Fable

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 alot, 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. And you didn’t drew every corner box even though there was space.

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! And you seem to have drawn additional lines over some, trying to correct them, remember confidence over accuracy. Even if you did all the steps to raise the perfect line, you plan its purpose, you ghosted it countlessly, you did the smoothest transition when actually doing the line, and if it turns out to be a furry, you have to except that and move on, there will be plenty of more opportunities to do a perfect line. But if you insist on that mistake, all that will do is just clatter your drawing and make it more confusing to look at.

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!

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 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:

Most of your lines do try to reach the center point, that's good!(it is really difficult to do that in the start). And you seem to have used the ghosting method for every stroke, that's good! But you seem to have drawn additional lines over some, trying to correct them, remember confidence over accuracy. Even if you did all the steps to raise the perfect line, you plan its purpose, you ghosted it countlessly, you did the smoothest transition when actually doing the line, and if it turns out to be a furry, you have to except that and move on, there will be plenty of more opportunities to do a perfect line. But if you insist on that mistake, all that will do is just clatter your drawing and make it more confusing to look at.

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 a 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, and a shallow perspective in the small boxes. Remember, when objects come close to the viewer they begin to have more tapering and when they get far away they get fewer, 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 Kai_the_Shark, congratulations on finishing Lesson 1, and welcome to the Draw a Box community! I'm Kaili, I'm one of the other students in the course so this won't be official critique but hopefully it helps you out. Please feel free to reply with any questions regarding the critique, or give me a ping in the official DaB discord server if you need anything answered urgently.

You've done an excellent job getting through Lesson 1 but there are a few things I want to point out that will hopefully help you as you get further along in the Draw a Box lessons.

Lines:

Superimposed lines

Overall you did a very good job! Your starts are done with purpose and as a result you only have fraying on one side (just like the lesson said) and you don't have many wobbles in your lines. Each one was executed with confidence, so good job!

Ghosted Lines

Good execution, but there's two things I want to bring to your attention: slight wobbling and a bit of arcing as well. Wobbling can be an indication of hesitation. When you're doing this exercise, make sure you're committing to the stroke and remember: once the pen touches the page, any opportunity to avoid a mistake has passed.. As for arcing, make sure you're engaging your shoulder (not just drawing from your wrist) and if you have a natural arc regardless, try to arc a bit in the opposite direction. This serves to correct that arc, and Comfy talks more about that here.

Ghosted planes

No notes! Just keep in mind the advice given to you for your ghosted lines, as ghosted lines makes up the frame work of a lot of the exercises we do throughout DaB. Keep up the good work!

Elipses:

Tables of Elipses

This is a great first attempt, but there is just one thing I'd like to point out:the inconsistent shape of the elipses. This can sometimes be caused by not be employing the ghosting method correctly . A confident execution leads to an evenly shaped ellipse, whereas hesitation leads to wobbling and uneven shapes, just as it does for our lines! Sometimes this is caused by incorrectly ghosting, othertimes it can be due to being too tense. If you find yourself becoming tense or frustrated take a breath, walk away for a few minutes, and revisit the exercise later. Taking a small break can make a big difference when it's necessary.

There is also a chance, you may be executing the ellipses more from your wrist, which will definitely result in uneven shapes due to the limited radius of that pivot. Make sure to consider whether you're engaging your whole arm from the shoulder. Take your time, properly employ the ghosting method, and give every individual piece of the puzzle the time it deserves! You got this!

Elipses in Planes

These are very well done, and like your Tables of Elipses exercise, we're still seeing the inconsistent shape (though this is not as prominent in this exercise as it was in your tables) and floating. Much like your Tables exercise, the inconsistent shape can be due to incorrectly using the ghosting method and/or drawing from the wrist and not the whole arm. It's just something to be more minfdul of going forward. The same can be said for the floating; the goal is to have your elipse touch all four sides of the plane. This is stuff that can be corrected with more time and practice, so keep up the work! You've made a good foundation for yourself to work off of.

Funnels

My biggest piece of advice here is to make sure you're doing this exercise with intent, and it may be useful to reread and watch the homework material before you move on and add this to your warm up routine. You have the very basic idea of it down, but it is imperitave that you keep in mind the placement of the elipses in relation to the axis and each other. There is a lot of floating and inconsistent shapes going on here, so make sure you understand the purpose of this exercise going forward.

Boxes:

Plotted Perspective

These came out amazingly. It's very clear you have a good understanding of two point perspective based on this. Nice job! The only thing I'd recommend is being a little more careful on your placement of the back line. Due to human error, it won't be perfect, but try to get it as close to vertical as you can.

Rough Perspective

Very well done. The backs of most of your boxes are actually rectangular/square (There's just a few with that wonky tilt, but it will get better to figure out as you practice) You've plotted back to the VP and it's clear you were able to analyze your mistakes and adjust as you went through the exercise. There was just a bit of minor wobbling and drawing over "mistake lines", so just be mindful and continue to put the ghosting method into practice. Overtime, this will come much more naturally, but making sure you're ghosting and drawing from your shoulder as you practice will be the most effective.

Rotated Boxes

Amazing job! You clearly rotated the boxes and didn't rely on a vanishing point for them as the lesson said. The lines are very clear, and for the most part each box looks like a rotated box. This is a great starting point for this exercise, being as complicated as it is. My only critique is that you did not draw the corner boxes. Before moving onto the next step of DaB, I would strongly encourage you to finish that set and draw those last 4 boxes. Don't restart, but draw what you've missed, and don't fear "ruining" the page. You're already off to such a good start here, so keep moving forward!

Organic Perspective

The two biggest things I'm noticing for this exercise is Wobbley lines and Diverging Lines. Wobbling lines can be corrected by properly employing the ghosting method and drawing from the shoulder. This is going to come into play a lot during the 250 box exercise, so make sure you're practicing this during your warm ups. And as for your diverging lines, it may be worth spending more time in your planning phase of the lines. I'd recommend taking another look at the "guessing" section of the rough perspective exercise, and maybe going through the organic perspective material once more as well as you integrate this into your warm ups.

Overall, these were very well done! Make sure to really focus on ghosting moving forward and being more confident in your elipses. I think you're ready to get into the 250 box challenge! Congratulations on finishing Lesson 1, and good luck taking on the challenge! I hope to see more of your work in the future.

Hello! I'm Joxmarf and I will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :) I see you have already gotten a review, but given its brevity and generality, I have decided to drop one too!

Superimposed Lines

Well done.

Ghosted Lines

Your marks wobble. 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. Also, remember to consider from which pivot you are drawing from. We should be drawing from the shoulder.

Ghosted Planes

Many of your lines wobble. Remember to ghost and draw from your shoulder.

Table of Ellipses

I see you are drawing through your ellipses two full times, which is great. They are also tight and even. However, many of them are done with wobbly or shaky marks. Remember to ghost mindfully and thoroughly before making the mark with confidence. Also, in some of them the marks are almost scratchy. This has to do with many factors, such as how you are ghosting and the weight you apply when doing the stroke.

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.

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. Also, wobbling is still present.

Plotted Perspective

Well done.

Rough Perspective

Remember to always keep ghosting in mind. Good job, you are working with one vanishing point, as the exercise states. Wobbling is still present.

Rotated boxes

Well done.

Organic Perspective

Well done. Be careful with your hatching. Many of your lines aren't reaching the two sides of your place, and look scratchy.

Overall, the common issue in all of the exercises is the wobbling. I recommend to reread the section in Lesson 1 in which Uncomfortable explains the ghosting method.

Lines

With regard to your lines, you are at a good start!

• There seems to be minimal fraying for the most part (at least for shorter lines), with most of your lines starting cleanly.

• There is some visibile wobbling or arching in the lines, but it seems like you are using your whole arm at least, so I think just doing some more lines with a conscious correction (as in focusing on drawing the line in a flow opposite to the curve that seems to occur) would do you well!

• On the subject of lines there are some cases where it feels like you were drawing lines slightly to slowly or cautiously, it's better to do a smooth, straight line that runs past the end point than one which stops short.

• You seem to have a habit of slowing down at the end of the line which causes it to curl slightly, but getting the muscle memory of the smoother lines will help that.

I'd recommend practicing longer lines, with the aim to overshoot the end slightly and conciously countering the curve that occurs, after that you can focus on ending the line on target. :)

Ellipses

Your initial ellipse tables are good!

• You don't overdo the passes and you seem to be drawing them confidently for the most part,

• Your ellipse degree changes are good, you can afford to push the degrees a bit further to get some more varied angles.

The key thing that will step them up in quality is to begin trying to make your ellipses constrain better to the shape your trying to fit them into,

• Your homework exhibits a few areas where an ellipse will extend past where it should, or not quite far enough into the plane it exists on.

• alignment with minor axes needs some work, mostly with lining up the ellipses properly so the line splits the middle correctly.

Boxes

• Your perspective exercises get the depth accross quite well, Organic perspective in particular gets the depth of the boxes across well.

• I can see that your line confidence drops a bit when trying to draw boxes; don't overthink it, tackle each line one at a time and think of each line more in isolation. don't worry though: focusing on working on your lines as previously mentioned should help a lot!

• The big thing is trying to keep the vanishing point in mind, even when it isn't visible on the page, think about the boxes as 3d objects in space, this will help you get an idea of how the shape shifts as it rotates, if doing rotated perspective, this can be done by basing each subsequent box's position of the adjacent or previous one,tackle it plane by plane.

• When you feel more confident, I'd recommend adding some line weight and some hatching to one of the box faces so you can get a better sense of form and depth.

Hopefully this helps!

Hello, I'll be the one reviewing your homework today.

1-Superimposed Lines

I can see that you tried your best to minimize wobbling/arching in your lines, which means you executed your lines confidently. You'll get better with practice. I see that there's fraying on only one side of the lines, which means you've taken your time to place the pen at the start of the line before you execute your marks.

well done.

2-Ghosted Lines

The purpose of this exercise and the ghosting method in general is to separate the thinking and execution parts of mark making, enabling students to be mindful of eac

Hello, I'll be the one reviewing your homework today. h line they make.

I can see that you executed your lines smoothly and confidently and kept wobbling/arching to a minimum.

well done.

3-Ghosted Planes

I can see that your lines here are as good as they were during the ghosted lines exercise; always make sure to take your time and pay attention to each mark you make.

well done.

4-Tables of Ellipses

I see that you tried your best to draw your ellipses smoothly as well as set them in a way so they can fit together well. You've drawn through your ellipses two times, which is good.

The purpose of this exercise is to teach how to draw ellipses smoothly, but also to give you a set space and definition for said ellipse, enabling you to judge whether or not the ellipse achieves the purpose you set for it; as such, don't feel discouraged when your ellipses don't exactly achieve that goal; you should get better at this exercise with practice.

well done.

5-Ellipses in Planes

You've managed your best to draw your ellipses smoothly as well as drawing through them two times, which is good; some of your ellipses do not touch all 4 edges of your plane. This mistake happens consistently enough with the planes that are greatly distorted; you should aim to have your ellipse make contact with the edge near the middle; as such, some revisions will be assigned to tackle this.

6-Funnels

The purpose of this exercise is, just like the other exercises, to help you get used to drawing ellipses smoothly in a set space, which you managed to do well, but also introducing the central minor axis line, which you managed to align your ellipses to.

From now on, try to add more variety to the degrees of the ellipses you use and the orientation of your funnels.

well done.

7-Plotted Perspective

The purpose of this exercise is to introduce you to working with vanishing points. I see that you managed to plot your lines back to said vanishing points, which is good. You used a ruler for all your lines, and your vertical edges are perpendicular to the horizon.

It's perfectly normal for the back edge to be off as it is the result of the accumulated mistakes throughout the exercise.

It should get better with practice.

well done.

8-Rough Perspective

This exercise is about getting you used to estimating your convergences; don't feel discouraged if your lines don't hit the central vanishing point, as that would be impossible during this point in time. What matters is that you used one vanishing point and your front and back edges are rectangular, you applied your line extensions properly, and you relied on the ghosting method to execute your lines smoothly and confidently. You should get better with practice.

well done.

9-Rotated Boxes

In the exercise, you failed to follow the core steps of the exercise; you added way too many boxes to one side and did not finish the other. The mark execution doesn't factor in the convergence of each box in the set. I'm afraid some revisions have to be assigned, and you need to reread the section about this exercise.

10-Organic Perspective

I can see that you've executed your lines as well as in the other exercises using the ghosting method, which is good.

The purpose of this exercise is to give you a greater challenge in estimating your convergences; as such, you should spend more time to make sure that your lines are converging away from the viewer as you do the exercise in your warmups and in the box challenge.

Also try to add more variety to the shapes, sizes, and orientation of your boxes.

other than that, well done.

good job on finishing lesson 1! i would like to add some stuff to fable's critique. in the rough prepective exersise your line work is a bit wobly and akward. this is probably because you arent confident with your marks. to work on it remember. plan for as long as it takes for you to be comfortable with it and then execute your mark in one foul swoop. remember take your time. if you need more instruction dont hesitate to reply to me.

Hello, I'll be critiquing your work.

Lines

Your superimposed lines are off to a great start, as you have drawn them from a clear point and confidently. There is the expected fraying at the ends, but this usually disappears once you've practiced more.

Ghosted planes and ghosted lines are nice and confident. I do notice a bit of arching in some of your ghosted lines, so make sure to give them a consistent trajectory even if they are going to miss the ending point. Overall, good job.

Ellipses

Tables of ellipses are looking very tidy rather than rushed, and it is also good to see that you are keeping your ellipses symmetrical and well rounded out on the ends.

Ellipses in planes are turning out well, but there are some that flow out of the boundaries. This isn't much to worry about, as you will improve with some practice.

Your funnels exercise is better in terms of keeping the ellipses within the boundaries. I like to see that you kept their shapes symmetrical and rounded, just like in your other ellipse exercises. There are also a few misalignments on the minor axes, but overall, this looks good.

Boxes

Rough perspective is good, and I can see that most of your lines were drawn confidently. There are a few wobbly lines, so make sure to work on that a bit.

Your rotated boxes exercise looks very confidently drawn, and I see that you kept in mind the consistency of the gaps between the boxes as well as the box rotations.

Lastly, your organic perspective is turning out well, and you have made good attempts at the perspective of the boxes. I do recommend that you try using lineweight in the areas that overlap.

Alrighty, everything looks good and you should be able to move onto the next lesson. Make sure to use this lesson in your warmups!

Lines: For the lines lesson, I notice two areas of focus. One is that a lot of lines seem to bend up relative to the page. Assuming you're drawing with your shoulder, and this persists. There is a section in lesson Zero on how to try and correct this. The other is that a lot of your lines accurately connect two dots but are wobbly. Focus on having your lines be straight over them being accurate. This often means drawing them a bit faster.

Ellipses: Overall the ellipses are well done, but a lot of them do not have a smooth transition. Even more so for the eclipses in boxes. Another smaller issue is that some of them seem to be draw warped around their adjacent eclipse.

Boxes: Boxes are very well done with little to no major errors. There are some minor issues of course like boxes having one edge being the wrong length, being a bit warped, or having wobbly lines still. But all of that will be improved in the 250 box challenge.

Overall: Your overall structure and understanding of the lessons if very good. But you put to much focus on having all your lines meet up in the right place instead of on having them straight. At this stage it is ok for your lines to be a bit off if it means you are working on getting them straighter.

1. Lines

Superimposed Lines: Aching is present, make sure you actively try to not do this, you might have to arch in the other direction very slightly to mitigate this unwanted result. Fraying is apparent in some of the latter attempts, make sure that you are keeping watch over how you place your pen, as it should be placed on a dot, the fraying at the ending part of your lines are acceptable.

Ghosted Lines: (Slight) Arching is present. Along with some wobble you have pointed out already.

Ghosted Planes: Almost no wobble is present in most of your lines, but some lines do show it. This goes for arching as well, but it is only 1 or 2 lines that I noticed.

2. Ellipses

Table of Ellipses: Some ellipses go slightly out of bounds, some ellipses also overlap each other.

Ellipses in Planes: Few ellipses go slightly out of bounds. Good confidence and accuracy.

Funnels: The minor axis splits the ellipses fairly consistently, there are one or two that are lopsided or egg shaped, mainly just the ellipses that are at the ends of the funnel.

3. Boxes

Plotted Perspective: The exercise was completed accurately.

Rough Perspective: Same errors as the lines section(s). Also remember that vertical lines are perpendicular to the horizon, and that the horizontal lines are parallel to the horizon as there are lines that are not following this rule.

Rotated Boxes: Some are not rotating, the corners (front and back) are kept fairly close, warping is present but expected.

the boxes that are not rotating are : (y+1 & y+2) (y-1 & y-2) (x+1 & x+2) (x-1 & x-2)

Organic Perspective: Try to keep the 'Y' above 90 degrees so the boxes don't look too distorted (this appears on some of the boxes).