Celeste_mary

Greetings, I'm Arthur and will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)

1. Superimposed lines:

First of all you did a good job of drawing your lines confidently and committing to the stroke once you started it. Looks like there is some fraying on both sides of your superimposed lines, take your time before drawing each stroke to put your pen back on the starting point, this is likely due to you rushing the exercise a bit and shouldn't be hard to fix.

2. Ghosted lines:

Well done, your Ghosted lines do not wobble. Your lines remain straight, that's good. In the future, keep the habit of drawing with your whole arm and having a smooth transition between ghosting and executing so you have long confident lines! You did a good job of having your lines end up near or on the final dot, keep practicing this exercise (and the others) in your warmups to get even better at it!

3. Ghosted plains:

I have absolutely nothing more to say than what I have already said! But in smaller squares there is a little bit of wobbling, so remember to always draw with your shoulder and confidently.

4. Table of ellipses:

Good job on drawing through every ellipse twice! And fitting them snugly in each box! But it seems like there is a little bit of hesitation on some of them, creating straight lines. Remember confidence over accuracy, take your time planning what your circle will be and ghosting the circle completely and always with your shoulder. Getting a perfect ellipse is a really hard job but you'll have time to work on it through your warmups.

5. Ellipses in planes:

Exactly the same thing from the last one. Take your time ghosting the lines, and don't change anything about the movement when you ghost to when actually doing the line.

6. Funnels:

The same things from the previous exercise apply here. I’d recommend you to redo the page with more variety of ellipse degrees.

7. Plotted perspective:

As mentioned in the exercise you used a ruler to draw your boxes, that's all good. You kept the first lines of your boxes perpendicular to the horizon as you should've, well done. You made sure to plot every single line back to the right vanishing point so good job, even though some back corners don't come out perfectly, that's completely fine :)

8. Rough perspective:

Managing to land every single line exactly back to the vanishing point is a near impossible task at this point but what's important is you tried and most of your lines do try to reach that center point! The front back of your boxes is rectangular each time, that's great.

9. Rotated boxes:

The setup of your rotated boxes is well laid out with the cross and the 4 cubes to strive for in each cardinal direction :) You kept the gaps between each box tight and consistent. That's the key to having a good result with this exercise. You seem to understand how to rotate your boxes, but don’t seem to rotate them enough, that’s fine since it still shows that you understood the assignment but if you can I’d like you to try this exercise once more while keeping an eye on the side squares you drew at the start as a goal for you 2nd box on each side. Drawing through your boxes is also a key part of the exercise and is also making you start practicing this skill that will be used for every box in the 250 challenge. You drew every single box well done! Many people forget some boxes in the corner but you didn't!

10. organic perspective:

Once again using the ghosting method for every single stroke of this course is a crucial part into getting good habits for your whole drawing journey! Some of your boxes seem to have parallel or diverging lines, that's a common mistake when drawing shallower foreshortening boxes and the only way to get better at it will be through taking the time to place each stroke carefully while drawing your boxes, take your time. And there isn't so much of a dramatic perspective on your big boxes. Remember, when objects come close to the viewer they begin to have more tapering, not adding this will make the drawing less believable. You will also improve on this as you move through the 250 boxes challenge!

great job overall! always remember to take time reading all of the lessons.

Also I strongly encourage you to go review some submissions on the website :) You can review some lessons 1 and once you've completed future lessons review those as well. Don't hesitate to do a review every so often. It really benefits you so you don't forget the point of the previous exercises and helps other people who are waiting on a review, just like you!

Hi , I am going to review your homework of lesson one. Let's start with lines.

For lines:

The superimposed lines are well done for most part with fraying on one side and it is drawn from the arm but there is some wooble on the very long line which feels like less confident lines done very hesitantly. Aside from the k kiwobble this is a good one . Well done

The ghosted plane looks very nice as ghosting and smooth lines are seen on your plane. Along with smoothness there is also accuracy as a bonus which is pretty impressive for first time. There are some off the trajectory marking but overall it's perfectly done.

Ghosted line is also a job well done with straight lines marking and good ghosting. Only two or three lines are not straight but it's good as with practice your memory muscle will eventually grow.

For ellipses :

The ellipses in plane are done with accuracy which is good but I think you are prioritising accuracy over confident lines which is not the main focus. The lines drawn with confidence and smooth stroke is what the main objective is but overall the excercise is done well. Though remember that confidence will take priority over accuracy.

I saw your table of ellipses and funnels in the comment and the table of ellipses are excellently done. As for funnels , the ellipses are touching the outer edge while there is no space between ellipses and it gets bigger as it is rotating from the center of funnel. All of this are well done as instructed but only one mistake is there of ellipses not aligning with minor axis. All the ellipses in the funnel are part of a minor axis. Think of it as cardboard cutout ellipses and they are stacked on top of each other on long toothpick. That toothpick is basically the minor axis of the ellipses and it cuts ellipses in two equal half but aside from that it is good .

For boxes:

For rough perspective , there is some hesistance in edges of boxes which I think will be improved upon practice . Your brain is thinking of doing it correctly and currently against the confident mark making but eventually you will train your muscle to do the confident line like it's a second nature.

For plotted perspective, it's well done. No issues here as you have understood the boxes are converging toward their vanishing point and how the boxes are viewed with the 3d vision in 2d plane.

For organic perspective, it's a very good one but one tip I would like to offer is to make few boxes bigger that are very close to viewer. It will make your spatial reasoning more keen and it gives the 3d illusion on 2d plane. As the boxes go far away they became smaller. Overall it's well done .

For rotating boxes is done well too. The lines are following the adjacent lines of boxes as it shows the rotating of box in 2d plane. One minor thing I have noticed is that VP of some far boxes are being toward one VP in center which should not be the case. The vp of far end boxes shift along the center . So if far left box vp should be a little right of center VP as it is being rotated.

Hi, I will be the one critiquing your artwork for the day! Overall, I think you did a good job. I suggest opening this imgur gallery where I have made some visual notes and look at it as you read along so you understand what I meant! Imgur links: https://imgur.com/a/hXYr7IV

Organic Arrow

I think you have applied perspective and hatching quite well, the only mistake I have seen was that some of the hatching were placed on the opposite side where it was supposed to be. Hatching should be done on the side where the the surface of the arrow would get covered by another surface. I think it's just a small mistake and I think overall you demonstrated that you understand this.

I think the only small feedback is that you shouldn't draw the other side further from the viewer too small, as it is hard to make the curves and it give the feeling to the viewer that it perspective felt too exaggerated. I think as long as you have made sure that the further end is smaller than the closer one, you have applied perspective. While the example had done this, I think it shouldn't be the majority of the arrow.

Organic Forms with Contour

I think overall you understand the degree shift of the ellipses, where the ellipses looked wider as it faces the viewer and smaller as it faces further away from the viewer. The ellipses and form that you have created are confident and I'm happy with it. My feedback was that some of the forms seems to have extreme curves that threw me off, as the form seems to bend one way in one ellipses, then the other way, only to return to the original direction. The form had this extreme bend that was a bit hard to communicate. You can see this on the narrow - wide - narrow feedback I have written on the image. I think that while you can communicate that the object had this extreme curve (similar to a " C " ), I think that at times it just ended up making the viewer a bit confused. Especially when we are drawing the skeleton, which didn't have texture or shadow to help communicate which side is which. So try to keep the curve a bit more consistent!

Texture Analysis and Dissection

Overall, you have once again did a good job on the texture! There were clear transition from sparse to dense and you have used cast shadow to communicate your form. I think a small nitpick would be that the crumpled paper seems to have a lot more curvature on your recreation (right side) while on the left side it had a bit more sharp blocky shadow.

For the dissection, I think the only feedback I could give is that some of the texture should have had a bit more depth on it. There are two in particular, which was the pinecone and the tire. While I understand that pinecone had sharp edges, I think you might have overused the cast shadow to the point where I could not not what was the form that was in there. As for the tire, there should be a slight depth on the marks of the tire as it isn't just a flat surface.

I do appreicate that you have made sure that all surface curve around the form and that you have demonstrated clear understanding of the sparse to dense transition.

Form Intersection

This would be my biggest critique, as I myself is still a bit inexperienced when it comes to doing this homework myself, even as I am doing lesson 6. For the box intersection, some of the one I circled looked a bit confusing on my end due to the zigzagging. I personally prefer to highlight the overall shape that the intersection has taken, but I couldn't comment on this much because I'm not that experienced on this.

As for the other intersections, I think the only confusion I had was the when a ball shaped object intersect with another. I have highlighted some of my interpretation of the object, but I think the intersection should probably follow the circular shape of the ball or just took a chunk out of the ball. I think that overall you understood the task and have tried your best! Just keep an eye on the ball intersection with another object is my advice.

Organic Intersection

This is one of the harder exercise that I still have problem tackling at times, but I think the first thing you should do is to decide where the light source should be coming from. I personally drew a tiny light bulb or sun according to the shadow when I was checking the drawing to make it easier for me to understand where a shadow should be. I suggest you do the same, just a tiny one might help! Because from what I see, there seems to be an overcorrection on the cast shadows. Some of the forms shadow contradicts one another, making it hard to decide where the light source is / where they are facing. I have circled some areas where shadows shouldn't be there. I also have shaded some areas where I think the shadow woul wrap around the form underneath it.

First of all, the form shouldn't exactly stick to other form as if there was a glue. Some of the way the forms are placed defied gravity in a way, they should have been a bit more slump from their weight. This applies to the vertical forms that seems to just stick out. It's probably better to not do a super vertical form from under the main form, because then you would need to put a bit of weight on the vertical form as if the main form laid on top of the vertical one. It's the one with the "small lift" feedback.

Conclusion

Overall, I think you have done a great job on the forms. The texture was detailed and you did follow the instructions as close as possible! Just a small revision on the organic intersections and I think you should be good!

Hi there! Saw your submission on Discord, and thought I'd drop you a critique :) First off, a huge congrats on completing the whole lesson 1, that's quite an achievement in itself! Alright, let's get to it :D

Lines

Superimposed Lines - These look good, you prioritized a confident mark over accuracy which led to some fraying on the far end, but that is what we want to see (fraying over accurately wobbling lines). I like how you tried out a variety of lengths, and didn't shy away from doing the page long lines as well! The accuracy comes with practice as we continue to do these in future warmups. One thing to note, is that in the first page, the beginning of the strokes have a bit of fraying (https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/superimposedlines/fraying), but we already see you improve in that on the second page. It's optional, but you might want to also throw in some curves in there in the future as well. This is helpful for adding line weight in future lessons. Nice work!

Ghosted Lines - Your ghosted lines are nice and confident. This is the basis of drawing convincing shapes in the future. Some of the lines curve a bit, and they do overshoot or miss the other line quite a bit, but you've got a good start here. Again, confidence is the key here, the rest comes with mileage.

Ghosted Planes - Your ghosted planes look well planned out and your linework looks smooth and consistent. You took your time with each line and thought through them, in stead of rushing. Again, we have some overshooting here and one plane that has a broken double line. I'm not worried about this at all, you've shown that you understand the core concepts and are applying them.

Ellipses

Tables of Ellipses - Ellipses are tricky and take time to get the hang of. Again you correctly prioritized the confident linework over accuracy. You drew through them twice, and they fit fairly snugly against each other. Some of them are a bit uneven. A few things that might help with this is to try ghosting a bit more, and give your brain time to process it before touching pen to paper. Maybe even try going a bit slower as long as it doesn't compromise your line quality.

Ellipses in Planes - Nice job trying out the range of ellipses. Two things here, try not to go overboard with drawing through, and make sure that all the ellipses touch all four sides of the planes. You have several that only touch two sides, instead of all four.

Funnels - Your funnels align pretty well along the minor axis line and they touch the sides of the funnels. A tip for future warmups of the exercise, is that usually the ellipses on the far ends get a lot rounder than the ones in the center which are thinner.

Boxes

Plotted Perspective - You used a ruler for this and kept your verticals straight and perpendicular to the horizon line. You demonstrated a good understanding of how vanishing points are used :)

Rough Perspective - These look good, and you extended the lines correctly. The biggest thing that will help you here in future warmups, is to focus on ensuring that your front and back boxes are rectangular. Since we're doing one point perspective, we know that all the horizontal and vertical lines will be perpendicular to each other, so even though we give our best guess during ghosting, use this knowledge to help you double check before you commit to the lines. A general note is that it looks like you have an easier time getting your vertical lines parallel, while the horizontal ones are the tricker ones for you. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/roughperspective/guessing

Rotated Boxes - Nice job getting through this confusing exercise! You followed all the core steps, your boxes are rotating nicely, and you drew all the boxes in the set. I'm not exactly sure whats going on in the bottom left quarter, and it looks a bit like there might be some whiteout on the two right corner boxes, but overall it looks like you're starting to grasp quite well the concept of how to rotate boxes and how they relate to each other in space.

Organic Boxes - You do a nice job with getting your boxes to gradually get smaller as they move back in space. This is a nice start with depth perception. You also have a bit of rotation going on. There are several boxes where your lines diverge instead of converging, so this is something you will want to pay extra attention to when you tackle the box challenge!

Nicely done! I'm going to mark this lesson complete and have you move on to the 250 Box Challenge! You can go ahead and get started right away, but you will need two agrees on this lesson before you get the badge.

Hi! Here is my review of your lesson 5. Overall you grasped and executed the constructions quite well, but there are some things to improve which are holding you back:

Organic intersections

• first page: this page is good with some minor improvements. Note that if you have a bent cylinder or a form like this, the change of the degree of the contour ellipses should be gradual. A similar thing happens with these forms. On one you quickly inverted the degree and it looks quite stiff. I would add more contour curves to some sausages to keep the page from looking flat. The shadows don’t stick to the forms which is good, and most of them got good contours. Note that the lower right form is more complicated than a simple sausage form.

• second page: this is much better , though I would still add more contours to the upper forms, and move the shadow to the right.

See this: https://imgur.com/a/LzC9zkr

Birds

• puffins: these are mostly good constructions, but just like in organic intersections I suggest you draw through the forms. The left and middle puffin are missing wings, and the wings of the middle and right puffin indicate you did not construct the wing from simple forms but just drew a shape – that makes it look flat though the middle puffin wing can almost get away with it. Not drawing through shapes also creates discontinuities which detract from the three dimensionality. The tail of the middle puffin has an inverted ellipse degree (like one of the intersections in the 1st image).

• second page: the constructions are mostly on point, I would prefer to see some more contours here especially on the middle bird’s wing/tail as it tends to appear flat. I also suggest you choose which lines to thicken more carefully – think about which forms are always visible, like the outlines and wings. Thicker line weight will bring these forms “forward” and less line weight will push them back. Thickening all forms will flatten the image. The pelican has its wing and head thickened a bit which is a good example of what you want to strive for, and makes it more 3D.

• parrots: the layering of the feathers on the right parrot is beautiful – it would be great to see a construction of this kind on the left as well (instead, you just drew a shape like with the puffin wings). Here you can afford to thicken the legs outline on the right image to make them “pop” as they seem flat. The texture does help make this image more 3D, though in general it is recommended to keep the interior more sparse with texture, here it is more evenly distributed. You could also practice forms with legs of the left parrot – even if they are not visible there will be some “bulge” of feathers indicating their presence. The rest of the constructions are good.

Non-Hooved Quadrupeds

• bear 1: this is overall a good construction. If you are texturing, it is good to extend it a bit into the forms, otherwise the hairs seem to be confined to a 2D curve or plane, like your iguana neck scales (where this is the perfect technique to use). I see you did some shapes again with the toes – try to move from 2D shapes to 3D shapes: quadrilateral ? cuboids, arcs, ellipses ? ellipsoids

• bear 2: this is definitely one of your better constructions. The only thing I would change is the paws, as hexagonal and quadrilateral shapes are not 3D nor very organic. Using another sausage or ellipsoid form instead would make it much better and truer to the original.

• sphynx cat: similar comments as for bear 2. The neck ellipse degree suggest the cat is looking up which contradicts the head and reference. It seems as though you go over your lines multiple times for some reason – you shouldn’t be doing this unless it’s the multiple pass ellipses or for overlaps. Use 1 line only for interior forms and contours, trust your hand. Wobbles happen. Thickening lines will not hide them, it will just make them more obvious and flatten the image (like the thickened equator of the head).

• lying sphynx cat: the contours are better here. Similar as previous. The equator (middle ellipse of the head) is better in terms of line thickness, but I suggest you draw it like any other ellipse, as it is difficult to capture it in one semicircle. I would also pay more attention to the form of the snout – it is more like a quadrilateral/pentagonal prism, but it again looks like you tried to copy the 2D shapes.

The underlying constructions are all good but all suffer from thickened construction lines and usage of 2D shapes. Overall good work.

Hooved Quadrupeds

• horse 1: this one is very good, you approached the snout as a prism and tried to draw through all forms. Again, don’t thicken the construction lines, and don’t be afraid to draw the equator as an extremely narrow ellipse or straight line (this happens when you look at the head “head-on” and not from the side). Nice work!

• horse 2: there is evidence of “chicken-scratching” some forms, or fraying from the thickening. This time keep the equator as big as the head sphere (the equator is the biggest slice of that sphere). This is the opposite situation from horse 1 (profile view). Other than that, good work.

• racoon: similar comments as above. The tail ellipses should be perpendicular to the middle line. To see what I mean, you can visit the branches exercise or this: https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/alignment

• camels 1, unmarked: The constructions are good as usual. The camel tail has a similar issue as the raccoon tail. This time you were trying to make the hooves into boxes and prisms, which is much better than just 2D shapes as in some of the images above.

• camel 2: good.

Random Animals

• lizard: this is one of your best, if not the best construction. Very well done! You even constructed the fingers, and avoided thickening most construction lines. Well done!

• snake: I have no reference, but I would definitely reuse the branches exercise here to avoid rough transitions which are certainly not in the reference. I would also draw through the hood as if it were a leaf. In this case the intended form is not very clear. Take care of the snout “prism”! You drew a 2D shape again.

• frog: also one of the very good constructions, except for the thick construction lines of the head. Trust your lines like you did in the torso.

Hybrid

• the construction is good. Nice work

So to sum up, the underlying constructions are generally really good, but some problems persist:

1. is that you tend to go over some lines because you misunderstood what line weight is used for or you want to hide the wobbles if they happen. Don’t. Your constructions are good enough that you can safely trust them in the first pass. Use the line weight strategically to make the drawing more 3D or to choose a point of focus.

2. you often like to regress to shapes for snouts, paws, and the like, when you are well equipped to handle them better – use your skills! Use the 3D shapes and their contours to your advantage.

And a minor one, do not be afraid to slightly extend the texture into the interior of the animals. This will enhance the 3D feel.

• edit: correct puffin image below: https://fuglavernd.is/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Lundi334-efsta-mynd-protectpuff.jpg

To add to Stulern, you can visit the Discord channel for a program called critique exchange, which is designed to help free track stuudents get critique

1. Lines

• Superimposed Lines

Nice! Your lines are confident and consistent, with almost no fraying at the start. Good job!

• Ghosted Lines

I notice some wobbling. Remember, it's okay to lack perfect accuracy at the start in favor of keeping lines confident and straight.

• Ghosted Planes

I notice a little more wobbling here. As stated before, do not let the fear of inaccuracy take over. Remember to use your shoulder for longer lines and ghost through each motion as many times as needed—accuracy will come with practice.

2. Ellipses

• Table of ellipses

I see an improvement in confidence and accuracy—great job! Remember to draw each ellipse in this section 2-3 times in the same motion before lifting your pen to train it. This applies all the exercises here. See how each ellipse looks like it overlaps with some more, that's the goal of this exercise.

• Ellipses in planes

It looks like you hesitated on some of your ellipses here. Remember: confidence over accuracy.

• Funnels

Good! All your ellipses are confident and nicely divided.

3. Boxes

Starting commentary: I see a huge improvement in line confidence for this section. Great job!

• Plotted Perspective

Nice! You took each step correctly.

• Rough Perspective

You forgot to extend the lines toward the vanishing point: However, they do aim toward the vanishing point—good job

• Rotated Boxes

You did not draw the corner boxes, and they do not rotate correctly: This one is hard it took me some time to get it right at first. Remember to gradually close your vanishing points as they get further from the center box.

• Organic Perspective

Very nice! The linework here looks splendid, and your boxes seem to converge well for this phase.

Hello! I'm Joxmarf and I will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)

Superimposed Lines

There's some frying. Remember to not only think about ghosting and doing your stroke confidently, but also where you place your pen.

Ghosted Lines

Remember not to focus on accuracy, but on the confidence of your marks. Time and practice will make your lines more accurate. Also, once again, some of your lines arc. Remember to, when you start executing the stroke, focus only on the end point and draw confidently enough not to allow your brain to steer the stroke. There's some overshooting, but you will be able to control it as time goes on and you get more mileage, confidence is the focus on DAB.

Ghosted Planes

Well done.

Table of Ellipses

I see you are drawing through your ellipses two full times, which is great. They are also tight and even. Wow.

Ellipses in Planes

Your ellipses are drawn with confidence and they are touching all the 4 edges of the plane. Once again,many of them are woobly. I recommend using the same pen for every exercise unless instructed otherwise.

Funnels

It is quite difficult, but I would like to note that some of your ellipses are not aligned to the central minor axis line. Also, some ellipses are not touching touching the lines enclosing them or each other. Remember to respect the boundaries you established.

Plotted Perspective

Well done.

Rough Perspective

Good job, you are working with one vanishing point, as the exercise states.

Rotated boxes

Woahh, well done.

Organic Perspective

Well done.

Honestly, this is an extremely good submission. Congratulations! You are ready for the 250 challenge :D

Hello, congrats on completing your first lesson in Drawabox!

Please allow me to give you some feedback:

Lines

I can see some wobbliness throughout the first half, which improved towards the end as you gained more confidence in your lines. Keep practicing and focus on line confidence over accuracy. Accuracy will come naturally with more practice.

Ellipses

Your ellipses are evenly shaped and smooth, good job!

Boxes

Your boxes are overall good. Your "Rough Perspective" lesson could use a little more practice. This will be further refined in the 250 Box Challenge. If you notice some struggles during the challenge, I recommend revisiting the lesson again.

the revision looks great, move on to the next lesson.