Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
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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
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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.

Nonerror Fred
Here's my attempts of level 1 and 2, with 5 shade of values. I tried the pears for a few times, they're ugly and messy at first, but they have improved as I go on. It is really fun to understand how shades and shapes correlate together. I will upload a second attempt after I watched the demo and critique. Critiques are welcomed! Thank you!
Chester Clark
Did someone say, “Give him a long neck!” Because that’s what I did. Or maybe it’s a short chin. Anyways this my first attempt, I’ll try it again.
@notjekyll
16h
My first attempt - I don’t think it went as bad as I feared!
Mosi Jones
Hello all, this is my first attempt of the Level 1 Pear Assignment:
Przemek
3d
Hello, first try
Maksim Logvinenko
Attempt at Level 2 I think, I focused more on shapes, then values. Could've done a better job separating them from each other. I'm usually not limiting myself in number of values, so this is definitely my weakest spot. So, yeah, there are a couple things that I would improve, but I do like it overall.
Nadira Anjum
I understood a lot of points here and tried to do what mentioned to do. I will try other viewpoints too.
@bbruce
4d
I’m going to repeat this assignment a few more times before moving on. Next attempt will likely be in a few days after I had some more practice in my sketchbook and after watching the demo / critique videos. I made note of which pencils I used because I have multiple sets and still need to figure out what I like. some areas I struggled with: - clear distinction between values. On my value scale to the left, the three B pencils look the same to me! I’m going to spend some time in my sketchbook making value scales like this until they have a clear distinction like in the video. I found myself going back over some parts in the pear to fix the values. - judging size and shapes of the values on the pear itself. This was harder than I thought to translate these shapes to the paper. I think in my sketchbook I’ll try copying value outlines in the things I see around me for practice. - the paper itself. I thought I would use drawing paper for this since it’s an assignment, but the feel is very different than my sketchbook! I think I’ll do the next assignment in my sketchbook so it’s on paper I’m used to and can focus on technique, then maybe I’ll try it a third time on drawing paper again.
Muhammad Yahya
I bought the course yesterday, I was tired of not improving fast even though I’ve been drawing for 5 years, the biggest reason for that was because I only ever drew and not practice and improve, I hope with buying this course, I can improve since I’m practicing for the first time
Benjamin Bittmann
Frist try... Edit: accidently selected the wrong picture, and recognised it a few minites later... Edit2: Tryed level 2 as well...
@jjkib
5d
I tried
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work. I really like the feel of this one. Don't shy away from adding some more straight lines to your curves as you see them. Also, try going a little lighter when outlining the different tone sections. But again, great job and keep at it!
Stephen B
A pear using the first reference image. This is my very first post!!
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work! And I love that you did the value guide. I find that really helps.
@vencu
5d
Pear 2 attempt
@bashayer
Patryk Makosz
I still have a lot ahead of me 😂
@vencu
6d
Learning on a wacom tablet in photoshop for the first time, and not used to digital drawing at all (first drawing at all) so the pencil strokes aren't very even, need to practice more with the tool and add more values to the shading to even it out, will be making a second attempt with a different pear Even when i've drawn on pencil and paper i hadn't really practiced shading so that is new to me entirely
K. Williams
I'm a little nervous about posting my art so apologies if it looks like I'm doing a lot of things all at once. I think this one went OK but I would like to work on getting more consistent values as well as figuring out how to differentiate the light midtone from the highlight.
Melanie Scearce
These are great pears! Your shading looks awesome, nice and even. It seems pretty consistent to me overall. If you feel a bit shaky, a good exercise to practice shading large areas of consistent value is value scales. You can start with a 5 value scale (like you used in this exercise). Draft out 5 squares, then start filling them in. I like to start with the darkest square. You can do this with small squares; to make the exercise more difficult you can try it with larger squares. Or try a 10 value scale. Your value shapes read well. You did a good job making each shape distinct in value. Just be careful not to outline your value shapes with a dark line; you want to try to make the edge solid with your value shape, which in this case is the second lightest value shape, It's tough to do in the lighter value range, but that value scale exercise will help!
Eleni Kamisakis
I’m struggling to get the values right. Can anyone give me feedback? Thank you ❤️
Felipe Fideles
Just getting back on the course. here is my pear :D felt some difficulty in getting the values consistent and identifying the middle value
Frederic Valade
I wanted to draw the first pear using different types of hatching, but I couldn’t manage to do it. I also tried to simplify it as much as possible by using only straight lines, as requested.
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