Originally I started by trying the advanced version of the assignment and designing my own environment, but I quickly found that too challenging. I switched then, to drawing from a piece of reference. There are three pictures from the assignment here, along with one image I did just as a bonus while watching the course. I had a lot of fun doing all of them. I'm proud of how they turned out, though I think they could all use a bit of improvement. Specifically, I'm not great with linework, and I struggle to control the thickness of my lines to denote depth in an image. I also have trouble picking and choosing what to depict. I sort of just go for everything. Those two points are definitely areas I'm going to work on going forward.

Here are a few notes about each image:

- Shinjuku, Tokyo - I think I captured the overcrowded nature of Tokyo backstreets. This in particular is a picture of Golden Gai I believe. I'm pretty happy with this one overall. I like that I was able to get the far background as a wispy element, even if I couldn't achieve that sort of forced depth with the rest of the alleyway. I also think the grungy texture worked pretty well here.

- Swedish Concept Architecture - I found a picture of a Swedish architectural plan for some kind of building complex. I struggled with this one, because there aren't a lot of grid-based lines to help suggest depth. It's a pretty modern design, so there are a lot of weird angles and unusual stylistic choices. Ultimately it was the human figures which ended up helping to communicate scale the most. But those (and especially the foreground guy) gave me trouble in rendering.

- International Space Station Interior - I customized this one the most, out of all this assignment’s reference sketches. I followed the architecture and details pretty much exactly, but I tried to make the whole environment (which is pretty much new in the original) look old and crumbling. That was a fun process. I also liked the varying complexity of all the elements. It was a bit like doing the Tokyo street image again.

- Forest/Mountain Scene (not part of the assignment) - This was a quick one that I did while Aaron was creating his own version of the corresponding photograph during the course. I tried to push my river as far as I could to help the perspective, and I did my own mountain. But mostly I did this one as a ‘paint by numbers’ to get the feel for Aaron’s style. (Note: Chronologically, I did this one first out of the four pictures. But I’m showing it last, since it’s not part of the assignment)

And that’s it for my Lesson 1. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did, and hearing what you think of mine!