Lefebul

Hi Drawsirah, congrats on finishing lesson 1!

First, a general comment about your submission, please take care to always show the whole page in your picture (unlike your second page of ghosted planes for example) and to have it take up as much space as possible, in order to facilitate the job of the person who’ll be critiquing you. Your first page of ghosted planes for example is more difficult to critique due to its angle and how small it is in the picture. For future submissions, please spare a little more time to take good pictures of your work if you want to get as much from a critique as possible.

With that out of the way, I’ll be handling your critique relying on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

My critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started !

1. Lines section

First off, starting with your superimposed lines exercise, I’m unfortunately seeing some fraying on the first end of your lines. Fraying on the other end is completely ok and will get better with practice, however fraying on the first end can be avoided by putting down your pen carefully at the beginning of the line, so please pay attention to this in future warmups.

In the ghosted lines and ghosted planes exercise I’m seeing dots on the page, which indicates that you used the ghosting method correctly. Starting a line with a starting and ending dot is important and should never be skipped, even in exercises where you’ll be focusing on other things.

Your lines look very wobbly in the ghosted lines exercise and in your first page of ghosted planes, but are looking WAY better in the second page of ghosted planes, so either you’ve tremendously improved in a very short span of time, or maybe you’ve rushed your lines a little bit in the beginning. Either way, congrats on the improvement! You also show some good line confidence in the exercises involving boxes, despite the added worry about accuracy. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one. However next time you attempt the ghosted lines exercise in your warmups, I’d like you to push yourself to draw longer lines though, as the ones I’m seeing here are quite short.

2. Ellipses section

I see that you are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as instructed and they look confidently drawn for the most part, so good job! They are also pretty tight for the most part, they’re sometimes looking a little loose and messy, but as for lines confident but inaccurate ellipses will always be better than accurate but wobbly ones, and your accuracy will get better with practice. In the table of ellipses exercise, I like that you experimented with varying sizes and degrees and weren’t afraid of drawing very elongated ones, so good job! You also managed to fit your ellipses snugly against each other.

In the ellipses in planes exercise, it seems that you did not re-use the planes that you drew in the previous exercise, may I ask why that is? In future attemps, I would also advise you to maybe start experimenting with different plane shapes to fit your ellipses in.

Your ellipses in planes are also looking very good for the most part, even though they start to look a little more egg-ish as you struggled to have them reach all sides of the plane, which is completely normal. Something that you can try out is focusing on having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides, and trying its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners. You’ll see that even the thinnest ellipse can easily reach all corners and fit inside a plane that way. See example here: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Your ellipses are mostly aligned with the minor axis in the ellipses in funnels exercise, though some of them are a bit skewed, so please remember that the minor axis should cut the ellipses in 2 symmetrical halves. Next time you attempt this exercise, you can try widening the degree of your ellipses as you progress towards the sides.

3. Boxes section

In the rough perspective exercise, you’ve kept your width lines aren’t parallel to the horizon line and the height lines perpendicular to it for the most part, so good job! Keep paying attention to that in future warmups while planning your lines using the ghosting method.

The rotated boxes exercise is a tricky one, which in my opinion you’ve handled really well. You kept your corners close and have a good amount of rotation, so good job!

Very good work on the organic perspective exercise, I’m seeing some nice size variation as well as overlap there and it gives off a real 3d feeling. However please be careful of always having the lines of your boxes converge towards the vanishing points, as I’m seeing some diverging lines there.

Some general comments to finish off this section: even though it is optional, I appreciate that you used hatching on your boxes, it is valuable line practice and makes your submission much easier to read. I also like that you applied line weight, however it often seems that you went over your lines more than once and some of it is looking very heavy, so in the future please keep in mind that line weight should be applied sparingly (that is, only on overlapping lines, and not on the whole box in the front for example) and never in more than one additional stroke.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a solid submission, so I’m letting you move on to the 250 boxes challenge. Above all, stay motivated and committed!

Hi Elephant, congrats on finishing lesson 1!

First off, regarding your comment about not having a lot of availability for Drawabox, that’s completely okay, in my opinion the advantage of following this course is also that one can go at their own pace. Please remember to always take your time to complete these exercises to the best of your ability and to follow the 50% rule however, even if it stretches things out a lot.

I don’t have any specific advice for your elbow problem, except to keep experimenting and drawing lines in different directions (turn your sheet of paper as much as you need!). I only ever draw lines in one direction myself now, which is the one I’m most comfortable with. I’m sorry that I can’t help you more, but without seeing you in action it’s kinda hard to give relevant advice haha. Maybe try asking around in the discord server if you haven’t already, someone may have more insight on this.

With that out of the way, I’ll be handling your critique relying on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

My critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started !

1. Lines section

First off, starting with your superimposed lines exercise, I’m unfortunately seeing some fraying on the first end of your lines. Fraying on the other end is completely ok and will get better with practice, however fraying on the first end can be avoided by putting down your pen carefully at the beginning of the line, so please pay attention to this in future warmups.

In the ghosted lines and ghosted planes exercise I’m seeing dots on the page, which indicates that you used the ghosting method correctly. Starting a line with a starting and ending dot is important and should never be skipped, even in exercises where you’ll be focusing on other things. Your lines look quite confidently drawn in these exercises, good job! Even in the exercises involving boxes you managed to keep them fairly straight despite the added worry about accuracy, so congrats on that. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one. I also like the fact that you pushed yourself to draw very long lines in the ghosted lines exercise, even if you could have pushed yourself to fill out your page a little more.

2. Ellipses section

I see that you are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as instructed and they look confidently drawn for the most part, so good job! They’re sometimes looking a little loose and messy, but as for lines confident but inaccurate ellipses will always be better than accurate but wobbly ones, and your accuracy will get better with practice. In the table of ellipses exercise, I like that you experimented with varying sizes and degrees, you also managed to fit your ellipses snugly against each other.

Your ellipses in planes start to look a little more egg-ish as you struggled to have them reach all sides of the plane, which is completely normal. Something that you can try out is focusing on having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides, and trying its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners. You’ll see that even the thinnest ellipse can easily reach all corners and fit inside a plane that way. See example here: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Your ellipses are mostly aligned with the minor axis in the ellipses in funnels exercise, though some of them are a bit skewed, so keep paying attention to it in future warmups. Next time you attempt this exercise, please also try drawing more arched lines on the sides in order to have more size variation in your ellipses. You can also try widening their degree as you progress towards the sides.

3. Boxes section

A general comment about boxes, even though hatching is optional I would advise you to always apply it in the exercises where it’s an option, as it makes your submission much easier to read for the person critiquing you. It’s also valuable line practice, provided you use the ghosting method and take your time for hatching as well.

In the rough perspective exercise, you’ve kept your width lines aren’t parallel to the horizon line and the height lines perpendicular to it for the most part, so good job! Keep paying attention to that in future warmups while planning your lines using the ghosting method.

The rotated boxes exercise is a tricky one and the top left corner is pretty messy, as it seems that you got confused with the lines and therefore did not keep your corners close & parallel in the bottom plane of your last box. The bottom corners look much better however, especially the bottom left where you have a good amount of rotation in my opinion, so it seems to me like you’re understood the point of this exercise.

Very good work on the organic perspective exercise, I’m seeing some nice size variation as well as overlap there and it gives off a real 3d feeling. However please be careful of always having the lines of your boxes converge towards the vanishing points, as I’m seeing some diverging lines there.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a solid submission, so I’m letting you move on to the 250 boxes challenge. Above all, stay motivated and committed!?

Hi Vapz, congrats on finishing lesson 1! I’ll be handling your critique relying on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

My critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started !

1. Lines section

First off, starting with your superimposed lines exercise, I’m seeing little to no fraying on the first end of your lines, which shows that you have executed this exercise with patience and care, so good job! Fraying on the other end is completely ok and will get better with practice.

In the ghosted lines and ghosted planes exercise I’m seeing dots on the page, which indicates that you used the ghosting method correctly. Starting a line with a starting and ending dot is important and should never be skipped, even in exercises where you’ll be focusing on other things. Your lines do have a bit of wobble, which is to be expected and will get better with practice, but please always keep in mind that confidence should be prioritized over accuracy. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one. I also like the fact that you pushed yourself to draw very long lines in the ghosted lines exercise.

2. Ellipses section

I see that you are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as instructed, they also look nicely symmetrical and tight for the most part, good job! They’re a little wobbly, so as for lines keep in mind that confidence should always be prioritized over accuracy. In the table of ellipses exercise, I like that you experimented with varying sizes and degrees, you also managed to fit your ellipses snugly against each other.

Your ellipses in planes are looking somewhat egg-ish sometimes, as you struggled to have them reach all sides of the plane, so something that you can try out is focusing on having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides, and trying its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners. You’ll see that even the thinnest ellipse can easily reach all corners and fit inside a plane that way. See example here: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Your ellipses are mostly aligned with the minor axis in the ellipses in funnels exercise, though some of them are a bit skewed, so keep paying attention to it in future warmups. Next time you attempt this exercise, please also try drawing more arched lines on the sides in order to have more size variation in your ellipses. You can also try widening their degree as you progress towards the sides.

3. Boxes section

In the rough perspective exercise, there are some instance where the width lines aren’t parallel to the horizon line and the height lines aren’t perpendicular to it (it is very obvious in the 2nd panel of your 2nd page, leftmost box for example), so pay attention to that in future warmups while planning your lines using the ghosting method.

The rotated boxes exercise is a tricky one, but I feel like you’ve maybe rushed this one a bit and didn’t draw the base of your boxes with enough forethought, using the ghosting method. You also did not draw the squares at both ends of both axes as instructed. Please remember that the sides of boxes that are next to each other should be quite close to each other as well as parallel. I highlighted a few pairs of lines that should be close & parallel in red and also tried to show how the planes at the bottom of your boxes should look here: https://ibb.co/ZMVhXtB

Here are also some observations on the work of another student that might help: https://ibb.co/album/MBypM0

I’m going to ask you for one more page of this exercise as a revision so I’d also definitely recommend reading through the instructions + watching the video for this exercise one more time. Please reach out if you have any questions or if some things aren’t clear enough.

Very good work on the organic perspective exercise, I’m seeing some nice size variation as well as overlap there and it gives off a real 3d feeling. However please be careful of always having the lines of your boxes converge towards the vanishing points, as I’m seeing some diverging lines there.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a solid submission, and I’m sorry to ask you for more work, but I feel that this is necessary before letting you move on to the 250 boxes challenge. Above all, stay motivated and committed!

Hi Infernodnb, congrats on finishing lesson 1!

First off, let me assure you that you made the right choice by submitting your work for critique, Drawabox is a very long course to follow and will take a lot of work, so on top of receiving valuable feedback, submitting your homework (and optionally joining the Discord server) will allow you to not work in a vacuum, which always makes it more difficult to keep up the motivation in the long run.

Also, about the fact that your homework was made digitally: I appreciate the disclaimer and you seem aware of the fact that this isn’t something you should normally do, so I’ll trust that you have your reasons. I still want to emphasize, as someone who draws both traditionally and digitally, that it does make a difference, even with the settings you chose. Also, when it comes to settings, I think that if you’re going to continue drawing digitally for future lessons you should also disable the pressure sensitivity, because some of your lines are visibly thinner/lighter than others and there is some visible tapering. Remember that the reason it’s advised to use fineliners and not ballpoint pens is precisely because pressure should make as little a difference as possible.

With that out of the way, I’m going to critique your submission the same way I would if you had drawn everything traditionally, and relying mainly on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

My critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started!

1. Lines section

Starting with the superimposed lines exercise, I am unfortunately seeing a lot of fraying on both ends of your lines, less so in what seems to be the first page, but a lot more on the second one (where there are the most curved lines). Fraying on one end is completely ok and will get better with practice, fraying on both ends however can be avoided by taking your time and carefully putting down your pen at the beginning of your line, so please pay attention to that in future warmups!

As for the ghosted lines exercise, your lines look confidently drawn and the dots I’m seeing indicate that you planned them correctly using the ghosting method, so good job! I can also see that you’re pushing yourself to draw really long ones – although I guess that depends on the size of your tablet: if it happens to be smaller than an A4 sheet of paper, then I don’t think you’re going to be able to practice making really large strokes as you would if you were drawing traditionally, unfortunately.

Your planes are also looking pretty good, they seem confidently drawn and are filling up the page nicely, I also appreciate the shape variations I’m seeing. I’m also seeing dots there, which indicates that you applied the ghosting method.

Your lines do get a little wobblier in the exercises involving boxes. This is perfectly normal and will get better with practice, but always remember that confidence should be prioritized over accuracy. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one. That being said, the wobbling I’m seeing isn’t extreme and you did manage to maintain good line confidence there as well.

2. Ellipses section

Your ellipses are looking really good! You are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as instructed and keeping them pretty tight, so good job on that! In the table of ellipses exercise, they look confidently drawn and are nicely symmetrical for the most part. You also did a good job fitting them all snugly against one another and experimented with different sizes and degrees.

You did a good job fitting your ellipses inside your planes as well, a few of them look egg-shaped or are out of bounds, but that is to be expected and will get better with practice. It looks like you’re using the method of having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides & aligning its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners already, but just for the sake of making the different approaches more explicit: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Your ellipses aren’t very well aligned with the minor axis in your ellipses in funnels exercise, so try to pay attention to that in the future. I think that you’re also definitely ready to try varying the degree of your ellipses in this exercise as well, so feel free to experiment with that in future warmups!

3. Boxes section

I’m not seeing any hatching on your boxes, which, while optional, does make submissions easier to read, so consider doing that when you move on to the 250 boxes challenge (it’s also valuable additional line practice).

In the rough perspective exercise, you managed to keep your width lines parallel to the horizon line and your height lines perpendicular to it for the most part, so good job! Your boxes do look quite shallow though and I’m not seeing much experimentation with different horizon line heights, so try constructing deeper boxes and introducing more variation in future warmups!

Good job on your rotated boxes exercise, that one’s not easy and you have a good amount of rotation in my opinion. You also kept your corners fairly close.

Good job on varying the angle and size of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, that exercise is looking very good and gives off a strong sense of 3d. You also applied lineweight where it was relevant, keeping it subtle enough. However, remember that in this exercise all boxes should be drawn in 3 point perspective, I’m seeing a 1 point perspective box in the mix.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a solid submission, so you’re free to move on to the 250 boxes challenge. At the beginning of your drawing sessions, pick 1-2 exercises from this lesson and use them for 10-15 minutes of warmups. Good luck on the rest of your drawing journey, stay motivated!

Hi ! You should practice drawing all of your lines from the shoulder, I know it's especially difficult for the smaller ones, even more so when it's hatching lines and I can't say that I 100% abide by it myself but from what I understand that's what's advised. If you're really having trouble with it & are able to draw small straight lines with you wrist I guess you can probably give yourself some leeway there, but that's in no way an "official" guideline, so don't take my word for it. Maybe ask around in the discord server for some other opinions.

good work on your revisions also, your rotations already look better in the rotated boxes exercise in my opinion. good work on the overlapping boxes in the organic perspective exercise, but your boxes are still pretty uniform in size, so I'd also advise you to incorporate this exercise in your warmups and really push yourself to draw bigger boxes in the front. Remember that since they're overlapping, you don't need to be afraid of not having enough room left to draw the boxes in the back.

I'll mark this lesson as complete and let you go on to the 250 boxes challenge, best of luck to you and don't hesitate to ask if you have further questions !

hi Haitrinhbach, that's very nice of you and I appreciate the comment!

However please avoid commenting people's submissions if you aren't offering a full critique, as this pushes the submission back in the queue and diminishes the chances of them getting a critique. just something you should know for the future :)

got it, thanks !

Hi Dvant, congrats on finishing lesson 1! I’ll be handling your critique relying on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

First off, as a general comment, please avoid pushing the contrast / brightness on your pictures too much in the future, it makes the quality of your lines harder to assess and some parts of them even disappear. Remember, the easier it is for the person critiquing you to see the mistakes that you’ve made, the most you’ll get from the critique.

With that out of the way, the rest of my critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started!

1. Lines section

Starting with the superimposed lines exercise, I am seeing some fraying on both ends of your lines. Fraying on one end is completely ok and will get better with practice, fraying on both ends however can be avoided by taking your time and carefully putting down your pen at the beginning of your line, so please pay attention to that in future warmups!

As for the ghosted lines exercise, your lines look confidently drawn and the dots I’m seeing indicate that you planned them correctly using the ghosting method, so good job! They’re all pretty short, but fortunately you made up for that in the ghosted planes exercise, where I’m seeing some nice big planes. Next time you attempt the ghosted lines exercise in future warmups though please try to really push yourself to draw longer lines!

Your lines do get wobblier in the exercises involving boxes. This is perfectly normal and will get better with practice, but always remember that confidence should be prioritized over accuracy. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one.

2. Ellipses section

From what I’m seeing you are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as instructed and keeping them pretty tight, so good job on that! In the table of ellipses exercise, they look confidently drawn and are nicely symmetrical for the most part. You also did a good job fitting them all snugly against one another and experimented with different sizes, however I’m not seeing much degree variation, so in future warmups I’d like you to experiment with that a little more.

You did a good job fitting your ellipses inside your planes as well. Most of them don’t look very symmetrical, but that is also to be expected and will get better with practice. As for lines, remember to draw from your shoulder and keep in mind that confidence will always be more important than accuracy. When doing this exercise in the future, something you can try out is focusing on having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides, and trying its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners. You’ll see that even the thinnest ellipse can easily reach all corners and fit inside a plane that way, and you can experiment with different shapes. See example here: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Your ellipses aren’t very well aligned with the minor axis in your ellipses in funnels exercise, so try to pay attention to that in the future. I'll request one more page of this exercise as a revision, since this is something that will be very important in future lessons. If you feel comfortable enough, you can try varying the degree of your ellipses in this exercise as well.

3. Boxes section

A general comment about hatching: as indicated in the lesson material, hatching is optional so when you decide to do it, be sure to do it with forethought and care. Each hatching stroke is to be treated like any other line, that is, it should be done using the ghosting method. I’m seeing some scribbling instead of proper hatching on some of your boxes, so please keep ths in mind for the 250 box challenge as well as for future lessons.

Remember that in the rough perspective exercise, your width lines should be parallel to the horizon line and your height lines should be perpendicular to it. That is not the case for some of your boxes, it does get better by your last attempt so it seems to me like you’ve corrected that mistake by yourself as you went on, however I’d like you to do one more attempt as a revision (that is, 1/3 of a page), just to make sure. You may apply hatching to your boxes if you wish, keeping my earlier comment in mind.

Good job on your rotated boxes exercise, that one’s not easy and you have a good amount of rotation in my opinion. However, you did not draw through all of your boxes as instructed (that is, drawing each of the 3 sets of parallel lines that constitute the box, even the lines that would not be visible if the box was solid). Your boxes are also very small so for future lessons, please remember to always try and take up as much space as possible on your page, the bigger the drawing the better.

Good job on varying the angle and size of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, in future attempts however take care to apply some foreshortening and have the 3 sets of parallel lines converge, even slightly. You can also apply some subtle lineweight to the silhouette of your boxes to clarify which ones are in the front. I’m also seeing that you repeated some lines on one of your boxes, so please remember that a line should never be repeated, however off it is and however tempting it may be.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a solid submission, so as soon as you reply to this with your revisions you’ll be free to move on to the 250 boxes challenge. Good luck on the rest of your drawing journey, stay motivated!

Hey again Perkfever,

Good work on these revisions ! One optional additional thing I'd advise you to do is to apply some subtle lineweight to the silhouette of your boxes (in both exercises) as well as hatching (in the rotated boxes exercise) to add more clarity & to show which boxes are in front of others, but I'm not going to ask you to submit a second revision for that.

It looks like you've understood the point of these exercises, so I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. Congrats !

Cheers

Lef

Hi Will_Thomp, congrats on finishing lesson 1! I’ll be handling your critique relying on the guide provided here: https://pastebin.com/dYnFt9PQ

First, to answer your question: don’t take my word for it, but I don’t really see any downsides to using bigger paper than what’s recommended, especially since you’re making full use of all the space that you have. I think using smaller paper would be more of a problem.

With that out of the way, my critique will be divided in 3 sections: lines, ellipses and boxes. Let’s get started!

1. Lines section

Starting with the superimposed lines exercise, I am unfortunately seeing a lot of fraying on both ends of your lines. Fraying on one end is completely ok and will get better with practice, fraying on both ends however indicates that you didn’t properly take your time to carefully put down your pen at the beginning of the line, so definitely pay attention to that in future warmups.

I want to congratulate you on your ghosted lines exercise though, because your lines look confidently drawn, the dots I’m seeing indicate that you planned them correctly using the ghosting method, and because you really pushed yourself to fill the entirety of your page with a lot of lines, playing with different lengths and drawing some very long ones, so very good job on that!

Your lines do get wobblier in the ghosted planes exercise as well as in the exercises involving boxes, so please remember that confidence should always be prioritized over accuracy. A confident but inaccurate line will always be more correct than a wobbly but accurate one.

2. Ellipses section

In the table of ellipses exercise, your ellipses look confidently drawn and are nicely symmetrical for the most part, good job! You also did a good job fitting them all snugly against one another, you also have some nice degree variation there.

Your ellipses get significantly wobblier and less symmetrical in the ellipses in planes exercise, so as for lines keep in mind that confidence will always be more important than accuracy. It also seems like you drew through some of them more than 3 times, so please keep in mind to not do more than 2-3 passes. When doing this exercise in the future, something you can try out is focusing on having the ellipse reach 2 opposite corners of the plane rather than its sides, and trying its major axis with the diagonal of the plane going through said corners. You’ll see that even the thinnest ellipse can easily reach all corners and fit inside a plane that way. See example here: https://ibb.co/album/zhKcZD

Some of your ellipses aren’t very well aligned with the minor axis in your ellipses in funnels exercise, so try to pay attention to that in the future. I think that you’re also definitely ready to try varying the degree of your ellipses in this exercise as well, so feel free to experiment with that in future warmups!

3. Boxes section

In the rough perspective exercise, you kept your width lines parallel to horizon and height lines perpendicular to it in the most part, so good job on that!

Good job on your rotated boxes exercise also, however it looks like you made the mistake of not drawing through all of your boxes (that is, drawing each of the 3 sets of parallel lines that constitute the box, even the lines that would not be visible if the box was solid).

Very good job on your organic perspective exercise, as for the ghosted lines exercise I like that you really pushed yourself to fill out your page as much as you could, there is also enough variation in size and a lot of overlap, which succeeds in conveying the illusion of 3D.

That’s the end of this critique! It was all in all a very solid submission, which in my opinion shows that you have understood the point of these exercises, so I’m going to mark this lesson as complete and let you move on to the 250 boxes challenge. Feel free to reach out for any questions, and congrats again!