Welcome to the third week of my 2019 art course! I hope you enjoyed the assignments from the previous two weeks, and if you haven’t done them yet, then don’t worry. You can still go back and do them before doing this week’s assignments.
During this week there are four different assignments for you to complete, one for illustration, one for perspective, one for design, and one for rendering.
I suggest you try to spread out one assignment over one day, that way you have a couple of extra days to polish things up before you get the next week’s assignments. Remember that if you work in a timely manner, your art is more likely to be featured at the end of the month!
Try not to get too caught up in perfectionism while working on these assignments. At the end of the day, it’s more important for your work to be finished, not perfect.
With that said, let’s get into the assignments!
Illustration assignment.
Your illustration assignment this week is to do at least five studies of small items found in nature. This includes things such as flowers, mushrooms and fungi, saplings, small corals, and other small plants.
These studies will be pretty minimal, done with just lineart. Simple shading is encouraged, but not required. Please don’t render things out or use any color washes.
You may do photo studies for this illustration assignment. When working on this assignment, make sure to use references, and keep an eye on these things:
- Shape
- Volume
- Contours
- Perspective
Don’t draw what you think you know, instead, draw what you see. Take measurements, start with broad shapes, and don’t get caught up in the details.
If you’re unfamiliar with lineart or shading, please check out the tutorials provided in the first week.
I’ve already compiled some photo references for this assignment, however you are free to gather your own references.
Perspective assignment.
For the perspective assignment, please draw a furnished room in one point perspective. The room should be completely furnished, so have fun and get creative!
As with the illustration assignment, this will be fairly simple, done with lineart. Again, minimal shading is suggested, but not required. Please don’t render things out or use any color washes.
If you’re unfamiliar with one point perspective, please check out the tutorials provided in the first week.
I’ve compiled photo references for this assignment, however this is not a photo study, so your perspective studies should not look exactly like the reference pictures. Try to do different angles than the reference pictures, and add your own personal touches. Of course, you are free to find your own.
Design assignment.
Your design challenge for the next two weeks is to design some weapons.
To start, you’ll be creating a mood board for your weapon designs. Find some reference images of a kind of weapon, as well as some inspiration images. Your inspiration images cannot be of weapons, they must be of something unrelated.
Get around three to five inspiration images to work with. If you’re stuck on finding some inspiration or reference images, I’ve already collected some reference images and some inspiration images.
If you’re unfamiliar with doing a mood board, then check out the example provided in the first week.
After you’ve made your mood board, you can start making thumbnails for your designs. Thumbnails are small and rough sketches that you use to get ideas out. Please do at least three thumbnail designs per inspiration image you have.
This means that if you have three inspiration images, you should have at least nine thumbnail designs.
Please don’t add any shading or color to your thumbnail.
Design tip: Don’t get too caught up in the details while making your thumbnails. They should be clean and readable, but still loose enough that you can expand upon your ideas next week.
Design tip: Pay attention to the shape and silhouette of your overall design, as these can communicate a lot to your viewer.
Rendering assignment.
Rendering in art is about making things look three dimensional with shading and lighting. For your this week’s rendering assignment, please render some simple shapes without using any references.
Unlike the previous two weeks, I want this to be done from the imagination, as a test of your skills.
There should be no lineart in your finished artwork for this assignment, as the shading and edgework should be enough to communicate the different shapes in each study.
Sharing your artwork.
If you’re going to be sharing your artwork on your website, please let me know so that I can check it out.
If you’re going to be sharing your work on Instagram, please tag me in it (@cozyrebekah) and use this hashtag: #crartcourse
Let me know if you also want some constructive criticism on your artwork. Often times it can be difficult to see our mistakes, so having a more objective eye can help us improve more quickly.
The week 4 assignments will be posted at 10:30 a.m. ET on the 27th of January. For a better chance of having your artwork featured at the end of the month (on the 25th), please post your work for this week’s assignments before then.
Cozy Rebekah 