Tayasu Sango
...I don't remember what a tree looks like accurately.
emotion_facepalm We definitely weren't allowed to use references, were we...?
emotion_sweatdrop
Opening Task - Week #3.
I roughly cropped the image to the edges of the paper. Let me know if it's too light (or if there's anything wrong with it in general).
Do we post the video drawings? If so, do we crop to the edge of the paper or do want us to crop the excess space?
You can treat any "omg sketch it now" moments like dailies. Only the quiz really needs to show the the edges of the page so I can see how you used the space. Everything else is just exercise for the mind, eye, and arm.
I find you choice of tree interesting. Are they the type of tree you see around town most often? I'm in NJ, so we've got pines everywhere, but not many pines have that shape.
I suspect its because when you reached inside for "tree", you came up with an immediate icon that comes to mind because of how ingrained it is in society. Not because it's something from nature, but because it's a society symbol. I also think that happened because you're convinced you don't know what a tree looks like and you panicked. You focused on "tree" instead of "a tree".
Am I close?
Haha. It's good to look back and realize how far you've come.
That's why I put such an emphasis on direct observation. (I prefer not to call it just "drawing from life", since that's kind of vague and people tend to limit that to figure drawing). Only a couple short years ago, I didn't ACTUALLY know what a tree looked like either.
My iconic tree was a modification of the tree I drew in elementary school. Remember those lollipop trees? One day I realized that I was just drawing squiggly contour lollipops. As an adult with some ten years of classes, it was unacceptable. So I spent days outdoors, paying close attention to the trees in my area. I paid attention to each section of parts on their own. Drawing them from memory, then comparing the real thing to my drawing. I started taking a full day field trip with my camera, photographing a single subject. After I saw all different kinds of the same subject, I started seeing how some trees had more going on in a certain part, rather than the others. And different trees had different places of interest.
That's all part of direct observation. It teaches you reality, so when you pull your icon "tree", it will be closer to "a tree" than before. It's not too long before you get to a point where your icon is "a tree". Your immediate icon is now something you can actually use in a drawing, so you don't have to rely on reference for it.
To anyone reading: The more you add to your visual library with direct observation and from doing studies, the less time you waste hunting reference. The more time that we can free from hunting reference, the more time we can spend actually designing the image. Design is what separates creating art from playing with supplies.
(Working on week 4. Since I get to start early, this one will be just for you. Let's hope I get another quiz in besides yours by Wed.)
