36Boxes

Of course! Good luck!

Hi, congrats on completing lesson 2! I hope my thoughts can be of help, which I've based on Elodin's guidelines for lesson 2.

• Arrows: Good experimentation with different kinds of arrows, nice confident lines, and good crosshatching that follows the shape of the arrows in space. Your arrows also generally demonstrate a good sense of compression, and I like the detail that you put into the heads of the arrows' movement in space as well. I notice that not all of your arrows are complete, but it feels like you've completed enough to satisfy the needs of the exercise. However, I'm only noticing lineweight that's been added to some arrows at the points of overlap. I see that lineweight has been added to some of the arrows' entire top line, when lineweight only needs to be added to the dominant line at the points of overlap. I'd go back and add lineweight to the dominant lines at the points of overlap.

• Organic forms: Well done! Your ellipses develop a strong sense of form throughout, and the sausages are done very well and confidently. I notice that some of the ellipses are redrawn in different angles -- this shows that you're experimenting and feeling the form, which is a good sign, in my opinion. However, for the sake of the course, which teaches us to emphasize confidence by committing to our mistakes, I do have to call it out. I would still constitute this as a pass especially thanks to the strength of many of your ellipses, but it will be important to remind yourself to commit to mistakes going forward.

Likewise, your contours have also been redrawn several times, and it would be best to go with the first mark even if its wrong.Your contours show a good effort to hook them. I notice that it's a bit more of a struggle for you than the ellipses as some of the contours are underreaching while others are overreaching, but I still consider this strong enough to pass especially as you've demonstrated understanding of how the contours interact with the form.

• Textures: Your initial studies and notes look good to me. I would say the shading lacks effective transition as it is a quite sudden shift from being darkly shaded to going gradually brighter. Additionally, your first texture on the table has inconsistent transition, as there are both dark and light textures beside each other in the same stage of transition.

That being said, your dissections are great! Good respect of the silhouette and strong transition from dark to light here. I think you worked incredibly hard and it paid off extremely well here, and I think you can be proud of yourself for how it turned out. I'll consider this section a pass despite effective transition in the first page, as you demonstrated good shading with the dissections. Going forward, it might be helpful to consider doing the 25 textures challenge when it becomes the appropriate time to do it in the course.

• Intersections: I think you did really well with making all of these shapes appear that they're in the same scene, and the lines are generally very confident and easy to read. I notice some more effort to redraw here -- same as earlier, it will be important to remind yourself to commit to the very first line that's put down. That being said, this is an obvious pass to me!

Very good work! Your hard work really shows, and you've done something great here. I'm excited to see your next submissions!

This is fantastic! Well done! I appreciate how thorough you were with these corrections. This is more than enough to constitute a pass in my opinion!

Yes, sorry for not being precise with my wording, I meant to say the lines that converge too early without reaching a vanishing point implied by all of the lines. I'm glad that you still managed to understand what I tried to convey in spite of my miscommunication.

Best of luck going forward!

Hi, congrats on completing the challenge! It’s a large undertaking and is impressive that you’ve gotten through it; a testament to your hard work here. I hope my thoughts can be of help.

I think your boxes are drawn generally very well, with straight and confident lines for the most part. The outlines are done very clearly, and the hatching is done very well. There are some wobbly lines, but it’s to be expected when we’re drawing so many boxes, and, by and large, you’ve showing that you know how to plot two points, use your shoulder to connect them, and create shapes that way.

Some of your thicker and larger boxes have good perspective, and lines that don’t converge. However, I’ve noticed that some of your thinner boxes tend to have converging lines. Boxes like 185, 186, 176, 177, and more. As far as I can tell with those, the mistake comes from the inner corner, which is very typical as it’s the accumulation of various mistakes along the way. One might normally recommend making sure that you don’t draw the inner corner was the last line for the box, but I’ve also noticed that you have converging lines on different sides of the box as well, such as 71 and 74. This makes me think a different recommendation might be better:

Hi, congratulations on getting started with dab! I hope my comments can be of help, which are based on Elodin’s guidelines.

Superimposed lines: your lines fray mostly on one end, which is good! There’s some arching happening with the longer lines, which can be corrected by intentionally trying to pivot your shoulder in the opposite direction of the arching. I get the impression that you were trying to control your pivots like this hence why it there are arches both above and below the line — it’ll be important to keep practicing this when you return to the exercise in warmups. When you return to the exercise, it might also be a good idea to practice with some curved lines like in uncomfortable’s reference sheet for the homework. Overall a good first try, so I consider it passed.

Ghosted lines: noticing more arches, wobbles throughout here. It feels like you might be relying more on your elbow here, especially as none of the lines reach the lengths of the superimposed lines. I’d recommend redoing this exercise for one page, and really trying to make sure you’re using your shoulder the whole time. Experiment with different lengths so you can feel how your shoulder works at shorter and longer lengths.

Planes: Likewise with the ghosted lines — as the lines are curved and wobbly, it feels like you would benefit from redoing the exercise for one page and making absolute sure you’re using your shoulder throughout. I would also make an effort to make sure that your vertical and horizontal lines inside each plane are angled properly, because some aren’t perpendicular in a way that respects the angle of the plane. Good experimentation with different shapes. Remember to resist the urge to redo some of the lines even if they’re misaimed (I struggle a lot with this too, so don’t worry!)

Tables of ellipses: it will be important to make sure that your ellipses aren’t overlapping, as quite a few are in your submission. I’d recommend redoing this page as well and really making sure each ellipse doesn’t overlap, which can be done by ghosting each ellipse as carefully as you ghost each straight line. Overall good variety of ellipses!

Ellipses in planes: Overall well done. I imagine you’ll get better at fitting the ellipse properly inside of the plane by redoing the tables of ellipses and being mindful of how the shape of the ellipse interacts with the shapes around it. I consider this a pass :)

Funnels: well done as well, great placement of center lines. Some of the ellipses aren’t fitted in properly, but like I said, that’ll probably be addressed with the tables of ellipses exercises. Pass!

Plotted perspective: very well done, very clear and easy defined shapes! You have a talent for this! Pass!

Rough perspective: your sense of perspective is really good, but the earlier problems with curved and wobbled lines reappear here. I also notice that you tried redoing some lines, which ultimately makes the shape messier and harder to read. Since the exercise is more about perspective and foreshortening, which you did really well, and you’ll have time to practice drawing straight and confidently lined cubes with the 250 box challenge, I’ll also consider this a pass. if you do the 250 box challenge, it’ll be essential to apply what you’ve learned from trying to use your shoulder while redoing the exercises I’ve recommended.

Both of your rotated boxes and organic perspectives are incredibly well done in my opinion, hats off. The sense of perspective in each is extremely strong. While it’s not perfect as there are still some curved and wobbly lines, I notice a lot more straight lines that show the fruits of your practice so far. Those are cause to be proud of yourself, in my opinion!