dargonfyl

Thanks for taking the time to write a critique, I really appreciate it. I'll definitely incorporate some of these exercises into my warm-ups.

Congrats on completing the 250 Box Challenge! I'll be looking at your work today.

Things that were done well

• There was very good improvement at around box 150 after some stagnation. I could visibly see where it clicked.

• The hatching the front face was always done correctly, which shows an understanding on how boxes are orientated.

• The lines were executed quite well, which is always a challenge while juggling box construction and estimating vanishing points.

• I like the RGB line extensions. They make it much easier to visually parse several boxes that may be cluttered.

Things that could be improved

• The variety of boxes is fairly low. Generally, they have shallow foreshortening and are some thin rectangular or square box. The more experimentation there is with foreshortening, shape, and orientation you play with, the more your understanding of objects in 3D space will grow.

• Extending lines in the wrong direction. I think you were more and more aware of this as you progressed, but it would appear irregularly even towards the end. This defeats the point of checking line convergences, so it's important to get it right. Review the section in the challenge (note that the challenge was changed a little while back) if it still occasionally occurs.

• A lot of the boxes are parallel and do not converge to a vanishing point. This could be an issue with how the boxes are constructed (consider the angles between the lines) and some random error when placing down lines (usually solved with the fundamentals in lesson 1).

• Consider adding some line weight to the outer edges of the box. It generally helps reinforce the structure and placement of the edges.

Overall, I think you did well and were aware of your weaknesses. I think you are ready to move on. Consider drawing boxes for your warm-ups with some of this feedback in mind. Good luck!

I've never used Pinterest before, but I can recommend Google Drive. The only problem is that it requires a Google account, but it will hide your email.

Pain

I agree.

Things that were done well

• Strong improvement over time was seen. The first boxes had sets of lines that were rather parallel, which is a common issue, but at around box number 100, they started converging a lot more.

• There was clear thought put into the construction of the boxes. Just like the previous item, boxes felt less auto-pilot after a certain point.

• The back corner was placed well a lot of the time. This is probably the hardest thing to do in the lesson, so good work on that.

Things that could be improved

• Line fidelity. There is a recurring issue where a bunch of lines per page are not straight or have significant wobble. This is usually an execution issue, where there is not enough ghosting or shoulder motion, compounded with the difficulty of constructing boxes. Consider re-visiting the fundamentals in lesson 1.

• The boxes with shallow convergence (i.e. VP is far away) tend to have one line converge too quickly. This is an issue mainly seen in the last 75 or so boxes, especially in the larger ones. Pay attention to the angles between lines, and that should help with seeing the boxes converge.

• There was a lack of diversity in the boxes at the start and beginning, the worst offender being that central box in the last 10 or so pages. It generally improves understanding of 3D space if many different orientations of boxes are drawn, so don't forget to vary it up.

Recommendations

• Hatching the front face is a great exercise to reason about which plane faces the viewer, reinforcing spatial reasoning.

• Do not use Imgur since it's a crap website that constantly messes with ordering and occasionally disappears your images. Some of the early pages are out of order, and I am sure that you didn't do that intentionally.

Overall, I think this is complete. There are areas that need some polishing, but there is ample time to improve. Good luck with lesson 2.

Hi, I'll be taking a look at your work today. But before that, congrats on completing this lesson. The difficulty of constructing a box and doing it 250 times is definitely noteworthy.

Things that were done well

• Clear improvement was seen in your boxes. Starting around box 100, the issue with diverging lines is largely corrected.

• Hatching lines were applied correctly. This is great and shows your understanding of which plane faces the viewer, and demonstrates understanding of 3D space.

• A good variety of boxes was shown. Just like the previous item, having different boxes with different convergences shows the spatial reasoning.

Things that could be improved

• An issue that shows up every so often is that a box will have a parallel set of lines. The best way to fix this is to take your time ghosting and being aware of the angles between lines, since this helps in recognizing the VP the line is converging to.

• The extra line weight is sometimes wobbly, detracting from the intention. This is usually a result of trying to match the original line and then not executing confidently, sort of a cart-before-the-horse situation. Thus, make sure that the extra line is confident, and that should help in making the lines match better.

• The boxes with more rapid convergence (i.e. the VP is closer) tend to be done better than the ones with shallow convergence. It may help to start with boxes that have rapid convergence, and slowly make them shallower as you draw more boxes.

• The hatching lines are generally well-done, but once in a while seem rushed (i.e. fraying, not parallel, overshooting). Just remember that they should be done with a level of execution expected of all lines in this course.

I think you are ready for the lesson 2. Just remember to keep your line execution confident, and to review some of the fundamentals. Good luck!

I think imgur may have messed with your images, because I can't see any of them in the link. Could you try another upload method?

Good work. I am marking this as complete.

Hi there, I'll be critiquing your lesson 1 homework. Congrats on finishing the first lesson! It's not an easy feat, and it's great that you persevered.

Lines

• All 3 parts are done well with minimal wobbling and hesitation.

• There is some overshooting in the ghosted lines & planes, but it is not major. What may help is slowing down towards the end, or rotating the page such that you can more easily see the end dot.

• Very strong start, great work.

Ellipses

• In the Table of Ellipses, all ellipses are drawn through and fit within the boundaries, which is great. There appears to be some wobbling here, so make sure you ghost through and use your shoulder. It is a difficult and foreign motion, so take your time if necessary.

• The same thing can be said about the Ellipses in Planes. It appears that the ellipses of larger degree (i.e. the more circular ones) suffer more here than the smaller degree ones, so that may be the area to focus on.

• The Funnels exercise is great, with just a few small instances of the ellipse not being aligned with the minor axis line. This is very difficult, and there will be time to practice, so it's not anything to worry about.

Boxes

• The Plotted Perspective exercise is done well, with the only issue being the some of the vertical lines for the front-facing edges. These need to be perpendicular to the horizon, and in some cases, they are not. Take your time with your ruler. Just like the freehand lines in the previous exercises, these should be calculated and as precise as can be.

  • Also, the hatching seems to be a little rushed. This is optional, but there should be a similar level of effort with these lines, just as you would with the lines of the lines section.

• The Rough Perspective is a very difficult exercise. Good work on making the depth lines go back to the VP, it's an intensely difficult task. The only thing to note is to remember to apply all of the learnings in the lines exercises here as well.

• In the Rotated Boxes, there are a few things to note. First, the same hatching issue from before applies. Second, some of the boxes are not rotating properly (https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/rotatedboxes/notrotating), especially the horizontal row. Finally, this is an exercise that would greatly benefit from line weight since it is so chaotic (https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/21/lineweight), so be sure to include it. Rotated Boxes is probably the worst exercise for everyone in this lesson, so don't feel discouraged about the issues here.

• Finally, in the Organic Perspective exercise, there are some line issues. Some of the lines are not confident and repeated, so be sure to review the fundamentals. This is also a hard one, so make sure to take your time when doing the 250 boxes challenge.

Overall, good work. Make sure to take some time to think through your lines and do some warmups as you do the 250 Box Challenge. Good luck!

Hi, I'll be critiquing your work today.

First of all, congrats on making it through this challenge! It's a lot of work, and persevering through it all is a great way to apply the first lesson.

Onto the critique:

Things That Were Done Well

• There was clear improvement as you progressed. You rarely had any mistakes show up again after you addressed them.

• There was a great variety in boxes. Drawing boxes can be rather unimaginative and repetitive, so it was good that you actively went against that.

• Hatching the front face of your boxes demonstrates your thinking in 3D and how the box fits into the scene.

• A lot of thought was put into the placement of the back corner, which is great.

Things That Could Be Improved

• The lines for many boxes overshoot just a little. It's not ever a large amount, but it is a somewhat consistent problem. Consider slowing down or rotating the page to be able to visually see the end dot.

• Some of the boxes are really small. Ideally, each page has 5-6 boxes that are evenly spaced. This is not a big issue since it is fairly inconsistent, but some pages have 8 boxes of varying sizes and that makes it very difficult to visually parse.

• Some lines were repeated that should not have been repeated. This was in certain boxes in the initial Y, which was directly stated to not have any added line weight. Recall that this course actively encourages continuing with your mistakes.

• The line weight on the edges of the box were often not overlapping. Remember to properly ghost your lines until confident, as rushing them often leads to inaccurate/wobbly lines.

• The hatching lines are rather sloppy. Ideally, each line starts and ends in on the box's edges and are straight. There are many instances where these are not the case, and it greatly detracts from the purpose of the hatching lines. Two particularly egregious examples are boxes number 137 and 244. The same advice in the previous item applies here.

• This is a recommendation, but consider using different colours of pens to do the extensions. On page 38, for example, it is very difficult to tell which line extension belongs to which box.

Overall, I believe you should consider the fundamentals when adding line weight. Most boxes themselves are good, so it's just the extras that need to be addressed. I would like to see a page of boxes with that in mind, say a page you'd do for warmup, then you can move on.

Thanks for taking the time to write a critique, I really appreciate it.