This isn’t part of any assignment here. in class I was told to do a perspective drawing of a castle. I have no clue how to do 1 point or 2 point perspective. With a few tips I just went with it. I used all 5 perspective tricks, what do you guys think? diminution: 4/5 convergence: 5/5 foreshortening: 4/5 Overlap: 4/5 Atmospheric Perspective: 2/5 (It’s barley used)

The thing I always forget to do when observing masters is observing with a specific criteria in mind. I just look and say, "Wow, that's way better than I could do," and I forget to ask, "Why does this art make me feel this way? What's so much 'better' about it? What can I learn from it?" to phrase the most basic, general questions. To come at it with questions with a particular topic in mind is even better, and gives you deeper answers. Exploring "Rendering," for example, with this artist I'm currently studying for my art job, Jeff Smith. This panel in particular fascinates me. - How does he solve the problem of making a shadowed character emerge from darkness when he only has two colours: black and white? - How does he imply his environment (a forest at night) without making it too busy, or making it too dark? - How does he render a puddle in black and white? Man, and the way he indicates the form of the trees with some short hatching lines, and all the mud and texture on the path, and all the grass and branches... Such elegant mark-making decisions. Haha, thanks for showing me how to hone my observational skills! Criteria is key.

Good evening Marshall and dear peers! I wanted to share kind of a vulnerable view, so maybe others can share how to overcome it. I had a lot of resistance with this assignment, as well as the previous one of creating a personal library of authors/masters we admire. I personally get discouraged and side tracked by looking at others work. I did a good amount of copies back at Art Academy, and I realized that the satisfaction of emulating somebody’s trick or style was a very short lived ego satisfaction. I became really good at copying a look, but the essence of interpreting and valuing based on my own tastes and beauty standards, didn’t develop. My reaction was to not look at the work of others trying to steal, but to struggle myself trying to decipher my own values. Even today, when I look at these pieces of art, I feel my heart sinks because I am still far away from reaching those levels. I do enjoy working on assignments that test my thinking/sensibility skills because those align with the idea of growing my own library of visuals. Does anyone can offer a perspective shift to provoke a change of heart? Thank you in advance to all of you for your honest, personal responses.

These lessons really made me realize how, even tho I see so much art in a day, I truly see very little from it. Maybe limiting the amount of art I look at would help with having my mind focus on it properly, but that might be more of a social media usage personal problem. All in all I shall try to keep in mind the phrase "dessert later".

Awesome breakdown of the works of masters! I need to start looking and paying more attention at these drawings..I put so much emphasis on practicing on my own that I don't look at others' works enough.