Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
05:36
48K views
lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8096 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
jpeg
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.

@neevey
5h
Hi everyone! I started this course a while ago but took a long break. Now, I want to start over from the beginning. To be honest, I was more nervous about posting this update than actually getting back into drawing! I feel a bit silly, but I'm here now. And here is what I managed to draw:
@othnielps
23h
Complete begginer, I tried both assignments
Melanie Scearce
Thanks for posting @othnielps! Did you find anything challenging about this project?
@johnny7
23h
pre sketched the figure in read and went in with a bit of cross hatching since I was running around with a .5 led pencil and a red wooden pencil. so I kinda was working on proportions and giving enough context on depth
Sean G
1d
Drew on 9x12 strathmore drawing paper; It took me 10 iterations to try to find my flow over a couple of days. In the beginning I was perplexed like learning the ins and outs of a new puzzle.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
These are great. Way to go to push through it. That's a key to success!
Nachelle Aldous
This was difficult! I found myself wanting to quit. I found it hard to make a clear distinction between dark midtones and light shadows on a complex form. I'm looking forward to getting the hang of this.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
You did a great job. Love how this looks!
Hodiyah Green
I think I did pretty good with this pair, I must say it is pretty hard to find the shape of the values.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice job! This came out great.
Nachelle Aldous
Happy to hear feedback! Thanks!
Patrick Bosworth
Nailed it! This looks great! I really love the uniformity of your shading direction, and your values are really well handled! Great shape design, too! Be sure to check out the demo/critique for these. Looking forward to seeing your level 2 of this project!!
Imraan K
2d
pear #3, messed up the values but the shapes got better
Tim Norris
Pear #2. Circled back around to this because I found it frustrating the first time. No less frustrating. At least I can sort of begin to see the halftones this time.
Mengran Xie
1st attempt - finding the direction of shading was pretty hard -. -
Alejo Alvarado
First assignment! I struggled with getting consistent shading, but im happy with it!
Minh Hiếu Ông
First attempt
Melanie Scearce
Nice shapes!
Crow Semantic
My attempt at the pear
Sam Wells
Order is: before demo, after demo and after critique. Hardest part for me was keeping the values clean and consistent, especially with the lighter tones. Any feedback appreciated 🍐🍐🍐
@briggs
5d
Here is my pear I don’t mind how it turned out but I have a lot to learn
@hannahkoo
Pear:P
@othnielps
Here is my attempt
Sara Coppens
My attempt at the first pear. Before demo - after demo - after the critique video Feedback would be appreciated :)
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Really nice Sara! One thing I would look at, particularly in your third pear, is that that little patch of light in the shadow section doesn't get too light. Our eyes often trick us into thinking that something is lighter than it is when surrounded by darkness. In an exercises like this, it may even make more sense to simplify it all together and remove that little patch of light area, if you don't have enough values to work with. One other area you could play with is getting the core shadow a little darker. This is the area between the light and dark side and often one of the darkest parts on a form. The core shadow is a great tool to help make our drawings feel more 3 dimensional. Again, great work!
@sinnay
6d
My attempt at pear-1. Any feedback would be appreciated!
@microsoftpaint
I am extremely new to drawing; something I keep having trouble with is drawing too small simply because it feels signficantly more natural than using the whole page (probably because it allows me to draw with my wrist more). How can I break this habit?
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!