Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8516 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
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level-1-pear-3.jpg
2 MB
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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.

@alvianowar
I did all three of the pears. The first image has the collection of all the drawings. I kinda wanted to find a pencil to do the experiment. Landed on dry ink. Kinda flat I know but a bit easy. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.
Rome Martin
Just enrolled so I'm new! First time doing traditional art, I've been doing 3D art for quite some time and decided to learn how to draw in order to hone the fundamentals. Here's my pear attempt!
Chloe Sloan
Very new here :) I feel like I had a hard time keeping the lines sharp in between values. Do I need to go darker on my darks to make it more noticeable? Any tips would be appreciated! :)
Vic Guzman
Fantastic in my opinion… I like that you included the flaws instead of ignoring them. I found myself wondering what to do and how to go about shading…. Seems we did similar.
Vic Guzman
My attempt. I need lots of education, tips, and more practice. I’m posting the same drawing with flash on and off. Go easy on me :)
@lillian7919
Hello. That was not easy as someone who never learned block drawing and did straight observation. I think this method will help me with a drawing I'm working on. The hair is particularly challenging on the other drawing.
@queensransom
I tried to draw all three pear images. I didn't think about the layout initially, so the shadow for pear #1 got cut off. I also need to keep my outlines lighter in the future. I look forward to your feedback!
@jose7c
2d
Hi!! Here to upload my work. Probably not the best drawings I´ve made (nor the best photos) , but the concept to draw trough edges an planes is pretty interesting!! I´ve made also a digital one.
Cas
2d
Never really tried drawing before, I decided to give it a go. This is my first attempt at pear 1, I think I'll watch the demo and then retry!
Ayrton Oddone
Hi, trust ya'll are good, thank you. I am really excited to be in this course. I tried a couple of attempts with the pear. Aside from my messy eraser, and the fact that I need to invest more time, and patience, into observing and picking out the values I want to use, is there anything ya'll think I could do to improve on this? I am planning to watch the demo this evening.
@virus_kid
First attempt without watching the demo. Struggled with differentiating values, proper pencil control and applying weight is something I need to work on, ended up just using four different pencils.
Ayrton Oddone
Hi, thank you for your artwork. It's fun and stylish. I think this is fine considering you have not watched the demo yet. That would be the next step, to help you understand the values and edges better for this pear. For the shadow of the pear, I think shade in the same direction. I am not an expert, but I think you might want to be a little more patient with yourself when controlling the pencil and applying weight. Other than that, good job!
Jess West
Oliver Fyrsteborg
This is the first time I’m showing a drawing to strangers, and I can tell I’m a bit self-conscious about it, but I’m looking forward to the feedback.
Ayrton Oddone
Hi, thank you for your artwork. I appreciate the effort you made into following the instructions while being original. I am not an expert, but I think maybe fewer lines on the right of the pear might help? I understand you are trying to capture its bumps and edges but simplifying is not always about likeness in my opinion. The shadow of the pear makes it seem like there's a slope so you might want to flatten that (I kinda like it for the spookish feel though). You seem to respect the value system and the shading for the pear looks fairly neat for a first time sharing. Maybe reduce and reorganise the highlights. Try to bulge out the bottom right of the the pear too. Having said that, this is a solid effort and I learned from this myself. Thank you!
@greenmint
Couldn't find a pear so I used an apple. What do you think? I usually draw digital but thought it'd be worth trying traditional with this one, I did notice myself struggling keeping the different values consistent.
Elle S
4d
Attempt at pear 3!
Charisse Varga
I tried drawing Pear #2 this time, digitally. I really hope this process gets easier, it’s just as taxing for me as taking the SATs! Took me 2 hours of problem solving to complete it. What I came against is: when there is a value in between the ones we’re working with, what makes you decide which one to classify it with? Could it be either or? I went back and forth, drew this several different ways but finally decided on the one below. Hopefully the lessons coming up will help with the decision making process
Melanie Scearce
Yes, it's up to you to decide what the threshold is for your value groupings. As long as you justify it with the rest of the value shapes in your drawing, it's the right answer! And yes, it will get easier the more you practice. You'll develop an eye for it. It will take some dedicated effort, but you're on the right track! Technically for this project you want to focus on the 3D form so your value shapes representing the skin blemishes are a bit too much of a tertiary detail for this project, but that's very nit-picky. This is a great pear, nice job!
Coinintact
Just tried the pear demo for the first time, I used an hb and a 2b pencil for the shade, and a white colored pencil for the highlights. I look forward to your critique!
Dawn Skinner
Assignment 1 - Drawing the pear in this manner was difficult but fun. I know I have a lot of work to do, and I look forward to your critique.
Melanie Scearce
This is an excellent pear! You did a great job with this project. I really like the shapes you designed here. The only thing I would point out is how close the second and third lightest values are to each other. When you squint at the drawing, they blend together into one shape. The squint test is a good way to check if your value shapes stand up to each other. Other than that, I think you nailed it!
Je_suis Ju
This was harder then i thought. Not very satisfied with the result but oh well! It means i have a lot of work to do. (Level 1 - pear 1)
Rheannon
4d
My attempt before following Proko's tutorial. Early days but learning lots
Arca Ludo
Level 1 - Pear 2 I used the Jaeger Brush from the Procreate Library. I wonder if I should have used a charcoal brush instead.
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