FerrettonFire

Yeesh! I'd half-assumed I'd misunderstood a few things based on how hard I was finding this, but I'd had similar feelings in some of the previous lessons, so this time I rushed forward instead of correctly assessing my weak areas. Well, time to take a step back and reassess.

Thanks for the providing the detailed feedback. As per the notes here, I'll work on the following:

Form Intersections:

• Need to draw intersections only for the visible parts, not all the way around.

• Will review the instructions and ensure I follow them more closely.

• Need to take time to absorb and process the feedback provided.

Cylinders in Boxes:

• Will extend the contact point lines of each ellipse correctly.

• Need to review the instructions and compare my work to ensure accuracy.

Form Intersection Vehicles:

• Pay closer attention to the convergence of lines.

• Avoid constructing the vehicles inside bounding boxes; focus on drawing primitive forms as in the form intersections.

• Apply the ghosting method for confident and precise ellipse drawing.

Detailed Vehicle Constructions:

• Review the orthographic plan instructions and apply them correctly, focusing on proportional relationships and locating landmarks.

• Employ the "constructing to scale" technique to maintain consistent proportions.

• Avoid arbitrary use of filled areas of solid black and reserve them for cast shadows only.

• Consider the relationships between forms and surfaces before filling in shapes.

Overall:

• Take adequate time to digest previous feedback and review the provided material.

• Ensure I understand the instructions fully before proceeding.

I'm on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so I'm going to spend that time doing a bunch of ellipses to try and move on from being so hesistant and wobbly. Starting from the absolute basics like that should hopefully give my mind a reset and I'll give the task another crack after rereading the above and taking some notes on my return.

Not enormously surprised at needing to redo stuff. In a way it's a relief, as I really felt like I hadn't understood Lesson 7. Back to the drawing board.

Thank you for your comments -- I'll review Lesson 2 before moving onto the final stage. Very excited to have got this far!

Thanks so much! I'm really chuffed, actually, as I thought I'd have to redo the constructions for whatever reason. I'll review these notes carefully then head on to the wheel challenge, much appreciated!

Thank you very much! While I've tried to use my shoulder and do ghosting, I do forget sometimes and probably haven't been as fastidious as I should be. I also haven't been doing the warm-ups -- more out of dread, honestly, as I set aside time for this and didn't want to spend time on a 'not-fun' part. I've been noticing in my 50% rule work that 'applied' attention makes a huge difference, so I'll work on not skimping on the bits that aren't as obviously entertaining.

I really appreciate the critique, and am looking forward to Lesson 6!

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback.

I made over two pages of notes from your reply, and read them every day for the first week of working on the below to try and internalize them. Of course, that's easier said than done. It was rather frustrating doing these redos, as I think I made some progress in some areas but went backwards in others! Aargh. I resisted the temptation to keep drawing pages/redos, remember what you said about 'not aiming for pretty pictures' and trying to power through at the start.

https://imgur.com/a/8UMTod7

The final page with two drawings were meant to be lions, but they came out very wolfesque -- with the first, I was trying to add "blobs" of flesh but then it ended up looking rather messy, with lines all over the body. A bit confused as to how to avoid that. Snouts are also very tough. I followed these guides for each face construction, and began the homework by just redoing them myself a few times:

https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/26d27c13.jpg

https://imgur.com/fUIEAu0

I'm assuming I'm missing something here but unsure where.

Cheers again for your help!

Edit: Honestly, looking at my drawings I don't feel remotely 'ready' to pass Lesson 5 -- part of me is even hoping for more homework so I can 'get it right' before heading off to the next challenge, even though I know this is an unproductive mindset. Part of this is likely due to comparing myself to some of the other students in the Discord. Just typing that out here to remind myself to stay focused on each drawing, rather than aiming to be seven steps ahead of where I am right now.

Thanks so much for the detailed critique!

I'll work hard to stick more closely to the sausage method -- you're right, I was definitely trying multiple shapes on legs depending on what 'fit', but considering I will later be constructing over these shapes anyway I'll try to stick to sausages.

Altering the solhoutte is definitely a habit I want to fix -- I even knew it was bad while doing it, but couldn't resist the temptation! I'll make it a point to stick with it much more closely in the next lesson.

I appreciate your reply and am looking forward to the next lesson.

Thank you for clarifying! I'm going to do a bit of the texture challenge before jumping into Lesson 4, just three pages, so that I've at least got a start on it.

Thank you! One query I just thought of:

Are there assigned times for all the challenges, as was the case for the 250 box challenge? Or should we approach them when we feel the moment's right? Just checking as I want to fully complete the course, and suddenly realising I have all the challenges left to do at the end would be a bit of a backlog!

So, first: I want to say thank you, dearly, for this course.

I'm thirty-one years old and had never viewed drawing as something I was capable of doing; it was like watching people breathe fire, some mystical ability that I'd never been granted. I didn't even draw much as a child aside from three or four sketches -- I can still remember those, and the frustration that they weren't good enough. So I gave up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzPc-mLlHYs

I found Drawabox through the above video, and it's been bleedin' brilliant. I've drawn every day for almost three months now, and show my far more artistically-practiced partner my scribbles each night, and she's clearly very proud of the progress I'm making (minimal but steady!). This whole thing is just damn satisfying to do. I really appreciate the tremendous work you've put in to developing this course.

I have a long way to go, and still feel like an absolute beginner, but I'm looking forward to keeping this up. Your website opened a door I didn't even realise I wanted to go through.

Anyway, following your advice!

• You're dead right that I tend to rush through larger drawings; this is likely as I have assigned myself one exercise a night (along with a regular sketch), inadvertently incentivizing myself to do larger ones quickly so I can finish at a good pace. I'll try and take things more slowly when it comes to larger pieces now.

• Ellipses drive me barmy, but I've gathered from the Discord that I'm not alone in this. I'll try to remember to do precisely two runthroughs before lifting my pen for each ellipses.

• With the potato plant -- you're exactly right. I felt a little proud that this one actually looked 'okay', and didn't want to risk ruining it by adding cast shadows which I'm still struggling with. I'll try to disregard this mentality in the future.

• I'll make it a point to do an ellipses inset from here on!

• I'll make sure cap off drawings that over-extend in the future.

• Re. the cactuses, do you mean I shouldn't have added the 'volume' to the sides? I just want to ensure I understand.

Apologies for not including the branch drawings – I'd done them but forgot to upload. Originally these were my branch drawings:

https://i.imgur.com/gFP9aLt.jpg?1

After your comments, I thought this exercise could be done better, so I tried redoing it:

https://imgur.com/a/G4VHSvw

I drew each ellipses twice before putting my pen down (though I know they're still sometimes quite a bit off!) and tried to use a bit more foreshortening by deepening the circles. Still imperfect but I think it has a better chance at passing than before. Also, I only realised how far off the extra branch in '3' once I'd already added the first extra ellipses.

Thanks again!

Thanks very much!