Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

6:16 PM, Sunday May 12th 2024

Lesson 1 - Google Drive

Lesson 1 - Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gqFwqTpxYz3B3iPD_gb-flcX3aC5cbcW?usp=sharing

Includes Peice of Artwork for 50% rule.

1 users agree
4:43 PM, Tuesday May 14th 2024
  • Super Imposed Lines - lots of fraying going on, so I would suggest trying this exercise again as your warm-up next time. Get the shorter lines done to a good standard before moving on to the longer ones.

  • Ghosted Lines - Good accuracy, but I'm seeing a lot of wobble. Try drawing from the elbow or shoulder, as well as increasing the speed of your stroke to get a straighter line. Would have been nice to see some more lines too, but overall not bad.

  • Ghosted Planes - not great, looks like you were rushing. Lines are wobbly, not connecting to their points and overshooting. Apply more pressure on the pen when executing the line to improve its accuracy. Take your time aiming before laying down a fast, firm stroke. The same advice from before applies here too - start small and graduate to bigger planes once you get confident. Also put the planes closer to each other, as to fill up the whole page. If you're struggling, have a look at the official video and example homework.

  • Ellipses on Ghosted Planes - While you are connecting the ellipses to the edges of the planes, they are super wobbly, so the piece looks rushed. Spend some more time on practicing ghosting and make sure to only go over each ellipse twice. Right now it looks like a big scribble.

  • Tables of Ellipses - okay, looks like you improved quite a lot with this exercise. Nice effort, keep it up. Still looking a little off, but making progress for sure.

  • Funnels - Same thing here, starting to notice more uniformity. Axis alignment looks almost perfect, good job.

  • Plotted Perspective - This is optional, but consider using different line weights - thick lines for outer edges and thin ones for hatching, but that's just a minor nit-pick. Otherwise looking good.

  • Rough Perspective - once again I see you are struggling with straight lines. I think you would agree that almost every line here looks wobbly. Perspective is all over the place. I think all of these issues come down to ghosting, so I'd suggest going back and rewatching the tutorial on how to get those smooth, straight lines.

  • Rotated Boxes - your perspective actually looks better here than on the previous, easier exercise. My only gripe is with those lines. Otherwise, a solid effort.

  • Organic Perspective - decent improvement on the perspective front, but still struggling with lines.

Overall, I would say that the only thing holding you back is your confidence and stroke speed. While my review was quite harsh and critical, notice that you're actually doing surprsingly well with every other skill covered in lesson one. Let's just get that line work dialed in and you'll be golden :)

Next Steps:

Please redo at least three pages from lesson one, focusing on line work as the main issue. You can choose whichever exercises you want.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
6:47 PM, Friday May 17th 2024

Thanks for the critique it was extreamly helpful. After doing my revisions I think made signifcant progress on lines thought there is still room for imporvement. I think my fineliner might be drying up (I've had it for at least 5 years), and am planning on getting a new one soon. Hopefully then I won't have to press as hard to get a good think line which should help imporveing my stroke speed (if I go to fast with to mutch presser it damges the paper and the pen snags).

Revisions are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11Y7J3bUO2PgxzYTIizAGx_4NaOimVJOr?usp=sharing

4:11 PM, Sunday May 19th 2024

Good stuff. A new fineliner sounds great. If you need a recommendation, I swear by my uni PIN fineliner set from Uniball.

I'll go ahead and mark your lesson as done. Good luck with the 250 Box Challenge and don't forget about those smooth, confident lines.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete. In order for the student to receive their completion badge, this critique will need 2 agreements from other members of the community.
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Staedtler Pigment Liners

Staedtler Pigment Liners

These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.

Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).

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