K4lleGRo

Hi Elvenstar207, and good job completing lesson 2! I will handle your critique by dividing my thoughts on each exercise in corresponding sections.

Organic arrows

First, the good news: your arrows show a nice fluidity in their shapes, with generally confident curves flowing quite smoothly through the page. Fluidity is an important feature of all objects whose construction starts from a ribbon, so it's a good thing that yours start already with a fairly good sense for it. As a minor note, some ribbons tend to get a bit "fat" on their curves, likely resulting from your mark getting a bit too deviated from your first curved line. One way you could improve this is by, instead of ghosting the second line in its entirety, dividing your work in smaller portions by ghosting the individual curved "segments" between each turn, paying of course attention to making your segments overlap. This way, following the profile of your initial line becomes generally easier. On the other hand, there are important aspects of this exercise which I feel you should work on more. First off, the perspective: for curved ribbons like these, perspective makes their far end look smaller and their near end look bigger, with the width more or less increasing uniformly from near to far, and the more the difference in width is stark, the more the ribbon will seem long. Some of your arrows do show this effect, the top 3 in the first page for instance. However, some others do show the opposite effect, starting shorter on the near side and getting wider on the far side, as it is happening in the top 2 arrows at the bottom of the first page. I suspect that, more than to an incomprehension happening during construction, this is due to an incorrect placement of hatching lines. Since the hatching is a tool that we use here to clarify which face is behind, placing it incorrectly can make the difference between a convincing arrow in perspective and an arrow that is diverging. Here's a concrete example of what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/QgMx88o

Another important thing to note here is that many of your arrows do not simply go towards or away from the viewer, but twist and spiral like a helix (see for instance the bottom left arrow in the first page and the two at the top of the second page). While drawing spiraling and twisted ribbon may be a good exercise to test one's sense of geometric intuition once they have an advanced enough understanding, it's a good idea at an early stage to stick to simple forms: when we are learning we should always try to operate on the simple, straightforward cases and only then start to add complexity.

Organic forms

Your forms look for the most part good. You have kept your sausage shape nice and simple. The axis of the sausage is placed quite precisely, pointing well the direction of the flow of the "spine" of the shape. Both the silhouette of the sausages and the axis are smooth and very confident, resulting overall in mostly nice and clean shapes. You also aligned quite well the ellipses and contour lines to the spine, and changed the foreshortening of each curve/ellipse along the length of the spine, enhancing the feeling of depth. A thing that I'd critique here is the presence of some subtle but noticeable wobbling in the ellipses and in some of the contour lines, which clashes with the clean curves of the sausages. Remember that here we will always try to privilege confidence over accuracy: even if you may be less precise at first, always try to draw your curves with (moderately) rapid marks and, if you are struggling with precision, ghosting longer will help.

Texture analysis

You did a quite nice job here. You picked some textures that could be conveyed effectively through the use of cast shadows. I particularly like what you did in your mushroom texture, where you picked and reproduced a subject that clearly showcases two different scales of details, a greater one formed by the lamellae (the "gills" of the shroom) and a smaller one given by the granular and fuzzy contour structure. Your shadow gradients are also quite smooth. The only thing I'd criticize is your corn texture, where you tended to simplify the shape of the kernels into rectangles, as opposed to your observation that shows a richer, less regular structure.

Dissections

I want to preface that, in my opinion, your textures here are for the most part looking great. I like the way you handle detail with a thought out use of shadow and irregular marks that convey the bumps, creases, pores and dents of your surfaces, such as in your brick texture. You also break well the form your sausage, conveying better the feeling that we are looking at a shape made from a specific material. That being said, our main aim here is not to necessarily make pleasing-looking drawings, but to study and acquire specific skills, and on this matter, I think that there are some aspects of this exercise you should have handled in a different way. One problem in some of your sausage cuts, such as in the same brick one, the bark and the honeycomb, is that the texture doesn't follow the geometry of the shape, i.e. the detail doesn't wrap around the sausage. It's especially evident in the brick texture, where the brick outlines look like they are laying flat on a bean shaped cut of a wall. The effect we should be looking for is instead that of a curved wall that is wrapping around the sausage shape, so that while each individual brick is flat, the way they are disposed follows imaginary contour lines on the shape. Other textures however do have detail that actually follows the curving of the surface. Another critical aspect in many of your shapes is that you often use explicit outlining of the texture instead of implicit (I'll point back to the lesson 2 material for the detailed explanation of the difference: https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/2/homework). The key point is that, while most your textures usually don't suffer from this, overtly relying on explicit textures can cause visual cluttering and confusion, which in my opinion does indeed happen in 2 of your textures (the strawberry and honeycomb specifically). Implicit textures are a tool that is both pleasing and useful for saving time, so while your ability to make explicit texture seems already quite solid I think it will be worth to train your ability to use implicit. The way you'd want your sausages to come out in this exercise is not unlike a panel form the texture analysis, with your texture forming a smooth gradient from silhouette to center. I'd also note that in some cases you incorporated elements that constitute part of the broader geometry of a shape instead of the "fine structure" that makes the texture, such as in the mangosteen, which is a bit the opposite of the purpose of the exercise, since texture is broadly speaking part of what we add once we have defined through construction the geometry of our objects. Lastly, I will point out that in some texture you have used form shading and hatching to convey shadows and shadow gradients. While these are techniques that are perfectly valid and can be used to achieve stunning visuals, they fall outside the purpose of our exercise, since we should use cast shadows only and refrain from adding marks that do not communicate either contour or irregularities of the surface. While you are absolutely free to use such techniques in your 50% rule work (and I encourage you to do so, since you seem to have quite the eye for it), you should refrain from using them as you did in the tentacle, jeans and sprayed water textures since, again, our goal here is furthering our understanding of 3d objects, not necessarily making pleasing drawings.

Form intersections

Aside from the fact that the boxes could have probably been done with a bit more care, the exercise looks for the most part well done. The shapes look indeed like they belong into the same picture by having a consistent degree foreshortening, giving the composition a nice sense of harmony. You also definitely did not pick the lazy route and instead packed your page with as many shapes as you could, which is good. Your intersections also do look quite believable, showing that you already may have a good eye for how shapes interact with each other. Not much else to say here, you did well.

Organic intersections

Your sausage forms remain confident and smooth, and the confidence of your contour lines seems to have improved as well. Your shadows more often than not wrap around the underlying shapes in a believable way, giving your composition a more solid feeling. However, there are a couple of things to note: first, your forms, while feeling solid also feel quite stiff like a rigid bean shape, while the feeling we are trying to convey is that of a fluid shape that's sagging under its weight, like a balloon filled with water. This is particularly evident in the top left form in the second page, where the sausage is even arching upwards instead of downwards. Another thing to look out for is the relative placement of the sausages, which sometimes makes it rather seem like some sausages are frozen in an unstable position or even floating on top of each other, instead of looking balanced on top of each other under the pressure of their own weight. Here I'm talking about shapes like the right bean at the center of the composition in page 1 and the central bean in page 2: in both cases the beans are not completely stacked on top of the lower ones, but instead their rear end is kind of floating. These are 2 things to keep in mind in the future.

Conclusion

You did a mostly good lesson, but before moving on there are a couple of things I'd like you to work on a little more. First, I will assign you another page of organic arrows, where I'd like you to keep your forms nice and simple, without twisting and spiraling, just simples ribbons with multiple curves, and also I'd like you to try and push your perspective a little bit further, with more accentuated feeling of depth. Second, I'd like you to do another page of organic forms, half of them with ellipses and half of them with contour curves: draw your ellipses and contour lines with the same confidence as your sausage outlines. When you are done, pick a sausage with ellipses, possibly a big one, and do a dissection. You should try to use only cast shadows and implicit texturing. You can (and in fact I'd encourage you to) pick some of the textures from your original exercise and redo them according to these instructions. Take all the time you need and when you are done reply here with your homework. Good luck and good work!

I know this may be a "empty compliment", but that was truely poetic! (I read the poem in Spawn's voice). But anyway, onto the real critique:

Congrats on completing what i call the 'White Whale' of Drawabox! Fewer people get to this point, so be proud of yourself. You've maintained confident lines, extending lines the right direction (AWAY from the viewer), applied the correct lineweight, hatched in the right manner and a decent mix between shallow and dramatic forshortening.

I do notice that many of the boxes seem too big, and that's fine, but with too much it causes overlapping in extending lines and can sometimes be confusing. it can be useful to start putting Just my suggestion.

Your convergences are inconsistent at the beginning

And on some cases it affects the corner line negatively. This is due to your lack of placing vanishing points. The upside is that i do notice that towards the end your convergences do improve.

My recommendation is to add a vanishing point, inside of the page, or if i it's outside of the page using a separate page at the side of your main page so that you can 'ghost' towards them and get your convergences more accurately. For a bonus, here's a guide on making your convengences better. https://imgur.com/3zoQA65

Overall a great submission, with some minor mistakes. You can add to your warm up pool the additional exercises!

As far as I see, there are no wobbling lines on your superimposed lines. So that's OK. The next step, try to reduce fraying lines at the end point. There are curves at the starting and end point of your ghosted lines.

Here my suggestion for the superimposed lines and the ghosted lines. The instructor uses a ruler for guideline. For me I draw a line with a ruler with different length from 2-3 inches, 6-7 inches, half of the page and full of the page. And then I use the ghosting method before draw over those lines from ruler. I dot the starting and ending point over that line of ruler. After finishing it 8 times. I start the same process with my free hand. I find that the superimposed line technique will help me to weigh my lines in the future and it helps to stretch out my arm, loose out my stress of arm.

The ghosting method is the key. It helps you to improve your ghosted lines which don't stop at the end point. Ghost many times until your arm direct from the starting to the ending point and then draw it with confidence. I mean let the brain and hand do their job because we ghost it many times.

You should start to draw your ellipses with only 2 lines instead of 3 lines.

The problem of your plotted perspective is your straight line. Therefore practicing the ghost method will solve this problem.

In the future we'll free hand drawing of everything, like boxes. Thus drawing a straight line is very important. Ghost can help you!

On my first drawing of the rotated box, I didn't understand it at all. So I drew whatever I wanted. But I redrew it and it's better. I went back to watch the video and tried to copy exactly what the instructor guide. And it works. This exercise is very important. It can help you to understand rotated box in near future by your brain.

Hope my suggestion will help. Enjoy drawing!

Superimposed lines: Solid. A nice variety of lengths for your straights and some nice "C" shaped curves. Be sure to implement more "S" shaped curves in the future. I'm noticing some fraying on both ends of your lines, be sure to carefully place your pen down on its mark before making your stroke. We'll work on the fanning and accuracy issues throughout Lesson 1. Be sure that your rotating your page to find the optimal position for your shoulder to make that straight stroke from point to point.

Ghosted Lines: Needs Work. Their is a consistent wobble to your lines and some of you lines miss both plotted points. Be sure that your are: rotating that page, ghosting the strokes as many times as needed, carefully place your pen down on its mark, and in one smooth motion from your shoulder put down your line. Focus more at creating straight lines over accurate ones at this early stage.

Table of Ellipses: Solid. We got two full pages with many of the Ellipses touching with minimal overlapping. Keep ghosting your ellipses and focus on drawing though them completely twice and smoothly. Keep in mind that the Ellipses should have the same orientation in each section of your table. We want to carefully consider what kind of Ellipse we want to draw and repeat it in that section of the table.

Ghosted Planes/Ellipses in Planes: Needs Work. We got two full pages with many panes and angles drawn. I'm concerned about the amount of wobble and general waviness to your lines. We'll solve the under and overshooting of your lines with continued practice but we'll need to get a nice straight line for you to succeed at these exercises. Be sure that you take your time with every single line. Plot your points, Rotate the page, ghost your stroke, and create a confident line from your shoulder. The Ellipses are solid. They are drawn through, mostly smooth and fitted properly in their plane.

Funnels: Needs Work. The funnels are properly constructed and many of the Ellipses are smooth and drawn though twice and the minor axis cuts the ellipses in half. Far too many of your Ellipses are circular, though. You'll find it much more difficult to maintain an even shape and lack of tilt with oblong Ellipses.

Plotted Perspective: Very Good. We have some line correcting and lines missing their mark. Be sure to take your time and I would recommend using a clear ruler so you can easily keep track of your lines. I would also suggest adding hatching to the front face of your boxes in the future.

Rough Perspective: Good. The boxes are drawn through and you are using a straight edge to create guide lines back towards the V.P. You also seem to understand the basics of the exercise with your horizontal and vertical line being parallel and perpendicular to the horizon line and your angled lines heading back to a single V.P. I would again suggest adding hatching to the front face of your boxes, it's good practice. Also I would suggest that you don't put more than 6 boxes to each frame in this exercise. You want to be able to study how your lines fall towards the V.P and that gets a little tricky when you have so many crisscrossing towards the V.P.

Rotated Perspective: Good. This is a pretty good first effort. The image is large, all of the boxes have been attempted and many of them are indeed rotating. Consider adding hatching and line weight to help with clarity.

Organic Perspective: Solid. It's a good effort. Consider adding line weight t the silhouette of your boxes with one additional stroke. We'll learn more about the "Y" method of constructing boxes and working with 3 point perspective in the 250 box challenge. Remember no matter how complicated some of these exercises may get; always go back to the basics of :Plotting your points, Rotating your Page, Ghosting your strokes, and creating confident lines that originate from your shoulder.

Overall Thoughts: Good. The instructions have been followed and the work has been completed. I'm concerned about some of the wobble to your lines and that the funnel exercise wasn't quite completed as intended.