Splatted

I just review individual exercises with a specific eye for ways I'm deviating from instructions, ways I've been pigeonholing myself or next steps in terms of quality. It's really easy to get tunnel vision even if you're following all the instructions, so returning to the source helps to see the bigger picture and refocus.

I should maybe do more thorough revisions of the main body lesson material as well. I've looked at it some, especially the updated sections but not really made a habit of revising.

Thanks alot that really clears things up. And no I wasn't bothered by the future bug thing. I genuinely laughed out loud when I realised what you meant.

Beware future insect! She has evolved beyond earths current lifeforms.

Thanks for the breakdown ANDPIE, hope you don't mind some follow up questions.

1) For the sausages. I was under the impression that the elipse's degree depended on both the distance and orientation of the elipse, so by narrowing it I was implying that the sausage was turning to the side. Looking at my submission I don't think I did a good job in selling that illusion, or even conveying the attempt, because I mostly ignored other factors and just relied on the change in degree to show the turning of the saiusage. My question is, is it inherently wrong? Wrong for this exercise? Or just wrong in the ways I used?

2) For the spider legs you highlighted where I extended the silhouette incorrectly, but I can't tell what's wrong with the topmost and bottommost ones. To me they look like semi successful attempts to implement the technique, from the wasp video, in which Uncomfortable adds balls to the sausages then extends the silhouettes to emcompass both. I can't work out what's wrong here.

Also i'd like to add that I do appreciate feedback on my linework. I know I reacted badly to Uncomfortable's comments, but that was because I interprated his feedback as using problems with my linework to justify the conclusion that I was not giving enough effort in general. I'm constantly trying to making little changes to see what works and doesn't with my linework, so pointing out the times it went wrong is useful and helps me avoid the very real temptation to sacrifice line quality for accuracy.

Only my opinion, but I'd say there is literally nothing that counts less than reading about how to draw instead of actually drawing. That being said I do tend to cheat a bit by counting it as preparatory work, along the lines of gathering supplies etc, and not part of my practice session or the 50% rule.

A pizza box is a cuboid so maybe you're misunderstanding something you've heard people say about the box challenge? I did have another look and I don't think it says anything about aiming for cubes in the challenge's lesson material. As long as you're constructing the boxes as described you should be good.

Yeah don't give up. You're clearly on the right track it's just an issue of attention to detail when it comes to the specific requirements of the course.

P.s. You might also want to read Uncomfortable's reply to my reply to his critique of my lesson 3:

https://drawabox.com/community/submission/S3C2ARFY

Hi Arahel85, I was in a similar boat. I wasn't asked to completely redo lesson 3, but I also struggled to continue with the course after Uncomfortable said "parts of your submission were so bad I almost gave up on the critique and just made you redo everything." Of course that's not what he wrote, but that's how I read it. Even after he clarified I had to take a break from drawabox before I was able to properly reframe things.

What I eventually realised is that this is not about the quality of the drawings. In fact it's the opposite because a lot of the ways in which we deviate from the instructions actually result in better drawings, at least in the short term. You can see that mentioned this in his feedback to you:

Yes, it may lessen your accuracy and result in your line weight separating from the initial mark, but there are two things to keep in mind for this:

...everything we do in this course is an exercise - so if you're going to make mistakes, in order to learn from those mistakes, there's no better place to do it than in your homework.

You do have concrete steps to take. You don't need to come back with gorgeous masterpieces or fundamentally re-evaluate your understanding of the material. Uncomfortable just wants to see that you're doing all you can to follow the instructions. If you apply everything he said in the critique he gave you I'm sure you'll pass even if it looks bad. You can definitely try to apply lineweight in a single stroke, you can certainly include a minor axis when building a plant pot and it doesn't take any extra skill to resist drawing additional lines when constructing branches.

I think the reason Uncomfortable is so strict with the lesson 3 critiques is that it's an opportunity to drive home that these are exercises first and foremost and making nice pictures takes a distant second to closely following the instructions.

If I misunderstood that's a relief. I did find it helpful to go back through the updated lesson 0. Also sorry if it seemed like I was asking for an early assessment of my homework.

Here is my finished submission:

https://imgur.com/a/5QRqGHN

Thanks for the help

Thank you. I really appreciate it. :D