Wizard_hatt

It’s no problem at all! Let’s take a look at these, then~

Starting off, your superimposed lines look good. They’re smooth, properly lined up at the start, and of a consistent trajectory. They do fray a little much, sometimes, so do confirm that you’re drawing these at your ideal speed (students will sometimes draw faster than they need to, because they associate speed with confidence), and, if you are, then no need to stress further – they’ll improve in time. The ghosted lines/planes look mostly good, and I’m certainly pleased to see that you’ve not forgotten to plot start/end points for the non-diagonal center lines of your planes, but I think you’d have benefited from ghosting these a tad longer. I don’t say this because of the overshooting, mind you – that’s fine for now – I say it because of their inconsistent trajectories.

Moving on to the ellipse section, the ellipses in the table of ellipses exercise look good, if a little same-y. Remember to vary their degrees/angles as much as you can. Beyond that, what you’ve got here is smooth, mostly rounded, and properly drawn through. I say mostly because some of your ellipses are at times a little pointy, so be sure that you’re not, at any point, switching to your wrist without intending to. The ellipses in planes look good – despite these more complicated frames, they do a good job of maintaining their prior smoothness/roundness. The funnels are a little mixed, but I expect that this is mostly due to the size of your ellipses (the smaller a mark, the harder it is to engage the shoulder for it). As such, I’ll recommend drawing a little bigger next time. Also, be sure that all of your ellipses have a goal! Here, specifically, that means that they should have a minor axis that cuts them in half, and a frame that decides how far they should extend. (I’m looking at those ellipses at the edges, if you’re wondering.)

The plotted perspective exercise is well done.

The rough perspective exercise shows some great improvement throughout the set, and it’s in a fairly good place by the end. 2 things I’ll recommend, just to be safe, are to take your time during the planning stage (which is to say, plot points, check them, alter them, check them again, alter them again, until they’re perfect, then commit them to lines), and to try your best to resist the urge to redraw a line that’s come out wrong.

The rotated boxes exercise looks good. It’s big (though it could be bigger!), and its boxes are snug. They don’t rotate quite as much as we’d like them to, but this is likely due to how much they rotate in the first layer – there’s not many places they can go in the second, after that, lest they really skew themselves – and, more to the point, is entirely fine at this stage in the course. My only criticism is to do with your hatching lines; they seem to have been drawn using your wrist. All lines, regardless of how small, need to flow smoothly. As such, they need to be drawn from the shoulder.

Leaving the automatic reinforcing issues aside, since we’ve already brought them up, the organic perspective exercise looks okay. Now, I said earlier that overshooting isn’t an issue. It wasn’t then, because you were fairly early in the submission. By this point, however, we expect it to be mostly taken care of, so be sure, as you’re progressing through the box challenge, to actively try to reel that back. Beyond that, however, the exercise is well done: the boxes are well constructed, and flow well, as per their size and foreshortening.

No worries! Welcome to drawabox, and let’s take this one exercise at a time.

Starting off, your superimposed lines are looking good. They’re smooth, and properly lined up at the start, but not always of a consistent trajectory, so be mindful of that. Remember that the goal is not for the line to be snug against its guideline, but rather for it to to be smooth, and straight. As such, try not to course-correct mid-line. Your ghosted lines look very wobbly, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. This improves a little by the time you reach your planes, but there, too, there’s signs of insecurity. I notice, however, that they’re mostly focused around the starts and ends of your lines. These have different causes. The former is due to you spending so long lining up your pen, that you lose the built-up rhythm. As for the latter, this is usually because you’re so focused on nailing that end point, that you slow down, to ensure that you do. Same as prior, however, the goal is not accuracy, but rather confidence, so draw with that in mind.

The ellipses look good. There’s a good deal of variety to them, and they’re smooth, rounded, and properly drawn through. The ellipses in planes look good, too, and I’m pleased to see how often you’ll overshoot their frames, here. It’s clear that your priority is not that they’re snug against them, but rather that they’re smooth, and rounded, which is correct! The funnels, too, look good, save for the occasional misalignment. That’s easily solved by taking an extra second during the ghosting stage, by the way, so no need to stress about it.

The plotted perspective exercise looks clean.

The rough perspective exercise starts off a little rough, and, though it’s not perfect, even by the end, it is much improved. Really, the only issue then is its line-work. I’ll quickly remind you that, though the big picture is different, there’s really no difference between these lines, and the ones in the ghosted lines exercise. So, try not to let yourself be overwhelmed by what the lines add up to – instead, think of them as singular lines, that you draw to their own end, and nothing else.

The rotated boxes exercise looks good. Its rotation is a little slight, but its boxes are snug, and, most importantly, big! Drawing big is something we heavily encourage, as it’s really effective in giving your brain some much-needed room to think. So long as it has that, it can solve any problem you through at it.

The organic perspective exercise is mostly good. I’m pleased to see how much time you’ve spent planning each box – if the unused points on your page, and the quality of the boxes themselves are any indication. That said, I’ll caution you against automatic reinforcing. Each line is to be drawn once, and only once, regardless of how it turns out. Resist the temptation to go over a line a second time, even if, especially if, it comes out wrong.

Welcome to drawabox, and congrats on getting past the hurdle that is Lesson 1. Let’s take a look at it, one exercise at a time, shall we?

Starting with your superimposed lines, these are on the right track. They’re generally smooth, and properly lined up at the start, but not always of a consistent trajectory. Remember that what’s important is not for the lines to be accurate, but rather smooth. As such, it’s perfectly fine for them to not stick to their guideline, so long as they’re confident; it’s not okay for them to, if they’re not! Your ghosted lines have some confidence issues, too, even by the end of the planes exercise. Here, too, the same advice follows. It’ll, perhaps, help to understand why this is the case. We insist on confidence, because a confident mark, even if inaccurate, will still be able to convey an illusion of solidity. A wobbly mark, however, will not, and even all the accuracy in the world won’t help it, then.

The ellipses also struggle from this. It seems that, for all of the ellipse exercises, your goal has been to keep your ellipses snug against their frames, even if this came at the cost of their smoothness/roundness. That’s having your priorities backwards, however. The good news is that, beyond that, and some minor issues here and there, that’s the only problem, so as soon as you’ve taken care of it, you’ll be clear to move on! As for the minor issues: in the table of ellipses exercise, be careful that ellipses inside of a frame maintain a consistent degree/angle, and in the funnels exercise, be careful that the degrees of your ellipses either remain consistent, or increase as they move away from the center - not decrease.

The plotted perspective exercise looks good, if its line-work a little scratchy. How come? You drew those lines with a ruler, no?

The rough perspective exercise has a number of issues, but you do catch quite a few of them yourself, and attempt to improve on them. The convergences are one such example. Even by the end, however, they’re a little off, so I’ll recommend that you spend a tiny bit longer planning them, before committing your points to lines. As for the line quality itself, this, too, needs a little bit of work, but we’ll work on it in simpler exercises, before we attempt to apply it to more complicated ones, so no need to stress about it right now.

Save for line quality, the rotated boxes exercise shows a solid attempt. It’s big (huge positive!), its boxes are, more often than not, snug, and, though not always successfully, they do attempt to rotate. Honestly, seeing how hard this exercise is, and how the only thing we check for here is whether the student has seen it through to the end, the only real mistake here is the automatic reinforcing. So I’ll just quickly remind you that you’re meant to draw through each line once, and only once, regardless of how it turns out. Don’t get in the habit of redrawing a line just because it’s ‘wrong.’

Finally, the organic perspective exercise is well done. Your boxes are, for the most part, well constructed, and their increase in size, and consistent, shallow foreshortening, do a solid job of conveying the illusion we’re after. Solid work, here.

Greetings! Congratulations on finishing lesson 1. I'm Strauss and would be pleased to critique your work, i hope they can help you one way or another on your art journey. I’ll now divide this into 3 major sections, let’s get into it!

Lines

Super-imposes Lines look good. Confidently executed. There is, of course, some fraying at the end but as long as it’s on the end-side only (meaning that you took your time to ghost every single line with care and precision), you’re good to go!

The Ghosted Lines are confidently executed too. For Drawabox, Confidence > Accuracy, and you nailed it well. Though, I’d suggest that next time when you decided to revisit this as one of your warm-up exercise, do make an attempt to draw longer lines (like the last few rows of your super-imposed lines exercise. This is not by any means mandatory, but it will definitely benefit you a lot in the long run, to be more flexible with your mark-marking skill.

For Ghosted Planes, I can see some wobbly lines here and there, but overall good!

Ellipses

For Ellispses in Planes - Sometimes your ellipses either aren’t touching the corner and/or went over the base plane, but your ellipses are mostly being executed with confidence. Great job.

Tables Of Ellipses, overall good! Granted, there’s some overlapping and miscalculation here and there, but you’ve followed the instruction fairly well: Executed the ellipses with confidence, super-imposed them 2-3 times, and fit them tightly within the table bound.

The Funnels look solid too. Lines are confident. The minor axis being placed correctly, properly cut the ellipses in half.

Boxes

Plotted Perspective: solid work, you also use hatching as a mean to emphasize the planes that are facing the viewer, which made it easier to visualize.

For Rough Perspective: Your lines are getting a little bit wobbly, but I can still see your attempt at making confident lines, so good job! And here’s a rule of thumb: "width lines should be parallel to horizon and height lines perpendicular to the horizon”

Rotated Boxes: There’s a few thing to keep in mind for this exercise. First, take look again at the full example of “how it should look like”: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/17/example. And check out this imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/jZ44ysS

Of course, mistakes are bound to be happen, and I assure you that, Rotated Boxes is one of if not the most hardest exercise in Lesson 1, and you overcame the boss itself. Good job!

Finally. for Organic Perspective: Very solid, Nice sizes/variety of boxes and the way they rotated in space. I personally love how dynamic they look.

Overall, you did great! You can now head to the 250 Box Challenge. Using (any) Lesson 1 homework as 15-30 mins warm-ups before diving in the assignment is recommended. Good luck.

Hey, congratulations on completing your homework on this lesson!

I'll try to be concise in reviewing it:

Organic Arrows:

• The strokes look good overall, very fluid and have this sense of depth we're looking for.

• Also, I like how you confidently overlap the lines to create the folds.

• The lineweight looks well applied, used only in the areas that overlap others.

Organic shapes:

• The general shape of the "sausages" is fine.

Some, like on the second page, are perhaps too complex.

I'll leave this guide for you to notice (https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage) ; none of them should deflate in the middle or have too many undulations.

• Regarding the ellipses and contour curves, they are not bad at all.

Their degree (thickness) changes respectively to their position, and they are well aligned to their axis as well.

Texture Study:

• The study of your textures looks concise. It's good that you're only focusing on drawing the shadows.

Additionally, the extension of the textures from dark to light looks appropriate.

If you have time, take a look at this image to get better results later: https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/7d1f3467.jpg

Dissections:

• The texture here looks phenomenal. You're rolling it over the shape and, focusing on the shadows correctly.

//: That water texture looks spectacular, by the way.

Shape Intersections:

• First I'll mention that you're lacking that consistency that allows all the shapes to look within the same scene.

Such consistency is achieved by drawing your shapes with a much shallower foreshortening.

We can remedy this with a little practice.

• Otherwise your shapes look good, the process for drawing them is adequate.

The line hatching you apply to the bases of each shape makes them look more solid.

Organic intersections:

• These last ones look pretty good. The drawing process and the lines look adequate.

• I will also take the opportunity to remind you to avoid drawing those slightly deflated sausages in the middle (like the one on the far right, on the first page).

Conclusion:

I'll leave you some homework to correct.

Read the critique patiently and ask questions if you have any doubts!

Hi! I'll take care of reviewing your homework today.

I'll try to be as concise as possible, and first of all congratulations on finishing it.

Take your time to read, no need to rush.

Arrows:

• I will mention that the folds of your arrows look good, and they overlap correctly.

  But your arrows lack a sense of depth.

Such as in this image: https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/0f7c806c.jpg

This depth is difficult to achieve at first.

It is achieved by compressing the space and size of your arrow as it moves away from you, the viewer.

https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/011d064f.jpg

It also helps to start thinking of your leaf space as a vast, wide world, where there is a "far" and a "near".

• Take a little more patience when drawing the shadow lines of each arrow, they look a bit rushed. I know they can be seen as a secondary part of the drawing, but they should receive the same care and planning as the other parts.

• I want to mention to you about moderating the use of line weight; it only applies to a shape that overlaps another, and a little will be more than enough, don't overuse it.

Organic shapes / Ellipses and contour curves:

• The overall shape of your "sausages" is appropriate, nothing is overdone. This is great.

• Regarding the ellipses and contour curves, I like that they are well aligned to their minor axis as well as changing degree (thickness) according to their position.

• There are times when you scribbled over your mistakes. I get the idea of this, but try to leave your mistakes intact.

This way, those of us who critique your homework will be able to give you steps to follow to fix them.

• On the ellipses and contour curves, you seem to be focusing a lot on how many of these you draw.

The more of these you draw, the more likely you are to get tired and the quality of these will decrease.

Instead, draw a few ellipses or curves, as long as they are well planned and thought out.

Textures:

• The work on studying textures looks very appropriate.

And the transition from dark to light is correctly extended.

• It is also very useful that you are modifying the silhouette of your textured dissections.

This way, you will get a better impact when describing your shapes.

• In several textures you are focusing too much on the black (negative) spaces and their outline; when your focus should be on the shadows cast.

Think more about identifying such shadows, and just take care of drawing those, nothing else.

• I see that you are also working with "light" textures such as hairs.

In these cases, it is appropriate to apply a process like the one in this image:

https://imgur.com/M9JJfr4

Where we outline the line and its shadow.

This way, they won't look so monotonous and each hair will have some depth.

Intersection of shapes:

• All the shapes look like they belong to the same scene, which is good.

However, applying a shallower foreshortening will help you to improve that effect.

• I see you worked a bit with the intersections, if you still don't understand them don't worry, we will see them in more detail later.

Organic intersections:

• I'm glad you caught how the shadows cast on the shapes are cast.

I know you will progress even more with practice.

• While the shape of your sausages looks good, their position on top of each other can look a bit unstable.

This is normal, and thinking about the solidity of each one as you draw it will help it improve.

https://i.imgur.com/KJQhpn8.png

Imagine you're stacking water balloons.

Homework:

I'll leave you with a couple of activities to correct your mistakes, and I should mention to be patient.

All of this can be a lot to take in, so it's okay to go through it at your own pace.

Hello I'll be handling the critique for your lesson 2 homework.

Organic Arrows

-Starting with the organic arrows these are drawn with a good deal of confidence which had really helped you to capture the way the move through space and you are already making some good attempts at the perspective of the arrows, as the ribbon gets wider as it moves closer to the viewer, I also like to see that the negative space between the zigzagging sections of the ribbon decreases as it moves further away.

And it is good to see that you are making a proper use of lineweight, applying it only to the parts where an overlap happens and without using it on any mark that is particularly long.

The only bit of critique I have to offer here is that there are a few arrows where the ribbon bulges all of a sudden instead of doing it gradually, one thing that can help is to try to draw your marks much more slower while maintaining good confidence, this depends on how much mileage you have gained during your warm ups but give it a try and see how it goes.

Organic Forms with Contours

-The shape of your sausages is turning out well, and you have successfully avoided any unexpected pinching or swelling throughout their length, there is still some room for improvement so keep practicing.

-Starting with the contour ellipses I can see that you are drawing them with an awareness of how they change degree as they move to space, but you have a but of trouble fitting them snugly within the sausage, this is just a meter of mileage and practice and I have no doubt that you will continue to improve with practice.

-Moving on to the contour curves these are beginning to wrap around the surface they are falling on, you do seem to be aware of the degree shift, but it is worth to mention that contour curves are a useful tool to describe how a form sits in 3D space, however that can easily work against us by flattening our drawings, the best strategy is to use the ghosting method to think about each mark's purpose and how you are going to achieve it best, this way you will avoid adding any contours that do not add any useful information to the drawing ir that contradict what is already there.

Textures

-On the texture analysis your work is turning out nicely, I like to see a bold use of ink to fill in the cast shadows and you are achieving some nice transition from the zones with high density of detail to the more sparse areas.

-Moving on to the dissections you have kept up the good work and used every opportunity to break the silhouette and you are respecting the curvature of the sausage. I only want to quickly redirect you to this image that shows that when we are working with thin like line textures it is better to first outline the shadow shape and then fill it rather than simply drawing lines, this will help you to achieve more dynamic results.

Form Intersections

-Moving on to the form intersections, don't worry if you feel like you don't fully grasp them yet as we will be revisiting them in future lessons, this exercise is all about getting you to think about how the forms that we draw relate to one another in 3D space. I do have one thing to call out and that is your use of lineweight, just like the organic arrows exercise you should reserve lineweight when two forms overlap, also, try yo keep it subtle if you end up making it too thick you will end up turning taking the solidity of your drawings away and turn them into mere graphic shapes. Only add one extra superimposed line and do your best to have it overlapping with the previous mark. Take a look at this image which shows how to correctly apply lineweight

Organic Intersections

-Finishing with the organic intersections, your forms are beginning to wrap around each other believably. Just make sure to keep your sausages simple and equally sized, this is really the best strategy to get good results, avoid any sausages that are too long or too complex. When it comes to the cast shadows you are not pushing them far enough and they seem to be hugging the form that is casting them, as shown here . Keep in mind that they act like contour curves so push them further and give them a nice curvature.

Okayy, that should be about everything I wanted to cover, I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete

Wow, looking at these I struggle to come up with any criticism except that your line quality descends into very scribbly lines during the texture exercises. Also the arrows to not consistently get thinner towards the „back“ and instead vary in width.

The hatching on the intersecting boxes is a bit much and somewhat distracts from the actual focus of the exercise but that is nitpicking.

I am not sure about how „correct“ the intersections are but the pictures look good to me.

Overall the only thing I’d really suggest is to keep using the same confident lines in your textures that you use for the other exercises. As uncomfortable pointed out in one of the videos: „once you are about to scribble, stop.“

Allthough i would not call your lines random, you could achieve a better effect with clearer lines.

Hello I'll be handling the critique for your lesson 2 homework

Organic Arrows

-Starting with the organic arrows these are drawn with a good deal of confidence which has definitely helped you to capture the fluidity with which they move through space, you are also making some good attempts at the perspective of the ribbon as it gets wider as it gets closer to us.

The main thing you have to keep working on us the negative space between the zigzagging sections of the arrow, remember that it should get narrower as it moves further away, this principle is shown here, you are already moving in the right direction and your application of lineweight and hatching is good.

Organic Forms with Contours

-You are doing a pretty good job sticking to the characteristics of simple sausages avoiding any unexpected swelling or pinching throughout their length. There is still room for improvement so keep practicing, when it comes to the contour ellipses these are drawn with an awareness of how they change degrees as they move through space, they are also drawn with confidence and fit in snugly with the sausage.

The contour curves are also beginning to wrap around believably on the surface of the forms, but they are barely changing degrees, this is a mistake we want to avoid. The best strategy is to use the ghosting method to think about the purpose of each individual mark , the he task it is meant to accomplish and how you are going to achieve it best. It is also important to keep in mind that contour curves are a useful tool to describe how a form sits in space, but they can easily work against us by flattening or drawing, so use them wisely and sparingly.

Textures

-On the texture analysis I can see that you have achieved a smooth transition from dense to sparse and I can definitely see that you have relied heavily on the cast shadows rather than forms shading or explicit mark making, the stone texture is particularly well done.

-On the dissections you have kept up the good job and achieved some good gradients, I also like to see that you have drawn your textural forms while being aware of the curvature of the surface they are sitting on, and you are using every opportunity to break the silhouette. The only bit of critique I want to offer is that you slipped into form shading on your strawberry texture, and you relied heavily on the outlines on the bird feathers.

Form Intersections

-Moving on to the form intersections, you have drawn your forms in a way that they seem to be sharing the same 3D space, when it comes to the intersections themselves don't worry if you feel like you don't fully grasp them yet as this exercise is only meant to get you acquainted with thinking about the relationship between the forms we draw on the page, we will be revisiting this exercise on future lessons too.

Organic Intersections

-Finishing with the form intersections you have done a fantastic job, you have kept your forms simple and easy to work with which is a strategy to produce good results. I only have a few things to point out, first remember to draw through your forms, this is just an exercise in spatial reasoning and drawing through your forms will help you to better understand the concepts we are exploring here. Lastly, when it comes to the cast shadows try to push them a bit further so that they can act as contour lines, wrapping around the form they are falling on.

Okayyy, you have done a pretty good job on this lesson. I'll go ahead and mark it as complete

hey, you did really well on lesson 1!

lines:

you have superb line control. your superimposed lines are very neat, especially with those longer lines, which I know are more difficult. on your ghosted lines, you seem to undershoot or overshoot their distance by a hair each time. that's not really a big deal considering their confidence and accuracy, though. your planes are very neat as well. the ellipses within the planes can be tricky but you did well.

ellipses:

once again great line control. however with the tables of ellipses you seem to litter them with smaller ellipses to fill in the gaps, which makes them kind of hard to look at. the point isn't to fill a box with as many ellipses as possible, it's to exercise/demonstrate control over the character of your ellipses. your funnels don't have that issue, they look good.

boxes:

your boxes, both with a ruler and freehand, look good. you experimented slightly with the dimensions of the boxes which will prove useful. rough perspective is bound to be imperfect. with both of these though i wished you experimented with horizon height a little more. gorgeous, controlled rotated boxes page although the corners of the boxes do seem to stray from each other - they should be directly adjacent to each other, really tight-knit. you did well on the organic perspective exercise, those boxes look great.