Notes

PDW Artists Critique #1
1. look for opportunities to blacken in area, try to vary the tones, it gives the image more clarity especially with the background, also take your time and slow down, keep pen down on-page and not lift it up. you gain momentum by slowing down. some in with solid areas of black to give more visual clarity. try to get good sense of movement and good line of action, also use color to your use advantage, distinisuh between elemtns dark shapes next to the light shapes. in calarts sketchbook so your working thought process, how you think as an artist and your own world.
2. work as slow as possible and look for the shapes of these forms, try to be honest with these shapes, cause everything you put on the page is from intense observation, start with people seated, if they shift then try to incorporate that into the drawing, when drawing dress or something, think about the structure and think about how the folds are coming out and around that person's figure. even if you include less in the drawing, spend more time doing it.
3. try to indicate more of the environment, not just the bench those people are sitting on, try to darken things more to create more distinction between elements in the piece.
4. keep in mind about perspective, as elements go away from us their elements have to converge somewhere back, without converging it feels warped and odd then.
5. try to include the background of these people, use the space to uplift the drawing not just act as a blank background. distinguishing ech figure from each other with colors is very useful, try to spend more time in the faces, like in the clothing,
6. try to imply the background in some way,
7.
8. (mine) more interesting to look at work that shows where you live, like personal art it's very revealing about people, take your time though, try to pull the single, it looks scratchy in certain areas (oops), try to really take your time with your contours, it may not look exactly like that person, try to be more confident in your drawing, the more you do this the easier it will be, try to vary up lineweight to indicate depth of the piece so like, use a thin pen for the background, thicker pen for the midground, and then foreground use a thicker pen, it helps with spatial depth, things nearer you are heavier and darker, things further are lighter, mix different media to describe the special elements (whatever the fudge that means), basically, try to slow down and take your time (don't do the scratchy thing).
9. try to start with something other than a person's head so your proportions will look more natural, look for the interior shapes, look for the folds of the clothes and block in some shadow shapes.
10. mix up line weight, use different pens different mediums for different spaces, in the foreground you should spend more time on the details, its ok to let the background be more out of focus. environment helps gives a good sense of the location and people
11. keep confident clear linework, simplify shadow shapes as light works over the form, color in shadow shapes,
12. take your time, look for overlaps,
13. make environment static and rounded so you can make the active elements stand out more, have more clarity in certain areas by using dark and light more so, color in interior or so, it'd bring elements out more.
14. try to do 15-20 minutes of drawing of reportage every day, make sure you really focus during these times, make sure you focus on slowing down, work as slowly as you can, clarify the figures
15. use color to your advantage to help with clarity and all.
16. try not to create tangents with the edges of the piece
17. its good to tell a story through composition, think about receding space,
ok i give up, there's just so much information i really can't bother to keep up

top tips: vary up the lineweight, emphasize specific elements over others, think about spacial depth, look for larger areas you can dark in, try to draw the eye in, he talks a lot about elements, values, contrast, design elements and all (which is great because i am so bad at design frick me) basically try not to let it look all the same, add diversity in your lines, form of media, really try to focus and spend more time doing your drawings, go slower than you usually would so you can get all the contours of the figure, respond to how the light works on the figures and environment, also make sure you show the environment as it adds a lot to the piece, look for larger shadow forms and recognize how shadow forms over the figure, try and show the space that the people/figures are in, the hands and head help lead the eyes around the piece. think about perspective when you're drawing, pieces near the front will be bigger than piece near the back, let clarity/defintion of object fall off as it goes further away.
Biggest tip: make sure you slow down when doing reportage, don't rush it