This challenge was kind of a weird one for me. I struggled with it a lot but ultimately didn’t feel like I nailed down any of the concepts by the end. I once again had to struggle with my gloopy Bic Round Stic and constant smudging. 

Basically the challenge asks you to draw 25 wheels in various rotations and designs. I picked a lot of non-car wheels because I couldn’t for the life of me get them to look symmetrical and my ellipse guide is quite small, so I was limited in my ability to actually apply detail to them. That said, I did my best with what I had and freehanded a great deal of them - luckily my ellipses are reasonably tight and accurate these days, though I still struggle with my freehand minor axis alignment.

I hadn’t practiced textures in pen since I finished lesson 2 back in 2018 so I struggled a lot on that front as well. That said, I still don’t really understand the cast shadow versus any other kind of shadow required for tyres. Basically, I didn’t get much out of this lesson because I didn’t really understand the underlying concepts well enough. I don’t have much trouble drawing texture in mediums that allow me to use shades of grey, so I’m not overly bothered by it.

Anyway, this challenge is mostly just a pre-requisite for lesson 7 and for any of those big issues with ellipse alignment and texture to be ironed out at this stage. I got a pass, so clearly my work wasn’t that bad. I felt quite confident after my lesson 6 work but I’m doubting my ability to remain patient enough to finish the remainder of the work.

Not much else to say, really. Here’s my 25 wheel challenge.