Lhynz

Hey Tofu! I don't know if you will ever get noticed by this message, but for whatever reason I feel like to write you again just to point one thing that was the mother of all my troubles and it can be also the problem of other people like me.

When I was young I loved maths, but at some point the school changed the teacher and then I started to hate maths and learned it by memorising instead of understanding.

Well, time have past and all the knowledge I needed for the day was taught by the errors that everyone makes a couple of times.

Then the best thing happened, I started Drawabox and faced it like "It's just drawing" and that was my biggest flaw, It's all about understanding.

Why I struggled so much on my boxes ? Because I was just drawing boxes, I did not spend any time by thinking on the X,Y and Z; I was just aiming to make boxes on the paper, not to think of boxes on the space.

This last thing tricked my brain today since the last submission I only was doing some warm-ups and on those warm ups I did tons of Boxes.

So yes, the 250 boxes challenge is PERFECTLY TAILORED, the mindset of a box into the space ONLY will come if you spend the correct amount of time doing each and single box from 1 to 250 (or even more).

Well, I just wanted to share it with you, since you helped me tons, and without your critique probably I woulda have been doing "just boxes man" for months or even years.

Thank you again

Hey there! I was on the same boat as you days ago; I just finished the Box Challenge and I did not follow the 50% rule on the lesson 1 and also I did not follow it during the box challenge.

When I submitted my box challenge for official revision the mentor rapidly knew that I was rushing the course, and not following the times that brain needs to start adapting to the drawabox mindset.

So first of all, the 50% Rule is a must for what I can tell you, not only protects you to burnout, it also allows you to have fun as you mentioned before, because let's be honest, drawabox is great, but it isn't the most funny stuff on the world, it acts like a bridge to helps us develop the skills needed to have fun drawing, with that said, first you need to start that bridge and then face the reality that it's better to take some rests inbetween, otherwise you will end up being a professional bridge maker, but there will be no plan after that, you wont know what art attracts you, or what you can actually do with the skills you learned already or just you will forget the most important thing, that is having fun, and with having fun I'm not saying that drawing isn't something serious, but if you enjoy working you will always work with more passion and energy, and I honestly think that drawing follows that premise more than any other job.

Well, after that wall of text I'll tell you what I did, I guess that it follows very personal tastes, but maybe you find the joy of that rule with some of my ideas:

• Start a Sketchbook and draw everything in your desk. First drawing it flat, then trying to apply some shadow so it feels more real and then trying my best drawing contour lines to make it seem cool

• I'm also a Photographer, so maybe here we have something in common; I like to go out with my cam and take a picture of whatever I want to draw, it's a totally different approach to handle a cam wanting to take a pic of something I want to draw compared to take a photo of something you want to show as a photographer, both things work, but I noticed that if I go out with my cam thinking on the drawing my imagination goes more wild taking pictures of some stupid stuff like patterns on a rock or from some cool wood patterns on a tree instead of taking a pic of a complete forest and stuff like that

• Continuing with the Photography I have some knowledge of Photoshop and since I also want to practise digital painting I'm also learning Digital Painting from CTRL+PAINT.com he has a HUGE step by step guide to learn digital painting and its 100% free; he also has paid courses, but the biggest stuff is on the free side

This community and you are amazing, that's all I can say. Good luck with w/e you are chasing.

Love from Spain ^^

Hi Tofu!

Here is my job: https://imgur.com/a/tWBWtVM

Let me explain something; first, I really appreciate the time you spent on your reviews and on the very good in deep guide you shared.

Actually I learned more about drawing than drawing boxes, I started over with the lectures on lesson 0 and 1. I must admit that I wasn't fulfilling the 50% rule, first I thought that it was a rule to avoid some people to burnout, but it's actually a rule that not only makes you better at drawing, it also teaches you how to have fun and thats why I worked so hard to start on art school, I liked drawing so much than I want to work on this, but I wasn't having fun.

More about on the exercise:

• I actually learned why this can take 1 month or even longer

• I think I improved in any aspect, but still far from perfect

• There is notations that I did for me and for you about the mistakes I spotted during my correction and study

• I started a sketchbook and now I'm still drawing plenty of hours a day, but not rushing Drawabox but having fun drawing whatever I want to

• There are still boxes that end up being too well made with too far VP's, I struggle with this because closer VP's have dramatic results and there I start to make lines wobblier, and this is probably the most important point that I must to achieve, since it can leads to non convergence and sometimes divergence.

Hi again! I actually spend more time on this 50 boxes than probably on the 250, I made sure to analyze each box to figure out the mistakes, I still make a lot of them, but I think that my eye understood better the 3D space where the box is supposed to be, looking at the first pages and at the last ones where I focused on doing larger boxes to make harder to eyeball the VP's overall I feel more comfortable.

I would like to share what I think that are my bigger mistakes and compare with your view

• Wobbling lines: This time I slowed down and my lines got worse and even worser on the second pass to dark the sides

• Back Side of the box could be better: The first boxes I draw the back side was worst than on the latest, but I'm still making mistakes by the end of the task on this regard

• VP's interpretation: There are some boxes where I had mistakes on the correction pass since I wasn't sure where the VP should be. When I started to worry 90% on the VP's and trying to make different boxes I drawn some where the VP wasn't too accurate, this mistake got better in my opinion page to page

• Front Side interpretation: Even though I understand the concept of the plain position and the viewer point it's harder to make it obvious on the paper compared to the mind, so it worked against me during the entire task.

Sorry for rushing the 250 box challenge, I worked several years to open the possibility to learn how to be an animator. I'll start the art school at October and I'm scared since I'll face youngers students with more skills than I and I'm kind of scared haha.

Well sorry for the off-topic and thank you so much for taking the time of reading this and checking my work.

Forgot to say! If you feel that I need to redo the entire challenge just ask for it, I'm totally sure that you know what is the best for each of us and I totally trust your eye over mine

https://imgur.com/a/MbZSIgo

I recently took a review on my challenge 250 boxes wich I rushed and It was preatty obvious for the reviewer to see that I was clearly sped up way too far; I can say that my review was on the official side.

He was very kind and very detailed into the issues of why sped up is a mistake also, he also asked me for 50 more boxes focusing on my faults, after that he told me that I need to improve my angles and develope a better 3D thinking being aware the guessed VP's instead at each box instead of draw boxes by the sake of doing it.

So If I have to give you a tip based on how I got treated, just be honest and spot the mistakes you saw; well there's always a chance to find a person that does not want to hear a direct critique, but think otherwise, you are giving your critique and it will help others with your knowledge!

Oh sorry, missclicked, never intended to send it as a report. Tofu did an amazing job, sorry to bother you guys.

Hi Tofu! I did write you back and for some reason I don't see my answer. So here we go again haha.

You are totally right in your review, I'm guilty of rushing the challenge, I started it while I was waiting for the Lesson 1 Review and I completed it in 5 sitings; all the mistakes you pointed are totally true, maybe if I have done it in more time I could have spotted it, but well, I have a lot of free time right now since I'm unemployed and the inner me tells me to rush things and actually the answer is that I should slow down to actually get better faster!

I'll work hard on that 50 boxes and spend as you say 5 to 10 minutes on each box and imagining the VP's and mentally trace thinking of the 3 ones I must aim to complete the task.

Thank you so much for such a in deep review and for being so honest pointing me the mistakes you spoted.

I'm very new compared with you; but maybe it should be way more objective if you ask for a revision. For example, I'm a former photographer and I did the box challenge (still not asked for a review) based on the mind of playing with really distorted angles since I like how wide angles comes into the reality of a paper looking forward to understand better my photographs and also improve my drawing skills.

I'll ask for a review soon of that work and maybe I'll be asked to redo the entire challenge haha. But I would have learned what the course wants of me, anyhow is a win/win answer.

Thank you for the details! Your explanation makes really sens. You got it right I think, now I'll break my brain filling that side!