Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids
7:52 PM, Wednesday April 3rd 2024
I had a lot of fun with this lesson. I'm not sure if I did the textures on the insects right though.
Hello, hello, Fable, Once again, I’ll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.
Organic Forms with Contour Curves
Cases of pinching or bulging make somewhat less appearances compared to your Lesson 2 submission; however, I would like to stress the importance of keeping your sausages as simple as possible. It's easier said than done, but simplifying the sausage is integral to building a solid structure. Continuing on comparisons, the degree shift is definitely more apparent for the most part. Especially on the sausages with a little more bend, it's clear for the viewer how the forms turns in space.
Insect Constructions
Now for the insect constructions, once again, I think you've followed the instructions and methods of construction fairly well, so unfortunately, I won't have much to add, but I'll try to reinforce any concepts that may have been missed.
If we observe the reference images, the legs suggest there are more complexities at play that go beyond just a simple sausage. Rather than using a complete form to represent the change in form, we can start with a simple sausage and build out the bulk to establish a new form. For example, at the mantis construction, the forelegs present the opportunity to convey our understanding of additive construction. This concept for leg construction isn’t as heavily enforced as in lesson 5; however, being aware of the mass from the reference image allows us to sell the believability of our constructions. Not only to the viewer but also to ourselves.
The method of leg construction is followed pretty closely on most constructions until they tend to appear like stretched spheres on the dragonfly, mantis, and mosquito drawings. As the lesson stands right now, it's not really about creating a perfect 1:1 reiteration of the image but to capture the gesture and solidarity with chains of sausages using the reference as a blueprint to do so.
Following up on the details, some restrictions are outdated in Lesson 4, so stick to the blue excerpt on the Lesson 2 dissections page and try to ignore reflections and local color whenever you decide to add texture to form. Moving onwards, I also suggest avoiding adding cross-hatching to the ant and mosquito eyes. For the ant eye, the light appears to be casting a shadow onto the small bumps. Take this chance to imply the presence of those forms. Unfortunately, I don't think the mosquito image quality is high enough to perceive the eye texture, so you can just add some cross contours like you've done for the previous insects.
Okay, I think that just about covers it, so I'll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 5. Keep up the good work.
Next Steps:
Remember to take these exercises into your warm-ups (10–15 minutes), and you can move on towards Lesson 5. Good Luck!
This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.
I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.
No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.