Anya

Hi, I've just finished lesson 1 myself. I'm not experienced with critiques yet so feel free to just use this as a second opinion rather than a sound and complete critique.

Also, sidenote: imgur has a rearrange feature that lets you order the images. Try to keep this in mind for the next submission since it makes it easier for the person critiquing to go through each exercise in order.

Lines:

Excellent work! There's not much to say here: you have a little wobbling, but that much is expected since this is the first lesson, and it will get better with time. The exercises have all been completed according to the instructions. However, it does seem like you've skipped ghosted planes. The ghosted planes and ellipses in planes exercises are supposed to be separate exercises, so please add those once you've done them.

Ellipses:

These look good to me, but it seems like you've been going around your ellipses too many times in the ellipses in planes exercises. You should go around the ellipse twice, but it seems like you've gone round more than that. If you do it to much, it can clutter the original shape the ellipse was supposed to have, and just make it appear thicker than it should. As always the aim is never to get a perfect result, these exercises are for learning. If you're not satisfied with how it went or feel you did it wrong, it's important to just accept it and move on rather than going around again to try to correct it.

Boxes:

Good work once again, but there are a few things I noticed here. In the rough perspective exercises, it looks like some of these lines have been drawn more than once: this is not correct. Again, just draw the line, ellipse etc. and move on, even if it wasn't what you wanted.

Also, your rotated boxes look a little stiff to me; there's not very much rotation. Ideally, the whole picture should look similar to a sphere, rather than a box (the lesson material has a good example of a completed rotated boxes). It seems like there's too little convergence in the parallel lines, particularly in the boxes that run horizontal in the scene. There should be a steeper angle from the side closest to the center to the side closest to the side of the page (to the right side for the boxes on the right side of the page, and vice versa for the left).

I think you should read/watch the material without music, but if it's the exercises, I think that's perfectly fine. The exercises are there for your body to learn the lesson content mechanically, by doing, so it's ok if your mind isn't 100% focused on the exercise. Personally I'd find that incredibly draining: to concentrate on a repetitive task for an extended period of time. Music helps me get through it easier, and I don't find it's impacting my learning. Really it's up to you; if you find music helps you focus, I'd say use it, otherwise if you find it distracting, then don't. There's no concrete rule that says you can't, though.

Hi, heads up: you've posted a google drive link that no one can access until you give them permission. I'd highly recommend using imgur instead as suggested in the homework submission details.

Hi, I've just finished lesson 1 myself. I'm not experienced with critiques yet so feel free to just use this as a second opinion rather than a sound and complete critique.

Lines:

Your lines look good, and there's little arcing which suggests you're using your shoulder, as you should. Even though the lines aren't perfectly straight, that will improve with time; importantly, the exercises have all been completed to their instructions. One thing I might suggest is trying different angles with your ghosted planes exercise. All your lines are quite close to being fully horizontal or vertical. It can be useful to try different angles to get into the habit of rotating your page for the most comfortable angle of approach.

Ellipses:

Again, these look good to me! They've been completed according to the instructions. The important thing was going over each ellipse twice and keeping a consistent and confident stroke, which you've done. However similarly to ghosted planes, it may have been useful to try some angles, or smaller planes, in the ellipses in planes exercises, just to practice different types of planes.

Boxes:

The exercises have been followed correctly, but I did notice some considerable wobbling here. If you're sure you're ghosting, taking the time to lift your pen off the page before ghosting again and using your shoulder, it could be useful to consider how fast/slow your strokes are. I've found that whilst going fast reduces your accuracy and makes you more likely to arc your lines, it does help give a smoother, straighter line. Going slow on the other hand improves your accuracy, but makes you more likely to wobble. What's important is that you have a think about it, and find the speed that works for you.

I will add, my notes about the planes exercise aren't asking you to do those again, since they were done correctly. It's just something to perhaps keep in mind for future exercises that are similar. Other than that, great work on this lesson!

Sorry about that I must have missed those ones, here's a new link with the ellipses in planes:

https://imgur.com/a/2axBAxL

As for redrawing lines, I think I did that to make it easier to draw the next few lines, since if the previous line was off it was harder to figure out where the next one should start. Nevertheless I see what you mean and I'll refrain from doing so in the future.