Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
05:36
47K views
lesson video
Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 3844 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.

@kushkaviar
First submission here! Enjoying my blocky pear study. Any tips would be great for the road ahead :)
Dominique
17h
Melanie Scearce
Very nice portrait, Dominique! You did a great job simplifying the values. I have a few suggestions below to tweak some values to increase the contrast like in the reference image. Hope you find them helpful!
@mithridatium
Second crack at the pear
Melanie Scearce
Nice, this is a huge improvement! Great job with the lay-in drawing of the pear, the proportions are more accurate. This pear feels like it's sitting on a surface, it has weight. That effect is supported by the nice shadow shape you designed on the left side. I'm counting 4 values: the highlight, the lighter halftone, the line that represents the core shadow, and the shadow value on the left. My suggestion is to try adding that 5th value, a transition value between the lighter halftone and the core shadow line. You may need to spend some time smoothing out that lighter halftone value to make it more consistent before you go in and add that 5th value. The key is to create clear separations between the value shapes with the sharp edge of the shape, which is more difficult to do with lighter values. Don't stress if you have to take more time for that part of the process, it's good for developing pencil dexterity.
Karthik Kaipa
Best i could do right now. In retrospect, should have made the third and fourth values more distinct
Patrick Bosworth
Good eye with your self critique! You used straight lines and kept your edges sharp, overall your silhouette looks good, this is a great start! Take a look at the demo and critique next before you try it again, you'll see improvement immediately. Keep up the good work!
Michael Rivera
So much to be improved on…
Brad
2d
I attempted pear-1 and I thought I really didn't follow the instructions, so I did pear-2 trying to be more mindful about following the instructions. I haven't watched the demos yet. But I've experienced on both after I've done the outlines when doing edges I seemed to always lose the outlines because of drawing over them. It was fun! I'll attempt the level 2 tomorrow. I'm taking some rest now. I am glad I stumbled upon this beginner course. I am hoping to do more of it.
Chris Coker
Here is my first attempt at pear example #3.
Benjamin Gustafsson
Now I'm done with this part. Still a lot(!) to practice on but now I'm ready for a new challenge. Ended with a little value study of a picture of my son!
@georgiarose
It's been a while to draw, needed time to understand how to draw this pearl, any pointers? I know its not perfect haha.
@seeecret
pear and guy. it was fun!
@marcuskcampbell
I am very new to this, but please give strong feedback on what is needed to improve. I know it is probably a lot, but still. Thank you!
Me Ch
4d
I did photo reference three! Please help me in what I need to focus on more and what i have a good fundamental in :)
Ricky Teter
Pear-1
Dominique
Azan Alim
I drew the first sand-which.
Ashira Tokiyama
Zach McCoy
From watching the video, I realized I needed to be more careful with outline value, but also to consider interesting shape design over a more precise (attempt to) match to reference. Excited to keep learning!
@abracadabs
Ooh I love the shapes you found in this. Especially those highlights.
Ashira Tokiyama
@sekun
5d
My first attempt at this project. Any advice?. I'm trying to learn digital art and all. Any tips and criticisms are appreciated.
Chris Horne
My pear attempts!
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!