Thank you for this critique! I will work on maintaining an even lineweight and continue experimenting with this exercise during warm-ups!
Congratulations on completing lesson 1! It was a real pleasure to review your submission. Let's go over each section and see your progress!
Good job not fraying on both ends, and I like the work you did with curving lines.
Ghosted lines look generally excellent. There is a bit of wobble in the lines, but this will improve with time. Keep practicing!
Excellent work on ghosted planes as well. I would recommend trying more extreme planes -- that is, ones that are very far away from being rectangles. This will help you practice ghosted lines of greatly varying lengths, and it's also fun to fill the paper with planes of widly varying shapes -- almost like a jigsaw puzzle.
Your ellipse tables look very good. There's a little bit of overlapping between ellipses, so you might want to go slightly slower, making sure to position your hand so it's right above the boundary line between the circle you're currently drawing and the next circle. This will also help when you "overshoot" the boundary, as you did on occasion like in row 3 of column 2 in the first ellipse table page.
Excellent work on ellipses in planes. Be careful that your lines don't wobble. Your ellipses are about as good as they come.
Your work in keeping the ellipses inside the funnel boundaries is all but perfect. Focus on making sure that the minor axis of the funnels divides each ellipse cleanly in two. Sometimes you allow your ellipses to skew, especially in the small funnel in the top right.
Excellent work on plotted perspective, and same thing for rough perspective.
Good work on rotated boxes.
Good use of line weight on organic perspective, and I also like how you obscured the parts of some boxes with others.
Next Steps:
I recommend that you move on to the 250 box challenge. As you do so, make sure to keep practicing ellipses.
May I ask you how you scan your work? It looks very good!
Best of luck on your artistic journey!
Hello! Congratulations on completing lesson 1. Let's go over each part of your submission and see your progress!
You do a good job at not allowing your lines to fray on both ends. I do see a little bit of wobble, especially on the longer lines... I recommend practicing more on short lines (as you did in the next line exercise). Good work overall.
I like how prolific you were in drawing ghosted lines! You do a great job at keeping them straight for the most part, I'm actually impressed by how quicly you seem to grasp the point of the lesson. Just be careful not to get distracted. I see some text on the paper there... if you must doodle, do it on a separate piece of paper. It makes it easier to evaluate your work and helps you focus on your goal.
Very good work with planes! Your lines are straight and confident. At this point, you might be able to start looking at accuracy, since you do overshoot many points. However, take this advice with a grain of salt. You're already very good at ghosted planes, so with more practice the overshooting will probably fix itself; no need to allow your confidence to suffer by worrying about it consciously.
Excellent work with ellipses in planes. Your ellipses are confident and keep close to the sides of the planes. Focus on moving a bit slower on the second and third overstroke-- it will make your ellipses, which are already accurate, more coherent as well.
Okay, so the main problem here is that you didn't fully draw the boundary lines. Make sure to draw the entire border and the cell boundaries with a ruler. This is vitally important! in the same way that a bodybuilder makes their muscles stronger by restricting their movement, the only way to make your ellipses more accurate is by drawing them within bounds. It looks like the midde divider is "split" on the bottom half of the paper... try to avoid this, as it could lead to some confusion later on as to exactly where the boundary is.
You made an effort to keep your ellipses from intersecting the boundaries and each other. This is good. However, there are still many planes where they overlap. Here's my suggestion: be patient. You're probably missing these boundaries because you're trying to draw each ellipse too quickly. You may need to ghost each ellipse five or ten times... perhaps more. It's okay if it takes you a whole day to complete an ellipse table, or even multiple days! Focus on quality, not quantity for now. As you practice, your perception will strengthen, and you will soon be able to draw ellipses that are both fast and accurate. However, in the same way that a pianist first learns to play a concerto at half tempo, you must first accuracy, and only then speed. I would definitely recommend you give these ellipse tables another try-- I know you can do this if you just keep practicing. There's already significant improvement from the first page to the second. Just keep your boundaries clear and go slow at first.
Haha, there's a lot here...
Okay, so first of all, it looks like you practiced(?) your ellipses by using them to fill up the negative space between funnels. Please don't do this. If you want to practice, do so on a separate sheet of paper. Besides, drawing ellipses like this -- almost at random, in the case of the top right lens -- isn't going to help you.
Otherwise, your work on this exercise is generally good. I see you self-evaluated by crossing out ellipses that cross the boundary or that don't align with the minor axis of the funnel. Good job. With more practice, your ellipses will improve.
Excellent work on plotted perspective. You shaded the boxes in well and plotted the perspective correctly. I find it interesting that you chose to slip v_1 off the left edge of the paper for the second half of plotted perspective... this exercise will help you for the 250 box challenge.
Rough perspective looks similarly good. I like your self-evaluations.
Excellent work on rotated boxes! Why did you omit the bottommost row? You were doing so well, don't be afraid of filling out the structure completely!
Organic perspective looks good. You have a wide variety of box orientations and sizes. Make sure to add consistent lineweight.
Next Steps:
I do suggest you revise ellipse tables and funnels. By repeating this exercises with the modifications I suggest above, you will get much more out of them and improve your confidence before the gruelling 250 box challenge.
I hope my review didn't sound too harsh. Just by looking at your work, I can tell you have many qualities -- self awareness, creativity, resourcefulness, and a willingness to improve -- that give you great development potential. I'm really happy that you're getting back into Drawabox, so please don't take this review as saying that this was a mistake... your work was generally quite good.
Ne unquam desperaveris -- "Never Despair"
I look forward to seeing you improve!
I can't see your work. Are you sure it was submitted correctly?
Congratulations on completing lesson 1! It looks like you put a lot of time and effort into your submission, so let's go through each category and review your progress!
Very good! Your lines show little wobble and you generally didn't allow them to fray on both ends. Lines don't arch unless you intend them to. On ghosted lines, I do notice a bit of hesitation and curviness-- this is normal, but it's something to work on. Focus on drawing lines that are straight and confident before making them accurate. Progress from shorter to longer lines, and as you go you'll notice improvement to your freehand drawing as well.
Excellent work with ellipses-in-plans. Your lines are still a little wobbly but not tha bad. Your ellipses fit well inside each plane and you draw through all of them two or three times. I really like your work with the ellipse table as well-- smooth, ,confident ellipses that fit well within both the straight and curved lines. You are already quite good at fitting your ellipses inside each box, so I would focus on making the second and third stroke conform more closely to the original stroke. This will give your ellipses a more coherent look.
Funnels are also quite good. The minor axis occasionally slips closer to one side of the ellipse than the other (the funnel on the bottom left is the worst offender), but generally you do a good job aligning the minor axes, and of course your work in keeping the ellipses inside the curves is good. You might want to repeat this one as a warm-up for later exercises.
Planned perspective looks good. I like how you added differential line weight to some of the box borders, and I also like you you experimented with having some boxes on top of or even beyond the vanishing point.
Rough perspective is also excellent. you draw through all your boxes and your lines of perspective converge preetty well.
Amazing work on rotated boxes! Both the lineweight and the rotation looks great.
On organic perspective, try varying the size of your boxes more. It's okay to have boxes that you only can see one corner of from the "window." Otherwise, very good work.
Next Steps:
Overall, your work shows confidence, close attention to detail and to the instructions, and insight into the purpose of each exercise and how to do it well. In my opinion, you are ready for the 250 box challenge. As you go through it, make sure to practice drawing straight, confident lines, and don't forget to practice funnels as a warm-up.
Best of luck on your art journey!
Thank you so much for your help!
Congratulations on completing lesson 1. From a glance, I can tell that you're taking the time to think about each lesson critically, as you're figuring out how to overcome each challenge in the margins. This skill will serve you well in future lessons. At the same time, for presentation as well as archival purposes, you might want to keep your notes on a separate page from the exercises themselves.
Let's look at your submission in more detail.
Good job on superimposed lines. I notice a little bit of fraying on both ends at the bottom of page 2— make sure never to rush through a line, as Drawabox is all about thinking and planning before you make the mark.
There's a little bit of wobble in your ghosted lines. Make sure to prioritize confidence over accuracy: ghost more, then do not think as you make the mark. It might help to keep your eyes closed as you make the mark itself, as this will prevent you from unconsciously course-correcting between the two points.
Some lines arc. This is probably a result of the natural curve of your shoulder or elbow. As you draw through the line, try to consciously correct in the other direction. It will take a few tries before you achieve balance.
In ellipses, the wobble is gone but they often overlap or go over the boundaries. Try drawing a bit slower. If you add a simple ellipse table to your practice routine before you work on a lesson, you'll see yourself rapidly improve.
There are three main problems in funnels, and these are ellipses that exceed the boundary lines, overlapping ellipses, and ellipses that don't quite match up with the minor axis. As you work on ellipse tables, the first two problems will improve. Then, you can return to funnels once you have more control and focus on aligning them with the minor axis. For now, good effort.
I like how you used two colors for two-point perspective.
Good job on rough perspective. The only thing that confuses me is why you added s checkmark next to the rightmost box in the first cell of page 1, since it doesn't converge to the vanishing point. Remember that the goal is not for the line extension to be parallel, but to have them converge at the vanishing point. They would be parallel only if the vanishing point receded to infinity.
Otherwise, good work
Good work on rotated boxes. You can return to this after the 250 box challenge and see how much you've improved.
I love your organic perspective. You drew a wide variety of boxes, of all sorts of sizes and positions, and you even added line weight. Good work.
Next Steps:
I recommend you do one more page of ghosted planes before you move on to the 250 box challenge. This will help you with ellipses and, much more importantly, will give you another opportunity to clear the wobble from your ghosted lines before you move on to the 250 box challenge.
I look forward to seeing your progress! Good luck in all your endeavors!
Congratulations on completing lesson 1. Just from a glance, I can tell you put a lot of work into this. This work ethic will help a lot in future lessons. Let's look at the submission in more detail.
Your superimposed lines look good. They don't arch. You avoided fraying on both ends and show few signs of wobbling. You even follow curved lines pretty well. Good job!
Ghosted lines looks good
Ghosted planes look good. My only piece of advice would be to remember to fill the page completely. Especially on page two, there are a few places where you could have added more planes. More planes means more practice!
Excellent job adding variety to your ellipse tables. Do you mind if I steal a few of your ideas the next time I practice? :D
All the same, remember to draw your ellipses carefully so they don't overlap or extend beyond the boundary lines. You seem to be more comfortable with small ellipses. You waver more on large ellipses. Next time you practice ellipse tables, consider focusing on larger ellipses.
Good work on funnels. The minor axis generally splits your ellipses in half. There are a few places where the ellipses could be closer together; make sure to be careful with that.
You might also consider arranging your funnels into columns, which will help you put more funnels on a single page.
Good work on plotted and rough perspective: you keep vertical lines orthogonal to the horizon and horizontal lines parallel to it. In the 250 box challenge, you'll practice positioning boxes relative to the vanishing point, and your accuracy at this skill will improve.
Excellent work on rotated boxes
Very good work on organic perspective. Consider adding subtle lineweight to the closer boxes and the closest part of the organic line. This will enhance the illusion of depth.
Next Steps:
In my opinion, you are ready to move on the 250 box challenge. In addition, you may want to practice an ellipse table here and there. This will help your confidence when drawing large ellipses grow.
Best of luck on your Drawabox journey!
Congratulations on completing lesson 1!
Superimposed lines generally look good. I see some fraying on both ends on the lower-right corner of the first page, which is usually a sign of rushing. Be patient with every line you ghost— rushing will improve neither speed nor accuracy.
Good job prioritizing confidence over accuracy in ghosted lines. You're already able to reach the other dot in many cases.
Your lines often arc. This probably happens because of the natural outward arc of your shoulder and elbow. You can correct it by consciously arcing inwards as you draw the line. With practice, the two tendencies cancel.
I noticed you retried a couple lines. In Drawabox, you always continue with the line you have— never redraw.
My impression is that you rushed through your ellipse tables. Your ellipses often break through the boundary boxes or intersect. Even the table looks rushed with overhanging corners.
I get it, you want to get to the good stuff. But the good stuff will be so much better if and when you get these basics down. If your drawing you're ellipses so quickly that you lose control of the pen (as appears to be the case), ghost more times and try again with a slower pace. With practice, your stroke will improve.
You've tried circles and vertical ellipses. Have you tried horizontal ellipses with the minor axis point towards you?
There's significant improvement in your ellipses between the first and the second page of ellipses in planes. Good job!
In funnels, your ellipses often break the boundaries of the funnel. Once again, try a slower, more controlled stroke.
There's also minor axis misalignment in some funnels, especially the bottom one. That's partially because you're drawing your funnels freehand. I recommend drawing the funnels with some sort of curved implement (a large coffee mug or plate works just fine), as mistakes quickly propagate in this exercise.
Good work on plotted perspective
Good work on rough perspective. Make sure to take care when creating your tables and horizon lines. What would happen when you shift the horizon line up or down?
In rotated boxes, some boxes don't seem to be rotating. I'm looking especially at the rightmost box, which seems to have the exact same vanishing point as its neighbor on the left. Be careful with this... these mistakes accumulated and gave the drawing a general "diamond" shape rather than the intended circle. Overall though, good work.
Good work on organic perspective. I admit to being a little confused at first when I look at the very last panel— why are the boxes at the very end not the smallest? Then I realized that you were trying to make the organic line return to the viewer's space after it recedes. This is a cool idea, and I think you could convey it better if you added line weight to the line and the boxes in relation to their distance from the viewer (closer parts get more line weight)
Next Steps:
Overall, good work. In my opinion you are ready for the 250 box challenge.
My one caveat would be that you should work on your ellipses, and the 250 box challenge doesn't give much opportunity to do that. While you do the challenge, before you begin the day's work, consider doing a preliminary exercise like ellipse tables or ellipses in planes. When you see your accuracy with ellipses improve, it'll also help your motivation with boxes.
Good luck on your journey through art!
The link doesn't seem to work.
Right from when students hit the 50% rule early on in Lesson 0, they ask the same question - "What am I supposed to draw?"
It's not magic. We're made to think that when someone just whips off interesting things to draw, that they're gifted in a way that we are not. The problem isn't that we don't have ideas - it's that the ideas we have are so vague, they feel like nothing at all. In this course, we're going to look at how we can explore, pursue, and develop those fuzzy notions into something more concrete.
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