Rikchan

Your work overall look aesthetic, or acceptable, but still there are some drawabox conceps that your ignored, so I'll try to cover them on the go:

Your organic forms overall look solid, but still there are some places where you didn't place the sausages properly; you weren't mindful that there were some matter below which affected the way in which the sausage was placed in your imaginary 3d space, like in this one: (https://i.imgur.com/WlEo0IY.jpg), and which could be done better like this (or well, I would have done it like that): (https://imgur.com/UIdhZT2)

Of course you can do it better :), but my point is that you should be mindful of all the things you place, and how they relate to each other.

Also I'd like to encorage you to don't add sausages that wrap in a weird form. With this I mean that you place one on the top of the tower (for example) and make it fall to the floor (like one end is on the top and the toehr on the floor) since this can be hard to convey properly, and it may end up breaking the illusion. Instead try to wrap all the sausages in top of each other. You can use your contour lines as references to wrap the sausages; actually I'd say that that is one of their purposes.

Also there are some sausages whose forms strayed for the ones requested (check this: (https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage). Distorting the sausages can break their solidity, so be careful with that.

Lastly, you could definitely push more the cast shadows. Their presence is minimum in your exercises.

Now, your constructions:

There's something that is extremely encouraged in drawabox: constructing additively. This means to base everything you add on what's already there. Starting simple and adding more things. Being mindful on the forms you add.

The construction is not to keep your proportions in track, nor to achieve a determinated form, is to onvey a 3d subject in its totality, always being congruent with what's already there.

This means that you should avoid cutting through your forms (though you can try, but is easier to add forms on the top) and to always add a 3d mass if you want to modify the a form.

There are demos in which uncomfortable doesn't add additional masses; where he simply add a line to modify the silhoette. Those demos are outdated, so the concept of construction is still there: that you should always add 3d things (https://drawabox.com/lesson/5/1/additionalmasses).

For example, in this page (https://i.imgur.com/8sdXrWU.jpg) you clearly used an ellipse for the head, but you didn't mark the intersection between that head and the torso. Lining the intersections help to reinforce the solidity of the subject, since you are relating two different masses.

And on the other bird you cut its beak, which could mess up the illusion of 3d.

You also added modified their silhoette without a mass.

So, the way in which you could have done it with constrution is moe or less like this: (https://i.imgur.com/biZBngF.jpg). With that I meant to base the extension of the silhoette with 3d masses.

That same principle applies for all of your drawings. You should be mindful of it.

The other issue I wanted to touch is about your legs.

In most of your drawings you used stretched balls for your legs. In this lesson however, the use of simple sausages for the legs in still encouraged. Notice how uncomfortable used simple sausages for the legs, and modified the silhoette with additional masses later: (https://drawabox.com/lesson/5/6/donkey). So try to always stick to sausage legs.

And well, don't use different pens to underline the construction. Limit yourself to add line weight to clarify.

Your texture overall its fine, tho limit yourself to break the silhoette. In the case of feathers, try to add them as cast shadows, and to push them out of the wing, not cut through it, like here: (https://drawabox.com/lesson/5/6/castshadows).

When you encounter a weird head, add attach masses to it. Sometimes a boxy form will do the job. SO overall try to draw the cranium and to extrude things out of it.

As for your question about opne jaws, well, I'd recommend to draw two boxy forms for each jaw, depending on how open is it: (https://i.imgur.com/1FNEaBF.jpg).

So you need to think on 3d while drawing. As I have already repeated many times: you need to add things based on what is already there.

Hope this is helpful!

Hey there.

Starting with your sausages, I feel you did a good job overall, though there were some were you strayed from the characteristics that are requested for them; for example, some sausages are distorted, or pinched.

The reason why is important to keep them in a consistent form (check this out: ) is because it conveys solidity, and of you distort your sausages it can affect the solidity of your constructions.

Regarding your contour lines, I think you overall managed to wrap them around in the sausages properly, so good job buddy!

Before going in your constructions, I'd like to point out that some images are blurry, and that can affect the critique overall because critiquers can appreciate properly your construction. (Actually I had problems taking good photos...and I still have problems). So be careful with your photos, and try to take good ones for the sake of your work.

I must admit that your constructions overall look solid; I'm glad to see that you were mindful while drawing those bugs, tho you have a few issues:

-I noticed that there were some places were you didn't mark the intersection between sausages. That intersection, as always, reinforce the solidity of the leg. So recall to do it.

-There were some sausages that you distorted, or changed its form, just by adding lines, and that's no good.

You need to construct additively, meaning you should always add solid masses, or cut masses, in order to modify forms while maintaining solidity. Check this :https://imgur.com/4KKPam7

Be careful, because many people cut in 2d in future lessons, and that affects the illusion of 3d.

-I feel that you could also push the silhoette of the scales a more, in most of your drawings.

When I got critiqued, I got told this, and honestly I think it could be useful for you to read, so I'll quote it (you can also looks for my submission if you wish to):

"Constructional drawing itself comes in two flavours - there's additive construction, which is what you're employing the vast majority of the time in these drawings. We take one form, and then we add another to it, in a way that demonstrates how both exist in three dimensions, rather than just on the two dimensions of the page. We wrap forms around one another, we allow them to intersect with contour lines to help define those relationships, and so on. You're employing this to great effect.

The other flavour is called subtractive construction, and it is by its very nature considerable more difficult to wrangle, and can be used incorrectly quite easily. There are a couple places where you employed it, but did so in a way that flattened out elements of your drawings. Admittedly, there's actually very few instances of this - you've been pretty consistent at using additive construction wherever possible (which is great to see), but if you look at the claw on the right side of this scorpion drawing (the scorpion's left claw), I can see how you started with a ball form, but then decided to change that form a little later, pulling back into it and leaving a few lines outside of the form you ultimately moved forwards with. What this ultimately tells the viewer is that there are two contradicting forms present, one encompassing the other".

I'm also glad to see that you didn't go overboard with texture. However, there are some legs where you added scribbling for texture, like here https://i.imgur.com/UPiehxK.jpg.

This is part of lesson 5 stuff, but check this out: (https://drawabox.com/lesson/5/1/fur). The thing is that is way more effective to add texture to the silhoette, rather than inside the form, since the silhoette -as we got tell on lesson 2- makes more impact on the viewer.

So overall I think you did a good job, and although I see you submitted that way ago, is good to keep these points in mind for the future.

you too, stay safe!

For learning to recognize it, touch your shoulder sockets -as you said-. It should be moving when you are drawing from it; you should touch it to be able to recognize how it feels to draw from it . That way you are gonna learn to do it without problems.

And yes, using your entire arm is how you should be doing it.

Don't worry, is not a silly question. I used to be extremely confused with it, and the solution simply was to touch my shoulder socket when trying to draw from the shoulder.

Hope this helps!

i am glad i could help!

Alright buddy!

Starting with your arrows, I feel that there are some things you can improve there:

1.- Bending. There are some places where you could bent the arrows more. The benefit of doing so is that it helps to convey the illusion of 3d, since it avoids the ribbon looking flat.

2.- Ribbon size. For using the foreshortening right, one tool you can employ is the size. You can make the nearest end bigger, and the farther smaller, shrinking it little by little. You used this tool indeed, but I encourage you to try to push it a little more.

3.- Spacing. That's making the farther end all together, while making the nearest end more together (as explained here: https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/4/step2). This is applying perspective too.

So, in conclusion, I think you did a good job, but there are, in fact, some things you can improve. Just remember to use the right things to convey the illusion of 3d, since these ribbons are flat things traveling throught space.

Now, before anything, I encourage you to draw bigger. You could draw like...just six organic forms in one page, and it would have been alright. Although you express a great deal of control when you do it small, there's a lot of benefit in doing it big, since you can apply better all the things requested. Believe me, I used to draw the things small, but doing them big is better.

There are some forms where you strayed from the forms requested (give these notes a read: https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage). Drawing them distorted can be a big hindrance for your constructions in the future; keeping them simple also helps to maintain solidity, so keep that in mind.

Another important thing you missed is to remark your ellipses twice. Remember to always do that, in every exercise with the least presence of ellipses in every drawabox lessons. Look at this notes again: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/11/drawingthrough. As a result, your ellipses do not look confident.

Regarding the degree, I do feel that it overall is ok, although if I am completely honest I am not good with ellipses degree.

Same with the ones with contour lines. They are good, though there are some places where you could draw them more round.

In the future, try to always strive for less contour lines. With this I mean: try to always draw them better. So is quality over quantity. If you could draw just three of them in one sausage, but that convey completely the illusion of 3d, then that's way better than six sloppy ones.

But I think that overall the biggest issue were your sausages.

I am glad to say that you made it very good in the texture analysis. You overall tried to look for the cast shadows, and that's great! Try to find more cast shadows in the future.

Same with the dissections, they overall are very good! You could apply the texture to the subject -the sausage- which shows that you understand 3d! 

For being your first time, your organic intersections are pretty good! It's clear that you could grasp the understating of 3d space. 

Although there are some forms where you drew the forms kinda distorted (mostly ellipses and pyramids). For pyramids, try to draw an square, and do not distord that square. Then, when drawing the middle line that's gonna form it, try to achieve a 90° angle, more or less.

And for the ellipses, you must practice. Do ellipses exercises for warmups, always remembering that you have to draw them with confidence,, remarking two times.

And finally, with the organic intersections, I see that there are less distorted sausages (great!), and that you did it well when drwing them. Again, there's 3d understanding there, since you could drop them in top of each other thinking on the surface bellow. 

So, in general, I think you are good enough to go to the next lesson, but I greatly encourage you to continue practicing your sausages, ellipses and confidence when executing strokes overall.

Starting with your arrows, I think they are fine. They overall look flowing, although there are some places where you could overlap them more. Do not be afraid of verlapping them, that helps the flowness of the arrow overall.

One thing I tend to recommend is to shrink the farther end more, so the illusion of 3d is stronger.

Now, with your sausages, there are some that kind of stray from the one requested (check these notes: https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage), so be careful with that. Drawing them like that can difficult our constructions in the future.

I noticed that many of your ellipses were messy, and remarked more than two times. You just need to remark two times (ot three at best), otherwise it'll look weird. The ellipse degree overall looks acceptable.

In the ones with contour curves there were some that weren't added properly; they weren't added thinking on how they would wrap in the surface that they are covering. That can ruin the illusion of 3d, therefore you must always be aware of how the things you add to your 3d forms sit in them.

I also think that just three or four contour lines suffice, that's because too many that aren't well placed won't do the work you are trying to achieve: that of conveying the illusion of 3d.

I see that in your textures you focused on the cast shadows. That's excellent! But still there are some issues:

1.- In the analysis there's a predominant of form shadows, recall that you should focus on the shadows that are casted by other things.

2.- In the dissections, there are some textures where you filled them with completely black. You don't paint in drawabox, right? Just because the color of your pen and the texture match, that doesn't mean you have to fill it (like filing an animal eye just because it's black), that's why you rather use black for the shadows, to maintain solidity. There are also some where you outlined lines too thick -and again- just use cast shadows.

I think you could understand the relationship that exists between forms in the organic intersections, and that's good. Intersections are tricky, but I have a tip: when drawing one, follow mainly the surface of the one that's being intersected, but not forgetting the one that's intersecting. Always think on how they relate when you draw the intersections; how they cut through the other.

However, there are some boxes that are kinda large; always draw them as equal in sides as possible.

I think you could overall understand as well the relationship between the sausages in the organic intersections, but there are some that look off because they are...beneath the big sausage, or sitting as like they were humans (one in the first page); that's agaisnt gravity, so avoid that. The only problem was, of course, the distorted sausages.

So overall I encourage you to continue practicing 1)your ellipses and 2)your sausages.

About when you should do the cylinder challenge, it's recommended to do it before lesson 6. Meaning, finish lesson 5, and then do the challenge. Although there's people that do it little by little on the go. Either way, just make sure to do it before lesson 6, but don't worry if you don't do it before lesson 5 :)

I feel that you strayed from the sausages that are requested in the organic intersections: (https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage), and that kind of difficulted that homework somewhat. So, in the future, try to always stick to simple sausages.

And talking about sausages, when drawing legs, you don't necessarily have to modify the sausage size. You can try drawing them in a consistent way (in relation to the others, and not drawing one bigger or smaller) and then add additional masses to it. This technique can be useful some times, although the constant adding of masses can be perjucial to your drawing if you don't think on how they relate to each other (as happened to me in my submission).

Now, one important think in drawabox is the solidity of your drawings; there are some cases where you didn't cimented your textures or extra muscles with mass (like in the boar, where you just connected masses with a line). Some demos are outdated, but that doesn't mean that you should stray from the method. Applying construction to everything is one of the core parts of the method, that's why you should do it.

Another thing you should improve are your heads. The initial thing you draw is the cranium, and attach things to it; you generally draw it like a circle. If you draw it too big, it can be difficult to adjust it with the rest of the body, and so it'll end up looking kinda weird. Cause that, trying the look in your reference the actual cranium of the animal is helpful, as you can see what you can add as an extra mass (or is actually an extra mass), and what is the core part of the head, and that also helps to estimate how big you are gonna draw it. It's better (I think) to draw it smaller, because you can draw things to it.

Your drawings overall look solid, but there are some where you added more texture than necessary, and in black values. Just recall that texture is not that important, and that in doing that you generate a lot of contrast, which is not the focus here.

One last thing is that you filled some places with pitch black (like in your oryx and tiger) and that that, as well, generate a lot of contrast, and just because the color corresponds it doesn't mean you should do it. So be careful with that.

So I think that, in the future, you should focus on maintining you solidity as good as possible! Good job!

Thanks a lot!

Sorry for the confusing statement. What I tried to say is that because my boxes' farther ends tended to be rather rectangular, the minor axis (I actually had to re-read lesson 1 when drawing the boxes enclosing cylinders, because I started to wonder how to differenciate the major and minor axis, and I was told that the minor axis basically is the shortest line that cuts an ellipse) would end up sharing vp somewhat with one box side and one set of contact points, and so I was confused with that

I think you drew your arrows with enough confidence. The only thing I recommend is to shrink the farther end more, and do the nearest bigger. Overall they are flowing, which is excellent, but is some of them there's poor espaciating, which sometimes can break the illusion of 3d. Keep that in mind!

Now, with your leaves, I see wobble there. Remember to ghost enough so that you can execute a confident stroke. Some leaves aren't enough flowy. The ones that do not have nothing (nor contour lines nor texture) could bent more naturally. Think of them like arrows: they overlap and bent, the difference is that instead copying the initial line (spine) you copy it twice. Give this notes a read to a fresh recall:

https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/flowline

However, the biggest issue I see you have is with what you add to the leave. With this I mean texture and contour lines. Some contour lines are sloppy, like added in a rush. When you put down contour lines, you have to think on how they help your illusion.

Regarding texture, you drew ignoring the confidence rule: they have more than one stroke, and aren't confident. Even is it's just texture, you shouldn't forget about markmaking rules:

-https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/continuous

Remember that texture is not that important; what matters is to be able to draw a nice, confident leave.

As you said, you definitely need to work on ellipses. First of, you need to draw them confidently. For doing that, you need to use the ghosting method, you need to let your muscle learn the movement, and execute it with confidence. Also, remember to always remark them two times at least, which is something you didn't do in most of your work.

Please re-read these notes:

https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/11/drawingthrough

The branches themselves do not have chicken-scrath, which is nice. But in some I don't see overlap of lines (if you did, then actually is excellent), but if you didn't, remember to do not actually just draw them in one single stroke, bacause it miscontrols. The important point here is to do it (yes yes yes I repeat myself) with no wobbles.

Moving into your constructions:

In the petals of your first photo's plants (Eriostemont, etc.), the leaves aren't meeting with its respective spine. What I mean: you the the spine, then the other lines that will conform the leaves, but you actually ended them farther than the spine, and I don't recommend doing such thing. Remember that the spine is the most imporant part of the leave, since it conveys how the leave flows through 3d space, and if you ignore it, your leave will look flat. And yeah, you draw the petals in the same way that leaves.

In the Eriostemon? (however you spell it), because you drew a wobbly ellipse, didn't support it with any other form or contour line, and drew the petals ignoring the basic spine, you ended up flatenning your entire drawing, which shows the importance of drawing with confidence, employing 3d forms and making sure that everything in your drawing is solid.

In the Epacris longiflora, there's no a definite place from where the leaves are coming from. Remember that you should expend some time understanding your subject. Nothing is coming from anywhere.

That goes for all your drawings: because you forgot about confident lines, ellipses and solid 3d forms, you ended up flatenning your drawings. (Although I shall recognice that in some of your mushrooms you really showed the relation between the forms, good job!)

I am not an expert, but I think you should re-read the former lessons, and this one as well. Do not estress just because I said that you had a lot of mistakes. It's better to have a nice base, instead of cotinue trying to cover those fails. Never go ahead unless you have at least 1 critique. Critiques -or critiquers- are very helpful, since they tell you what you did wrong, based on their own experiences, and can tell you how to get better.

Please stay determinated, be positive, and do not get discouraged.