Anteros

Thanks; it does help. I saw some other threads that asked a similar question to what I asked, and the connecting theme to the answers appears to be similar: learning to enjoy the process of drawing is a skill, just like everything else taught in this course. You're not going to be able to have fun with it right off the bat, nor are you going to be able to draw without care for the quality of the end result. But you can practice adapting the mindset. The more you practice it, the more naturally that mindset comes. And the more naturally it starts to come, the more it will start to integrate itself into the stuff you do draw seriously.

Am I correct to interpret the carefree drawing in the 50% rule as another exercise? Obviously it's not the same type of exercise as the others in drawabox, since there's no guidance and no expectations and no grading. But it's a tool that you are expected to use in order to develop a necessary mental muscle, just like the other exercises in this course.

Thank you for the critique!

Your comments on the cherry blossoms are true, but still frustrating to hear. It's ironic because I likely spent more time on that specific plant construction than any of the others. Had I spent any more time on it, I likely would have had to split the construction up over two separate drawing sessions. One thing that I want to teach myself is how to draw faster as well as more effectively, since my inexperience manifests itself both in my slowness and in my unconfident and/or inaccurate lines. But I probably cannot teach myself how to do this in isolation. It seems like the sort of thing that will come naturally with more practice. Once I've ghosted enough lines and drawn enough boxes and studied 3D construction enough, the speed will hopefully come too. Concepts will become internalized, careful analysis will turn into second nature, and intuition will guide me to the right strokes. That isn't something that can be rushed, and neither is the skillset that I hope to directly develop from this course.

As evidenced by my blueberries, I would probably do well to do some more ellipse exercises during my drawing warm-ups. If there are other exercises you think I'd do well to revisit (aside from the obvious "all of them"), please do let me know! In the meantime, I'm looking forward to drawing some spiders.

Thanks for the critique. I guess it never occurred to me with the organic forms that it was okay to indicate that both sides were facing the viewer by having the contours change change concavity.

As for your comment on outlining with textures, I guess I'm a little bit confused. I tried to focus on applying shadows rather than drawing in the texture, but there were many textures where it seemed to me like the outlines were the shadows, like when there's a crease in the skin to accommodate for a bump or wart or what-have-you, or when a lock of hair sits above a more shaded background of hair. I really struggled with this aspect of the texture analysis, because it did feel like I was outlining, but I didn't know what else to do. If/when I choose to revisit these exercises in warm-ups in the future, what should I do differently to communicate the presence of cast shadows instead?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to lesson 3. And I understand the reason for avoiding reading personal analyses. I feel like writing them helps me learn personally, but I do want fresh eyes to see my exercises too.

Thanks for the encouragement! I've already taken to doing previous exercises before drawing more actively on my personal projects, with the only change being that I use a tablet instead of paper because I'm a digital artist. Moving onto lesson 2! I'm actually looking forward to the lessons now, after all these boxes. O_o

I never got around to thanking you for the critique. Everything you said was really helpful. Especially you pointing out the arcing. I noticed myself doing it in some of my lines for my 250 box challenge and have been working towards self-correcting those.

Keep at it, fellow partner in suffering!