Doctormein

Hello Rabuuhs! I am sorry for my late reply, I was a little busy critiquing other student works. But Thank you so much for critiquing my Lesson 6 and wishing me farewell on my journey.

The Diagram you provided have certainly helped with my understanding with how Sphere intersection should be drawn when it is intersecting with another object, So thank you very much for that. (I believe I've made the "Rounded transition" Mistake a little too often in some of them when it was supposed to be sharp transition.)

And Paint 3d app in the guide you've provided also seems to be a good app too; I'll make sure to check them out.

As for Chain of straight line before curve, That was a solid mistake from me. I'll make sure to properly draw out the line before the curve If the object has a rounded bevel.

Again, Thank you so much for your kindness. I'll pick this course up again when I feel like it. Thank you very much!

Greeting, HotSkeleton. I am Doctormein And I'll be critiquing your 250 boxes challenge for you.

I'll be dividing the challenge into 3 Section

• Line-related matters. (Such as confidence of execution, Not repeating your lines, Applying proper line weight, etc.) Simply stuffs that you've learned from lesson 1 ghosting exercise.

• Boxes-related matters. (For example, Extending line in the wrong direction, similarity of the boxes, Drawing through form, etc.) These are usually mentioned in the 250 Boxes challenge page. itself.

• Finally, Convergence-related matters. (This section will consist of, Convergence, Divergence, Double Vanishing point, Back corner issue, etc.) The main meat of the exercise.

Let's get started. Before we get into the critique, I would like to suggest you to take a clear picture of your exercises.

This will make it easier for future critic to review and notify you of any mistake in the exercise themselves.

• Line-Related matters.

1. As far as I am concerned, your initial boxes line was drawn confidently. But your Line weight lines are quite wobbly and hesitant. For example, In box #81, #197, #201, #207 we can clearly see that your line weight are quite wobbly and hesitant instead of being executed confidently. If you remembered superimposed line from exercise 1, the line weight here follows the same concept there. And If you're not that confident in putting down line weight, you can also try ghosting it before putting down a line too.

P.S : I'll be putting here just in case, but I am not sure if those are line weight or correction lines. in box #209 I can see that you drew 2 line, Which I assumed to be line weight, but upon closer inspection I can see that it seems more like correction line instead of line weight. If my assumption were to be true, please refrain from repeating any lines further in the future. We want students to think before committing to a mark and for every line to reflect that. Beside, It makes things messy and harder to critique since we're drawing with pen here instead of pencil.

2. Although this second point will probably sounds more like a suggestion than an actual valid point to critique, I believe it will be beneficial to mention this regardless. You seem to be doing hatching line a little haphazardly at times. Such as in box #174 , #172, #148. Hatching line still follows the same principles as in ghosting line exercise in lesson 1. Make sure that every line you put down has a proper starting point and ending point. If you look at some of your boxes like #146 for example, we can see that the line you've put down as hatching line doesn't really meet its end properly, and the line itself felt a little reckless. As I've mentioned above, we want every line in this course to reflect clear forethought and thinking before committing and that Includes hatching line too.

These are the only 2 point I will mention for this section. If you're curious about other things that fits into this category but I didn't mention is because you've done well in those area. If you're curious about other points, feel free to leave me a message and I'll reply as soon as I possibly can.

• Boxes-related matters

For this section so far, I believe you've done well! You didn't extend the line in the wrong direction, you're drawing through your form properly, and you're also trying to play around with foreshortening and boxes length in all three dimension too. I believe I don't have much to say here.

P.S. : You might want to check out This link, Which is about Distortion and perhaps check out the whole additional information on boxes. I don't have much to critique here, but this might help with some of your drastically foreshortened boxes. (#229 For example.)

• Convergence-related matters.

I am happy to say that you've clearly made significant progress since your first few boxes to your last few one. Your convergence has become more consistent. And when that happens, the back corner issue tends to slowly becomes less prevalent as time goes on too. However! there's still something to critique on, and I'll be mentioning them now.

(Notice : These critique are mainly focused on the last 50 boxes to ensure that my critique is up-to-date to what the current state of the student is.)

1. Early convergence is still a little present in your drawing here. Such as in boxes #204, #203 (Back corner), #202 (Back corner), and #231. Most of your early convergence tends to come from the silhouette line (Box #213 green line is a clear example of this) and back corner So If you could fix those two it would be brilliant.

2. You also seem to have tendencies to make thing a little too shallow or in other word, parallel. (Examples are #214 Green line, #220 Red line (Back corner and the initial Y for this one) #235 Blue line (Back corner, Initial Y)

I believe you were probably doing this challenge when the website hasn't updated yet, so no big deal.

But always remember, Lines for boxes will always be converging to some vanishing point. It is nearly impossible for it to be parallel even if the line are really, really close to each other. (Such as initial Y and back corner.)

P.S : Since you're on discord, I believe you might have gotten the idea of "parallel line" from this image perhaps? https://discord.com/channels/365036548820959242/365180330103013388/892934908232732695 Although the picture is kind of close to what we want, the wording is probably not up-to-date here.

Practical section : 1. You can try to ghost the line out to see roughly where the vanishing point is and try to ghost the other line to correspond to that vanishing point. Of course, we won't be putting down the vanishing point but ghosting is fine for this occasion.

2. Since your tendencies is to draw a line that converge a little too fast, you could try to just put a point of where your "Expected line" would be and then put down another one where it converge less quickly than your intial line. This uses the same technique as "Arcing line" In lesson 1. (It is arcing? then just arc your line a little bit toward the other direction. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/arc)

3. As for your parallel line section, I believe you can probably fix it by just thinking about it consciously for a while and then your brain will probably do that task for you. Just put what I mentioned into practice!

Since my critique for Form intersection and Organic intersection seem to have gone... somewhere. I'll be providing it here instead.

Form Intersection cont.

• You forgot to add Intersection to the exercise itself. Although the intersection is not the main purpose of the exercise, (The main purpose is to make sure that the form you drew on a page resembles the same space.) you should still be doing the Intersection regardless. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to get as much out of this course as you could.

• Finally, in some of your form you drew, There are a few stretched out form that seem to be present in the exercise. Especially your boxes. Although I am sure that It is fine to push it to some degree, I believe you might want to tone it down a little more since form that has the similar length in all 3 dimension are mostly easier to add intersection to.

Organic form Intersection

• First of all here you seem to be using the Mistake here as a crutch Although you did draw the sausage parallel to the main sausages. I believe you could push it further by putting another sausages on top of the one you previously drew. I believe you should watch This video And try to follow along with it for your first page (But NOT exactly copying) and then try your own the second page; It cleared a lot of misunderstanding for this lesson**

• Secondly, This mistake seem to be the one that happens due to your mistake at "Organic form ellipses and contour" But You seem to be drawing complicated form instead of simple form.

In This Imgur album picture #3 you can see the outlined part that I did for you and how flat and unconvincing it looks. Try to keep thing simple as the Lesson has provided Because it will help out with the three dimensionality of the form and will, in turn, make it more convincing.

• Lastly, The shadow. Although I am not very good at shadow (And this lesson isn't that strict on shadow anyway.) Right now you seem to be Sticking the shadow to the form itself. Here is an image that might help you understand the shadow better for this lesson. Image Make sure to read the description of what I've sent. Uncomfortable explains it far better than I will in this regard.

A pleasure to meet you, AzureBlazes. My name is Doctormein, And I'll be the one providing you with critique for Lesson 2 for today.

Organic arrows.

As far as your arrow are concerned, your arrows are smoothly drawn, and some of them are following the principle of 3d nicely. (The further the arrow is from us, the thinner they become.) But there are some stuff that you could still improve on.

I will be putting stuff that you could improve on in the format of a list for ease of consumption, feel free to ask me further question If I did not make myself clear in some places.

• Although your arrows are smoothly drawn, I believe you could add a little more overlaps in order to help sell the illusion of three dimensionality. We can see that in some of your arrows there are only 2-3 or sometime 1 overlap part. This, in turn, made the arrows you drawn look flat and unconvincing. Here Is a great example made by Uncomfortable. We can clearly feel the three dimensionality of these arrows due to overlap that it created.

• And If we were to use the same picture Here again, It seems to me like you didn't apply the line weight to the overlapping part. Although this is an optional choice (Since there's no mention of it in the common mistakes section.) I still believe you should do them regardless. It is a good way to practice both ghosting and superimposed line, after all.

• Finally, I'll be talking about Applying perspective to the arrow. (As This picture shows here. In most of your arrows, The width of your arrow remain mostly static. Let's use This picture again for demonstration. The arrow closer to the viewer (The head) Is bigger than the one that is further away from the viewer (The tail.) We will be able to replicate this on a 2d surface by adjusting its size, or in this case The arrows width.

Organic forms

If I were to be honest here, This exercise needs quite a few helping hand. But don't worry, We'll make sure that we take it one step at a time.

• The biggest point I want to make is about the Ellipses Degree. I will be spending a lot of time on this section since I believe it will be the most beneficial to you.

Let's imagine a scenario, You're looking at a coin spinning toward you. At first, The coin is just a line because we're simply looking at it from the side. But as the coin slowly turn to face toward us, It slowly becomes an ellipses with wider and wider degree. Until finally, It became a circle and the process begins anew. Here is a video, In case you're not sure what I am talking about The same rule applies here. Your sausages (Organic forms) degree get wider or thinner depending on how far away it is from the eye line I've compiled This as an example to help student in figuring out how to understand it. I would like you to give it a look.

• In some of your organic forms, I can see a little few clear sign of hesitation after committing to a mark. I can see your line confidence waver a little bit when drawing your organic forms. You could try Ghosting the shape of the sausage out before committing to a mark first in order to help with your confidence. But ultimately, this comes down to practice, so there's not much to be said here.

• Another big hurdle you seem to be facing is that you're struggling a bit with the ellipses alignment. I believe this is a byproduct of a Misplaced center line. Although it's fine to not be exactly perfect, I believe some of the center in your submission is a little too far off the mark. Here's an example of what should happen when you're aligning + showing changes in ellipses degree nicely I also have my own demonstration without the organic form outside. I think you could see how my ellipses aren't actually perfectly align with the line itself but it is "Close enough."

• And lastly, All of the concept that I've mentioned above also apply to Organic form (Contours) Too. I can see quite a few mistakes that got carried over from the ellipses one. (Degree shift, Not Aligning, Organic forms that are a little elongated or pinched, et cetera.) So make sure to apply what I've said above to contours too.

Because this section is a little long on its own, I'll be providing a short summary for this section.

• Ellipses degree are supposed to get thinner or wider depending on your eye line. If we were to look at the side of a circle to start, the further away it is from us, the more it will turn into a circle. While the closer it is to us, the more it will turn into a line. Youtube Video Demonstration

• Make sure to practice drawing out organic forms. You can try ghosting the form before committing in order to help out with your confidence.

• Ellipses alignment might be a byproduct of a misplaced middle line, so make sure to try your best for the middle line to be as middle as possible (You can think of it as a flow line from gesture or even just the spine of the organic form) Don't forget to try and properly align them to the middle line too.

• All I've said Above is valid for contours too.

Texture Analysis.

I can see your attempt in trying to draw shadow shapes instead of outlining the form, that's a very good sign that you're following instruction to the best of your abilities. But of course, there are always things to improve on, And I'll be providing them here too.

• In your corn kernels texture, you're outlining every corn kernels instead of drawing its shadow. I can see in some of the corn kernels that you drew lines instead of shadow shape. Here is an example by Mr.Uncomfortable.

• In all of your gradient, You seem to have forgotten to draw out the transition from dense to sparse. Here is also an example by Mr.Uncomfortable And you can see in your second image that you forgot to do this. Make sure to do it next time.

Dissection

You didn't provide me this exercise, so I'll be skipping this part for now.

Form Intersection

There seem to be a little trouble in this exercise. I'll be going into detail for all of them.

• For your first page, most of your boxes seem to be diverging. Or, in other word, distorted. Although we're not as strict with these boxes as we are with 250 boxes challenge, you should still try to get them to converge as much as possible.

P.S : This concept still applies to form of similar nature to boxes. (Pyramid, Cylinder)

Understood! I'll be playing more with orientation and attempt to draw more front view instead of side view in my warm-ups. I'll also keep in mind that dramatic foreshortening will always be accompanied by dramatic degree shift too. And I believe you're right that I should be lowering those marks when I draw boxes too because I already have intuitive sense of how they worked.

Thank you as always! Beckerito.

Pleased to meet you again, Flippy! I'll be getting right into your submission now.

Branches

I can clearly see your sign of improvement from this resubmission. You're drawing past your ellipses 2-3 times as requested, and you attempted to follow the flow lines of the curve nicely. On top of that, you're doing a decent job at hiding visible trail on compound stroke too. There's certain point I would like you to pay more attention on, though.

Firstly, don't forget how those ellipses turn in space. Ellipses will get bigger or narrow depending on where you want the viewesr eyes to be.

Another Demo about the same principle I've done for student (Not official demo, but you might want to pay attention to them regardless.)

Secondly, you should try practicing those ellipses more to make sure they're roughly the same sizes. So that your branches lines will properly touch them without leaving some floating ellipses inside. This'll probably help most of the floating ellipses you have now.

Side notes : I believe accuracy is also another point I wanted to mentioned, However this'll come with times so there's probably no need for me to mentioned it. You should be giving it some attention too, though. (accuracy of your branches lines and how well they match flow lines)

Plants

One thing I can say for certain is that those plants are well constructed. Those forms are confidently drawn and certainly helps to illustrate how objects are 3d instead of lines on a page.

Now there's some points I've certainly want to mention and I'll be mentioning them down here.

"I gave a little bit of detail to the outline because I understood from the demos that this is different from texture."

If you wouldn't mind, could you please link the demos below? I've not heard of any demo that advocate for giving details on the outlines. (excepts leaves.) In fact, it's actually one of something Drawabox discouraged their students to do because It'll take away from the smoothness and the confident of the form. Regarding Clean-up

Line weight are mainly use to emphasize which form advances or recedes toward the viewer. In the context of this course, at least. Overlapping leaves with line weight

Secondly, for your Fortunella Crassifolia, you could probably use contour lines instead of ellipses here. They're certainly believable, but contour will probably be a better option here. Common pitfalls

Thirdly, even if the form aren't in view of the viewers, draw them regardless. I saw this mistake in your some of your branches where you didn't draw their other ends. Without properly defining those connecting, It'll be much easier for us to assume that what we're drwaing is simply a flat line on a page instead of actual 3d form.

Suggestion : Lastly, for your leaves it might be better for you to work additively instead of subtractively. Right now in some of your leaves you're cutting into your form, and, as a result, makes some of the construction felts a little flat. It isn't wrong to use them, but you probably want to limit it as much as possible. https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/8/complexleafstructures

I am very happy that you've decided to do the optional homework I've assigned! This'll certainly help me to further understand your work as a whole. Now, let's get right to business.

Organic forms ellipses/curves

I can clearly see your attempt at adjusting what I've mentioned above so thank you! One thing I tend to see with your ellipses is that you're a little afraid of making them wider. I am not sure if this was right assumption to make since I have no idea what could be holding you back, but, if possible, It would be great if you could Widen your ellipses more because this'll help you out with conveying your illusion of 3dness.

This is a Demo I've done for a student in the past. You might want to give it a look!

Your curves seem to also be experiencing this issue a little bit too, but it's not as present as ellipses one. As always, the same principle that apply to ellipses also apply to curves too. (Check the image above for some example on the matter.)

Side notes : Don't forget, no matter how wrong a line is or how disproportionated a form may be, don't readjust or draw over it. Leave the line as it is as if it were correct. And also! It would be great too if you don't leave notes about your misstep in those drawing. It often serves as a distraction to a person who's critiquing you and we often ignore it to give us the ability to try our best to critique without any bias. Don't be so harsh on yourself, we all make mistake.

Form intersections

I can clearly see your effort toward making those form more equilateral, and you've also improved your intersection to be more believable also. There isn't much I would like to critique about this exercise because of how difficult it is, especially the intersection part. Overall, nicely done!

Pleased to meet you, 0RTUS. I am Doctormein and I'll be the person responsible for your homework today.

- Thinking in 3d -

Organic arrows.

Your organic arrows are very well done. Confidently drawn, great foreshortening to help viewers buy into the illusion and not you're not afraid of letting them overlap too. This is my personal opinion, but it might be great if you could draw more arrows on a page (especially on your second page) since that'll contribute to your practice.

Organic forms ellipses/contours.

I am happy to see that you're keeping those sausages simple as the instruction requested. This will certainly go a long way in lesson 4-5. I'll now be focusing my attention on something you will probably need to work on more, degree shift.

You'll probably want to make those changes in degree shift a little bit more dramatic because right now most of your ellipses seems to be very similar in degree. In turn, making them felt flat and unbelievable. This critique also applied to contour curves too. Here's Uncomfortable example (Ellipses).

Another one of Uncomfortable example. (Contour)

And here's a demo I've made for a students.

Keep in mind that those ellipses and contour we're drawing aren't just lines on a page, they're representing 3 dimensional form. Just like in the real world, If a side of a coin were to face you, it would be perceived as a line. The moment that coin started to move further and further away though, it would slowly shift from being a line to an oval and slowly turning into a circle.

- Texture and detail -

Texture analysis.

Overall, you've done a good job here too. I can see your attempts at drawing shapes instead of lines in most texture. But, of course, there's always something to critique on.

Firstly, In your first texture (crumpled paper) it seems to me that you've forgotten to do seamless transition in the lower part. Don't forget to do them too.

Secondly, Though I've said that I've seen your attempt at drawing shapes instead of lines, there are still places that you've drawn lines instead of shapes. (Mostly small tiny bits one.) When you're attempting those tiny shadow shapes it's better to tackle them by drawing outlines first and slowly and gently fill them with solid black. Like in this image

Lastly, In your final texture you seem to be drawing outlines for scales instead of shadow shapes. Keep in mind, lines are product of human imagination. It doesn't exist in reality. So always remember to draw use shadow to imply the existence of form rather than using outlines to imply it. Here's Uncomfortable common mistake about drawing outlines instead of shadows.

Dissections

This exercise was a pretty huge step up from your previous exercise. You're wrapping texture around your form nicely and breaking the silhouettes too. One critique I would like to bring over is that in certain part you're still drawing lines instead of shadow shapes. Don't forget to draw shapes instead of lines But aside from this, you've done very well.

- Construction -

Form intersection

Wow, nicely done. The main objective of this exercise is for you to draw forms that resembles the same scene. In which you've done nicely. Your intersection also looks believable and well-executed too. However, there's 2 thing I would like to critique.

1. There are some part of your form that appears to be a little too stretched for this exercise. Mainly pyramid and cones. Remember, by making those form more complex (either by stretching, dramatic foreshortening or others)

it would distract you from the main point of this exercise.

2. I am not sure if this could be called an actual critique, but you might benefit from superimposing intersections you've made. By reinforcing those intersections you've made, viewer will have a much easier time understanding how one form intersects the other.

Organic intersection

We're wrapping up this critique with this last exercise, Organic intersection.

You've done mainly great for this too. Most of the sausages are piling up in a believable fashion and, on top of that, they're being drawn confidently also. Just like our last sections, there's 2 point I would like to critique on.

1.In your first page of organic intersection you've drawn 1 sausage like an oval instead of a sausage. This is probably me just being very nitpicky but always remember, keep those sausages form simple.

2. This last point is mainly about shadows. Your shadow seems to be sticking to form in certain places and in some instance, a little exaggerated. I am not an expert on this matter myself so I'll provide This link for you.

Side notes : I saw one of your sausage was actually floating instead of properly touching others sausages. I was about to critique you on this one sausage, but I believe you understood the content of this lesson nicely. So I'll let this slide. Try your best not to accidentally make them float during your warm-up session, though.

Whoopsie daisy. Here's the new link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMEIg2fU-g

(Funnels)

I am glad I could be of help!

Pleased to meet you, I am Doctormein and I'll be critiquing your submission for today.

Side notes : It would go a long way if you could get images that aren't blurry since that'll make those who critique you have a much easier time analyzing your misstep.

- Lines sections

Superimposed lines

Your superimposed lines looks great. I can clearly see that you've executed those line confidently and hesitation free, on top of that, your lines only have fraying on ones end. Well done.

Ghosted lines

Your ghosted lines are also quite well done too. There's only slight wobbliness to be seen and nearly no arcing at all. Better yet, there's neither overshooting nor undershooting too. Nicely done.

Side notes : It might be wise to draw more ghosted lines in this exercise, since that will contribute more to your practice. If you're unsure how many ghosted lines, organic forms, or anything exercise throw at you, that you should draw, you could use example homeworks as precedent for how much you should draw on a page.

Ghosted planes

This is slightly more complex version of the previous exercise. One thing I want you to keep in mind is overshooting issue. I've seen this issue comes up a bit more often in this exercise, though it's really, really small that it wouldn't make much of a difference. I'll be providing you This (How to address overshooting issue.) just in case. Aside from that, your execution here is solid too. There's not much to say about it.

Side notes : Pardon me If I am mistaken, but in some of your planes I saw that you're not plotting your dots for ghosting. If this is a genuine mistake, always remember to plot those dots because they'll help you out with the ghosting process. If not, pay this no mind.

- Ellipses

Table of ellipses

I hope this word isn't too redundant for this critique, but well done. You've drawn through those ellipses 2-3 times as requested. You're not being hesitant while you're executing your ellipses, and you had concrete goal in mind while drawing those ellipses. Sure, your accuracy could be better, but this'll come with time and practice. Overall, good job.

Ellipses in planes

The same critique that I've said for table of ellipses do applied to this one too. Accuracy comes with times and practice, so keep doing what you're doing, laddie.

Funnels

You've actually done quite well for this exercise too. Those ellipses are tightly packed together, and there wasn't any sign of you being way too loose with those ellipses. There's, of course, some misaligned ellipses, but this mistake is very, very common, especially for those who're doing this exercise for the first time. Like any others, this too will go away with time and practice. Links regarding misalignment. Video

- Boxes

Plotted perspective.

Your format of doing this exercise is a little bit different than the example, but I am pretty sure that the heart of the exercise remains the same so I'll critique it as it is. As long as you're following instructions, step by step, then there's nothing to critique. And it's clear that you've followed instruction steps by step.

Side note : Even if it's not required, you still might want to hatch your boxes here since that'll contribute to your practice.

Rough perspective

You haven't made any common mistake in this exercise, so good job. However, there are 2 thing I would like to critique.

Firstly, your lines are a little too light. I am unsure if this was intentional or unintentional of you to draw lightly. If it was, always remember that lighter lines, though useful in sketching and so on, should not be use in the context of this course. since this'll discourage you from being aware of every stroke you made, hence, contradict the point of this course as a whole. (To be confident and conscious of every stroke or marks you've made.) If this wasn't your intention, you might want to consider buying a new pen. Lighter lines mean those who critique your work will have a harder time analyzing your mistake.

Secondly, always remember that the width line will always be parallel to the horizon while height line will always be perpendicular to it. Though in your attempt you actually did quite well doing that, I believe it's still worthy of mention.

Crude example

Rotated boxes

This exercise is really a tough one so no worries if you didn't get it right. I'll be mentioning some steps you could take to improve this exercise a bit.

In this exercise you seem to be throwing every Drawabox rule out of the window. I am not sure if it was because you were nervous or anything, but always keep in mind those drawing are EXERCISES. They doesn't represent your worth, quality or value as a person. If you've tried your best and the result came out badly, that's what we're looking for.

I'll be mentioning those thing you could improve as point instead to make them easier to digest.

• always remember to think before executing your lines. In this exercise there's so many lines that seem to be haphazardly drawn.

• Some boxes have rather peculiar rotation them. This probably occured because of your haphazardly drawn lines. Make sure they're trying their best to resemble the example homework

• What I've critiqued in rough perspective can be apply here too. Remember, width line will always be parallel to the horizon while height line will always be perpendicular to it. (In this case, It'll probably be parallel to the vertical line.)

Organic perspective

Every critique I mentioned here will be something you'll have to practice in 250 boxes challenge anyways. So I believe it's best to leave this out.