Beckerito

Thanks!!

Thanks for your critique, you´re right about the orthographic plans and I completely agree with the point that you've made here, the last vehicle that I did really made me see how essential they are.

Anyways, I'm really happy to have finished drawabox :D

Okayy, your revisions are pretty well done. It is much clearer to see how the forms that you are drawing relate to the previous stages of construction as you’ve started from the most simple and then added more forms without relying too much on guesswork or eyeballing.

I also like to see that you’re relying less on contour lines and you only add them when it is really necessary, which is something you’ll want to keep doing in the next lesson.

For now I’ll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, good luck on the next one!!!

Okay, taking a look at your new work you're doing a much better job respecting the solidity of the forms that you are drawing without leaving any gaps, and your work is coming along well.

The only thing I want to add here is that you should have a consistent light source, don’t get in the mindset that you have to copy what you see in the reference photo. You can set up a light source and then decide where the cast shadows are going to fall and it also lets you design the shadow shape before filling it in which is an important step too.

Another thing I forgot to mention the last time is lineweight, given the limitations in the tool we are using here, lineweight should only be used to clarify how differents forms overlap, keep in mind that if you end up adding a lot of lineweight you will take the solidity of your forms away and turn them into mere graphic shapes this is not an issues with this plants as their leaves and petals are already flat.

Here’s the relevant diagram

-https://imgur.com/WILCymm

Although I’ll admit that I am more concerned with the construction part of these drawings, the texture and cast shadows have always been kind of a secondary aim and there is no harm in leaving it out completely for the moment if you want to.

Anyways I’ll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, you can move on to the next lesson.

Hello I’ll be handling the critique for your lesson 4 homework

Organic Forms

Starting by the organic forms with contours you’ve done well trying to keep them evenly shaped and most of them are turning out quite nicely, although there are definitely a few of them that swell, like the one on the bottom left corner of the second page so keep doing your best to keep them evenly sized without any sudden swelling or pinching as it is a really important element to make them feel more solid.

The other important element are the contour lines, and you are moving in the right direction with these ones, although I think that you may be putting many of them in. The main problem with this is that you are giving yourself more opportunities to make a mistake by continually adding more contours, just one of them going wrong can make the whole form feel less solid.

By trying to draw less contours you are forcing yourself to be more deliberate and careful with the execution of those marks which is the main point of these exercises.

Insects

-Moving on to the insects there are many good things here, I can see that you were definitely thinking about how to break down these into more simpler components and they are turning out quite well seen as finished drawings.

But we know that these are not drawings but exercises, I say this because in some cases your approach leaned more heavily on capturing what you saw in your reference than trying to break it down into simpler shapes, this is more easily seen in the praying mantis, once you get to the abdomen you've drawn one part of it but the other is cut off by the wings and it lets me see that there is not any initial form that is helping to inform the decisions that you are making or to guide your strokes, there is only a few loose lines here and there but nothing concrete as an initial form or shape.

Instead what you should try to do is to start from dead simple, like on the wasp demo, just place some balls and simple forms that will help to build the head, abdomen and thorax and form then start to add any further complexity bit by bit. I’ll show you some more concrete examples later.

Another area where you can change your approach is leg construction. I can see that you were definitely aware of the sausage method shown in the demos but sometimes you strayed from it.

It is common for students to think that the legs don’t look like a chain of sausages and instead use other methods. But the sausage method is not about capturing the shape of the legs precisely as they are, it is about laying down a basic structure that captures both the natural flow of these limbs while maintaining a good sense of solidity, once that structure is in place we can start to add the more complex part bit by bit, as shown here in these demos:

• https://imgur.com/7b9rc9e

• https://imgur.com/t6oz7Tv

  -https://imgur.com/97hS0XF

This approach is really helpful for the legs of insects like the spider you drew, because it lets us break these things into more simple tasks making it simpler and easier to draw, also don’t forget to draw simple sausages without swelling or pinching, as I’ve already said it is super important to give them solidity and define the intersection between them too.

In the last half of your drawings I think your approach is more solid when drawing legs but there are cases like on the weevil where the initial stages of the construction for the main body are not clearly defined.

Keep in mind that because we're drawing on a flat piece of paper, we have a lot of freedom to make whatever marks we choose, but many of those marks would contradict the illusion you're trying to create and remind the viewer that they're just looking at a series of lines on a flat piece of paper. In order to avoid this and stick only to the marks that reinforce the illusion we're creating, we can force ourselves to adhere to certain rules as we build up our constructions. Rules that respect the solidity of our construction.

Instead, when we want to build on our construction or alter something we add new 3D forms to the existing structure. forms with their own complete silhouettes - and by establishing how those forms either connect or relate to what's already present in our 3D scene. We can do this either by defining the intersection between them with contour lines (like in lesson 2's form intersections exercise), or by wrapping the silhouette of the new form around the existing structure as shown here.

-https://i.imgur.com/IINKdQA.png

This is all part of understanding that everything we draw is 3D, and therefore needs to be treated as such in order for both you and the viewer to believe in that lie.

These concepts have not been fully integrated into the lesson material, but you can see more concrete examples in the informal demo page, like the lobster demo and the shrimp demo.

Anyways, before I mark this lesson as complete I will assign you some additional work, good luck!!!

Yes that may be a good way of approaching it, by focusing less on darker spots and more on the larger cast shadows that fall from petal to petal or leaves.

Hello I’ll be handling the critique for your lesson 3 homework.

Organic Arrows

Starting with the organic arrows you’ve drawn the edges with a good deal of confidence which really helps to give them a good sense of form and you are also making some good attempts at the foreshortening of the ribbon, as it gets wider the closer it moves towards the viewer the only thing I would like to emphasize here is that the negative space between the zigzagging sections of the ribbon should get narrower as it moves further away from the viewer this is exemplified in this diagram

https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/011d064f.jpg . Aside from that I think you are moving in the right direction, although here are a few arrows that look a little bit off because they move more erratically, just try to stick to a S shape because it makes it easier to focus on all of the things I’ve mentioned above.

Leaves

Moving on to the leaves I think you are doing a great job drawing the edges confidently but there are some issues. Once you’ve drawn the the flow line and the edges all of further details you add tend do not seem to stick too closely to the previous stages of construction, and seem quite loose for example the cuts and bumps you add to the edges do not return and touch the initial edge thus leaving a gap, it is super important to avoid leaving gaps between stages of construction.

I like to see that you’ve tried some more complex leaf structures but you can still improve the way you are approaching them as explained in this informal demo https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/8/complexleafstructures , pay attention to how each flow line touches the edges of the initial structure without leaving any gap.

And one last thing is the texture, here I can see that you’ve added plenty of cast shadows and some of them are quite bold and take up a good chunk of the leaf, but there are some instances like on the aloe vera where the shadow ends up flattening the entire structure.

Before you add any cast shadows really try to think about what you are trying to achieve by adding that detail, in the case of these leaves we are trying to convey their texture so remember to use a gradient, that is a zone where there’s is a high density of detail to one where it is more sparse, in any case I highly encourage you to go back to lesson 2 and review some of that material so you can keep those concepts fresh in your mind

Branches

Moving on to the branches you are doing great, I can see that you’ve kept in mind the degree shift of each ellipse and how it changes as they move through space, you’ve also done a good job on the execution of each segment there are still some ends visible but this will improve with time and mileage.

Plants

-Moving on to the plants you’ve made a good attempt at using the construction method to build these plants with the tools you’ve been given in the previous section though there are some areas where you tend to slip into some of the mistakes we’ve already talked about.

-For example starting with the aeonium plant you are still leaving gaps between the flow line and the edges of the petal, instead make sure that they alway meet at the tip. Although your use of the cast shadows here is more deliberate and it does really help to define the relationship between these group of petals, the reason for this is because the shadows are actually being projected from one petal’s surface to the other instead of being in the same surface of the form that is supposed to be casting it.

-There are also some issues with your leaves in some plants, I’ve noticed that you do not really let them fold and they are always drawn so that we see them in their entirety, so take a look at these notes which explain why this is an issue much better than I can do it here https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/folding

And in the case of your gloriosa lily you actually slipped into zigzagging that edge detail, which is another issue discussed here https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/zigzag

FInally I want to talk about the way you’ve approached texture here, as I said previously your use of the cast shadows on the aeonium plant is pretty spot on as those cast shadows are being projected from one surface to another, because they cannot really cling to the silhouette of the form casting them. But on the other plants like the clematis and the bearded iris specifically this is exactly what is happening; those shadows are clinging to the silhouette of the petals and leaves.

The thing to keep in mind is that a cast shadow is the result of a form blocking light from reaching another surface - and so, it projects a shadow onto this other surface. In doing so, it defines a spatial relationship, between the form casting the shadow, and the surface receiving it. This is valuable information - it's not just decoration. It tells us about how far apart those forms are, among other things.

Because of this, we cannot draw those shadows without being aware of the specific nature of both the textural form, and the surface receiving the shadow. This is what most students miss out on - they think, "well I'm just going to draw the shadows I see from my reference image", but this is incorrect. Drawing what you see in your reference does not mean you understand what is depicted there.

Instead, we strive to use the visual information in that reference (cast shadows among other things) to understand the nature of those forms, and then using that understanding we create our own shadows. Much of the time those shadows will match what's in the reference, but that's not really important. What matters is that those shadows define specific relationships. That their shapes are designed with purpose and intent, because you know what specific forms and surfaces are being linked through the shadow's creation.

This is really not something easy to do but it doesn’t matter if you struggle with it as long as you are trying to do it correctly, remember that your focus should be on the process you follow rather than the end result.

Anyways before i mark this lesson as complete I want to assign you some revisions so you can address some of the issues here before moving on to lesson 4.

Thanks!!

Hello I’ll be handling the critique for your lesson 3 homework.

-Arrows

Starting with the organic arrows you’ve done a good job handling the foreshortening of the ribbons, as they increase in width as they move closer to the viewer and at the same time you are also aware of how the negative space between the zigzagging sections of decreases as they move further back as explained here in this diagram https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/011d064f.jpg .

The only thing that may be worth calling out here is the hatching, it seems that your execution of those lines is a little rushed at times, so don't forget to give each individual mrk as much time and attention as necessary to draw it to the best of your ability.

Branches

Moving on to the branches you’re doing a good job following the instructions, although you’ve definitely got some trouble when it comes to making each segment overlap with the previous one. So keep in mind that you should use the previous segment as a sort of runway to guide your next stroke, and make sure that they overlap a good deal. Another issue is that you tend to overshoot , one thing that you can try is to actually draw your marks slower so that you can have better control, but it is a risky game as you may end up with a wobbly line and I think this has to do with your question.

Ultimately, this is a matter of practice,if you have trouble with accurate and confident curves then you may want to practice them more often, just don’t grind page after page of them because that will not get you anywhere.

Lastly, I can see that you are indeed aware of how the ellipses change degree as they move through space.

Leaves

Moving to the leaves you’ve captured the way these move through space, the main issue is that you may have gone in autopilot when adding those bump and cuts, as explained here in the principles of mark making https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/3/consistent , you should take your time to design each individual bump to the edges of the leaves.

I like to see that you’ve constructed some more complex leaf structures and for the most part you’re doing fine, so let's move onto the next section

Plants

-Moving to the actual plant construction you’ve done a good job trying to break them into their more simple elements, there are a few points that I want to call out.

-The first thing I want to talk about is when we draw a flow line or an ellipse to mark where our petals or leaves are going to end we should respect that boundary and do not extend them further, the edges of the leave , segment or whatever should meet right at the spot we’ve designated. For example on the sundew you’ve drawn some ellipses but it is not clear what their relationship to the whole is, it seems that you intended to use them as a sort of boundary to mark where you wanted to extend those filaments but in the end you didn’t respect that decision. The same issue can be seen in the daisy demo where the edges of the petal do not meet right at the tip of each flow line, and the bluebells where you’ve just sort of laid down a cylindrical structure and then drew the actual flowers inside but there is not a clear specific relationship between them.

This may seem nitpicky at first, but this is one of the most important things these lessons will teach you, to respect each decision you make on the page and plan it carefully beforehand, although right now we’re just getting used to using the construction method, so just keep it in mind.

-The second issue has to do with lineweight, keep in mind that we should reserve it only to clarify how forms overlap with each other, so don’t apply to the entire silhouette of a leaf like you did on the banana plant, as it can quickly flatten things, here is the relevant diagram https://imgur.com/WILCymm .

Another thing that can quickly flatten things is a bold use of cast shadows like you did on the pink mushroom, it is important that whenever you apply texture you should also keep in mind to make a gradient, that is a region with a high density of detail that moves to a regions much more sparse as explained in these notes https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/2/density .

On both mushrooms it seems that you are relying a good bit on outlines, as you are drawing the entire textural form along with its cast shadow, so try to only draw the shadows and do not worry too much about outlining the form casting it.

Okay that is about everything I wanted to address, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete, good luck in the next one.

Hello I'll be handling the critique for your lesson 6 homework

-Starting with your form intersections I can see that you've done a good job thinking about how these forms interact with one another, it seems that you can distinguish well when you need to use a curved line or a straight one. The only bit of critique I can offer here is that you don't really have to apply a lot of lineweight to the intersections as it may flatten the forms a little, and also don't forget to draw twice over any ellipse you freehand, plenty of your spheres are just drawn one time.

Objects

-Moving on to your objects you've done a good job trying to break them up into more simpler and manageable shapes, there are still plenty of things you can do to push them further.

There are are good deal of things to point out but I'll try to mention the most important ones only, but first let's try to explain what it is exactly that we are trying to learn during this lesson.

The main focus of this lesson is precision, this is something that we didn't worry about in previous lessons where we just focused on breaking each one of our subjects into its more primitive elements and we had to work with the outcome of our choices .For example we might have drawn the head of an animal too big, but that was not an issue as those mistakes didn’t take away from the things we learned by doing each lesson all the way to the end.

Precision and accuracy are two different things and in the context of this course accuracy refers to how close you were to executing the mark you intended to, but precision has nothing to do with drawing that mark, instead it is about the steps and decisions that we take beforehand to declare our intentions.

A good example of this would be the ghosting method, when going through the planning of a straight line we can place an initial and ending dot, this will increase the precision of our drawing by declaring what we want to do. Once that is in place we can draw the mark, it may nail those points, it may overshoot or undershoot, etc. The important thing is that prior to any of that we have used the ghosting method to think about each mark's purpose and how we are going to achieve it best rather than figuring everything as we go, this kind of approach is more useful for the kind of geometric forms that we are working with as they have different planes, sharp corners, and clearly defined proportions.

We can capture all of these elements through the use of subdivisions, these allow us to meaningfully study the proportions of our object by way of an orthographic study, after that is done we can apply those studies to the object in 3 dimensions. That way everything that we do is the result of careful planning, and nothing is done by eyeballing or improvising.

-Getting into some more concrete examples when it comes to your work, I think we can take a look at the calculator, you've drawn most of the buttons using guesswork and eyeballing rather than using the orthographic studies to decide where exactly to place them, all of this elements may seem trivial but when you get to the more complicated things like the cars and vehicles it is crucial that you try to identify every little element because in the end it all comes together to give that vehicle its character but it also gives you plenty of opportunities to tackle more complicated spatial problems that will help you to improve your spatial reasoning skills even more.

-One of those problems that is difficult to tackle is curved objects like the one you've drawn here https://i.imgur.com/D09kqqm.jpeg , it seems that you just freehanded a loose curve there.As explained here

https://drawabox.com/lesson/6/1/curves ,we can achieve a greater, more consistent solidity by first pinning down the specific nature of those curves by representing them as a chain of straight lines, or a chain of flat surfaces, then rounding them out towards the end.

Doing this also has the added advantage of giving us clear landmarks that we can identify and pinpoint in our orthographic studies.

On the few drawings where you've included orthographic studies I can see that you've just sort of laid down a grid and then drawn the object on top of it without really identifying where each landmark should be placed exactly, like the little square holes that are on the USB drive, so don't be afraid to push your studies even further to place each landmark at a exact point so that whenever you get to draw the object in perspective you don't have to guess at where each thing should be placed.

Okay that is about everything I wanted to cover, I'll go ahead and mark this as complete good luck on the next one