Project - Simplify from Observation
Project - Simplify from Observation
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Project - Simplify from Observation
courseDrawing BasicsFull course (185 lessons)
$159
assignments 8865 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.

@etjohnson
Let me know what you think!
jay c
11h
tried level 2 to try to challenge myself :)
Isadora Conceição Giorgiano
Yes, we have bananas... ?
Guilherme Ferreira
Hi guys! Here are my first attempt for the level 1 and my second attempt for level 2. I am a level 1 student but I am proud of how much I learned while attempting level 2.
@gnx
1d
My first attempt.
Mitch Legrow
First attempt.
wren randall
First time drawing in a long time. My attempt at the level 1 pear. Learning entirely on an iPad, but I find it hard to keep the values consistent between strokes. Critiques welcome.
Quincy Cooke
Pretty good, Wren!
Quincy Cooke
Level 1 - The Pear. I was in a funk today and almost didn't do the exercise. But, I want to get better, so here it is. I welcome actionable critiques.
Aaron Mascarenhas
My first attempt. Took about an hour. Takeaways: - Was so much easier to keep the strokes as neat as my inexperienced hand allowed with a mechanical pencil than with the regular wood pencils. - Keeping to 5 values is hard! Will try the portrait next. That assignment seems like a much harder value game! I've never done a portrait before. Wish me luck :)
Aaron Mascarenhas
Modified things a bit after watching the demo explanation about how to separate the 5 values. That was helpful!
kari starry
Hi! Here's my shot at the pear
Iris Rosa
I accidentaly aged the boy.
Rising stars chowari
Hello Sir I’ve enrolled in your drawing classes, and I’m attaching my first drawing. This was my first attempt at drawing a real-life object, so I know there is a lot I can improve. I’m really excited to learn from you and improve my skills. I’ll keep practicing consistently and work hard to become a great artist. Thank you for guiding me!
@thefool
4d
Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well ☻ Here are two attempts I did, the first from the end of June and the second just today. I didn't follow the instructions properly in my drawing of the first pear so I decided to try again with the 2nd reference pear. Any feedback is appreciated!
Rain
5d
If I could get feed back on my simplifying of the two observation projects thank you.
Kevin Coalwell
Here is my first attempt at the pear that I did in Photoshop 👍 I appreciate any feedback.
@dougwt
6d
I've been putting off the first project for a couple weeks but I made myself sit down and tackle that pear! Whew. That wasn't nearly as painful as I feared it would be. Feedback is welcome.
@sophialia
My first try at the second level portrait, I have never drawn a person before and it was a real challenge to me, I dont know if I am already advanced enough for level 2 😂 what do you think? I highly appreciate any feedback 😌
@sophialia
My first try at the pears, had some problems to get the differences of the values, it looks a bit mushy to me… I appreciate any feedback 😊
Ben Kraske
Just through these, you're expanding your understanding of values! In your first pear, you've got really nice dark values for the shadows, and then in your third, you did a great job at lightening up the light halftone that's around the highlights. Keep it up! It might be of value for you to make some value scales with the pencils that you're using, that way you can explore how to get them as dark or as light as you need the values to go. Nice job!
Sinister
6d
After trying the 2nd level, I got some pretty satisfying results. I focused on getting the contour lines right, then I started with main shadow, then a darker half tone, then the core shadow, then the half tone, and then i added some highlights to it, or left it while doing the half tone. Then I added some detail to the hair by using the core shadow's color, and I got this. Even with the outline it looks pretty decent! Although it is not good by any means, it is a lot better than what I expected myself to do. Excited to challenge myself more.
Cary
7d
Completed before watching demos.
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