Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8979 submissions
Vance Viggiano
When you can't decide on Level 1 or Level 2. I thought it might be fun to try it on gray paper. Everyone's work is inspiring! Happy to be learning with you all!
LESSON NOTES

Alright guys, let's jump into the deep end and see how you do! I feel like we've been talking a lot and not drawing enough. So, before we move on to learning about Lines, I want to give you an opportunity to spend some time doing a simplified drawing. You’re going to draw a pear or portrait if you’re doing the level 2 project. I know… A fruit isn’t the most exciting thing to draw, but it’s going to allow you to focus on the process I’m going to show you, instead of being distracted by a difficult subject matter.

This will let us see where you're at with your skills. It’s totally fine if you're at zero. Kind of expected actually. But, you'll identify right away what you struggle with. And you’ll be introduced to a lot of the skills that you’ll be working on improving in this course.

You can draw from the photos I provided in the downloads tab, or find your own fruit and draw from life. Pick a fruit that has an interesting shape you like. Put the fruit on your desk and shine a light on it. Move the light around until you like the balance of light and dark shapes. 

If you don’t want to draw the photo I provided, or you want to do more than one, feel free to find your own photo. Just make sure you choose a photo with a strong single light source that creates a clear separation of lights and shadows. Many moons ago I wrote a blog post about good photo reference.

Make sure you take a photo of it from your point of view, so you can include it when posting your drawing in the community. If you want to be critiqued by me or others in the community, we'll need to see what you were drawing. 

Join us in the premium course to get access to this lesson, full lesson notes, assignments, demonstrations and critiques!

DOWNLOADS
jpeg
level-1-pear-1.jpg
2 MB
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level-1-pear-2.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
jpeg
level-2-portrait.jpg
1 MB
mp4
project-simplify-from-observation.mp4
183 MB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-english.txt
5 kB
txt
project-simplify-from-observation-transcript-spanish.txt
6 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-english.srt
9 kB
file
project-simplify-from-observation-captions-spanish.srt
8 kB
ASSIGNMENTS

Use the reference photos in the downloads tab or go find your own reference and start drawing! Remember, this project is all about simplifying to clarify.

Make sure to keep these 3 things in mind:

Shapes - Draw your shapes with straight lines
Values - Use only 5 values. 2 in the shadow and 3 in the lights
Edges - Make every single edge sharp!

I'll publish my drawing demos of both levels next Tuesday so you can watch me go through the problem solving process. For a chance to be included in the critique videos, you must submit your drawing to the community by January 26th, 2023, so I can begin filming and producing the critique video.

Jay Grant
21h
Before demo.
Charlie Wong
Before and after demo 🫰
Charlie Wong
Pear-2 & pear-3, pear-2 drawing in office so HB only
Jerome Tan
Added on the background after going through the critique video.
@frat14
2d
I also tried level 2.
@juliapicturebooks
I decided to try level 2 as well. thanks again :)
Camille Varner Kolafa
It looks like you lost a little bit of what you had going on in your pear, which had really strong shapes! Make sure you're keeping those shapes solid in the portrait too! In your portrait, some areas of value are without solid shapes, like the left side collar for example. I think most of your values here are also too similar. The hair is the darkest value in the photo, but that doesn't translate as well in your drawing. I would suggest keeping your shading lines closer together to help with that. It also can help to start with breaking down the darkest value shapes, and from there finding the next values, eventually making your way to the lightest.
@juliapicturebooks
Hi :) I'm not sure I used three values in the light. I'll check out the demo now. Thanks for having a look :)
Camille Varner Kolafa
I see what you mean, I think your values could use one more shade, something in between the 2nd lightest and the 1st dark, a midtone. Try making a light-to-dark scale if you haven't already, it will help establish what your 5 values will be and you can refer back to it. It might help if you go darker with the darkest, and a little darker with the 1st dark. That should help your eyes to see how dark/light the midtone you're missing needs to be.
@creachur1
i've moved on from it now but figured i would post my few attempts... i feel like it was a bit tricky for me to try and have decent outlines for the lighter values, but am mostly happy :) it was easier with more pencils for sure...
Melanie Scearce
The lighter values are more difficult to control for sure. It helps to do a little 5 value scale in the corner somewhere on the page to get a bit of practice in, and that serves as a palette to 'color' pick from when you do the exercise. These are great pears!
Camille Varner Kolafa
Decided to try my hand at this. I work so detailed and rarely simplify things, so it was a challenge. I found myself wanting to break down every single plane and value I could see, but I tried not to go overboard with too many!
Hareesh Gounder
The three pears before and after watching the demo and critique video. Its insane how much of a difference it makes but i think i still struggled with even shading especially of the shadows
Yasmeen Nabeel
i think im a level 1 but i attempted 2 but the values got a bit lost this is before the demo
@owo
3d
First attempt.
Ash
1d
Nice!
Camille Varner Kolafa
This is a lovely first attempt, I think you nailed it!
Rhett Dantzler
newbie. This was fun
@drawmeabathpls
square pear
@dwiener94534
New to drawing. A long way to go. Having trouble "seeing" the changes in shading.
@drawmeabathpls
Really beautiful, great work!
@jaygood93
Any and all advice and critiques are really appreciated
Patrick Bosworth
This looks really good! When you take a look at this sketch, squint your eyes down and look at the separation of light shapes and shadow shapes. Sometimes it helps to completely close one eye, and squint down the other. You have a fairly nice separation of light and dark, but your (2) light and (3) dark halftones are reading very close to your (4) reflected light in the shadow, this is very common! It always helps to re-establish and darken your shadow shapes once you lay in your light and dark halftones. Take one more pass at darkening all shadow values to give a more even, and clearer separation of your dark and light shapes. Keep up the good work!
@drawmeabathpls
Strong line work! 💪
Jake Guillereault
Re learning how to draw but in procreate! I want to take this whole class over
Camille Varner Kolafa
Looking good Jake! My biggest suggestion would be to keep using those straight lines you've got for the contour, for the rest of the shadows as well and break them into shapes to clearly differentiate each value on their respective plane, instead of blending. I think you could also go a lot darker in your shadow :)
Morten Dahl Pedersen
I think I missunderstood the assignment? I have a long way to go
@drawmeabathpls
It’s sooo okay to feel like you’re not talking in all the information! These are REALLY great and you should be proud of these pieces! Keep moving forward with the course and keep drawing ✍️
Lucy Ellams
First pear! Been drawing for a month now but first time trying shading
@drawmeabathpls
🤌 🔥
@jaygood93
First time shading that is really good
@guardianlemartes
Behold a pear. I had trouble drawing straight lines But I'm working with both my program and trying to relearn drawing after not for years.
Michal Grossmann
After I finished all lessons in Level 1, I tried this project in Level 2.
Camille Varner Kolafa
Looks awesome Michal, good job using shapes to define the values.
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