Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 3770 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.

Jonah Last
First attempt at the pear before the demo video, I used a 2mm mechanical pencil and a blending stick. Please critique, thank you.
@elderem
4h
I reattempted it but this time trying to making it really simplistic. I can't tell if it's good or not. Please critique 👍 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QHmvZqKSCwbqucOqUrm0PmNow4kqNn7k
Nathan Youngman
I'm most definitely a level 1 beginner, but I wanted to give level 2 a try so that I have something more interesting to compare my progress to after the course(s). The proportions in my first attempt were way off! Obviously better observation, hand-eye coordination, anatomy and practice will help that. After a few attempts to fix it, I resorted to tracing some of the key lines 🙀 so I could continue with the rest of the exercise. To address Melanie's critique of my pear (thanks Melanie), I chose pencils further away for more contrast. I also tried using toned paper just for fun. It's still a struggle for me to figure out which of the 5 values to use where, and to try to separate the features while also representing shadows. Thanks for any feedback.
Casey Ashe
First attempt + my orange! I found that I struggled with finding the middle values. Does anyone have any tips/tricks for picking out values? Would love to hear them. Thanks!
Melanie Scearce
You'll get better with practice, but it does help to have a general idea of how lighting is structured. Knowing what is going on in each 'zone' helps you know what to look for. Think of your object like a really low poly 3d model wireframe. Each polygon or plane is facing the light sources (direct and reflected) at varying angles, which determines how dark or light in value they are. These are rules of thumb, so not every situation will follow these rules, but in a basic lighting set-up they apply pretty well. You can also practice by experimenting with the value tool: https://www.proko.com/values. It's a good way to check your work after a project like this.
Nathan Youngman
Pear 2 drawn digitally with Rebelle's pencils. I tried drawing a pear from life first, but I didn't have well enough defined highlights. So I started again from a provided reference photo (pear 2). Now I'm going to go eat the pear, the real one. ;-)
Melanie Scearce
This is a great pear! I think you nailed the shapes, and the dividing line between shadow and light is well designed. The only thing that sticks out to me to critique is that your value range is pretty condensed, meaning there's not that much of a step between values. When you do the squint test, your 5 value drawing simplifies to a 3 value drawing because those values are all within the same step. Increasing your value range by darkening your darkest value and lightening that lighter halftone value will help your shapes stand on their own a bit more.
@drawingpeasant
Hello everyone, I started drawing 1 week ago and this is my first try at the pear so I know there are a lot of things wrong. I did everything with a 5B pencil so the shading is bad especially on the light tone. it lacks graduation. the lines are still stiff as well and I didn't simplify the shape enough. I hope you fellow artist could help me notice what else I could improve on and if you have any tips. Thank you :)
Lisa Cox
2d
First go at pear
@elderem
2d
This is a Google drive folder woth all my art from this course. This is my first assignment so there is only 1 drawing right now. Any critique would be awesome 👌 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QHmvZqKSCwbqucOqUrm0PmNow4kqNn7k
Krock
2d
I drew another pear, with similar instructions as before Think the size of the pear and shape is right, but I think I need to improve on lines and edges and def the values.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work! Don't be afraid to get really dark on the shadow side. A strong contrast will help pop the pear off the page.
Krock
2d
My first attempt on drawing the Level 1 Pear. I think my pear might have been bigger compared to the reference, and I just realised its shadow is much larger in the reference. I also may need to improve on values as well drawing the pear stem. If there are more ways I can improve on drawing, please let me know.
@pummeroy
First and second attempt. The edges around the value changes are too obvious, and edges in general are still difficult.
@magnumexpress
Latest attempt of Level 1, this time going back to Pear 3. Any comments or critiques are welcome
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Really nice! You did a great job of finding the edges of the different value ranges. Also your tone is very even, which is hard to do! The only note I would have is to try to find the core shadow, that section between the light side and the shadow side that often is the darkest part of the from. That will help take this to the next level. But otherwise really solid!
Brian Delsandro
Well, after watching the critique I realized I suuuper did not understand the instructions:) Posting again to add my second attempt. Any feedback would be much appreciated.
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice job! I kind of like the 1st version just because it looks cool! Your second pair is looking good. The only thing I would say, is maybe go a little darker on the shadow side of the pear. This will help it pop off the page a little more. I did a quick draw over to show what I mean. Again, nice work. Cheers!
Kurt McDaniel
Here are my first attempts at Lesson 1. My last art class was 50 years ago.
Tchiñdā Armel Tsomene
Hey y’all, I’m quite new here ! I didn’t have a pear at home but I still wanted to draw a fruit from observation, so here’s a banana. The angle is not quite right and I’m not sure I managed to simplify it enough … but it’s a beginning.
@gejebe
4d
Had a couple of weeks I couldn't draw, so kind of forgot about the particulars of the assignment. I think I managed to stick to the 5 values, but not so much to the straight lines or the sharp edges. I'll try to do better next time!
@pcost
4d
Hi All! I just started the course a week ago. First time drawing since art class in high school years ago. Here are my first two attempts are drawing the simplified pear project. First is before watching the Demo Second is after watching the Demo - I tried to simplify further and use straight edges + make different levels of shading more distinct. All feedback welcome and appreciated!
Noah Dare
Shading and values are definitely no something I practice much. I think I’m pretty happy with it, for what it is.
Cameron Morgan
I struggle the most with values so this exercise is definitely one I’ll be revisiting. With the colored pencil, I found it hard to get the half tone. I found it a bit easier with a mechanical pencil.
@fbranovic
Hi everyone, This is my 1st post here and I am super excited to start this journey. I would appreciate feedback on my drawings of the pears 2 and 3 from the exercises pack. I was mostly struggling with shading (especially lighter tones) and shadow in general. Thanks in advance for the help!
Chuck Ludwig Reina
Nice work! Super excited for your journey too. Art is one of the most rewarding pursuits in life. Getting a good even tone is something that will come with time, and exercises like this are a great way to get that practice in. One thing to think about too is to make sure you are getting the dark side of your form much darker than then light side. It's that gap in value that makes the image pop off the page. Keep it up!
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