betweenskyandsea

Thank you for your critique. I'll admit simplification isn't my strong suit.

Here are my revisions:

https://imgur.com/a/ESeiphL

Hi Ciipher,

Welcome back and congrats on finishing lesson 1! Here's my feedback for you.

Lines -

Your lines generally look good, especially on the ghosted lines page. It looks like there's sometimes a bit of the wobble, especially on the shorter lines. It looks like you're slowing down your drawing speed in order to end at the end dot. Remember that having straight, confident lines is more important than hitting the end dot - accuracy will come with time.

Ellipses -

Most of your ellipses are only one or one and a half rotations. In drawabox, the goal is to draw ellipses with two or three rotations - this ensures that they are confident (not wobbly) and elliptical (rather than egg-shaped). This applies to all the ellipsis exercises: ellipses in planes, table of ellipses, and funnels. Additionally, you've drawn most ellipses in your table of ellipses exercise as the same shape/size/degree. One of the goals of that exercise is to practice drawing ellipses of different (but controlled) degrees. For example, one cell of the table might have only very narrow ellipses, and in another one they might all be almost circles; in one you could practice drawing ellipses that get gradually narrower, and in another cell you could draw a diagonal line through the cell to practice drawing ellipses of gradually different sizes. Refer to the lesson instructions for more examples of what the table of ellipses is supposed to look like.

Boxes -

For the plotted perspective exercise, the hatching is supposed to only go one way (ie you should hatch your boxes rather than cross-hatching them) and it should be drawn edge to edge cleanly, using the ghosting method, as if you were connecting dots just like the ghosted lines exercise. This is both good practice in drawing short parallel lines and it is something you will need to do when you get to the 250 box challenge.

For the rough perspective exercise just remember that the horizon line ought to be drawn with a ruler (you've done this in some attempts but not others). When you do this exercise again in your warmups, try to fill up more of the page (drawing larger boxes more spread out rather than a cluster of small boxes).

For the rotated boxes exercise - it's hard, I get it. Make sure you're not drawing over your lines (ie avoid redrawing lines you don't like). Instead, try to plot your line starts/ends using dots and ghost, ghost, ghost. If a line goes a little off course, that's ok, just leave it. But drawing over your lines inhibits your line confidence and makes it more difficult to give feedback. On a more practical note, you might find it easier to complete this exercise if you start with a bigger central box and if the back face of the central box is bigger proportionally (ie if the back of the central box doesn't recede so far, then the backs of all the other boxes won't have to recede so far so quickly either, which will make them larger/easier to draw and less confusing).

For the organic perspective exercise, I'm not seeing much evidence of the dots/ghosting method of drawing lines, and this is causing your lines to wobble. Remember that we're supposed to use this method for every straight line in drawabox (except the textures in lesson 2). But overall, you've shown a good ability to draw the boxes with different rotations and sizes.

Sky

Thank you :)

Hi TwoHands!

Overall, good job! You've followed the instructions on all the exercises very well. If you continue to follow the methods described in the course - especially planning and ghosting your lines - your speed, confidence, and accuracy should come with time.

Lines -

On your ghosted lines page, I can see some lines that have a bit of a wobble but others that seem fairly straight throughout, with only a tiny bit of course correction at the very end - awesome! Keep practicing so that all of your lines turn out straight like those ones. On the other exercises in your homework, like the planes, rotated boxes, and organic perspective, we're starting to see a little bit of that wobble again. Even when the thing you are drawing is complex, making sure the lines you draw are clear and confident will help you a lot in future lessons.

Ellipses -

You've done a good job of not wobbling, and of controlling the ellipse degree and angle. Ellipses won't be used in the 250 box challenge, but make sure that you keep working at them in your warm-ups so that you are ready when they are used in Lessons 2 and 3. Keep practicing a variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses, and aim to keep your lines close together on your rotations, as you are already doing, without sacrificing smoothness.

Boxes -

Good job! As I mentioned earlier, your lines are wobbling a little, so make sure you're ghosting each time. You've done a good job of making the boxes recede in size in the organic perspective page. If you do this exercise again as a warm-up, try adding some more variety of rotation in there too.

Sky

Hi TMMILLEA,

Thanks for your feedback.

Here's the revisions you asked for:

https://imgur.com/a/CtvazZP

For the organic intersections, yeah I see what you mean about the contour lines. I tried to be more careful this time.

For the form intersections, I did what you asked and drew fewer forms.

(But I don't really see the issue with what I did before. The instructions specifically said "fill up the whole damn page" and "it will get visually confusing, but push through it". That's what I was trying to do. If there's some kind of upper limit on the number of forms we're supposed to draw, it should be noted in the lesson/homework description.)

• Sky

Hi Kemaluge,

Congrats on finishing lesson 1!

Overall, very good work.

Lines - good job! Nicely confident and straight.

Ellipses - also well done! A few of the ellipses were drawn through more or fewer times than the recommended number of passes, but I understand how how hard this is to get used to at first. Overall they're confident with a good sense of control over shape and degree.

Boxes

Plotted perspective - we weren't actually supposed to use colour on the plotted perspective page, but what you drew shows that you understand the rules of perspective well, so good job.

Rotated boxes and Rough perspective - I'm starting to see a little bit of wobble in your lines on these pages - if you can keep your lines straight, despite the complex things we are asked to draw, it will greatly benefit you moving forward.

Organic perspective - good control over size and rotation.

Excellent job! I'm impressed!

-Sky

The new rough perspective looks much better, thank you.

Hi!

Here's my critique of your lesson 1 homework.

Lines

Superimposed lines - You've done a pretty good job with these. You've prevented fraying at the start of your lines and there are a few places where you've managed to keep the fraying at the ends of your lines minimal - keep aiming for that! When you repeat this exercise in your warm-ups, try a few longer lines (with your page rotated 90 degrees, so that you can draw along its long edge).

Ghosted lines - definitely keep working on these in your warmups. Many of your line have a slight curve/wobble, and most overshoot the end point. Focus on the wobble first, and after that, on stopping at the correct time.

Ghosted Planes - you seem to have the right idea, but most of your planes are quite small - don't be afraid to try larger ones (this may require nesting them more neatly on the page). Practicing longer lines and larger ellipses will help you in future exercises - you don't want to be caught only knowing how to draw small lines! This will also force you to use your shoulder more.

Ellipses

Table of ellipses - pretty good, you've done a good job of controlling the degrees of your ellipses and of making them touch the sides of the cells. You seem to be struggling with keeping the smaller and lower degree ellipses smooth in particular, so perhaps give some extra attention to these in your warmups.

Ellipses in planes - you've done a good job of making the ellipses touch the sides of the planes, but some of the ellipses are wobbly - it's important to continue drawing them with speed and confidence. Keep practicing making your ellipses tight and smooth.

Funnels - you've done a good job of controlling the degree of your ellipses. The above advice about trying to eliminate wobbles applies here too.

Boxes

Plotted Perspective - you seem to have understood this exercise well. If you repeat this exercise, make sure that your verticals are really vertical, and not angled slightly. Also, just note that in the 250 box challenge, we're encouraged to do a similar type of hatching on one side of our boxes. Be aware that the recommended way to draw this hatching is to ghost each line and to draw it from edge to edge, deliberately, rather than drawing lines quickly in the middle of the box, as you've done here. (the upper right box in your second panel is an example of "good" hatching - all boxes should have this).

Rough perspective - You've fairly done a good job at aiming the receding lines toward the vanishing points. Note that when half of the back face is on one side of the VP and half is on the other, the converging lines will actually point toward each other (1 point perspective), similar to when half the box is above the horizon line and when half is below it. The front faces of the boxes are lacking - neither straight lines nor lines drawn at 90 degrees to each other. Did you ghost your lines? We are supposed to use the ghosting method in ALL exercises. On the second rough perspective sheet, you've also missed a few lines (on the back faces of the boxes). You also have a tendency to draw your boxes extremely small (perhaps to hide any potential line wobble?) Don't do this - face your fears! When you redo this exercise, try drawing larger boxes to fill up the space.

Rotated boxes - missing

Organic Perspective - Again, make sure you are ghosting your lines. You are drawing your lines with a wobble. This will make the 250 boxes much more difficult. It is better to overshoot the endpoint and draw them straight, than to draw them the right length but wobbly. The edges of your boxes here should be just as straight as your were able to draw them in the ghosted planes exercise.

General notes

• try not to use whiteout - a small "x" on or near a line is sufficient, if you are really displeased with it.

• when you upload your images to imgur, it helps if you use the navigational panel on the right (on desktop, not sure about mobile) to rearrange the images to be in the correct order. This will make your reviewer's life much easier :)

Sky

Looks great!

The funnels are well done. There are a few places, like the funnel on the top right, where the ellipses are slightly rotated off the minor axis, but you seem to have the main idea of the exercise. In the future you could also try varying the degree of the ellipse a bit more, as most of the ellipses you've drawn here are very narrow.

The resumbitted rough perspective and organic perspective exercises look MUCH better, excellent job!

Good luck on your 250 boxes!

Hi Cepni!

Here's my critique on your lesson one homework.

Lines

Superimposed lines - looks good

Ghosted lines - looks very good, excellent confidence and accuracy

Ghosted planes - looks very good, excellent accuracy with your cross lines; overall very confident and straight

Ellipses

Ellipses in planes -

• A bit wobbly. There are a few ellipses where you haven't quite made the full two rotations as well as a few places where the ellipses don't quite touch the edges of the plane.

• Overall still very good; you definitely understand the idea of the exercise.

Table of ellipses -

• Again there are a few places where you're only drawing one and a half rotations rather than the full 2 or 3 rotations so just watch out for that.

• I can see that you've used smaller circles to hide where you accidentally didn't make the ellipse touch the edge of the cell - try to be deliberate about making the ellipse meet the boundary (that's what the "table" is for, after all).

• You've done a good job of trying different degrees of ellipses and keeping them consistent within each cell.

Funnels - missing ??

Boxes

Plotted perspective - looks good

Rough perspective -

• Looks like you understood the main instructions of the exercise.

• Remember that it's just as important to use confident lines here as it was in the previous exercises.

Rotated boxes -

• It looks like you have the main idea behind the exercise and the boxes are nicely tightly packed.

• Again, it's important to use confident straight lines - they are starting to wobble. Remember to draw two dots and then ghost your lines so that you keep them straight. This will be very important in the 250 box challenge.

• For shading, I'd recommend drawing clean, equally spaced hatch marks rather than squiggles.

Organic perspective -

• You seem to understand the exercise and you've done a good job of making the boxes recede into the distance.

• You've also done a good job of playing around with the rotations and proportions of your boxes.

• I don't see evidence of ghosting though and the lines are quite wobbly.

• Next time you try this exercise, you could also try overlapping a few more of your boxes.

Summary/recommendations

1. Please submit the "Funnels" exercise. If you have already completed this exercise and just forgot to attach it, submit it as-is; if not, focus on making sure that each ellipse is drawn through no less than two times.

2. Choose either rough perspective, rotated boxes, or organic perspective, and re-submit one sheet. When you are drawing, be sure to use the ghosting method: draw a dot to mark the start and end of each line, ghost, then draw your line. Try your best to keep your lines confident and straight. I know you can do it, because your ghosted lines exercise was so good! It's just important to make sure that you remember to apply this strategy to everything you draw on drawabox. This will be very important when you get to the 250 box challenge.

3. For the rest of my feedback, just make sure to keep it in mind the next time you do these exercises (in your warmups).