Liska

So short answer: No, it is not counter-productive.

First of all i think you have a good approach on draw-a-box, i liked how you said that you want to finnish it in a marathon. This is a very healthy approach.

In the end its all a matter of what situation you are in. If you were trying do to as many courses in a shortest period of time possible, that would be counter productive. This way you would try to gain as many informations and knowledge about drawing as you can, but things just dont work like that. In the end it all runs down to you having to draw a lot, courses will only point you into a certain direction or path so to say.

Draw-A-Box is not supposed to be some kind of prison or dark room you need to stay in till you finnish every single last lesson. Furtermore its no "betrayel" if you want to gather informations about other topics such as anatomy. Im just gonna say it as it is, as the same name already suggets "draw-a-box" is no complete guide to every single field of the spectrum of art, that means that you will sooner or later will need to do other courses if you want to gather more skills. Draw-A-Box strengthens fundamentals, which will always be very very important. You learn how to construct primitive form and how to put them into perspective. Essentially things will always run down to these fundamentals, thats why it is so important. You will soon realize how anatomy becomes easier for you because you are able to abstract those organic shapes into simplier ones. Thats why i think that putting other courses in addition to draw-a-box might help you actually apply those things you learned in draw-a-box to other topics.

Now to still warn you and not let you dive into some rampage of doing new courses every week. Just dont overgrind. Remember the 50/50 rule uncomfortable talked about. Always keep yourself a piece of fun that you can come back too. Im not saying that courses are always super dull and stuff but i think you already know what i mean. If you expect too much of you, you will just burn-out and stop drawing. We all dont want that.

Yeah, it is hard. I got stuck on animals, it just wasn't clicking. I am now struggling with cylinders in a box. But I know I will get there. I try not to grind and will happily take some time away from drawabox but I will complete it. Someday.

Thinks I can think that can help are :-

1. Take the Patreon route if you haven't already ( I wasn't clear whether you were or not ). It gives you more clarity, and tough love, on your progress. Everything is picked up and it is done in a timely manner. Later lessons via community feedback often, to me, appear to have not absorbed fully previous lessons.

2. Do warm ups daily. When I first started I was doing straight line, planes, ghosting practice etc everyday. Normally 2-3 sides worth of A4. These basics need to be drilled in to your brain and muscle memory.

3. Take a while on each lesson if necessary. Sometimes it takes longer for your brain to get around something you have been taught. Trying to get something quickly just for the sake of moving on is a false economy.

4. There is a big difference between knowing how to do something and it being second nature. That is time and purposeful practice. It's a joy when what you have been working on for ages suddenly becomes effortless ( well, much less effort at least).

5. Foundations matter much more than getting through the lessons quickly. Not having those can render later lessons pointless.

I recently tried doing some anime again ( not my favourite style but good for practice ) and ability has gone up one or two levels in just being able to see and draw with so much less effort. My hand moves around the page freely making marks in ways it didn't before. Those are the good days.

Hi, as mentioned in the notes for the ghosted lines here, you should definitely be rotating the page to find the best angle to execute the line. This is part of the ghosting process, and should be applied to every mark you make.

Of course, there is benefit to learning how to make marks in any direction well, but it would detract from the main goals of the course to practice it here. So you can, and in fact should, rotate the page to help make marks better.

Try watching the Becca Rand review. You may find it helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFn9w3uDkz4&t=514s

Doing an exercise and then trying to test any difference it makes is not a good idea. You do drawabox and you do your other 50% of creative stuff. Stick with it, don't just do the minimum and at some point you will just notice that "this was a bit easier" or " this is better". Learning happens with with long plateaus and then sudden steps up. It is not linear.

One saying I always remember relating to this is that "We learn to skate in summer and swim in winter". Basically a change happens when you are not actively trying to improve.

For myself I can only say that it has been hard work for me, I have been doing it for about a year I think and have just passed Lesson 5. But, it has definitely been worth it as I notice a huge difference in the ease with which I see and draw.

Official critique uses a credit system.

The moment you subscribe to a membership level in the Patreon page you will get charged for the respective amount. At the same time you will get the respective amount of credits for that membership level added in drawabox.com website. Credits expire after 2 months (I think) if not used.

You can check how much credits each lesson takes by going to that lesson, clicking on "Submit homework for review" and then clikcing the "Submit for Official Critique" button. That will show a new panel which shows your current number of credits and the amount of credits the official critique for the lesson costs.

Your progress thru the lessons is tracked thru your drawabox.com account and is independent of the Patreon membership. So you can subscribe to Patreon membership, immediately submit your homework for official critique and then cancel Patreon membership (note that by then you already have been charged for the month, and already got the credits in drawabox.com).

Like Liska said we can't tell if we don't see the boxes, but something you can do to check where you made the mistakes is to trace one of your finished boxes line by line, and at every step extend the lines. This way you'll see exactly where the lines are starting to diverge.

There is no set time. However if you have been grinding away at one then probably best try another. When you find your grinding at that. Try another etc. Art is constant learning but try not to let yourself grind if at all possible, although sometimes it can't be avoided.

I don't think the newer revisions of the lessons differ significantly enough from the prior versions that you really need to wait for it to be updated before moving on. It might also be another few weeks to a month before the next set of lessons and exercises are updated so I think waiting will only slow you down. Feel free to carry on!

Yes! As long as the ink that bleeds through isn't too distracting/noticeable, I believe you should be fine for critique.

These are the official rules. You can read more here. I can let you know from experience that the official path is strictly adhered to in terms of sequence and waiting periods. You will receive instructions on whether you have passed and if so what to do next.

https://drawabox.com/lesson/0

For those of you who are interested in receiving feedback from myself and my teaching assistants (who work under my supervision), that is an option we offer through our Patreon (starting at $5/month), but these "official critiques" are subject to a number of strict requirements.

Our students are required to start receiving their official feedback from Lesson 1, and are only allowed to move onto the next set of work once they've had the previous lesson's work marked "officially" as complete. No jumping in mid-course, and getting completion via un-official, "community" critique unfortunately does not count towards this.

All the recommendations made in the lessons (prerequisites, tools, etc.) are now hard requirements for those submitting for official critique.

All submissions for official critique must include all assigned homework for a given lesson. Some lessons have multiple sections (like Lesson 1 has Lines, Ellipses and Boxes) - all the sections must be included in the submission.

There is a 2 week waiting period between homework submissions in order to ensure that students are not being encouraged to rush through their work.