TotalTempest

Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that Drawabox is teaching us fundamental concepts to art that will almost certainly apply to almost anything, including anime characters.

No, in the sense that Drawabox does not currently teach figure drawing or drawing humans.

You may want to consider taking some figure drawing classes. Proko and NMA are good sources, as well as CGMA (which is more expensive). I'd probably recommend starting with Proko, as it is the cheapest option of the three.

Reviewing your assignments in order:

• Organic Arrows - You are missing both pages of these. When you submit your assignments, please be sure you have all of the exercises done and attached before you submit, even if that means redoing a couple of pages that you lost.

• Sausages with Contour Lines - Same deal as above.

• Texture Analysis - Parts of the page are cut off in the photo, so I cannot see the entire exercise. I can see most of it though, and it seems to be very well rendered! From what I can tell, you are also doing a good job transitioning to total light, but are struggling with the transition to total dark. The left side of the texture should have a smoother transition from the black stripe.

• Dissections - Good job here! You are minding the curvature of the form and are breaking the silhouette of the form when necessary.

• Form Intersections - I'm noticing a bit of wobbling and deformed shapes. Same deal with my Lesson 1 critique here, lines should be drawn confidently across the page for a clean, straight line. Additionally, I am seeing some deformed cubes. The 250 Box Challenge (which was supposed to be done between Lessons 1 & 2) would help with this. Other than those points, your shapes seem to be well-grouped and intersecting as they should.

• Organic Intersections - I am seeing some very complicated forms being drawn in this exercise. I'm glad that you are able to draw these, but the assignment calls for simpler sausage forms. The sausages you do have seem to be laying on top of one another, but it is hard for me to tell. Additionally, the shadows of your sausages seem to be sticking to your forms instead of acting as true cast shadows in some areas.

  • As a side note, I am seeing very good contour lines on these sausages!

You seem to be doing a great job with the core ideas, but will unfortunately need to ask for revisions due to missing work. I would also like to see you do 1 more page of the Organic Intersections exercise and submitting a better photo of your Texture Analysis exercise to make sure that you are understanding them.

Going through each of your assignments:

LINES

• Superimposed Lines - Nice job with these. I don't see any wobbling, but I do see some lines that fray on both sides of the line. Make sure you are positioning your pen correctly when you go to make your stroke. This problem seemed to occur more often on the various arcs and not so much on the straight lines.

• Ghosted Lines - I'm noticing some wobbling with the lines. Strokes should be made from the shoulder (if you are not already doing that), and should be made in a single, confident motion. The moment the pen touches the page, any opportunity to avoid a mistake has passed, and you must now commit to it.

• Ghosted Planes - Has some of the same issues as the Ghosted Lines exercise on some of the planes.

ELLIPSES

• Tables of Ellipses - I see that you are drawing through your ellipses as you should, and that you are striving to get the ellipses to touch the bottom and top of the table, but there are some that have gaps around them. Additionally, I am noticing that a good deal of the ellipses here are deformed, which I think may be caused by wobbling.

• Ellipses in Planes - These ellipses are also being drawn through well, but similar to the previous exercise, are coming out deformed and not quite touching the sides of the planes. These are likely being caused by wobbling as well.

• Funnels - Much like the previous exercises, I am noticing that you are drawing through your ellipses well, but they are still coming out deformed likely due to wobbling. I would also be mindful of the direction of the ellipses, as they should be aligned with the minor axis going through the funnel.

BOXES

• Plotted Perspective - Great job with these! You did a good job placing the vertical lines perpendicular to the horizon line and are correctly plotting your lines back to the vanishing points.

• Rough Perspective - Great job with these as well! The exercises deal with 1 vanishing point as required, and each of your line extensions are extending back as they should. You have each of the front faces rectangular as they should be, but I am also noticing more wobbling here as well.

• Rotated Boxes - These look rough, but you made a very good attempt at the challenge! You followed through the instructions in setting up the exercise and even did a good job setting up the vertical and horizontal boxes, but struggled to align the boxes in the corners (which can be very tricky!). It helps to keep the boxes closer together (some of them seem to be drifting away). Good job drawing through your boxes!

• Organic Perspective - Nicely done! I'm seeing little dots, which tell me that you were using the ghosting method with these, though I am still noticing some small wobbles.

Overall, you seem to have a good idea of the core concepts of the Lesson. I see that you have gone ahead to Lessons 2, 3, 4, and 5 already without receiving critiques. I'll go ahead and critique your Lesson 2 assignment, but you should also go back and complete the 250 box challenge, which should have been done between Lessons 1 and 2.

Going through the assignments in order:

• Organic Arrows - Your arrows seem a bit messy overall, but they seem to convey the main point of the lesson. There are some awkwardly thin arrows and some areas with no overlap where there should have been overlap.

• Sausages with Contour Lines - Your sausages seem to be in mostly good shape here. I'm noticing small wobbles on some of the contours, but nothing major. I think you could work on varying the degrees of your ellipses a bit more and aligning your minor axis a bit better, however. Since the sausages we are drawing are rotating in space, the ellipses that make up the sausage should do likewise. As for the minor axis, it should intersect each of your ellipses through its center.

• Texture Analysis - Your textures seem decent, but could use some work. I see that you made a valiant effort in having the texture transition from total dark to total light, and was even successful doing it with the crumbled paper, but wasn't as successful with the moss and and charcoal textures. It helps to think of the cast shadows being blasted out by light as they approach the right side of the page. As the texture approaches total light, the form becomes more implied than fully drawn.

  • On a different note, your textures were all nicely rendered in the first boxes, so good job with that!

• Dissections - You did a really great job with these! Each texture respects the curvature of the form, and seem very comfortable breaking the silhouette of the forms! Great job with the hair texture in particular.

• Form Intersections - Good job with these! The forms are well grouped and are intersecting. None of the shapes seem stretched or distorted either.

• Organic Intersections - Your sausages convey a good sense of 3D space and wrap around each other in ways that makes sense. The cast shadows also seem to be pretty well placed, which is a nice bonus too!

Overall, you did a pretty good job with this lesson! If you are still around, I suggest moving on to Lesson 3. The 25 Texture Challenge is available too if you are feeling up for it and are looking to improve you textures.

Overall, these boxes seem very well constructed!

Wobbling doesn't seem to be a major issue, and I am seeing a lot of dots (evidence that you are using the ghosting method). Lines are straight and don't seem to be chicken-scratched.

Your line extensions are all present and extending in the correct direction.

You are drawing through your boxes as you should, and they are not parallel and have a good shape variety.

There are a few other details that were added to the challenge while you were waiting for this one to be reviewed, so I am not grading you on those.

You did an excellent job working on this challenge! I see you already moved on to Lesson 2, so keep up the good work if you are still around!

Going through these assignments in order:

• Organic Arrows - Very good job with these! The arrows overlap nicely and convey a nice sense of depth.

• Sausages with Contour Lines - The ellipses and curves are well aligned! There were a few wobbly lines and a few misaligned minor axises, but overall these tended to be the exception rather than the norm.

• Texture Analysis - Excellent job rendering these! The only correction I can make with these is that they do not fully transition from dark to light. One of the goals of the exercise is to be able to make a complete scale from total dark to total light.

• Dissections - You did an excellent job rendering your textures here as well. They follow the contour of the shape, and occasionally break the object's silhouette when necessary.

• Form Intersections - Great job with these! The shapes are grouped well and intersect, and other than a few exceptions, are well proportioned and not stretched.

• Organic Intersections - The sausages are well-aligned and are successfully wrapping around each other. The shadows seem to be mostly okay, but seem a bit off. Although it isn't the focus of the assignment, it wouldn't hurt to review how shadows are formed.

Overall these assignments were very well done and show a very good understanding of the material. You are ready for Lesson 3!

Overall, awesome job with the boxes! I'm seeing a lot of strong, confident strokes throughout the challenge, and I am seeing some very strong evidence that the ghosting method is being used. I am noticing that sets of edges of the box are parallel instead of converging, and that this problem tends to occur on vertical edges. Since we are trying to draw our boxes in 3-point perspective, all sets of edges need to converge towards each other.

Good job completing the challenge! I think you are ready for Lesson 2.

Overall, these boxes look amazing! I'm noticing strong, confident lines with very few wobbly lines. I noticed that there was a little bit of inconsistency in how the line extensions were applied. Sometimes lines would all be the same color, and sometimes not all of the lines would be drawn. The color part is optional, and most of the boxes were drawn with all of the proper line extensions, but I figured it was worth mentioned because it seemed to pop up occasionally throughout the challenge.

Your boxes are looking really good, and I think you are ready for Lesson 2!

Overall, these boxes look amazing! I'm noticing good line-work and good use of the ghosting method, and the line extensions are properly used. The only issue I saw was that the lines sometimes didn't properly connect (most evident in #2), but it seems that this was corrected as the challenge went on, as it was barely a problem by the end of the challenge.

I know this review has been a long time coming, and I hope you are still around!

Your assignment is looking very much up to to par!

• Your "Superimposed Lines" look very straight and confident, but I did notice a bit of wobbling on your "Ghosted Lines" and "Ghosted Planes". I would encourage you to commit to the stroke once your pen touches the paper. The moment the pen touches the page, any opportunity to avoid a mistake has passed.

• I see that you have drawn through your ellipses, but they feel a tad wobbly. A confident execution leads to an evenly shaped ellipse, whereas hesitation leads to wobbling and uneven shapes just as it does for our lines. If you aren't already using the Ghosting Method for your ellipses, I would encourage you to do so as well, as it can help even out the shape better.

• Your boxes all look excellent. Just remember to draw confidently to avoid wobbly lines as mentioned above.

Overall, your work looks very solid. The only real problem was wobbly lines, so remember to keep straight, confident strokes as you move on to the 250 Box Challenge!