boxrouser

I think it's a very subjective term, but personally my definition of "beginner" (which I've been pondering about here and there, but haven't finished considering, so my stance on this may change in the future) is pretty broad. I think that rather being dependent on how long you've been drawing or even where your technical skills are, I think it makes more sense to define "a beginner" as someone who:

• Doesn't yet understand how learning to draw works, and therefore is not yet in a position to, should a particular area of weakness be identified in their work, know how to approach getting it resolved. Learning to draw doesn't work the way people who don't know how to draw think it does, and this leads to a lot of broader societal misunderstandings. They see complex rules of perspective and think that it is an academic pursuit like math and physics, with tons of memorization. Or they see pieces featuring such complexity that they can't even begin to wrap their minds around how one might come to that result, and so they describe it in terms of talent, of magical ability. They still view drawing, or even "art" as a whole as one monolithic skill, rather than a wide variety of different skills that interact with one another. While they may understand on a conscious level (from having been told) that it is much more like an athletic pursuit, combining a variety of skills, most of which are acted upon by instinct and reflex in the moment, and reinforced through repetitive drills and exercises, it takes a fair bit to really believe that on an emotional level. And so because they don't yet fully grasp how this all works, when left to their own devices they're more likely to spin their wheels, to dabble more with less time consuming tips-and-tricks than actual resources that elevate their understanding and give them the tools to make their own decisions. It also leads to students who though they put in the time, when studying aren't necessarily thinking through the choices they're making, instead just applying the same reflexes and instincts they seek to develop.

• Doesn't yet understand how to leverage the skills they have currently, in combination with those skills that have not yet been developed as far as would be required to achieve one's desired result in a given piece, to create work with a sense of intent and purpose. To set out to create something - not necessarily defined with utmost specificity, but to tell a story, explore a design, etc. and to understand the role those skills play in creating that greater whole. To regard a work not as merely the sum of its parts (which usually comes down to how visually pleasing an image is - or perhaps how much attention it garners) but to recognize that every piece is going to have areas of strength and areas of weakness, and that the latter does not erase the former by virtue of existing.

The first point is really about seeing yourself grow. The more you do, the more you come to realize why you're growing, and you see where your investment of time actually pays off. Beginners are afraid to invest time in general, whereas those who are further along may still fear wasting time, but they recognize from experience that they won't know whether something truly is a waste of time, or something of genuine benefit (even if it is quite demanding) unless they try it. And that, itself, takes time - but it is not the passage of time that guarantees it, but rather our willingness to commit to things, to see things through, and to reap their benefits (or reflect upon why they didn't work out).

The second point in turn is very much about the 50% rule, and play. The capacity to not simply see the skills you don't yet have as impassable roadblocks, but as areas where what you produce will have room to improve - to look beyond what your drawings are now, and see them as steps towards your future. Arguably this is something we all can do as children, unburdened by the fears of how things turn out, but by the time we seek to study and improve our skills, many of us have lost that capacity or at least have had it overshadowed by self-doubt, and so we've become beginners in that regard.

I may not be understanding you correctly, but if I am, then an exercise like that wouldn't be as uniquely beneficial as you might expect. We have specific challenges for freely rotating boxes and cylinders because they make up the majority of complex objects (and the other primitive forms are similar enough to them that practicing these provides us with a more solid grasp of how to use them as well). Since a complex object is made up from simple forms (as is stressed throughout lessons 3-7 of this course), if you're able to rotate those simple forms freely then you can leverage that towards constructing a complex object in any orientation.

It's also worth noting that each of those exercises - the box challenge and the cylinder challenge - have their own primary focuses beyond what is at the surface. For example, the box challenge is most of all about learning to estimate your convergences, and the cylinder challenge addresses both aligning ellipses to an intended minor axis, and honing your capacity to estimate proportions in 3D space. It's not directly about the forms themselves, and that's only a tangential benefit. So in that sense, drawing 250 of any old thing and turning it into a challenge may have some benefit, but it's important to think about exactly what that benefit is intended to be when designing such an exercise. Things often go much deeper than what appears obvious to the student to whom it is assigned.

hi lorem ipsum

Organic Arrows

• this ones were great there you follow all the rules, (perspective and overlaping) so this one is great

Organic Forms

• here the first one were ok, but theres one problem, you didnt draw trought elipses (https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/drawthroughellipses), and also you didnt vary the degrees maybe its my perspective, but i think mostly all of them have the same degree, but for the other page, you did everything great so that one is perfect

texture analysis

• yeah, everything here is altright, just one thing, the black line at the left it should be camouflaged with the environment, but other than that this one is perfect, good job

dissections

• here everything is alright, in fact, it was cool to watch it and also you followed the rules here

form intersections

• here its also perfect everything, even the spheres, so great job

organic intersections

• this one is also great, it really seems like a 3d space, so good job in this one too

hey, english is not my first lenguage if you dont understand something let me know, ill explain it differently, also ill appreciate a review of my work, try to do it honestly even if its rough

Hi,

For me, i draw everyday 4 hours per days. I dont work or go to school so it's easier for me to respect this time drawing.

I try to divise my time into 2 chunk (or three in the night time, i doodle a page in my sketchbook).

The first chunk is dedicate to study, doing lesson homework (2hr), i've do it in the morning, when i woke up.

The second chunk is dedicate to free drawing (2hr). So drawing what i want to draw this time with or without reference, sometime i've art therapie so i count as the 50% rules. I've do it in the afternoon at 2pm.

So far i respect my time and it's been 50 days since i've had this routine.

I try to be consistent with my learning, so on workdays I do some warm-ups and at least one page of homework, which would take about 30 min to an hour. I've experienced burn-out when doing the 250 boxes, so I try to do slightly less than I can to keep that feeling of wanting to draw more to the next day. I usually do exercises on one day, and draw my own project on the next day. I found it more flexible during workdays when I have very limited free time.

Try not to worry about what you're doing beyond applying the instructions as they're laid out. This exercise is ultimately about developing your capacity to estimate convergences (given a set of lines, being able to add another line such that it converges consistently with the others), and being able to negotiate that coming from different angles in order to resolve those corners that are dependent on edges coming from multiple directions.

As long as you're adhering to the instructions, then you're fine.

I have the same problem so I've given it a lot of thought, but bare in mind that this isn't so much advice as just me sharing the things I'm implementing to address my problems. i.e. it's food for thought not proven fact.

That being said, I think the most important thing is to break down your projects into actionable steps and set aside specific times to work on them. It's so much easier to turn up for 20 minutes of thumbnailing than it is to "just make good art", and you can absolutely make every step as clear and manageable as that. e.g. gather reference, do a quick sketch of your subject, do an underdrawing, ink/paint what you just drew etc.

I think it's also important to be realistic in the kinds of projects you attempt. Maybe one day you will be able to illustrate important scenes with full environments, lots of characters and all sorts of thing happening, but to start with it might be best to just make a portrait of a key character or draw one of the places they visit or an important object. Once you've developed a smooth workflow, and have proven to yourself that you can take an idea from conception to creation, you can start being more ambitious. In other words, you want the minimum viable product because for now the most important thing is that you create something instead of nothing.

Finally, I think it's also worthwhile to reconsider what you need to achieve to consider a poject a success. For me, that just means making something better than my sketches. It's easy to get caught up imagining all the amazing beautiful art I want to make, but when I think about it I actually want my current project to look bad compared to the art I'll be making a year from now, because otherwise I haven't improved. So my current project doesn't need to be objectively good; it just needs to be good for my current skill level. It needs to show the extra time I put in by being better than my sketches. That's it. That's the bar.

Hello I'm Simon and will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)

1. Superimposed lines

First of all you did a good job of drawing your lines confidently and committing to the stroke once you started it. Looks like there is some fraying on both sides of your superimposed lines, take your time before drawing each stroke to put your pen back on the starting point, this is likely due to you rushing the exercise a bit and shouldn't be hard to fix.

2. Ghosted lines

Well done your Ghosted lines do not wobble. Your lines remain straight, that's good in the future keep the habit of drawing with your whole arm so you have long confident lines! You did a good job of having your lines end up near or on the final dot, keep practicing this exercise (and the others) in your warmups to get even better at it!

3. Ghosted planes

You did a really good job of doing your ghosted planes, your lines are as good/better than the ones from your previous exercises.

4. Table of ellipses

Seems like you are drawing through some of your ellipses more than twice, for the same reason that you shouldn't draw through your ellipse once only drawing through them more than twice is detrimental, makes you less in control of your ellipse and put less confidence in your mark. Whenever you draw an ellipse freehand throughout the whole course be sure to only draw through it twice over. You tried to fit every ellipse and circle snugly along the borders of your tables good job, it is tough to achieve but as long as you keep striving for it you'll improve! Most of your ellipses are evenly shaped and appear smooth good job! Getting a perfect ellipse is a really hard job but you'll have time to work on it through your warmups.

5. Ellipses in planes

Once again good job on drawing through every ellipse twice! Some of your ellipses' edges aren't perfectly touching each edge of the plane, that's completely fine for a first try of the exercise you'll get better as you keep practicing it in your warmups. Some of your ellipses aren't really evenly shaped, you should draw your ellipses with bold confident lines, once you started drawing don't think about where your line needs to go that was to be planned during the ghosting part, once you start draw with your whole arm a confident ellipse!

6. Funnels

You seem to have struggled to keep your ellipses fit snugly to the funne, be sure to take your time and use the ghosting method when drawing these ellipses and just keep practicing this exercise as your warmup and you will get better at it :) You kept most of your ellipses along the direction of the minor axis, keep practicing this exercise as a warmup in your next lessons.

7. Plotted perspective

As mentioned in the exercise you used a ruler to draw your boxes that's all good. You kept the first lines of your boxes perpendicular to the horizon as you should've, well done. You made sure to plot every single line back to the right vanishing point so good job, even though some back corners don't come out perfectly that's completely fine :)

8. Rough perspective

Managing to land every single line exactly back to the vanishing point is a near impossible task at this point but what's important is you tried and most of your lines do try to reach that center point! The front back of your boxes is rectangular each time, that's great. You managed to draw every line extension in the right direction, that could get a little tougher in the 250 boxes since you have to extend in 3 directions but this shows you got the base of how to do it! I can't know for sure but it seems like for some of these boxes'lines you didn't use the ghosting method, be sure for every stroke through the course to use the ghosting method (as long as as it's not explicitely said not to) take your time, be sure to ghost the line a few times between each point before committing to the line, and you'll be left off with much cleaner boxes!

9. Rotated boxes

The setup of your rotated boxes is well laid out with the cross and the 4 cubes to strive for in each cardinal direction :) You kept the gaps between each box tight and consistent. That's a key to having a good result with this exercise. You seem to understand how to rotate your boxes, but don’t seem to rotate them enough, that’s fine since it still shows that you understood the assignment but if you can I’d like you to try this exercise once more while keeping an eye on the side squares you drew at the start as a goal for you 2nd box on each side. Drawing through your boxes is also a key part of the exercise and is also making you start practicing this skill that will be used for every box in the 250 challenge. You don't seem to have properly drawn every box of the whole set though, if you go and look back at the demo of this exercise you should see that there are two boxes in every single direction of the central boxes, achieving at the end a sort of 5x5 square being wrapped around a ball, I strongly encourage you to finish this exercise before you move on to the 250 boxes challenge!

10. Organic perspective

Once again using the ghosting method for every single stroke of this course is a crucial part into getting good habits for your whole drawing journey! Some of your boxes seem to have parallel or diverging lines, that's a common mistake when drawing shallower foreshortening boxes and the only way to get better at it will be through taking the time to place each stroke carefully while drawing your boxes, take your time. You will also improve on this as you move through the 250 boxes challenge! You did a good job of drawing shallower foreshortening here as some people tend to go into more dramatic foreshortening which in this exercise as the effect of making the boxes seem inconsistent in scale compared to each other, overall making the drawing less solid and less believable.

I strongly encourage you to try again the rotated boxes exercise and to practice some of those exercises again before moving on to the 250 Bxo challenge :)

Don't forget to complete your 50/50 rule and to add these exercises to your warmups for future lessons!

Also I strongly encourage you to go review some submissions on the website :) You can review some lessons 1 and once you've completed future lessons review those as well. Don't hesitate to do a review every so often. It really benefits you so you don't forget the point of the previous exercises and helps other people who are waiting on a review :)