attempts are just using an HB pencil, adding successive layers of graphite. Any tips for which hardness pencil to use for which value? I know it won't be a firm rule, just looking for ideas of other things to try!

Second

My first attempt on my own model. Learnt so much from this critique. First thing I am going to try, is to use the tip of my pencil more and take more time refining the edges and planes to have more contrast.

Here are my first and second attempt on this pear. First attempt was before watching Stan's demo. On the second attempt I really tried to squeeze my eyes and take all the information from this video and the demo

pear simplifying ,the first try was really struggling.

Lv1 but did the portrait anyway. Overall....it looks alot like an old friend of mine and not alot like the subject :D

TY for these simple reviews. Very helpful. This pear assignment was specific and clear, without question. Found myself saying to myself “… oh that’s what you mean”. I think.my ears need as much fine tuning as my eyes in their ability to see accurately. Ha!