Doctormein

If I didn't made myself clear in certain points, feel free to contact me here. I would try my best to answer when possible.

G'day! I am Doctormein and I'll be the person who critique your submission for today.

Before we move on to critique your submission, let's answer those questions you have in mind first.

"Should I wait for a response on my lesson 2 before moving forward?"

Yes. Yes, you should. Drawabox is built in a way that the next lesson content is built on top of the foundation of the previous lesson. To ensure that you're understanding the lesson content properly before moving on to the next lesson, it would be ideal if you could wait for feedbacks on your previous lesson before moving forward.

"Should I be drawing 1 plant per page?"

Though you didn't ask me this question, I believe it would probably be for the best If I answer it. It's recommended that students only draws 1 plant per page. Because this'll leave more room for each plant, therefore, you could focus on the construction or the details of each one separately without worrying over not having enough room on a page. (Plus! This'll give you more room to operate, as a result, indirectly recommending you to use shoulder which is at the core of Drawabox.)

Can you draw multiples plants on a page? Yes, You can. But It'll simply make things harder for yourself and the person who's giving critique to you. It's a lot harder to see through the construction of smaller plants, especially with all the detail, than with a larger one.

Now, let's move on toward your actual critique section.

Organic arrows

• First thing that jumps out to me is that in some of your arrows you're repeating your lines. Always remember not to repeat your lines, regardless of how misplaced they may be. A confident stroke that's misplaced will be far better at communicating your intention than multiples chicken scratch marks that's placed properly.

• When you're adding lineweight to arrows, always remember not to overdo it. Just a single of stroke of lineweight will do.

(Additional notes) I am not sure if you're simply just not used to giving lineweight to curves (I am at first too!), but in most of your curves seem quite hesitant and chicken scratchy. Bear in mind the same principle of being confident before being accurate will always applied to every line you'll be drawing for this course.

Other than these, I believe you're compressing and giving the illusion of 3dness just fine. It might be wise to make it clearer by making foreshortening a little more dramatic, but it's still being perceived as having depth nicely.

Branches

• I've saw you draw a flower on a branch for this exercise. **Doodles and drawing for fun are inherently good by themselves, but you should be drawing them in your own time instead of drawing them in the exercise. (50% rules)

By drawing those doodles, you might be distracting yourself from the main goal of the exercise by spending your attention elsewhere.**

• There are certain branches that aren't being drawn with the instruction provided properly. In some branches, you stopped the moment you've reached the ellipse instead of drawing past it. Pay attention to step 2 in this image.

• Most of your branches appeared misshapen and chicken scratchy. As always, remember to be confident with your lines. For the cause of misshapen branches, I believe it stems from not drawing large enough on a page. Because for those bigger branches you've drawn, you seem to be following the flow quite well and, as a result, those branches looks great. While practicing smaller branches will certainly come in handy one day, I believe you'll need to understand the core of the exercise first before attempting that. These 2 link may prove to be useful to you. Mistake page 1 Mistake page 2

(Additional notes) Don't forget to add center line to one of your branch too. And bear in mind, all ellipses in the context of this course should be drawn through 2-3 times. No more. No less.

Leaves

For this exercise, I believe you've done well in capturing the flow of the leaves and draw shape accordingly. However, there's still some points I would like to shed lights on.

• In most of your leaves right now, you seemed afraid to let them fold naturally. Don't be afraid to let them fold or bend just like your arrows. Because that's often what leaves does in its nature. Fold naturally

• If you were to draw detail for those leaves, always remember that the principles from lesson 2 still applied here. Draw shadow shapes instead of lines Right now you're drawing them as line instead.

(Additional notes) You might want to refer to more updated informal-demos (From lesson 3-7, most of the content in the main section will be outdated, therefore you should refer to informal-demos more often.) https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/8/texture https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/8/complexleafstructures

Plants construction

If we look past your texture and try to identify the main bulk of this exercise, construction, you seem to be doing quite well on those area. Though, There are points I want to mention.

• In most of your branches, you seem to be using a lot of chicken scratchy lines. Remember not to repeat those lines, regardless of how misplaced they are. Though, this might be the result of drawing too small, hence giving you less room to operate.

• All ellipses should be drawn through 2-3 times only. No more. No less. In your mushroom and Asplenium, I can clearly see that you've drawn through them way too many time. This rule should always apply to every exercise you'll be doing for this course.

• In some of your branches and leaves, you are leaving out the center line completely. Center line or flow line is the most important part of this lesson. So please always include them

• In your Calceolaria you're not drawing through your form properly. Keep in mind that if those connection between form are left undefined, your brain won't interpret those as 3d and will think of them as flat 2d shapes. So, don't forget to define those out by drawing through your form

• Finally, the biggest point of them all. Always remember to put construction before detail. Think of it like a tower. A tower with a solid foundation but without all the decoration is far safer to live in than an elaborate, beautiful tower without a solid scaffolding.

I am glad I could be of help!

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

But before we get to that, let's answer your question first.

- Skipping 250 boxes challenges

I am very, very much against skipping 250 boxes challenge. Firstly, this course wasn't meant to be finished in a week or two, it takes months even years for some. The act of skipping content and lesson stuff may have been more detrimental to your growth far more than actually doing the long and grueling challenge itself.

Secondly, the content and practice you gained from doing the challenge will serve as a foundation to your next lesson (Lesson 2) without doing the challenge, just like Uncomfortable say, you'll have a hole in your foundation that you'll eventually have to fill down the line.

Perhaps these link will prove useful to you. https://drawabox.com/article/talent https://drawabox.com/article/motivation

With that out of the way, let's move on to our critique.

- Lines

Superimposed lines

Your superimposed lines looks brilliant. They look confident, straight, and well thought-out. Though there's quite a bit of fraying at its ends, this is a normal mistake to make as a student.

Additional notes : It'll be great if you could incorporate more curves into your practice. This'll proved immensely useful once you've reached lesson 2

Ghosted lines

This exercise is also quite well done. Bold, confident, and hesitation free execution is at the core of this lesson. On top of that, there's nearly no sign of arcing line at all. Good job.

Additional notes : I suppose you could try to draw more ghosted lines on the page. Like in this image.

Ghosted planes

This exercise is simply a slightly complex version of ghosted lines exercise, so it were to be expected that you'll do well here too. One thing I would like to nitpick is you're overshooting your lines for a bit. I believe this is a matter of practice before you'll stop overshooting them, but I'll provide This link regardless.

Additional notes : It would be Ideal if students don't doodles or draw anything beside the exercises in their homework submissions. This'll only serve as a distraction from the main purpose of the exercises, hence making them less effective.

- Ellipses

Table of ellipses

Nicely done. You're drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times as the lesson requested and you're trying your best to kept those ellipses within bound too. Accuracy will come with time and practice, so make sure to iron those out during your warm-up sessions.

Ellipses in planes

Just like I've mentioned above, there are some ellipses that are not kept within bound, but I believe this is a matter of practice and will go away with warm-ups. Other than that, your ellipses are smooth, confident and only a tiny portion of them are a little deformed. Well done.

Funnels

I am quite surprised to see you did this exercise quite well on your first try. Most students often have trouble drawing funnels on their first time, especially with the minor axis, but you've managed to keep most of the ellipses aligned with the minor axis. There's still some ellipses that are slightly misaligned, sure, but this will also come with practice too.

- Boxes

Rough perspective

As long as you're following the instruction properly, there's no need to worry over this exercise. And you've done so, nicely.

Rough perspective

I am also surprised to see that you've done this exercise nicely too. You've made none of the common mistake mentioned in the exercise page, and your execution of those lines still remain solid too. However, I also saw some lines that were repeated. No matter how misplaced a line may be, leave it as though it's correct. But that's just about it. Good job.

Additional notes : It might be a good idea to spread those boxes out a little like in this example image. You're also overshooting your lines a bit too. So it would be great if you could pay attention on them too

Rotated boxes.

You're first attempt is very, very solid. Those boxes actually looks like they're rotating, you're keeping stuff together and you're drawing through properly. One thing I would like to mention is that you forgot to draw boxes that are on the edges. (Those 4 boxes on different edges) Don't forget to do these also. Here's an example in the official Drawabox website

Organic perspective.

Though anticlimactic, most of the critique I was going to mention here is going to be in the 250 boxes challenge anyways. So... well done.

Greetings! This is Doctormein and I'll be critiquing your homework for today.

Thinking in 3d

- Organic Arrows.

Your organic arrows flows smoothly through the three-dimensional space with no sign of hesitation at all. Well done. However, there's a little tidbits I would like to critique on. Firstly, you could attempt to be less conservative about foreshortening on your second page. I doubt this is really a, "bad," thing, but bear in mind that arrows are a flat 2d shapes. In order to bring its depths out, you should try to make it as clear as possible that it's moving toward or away from you. (Just like your first page!) Mistake page of this exercise.

Secondly, don't be afraid to reinforces your overlaps with lightweight. Pardon me If I was mistaken, but in many of your arrows, I rarely see you apply overlaps to them. Just like I've mentioned above, I believe this is not that big of a deal, but you should attempt to do it regardless. Don't be afraid to make mistake. All of these exercises are just exercises and does not reflect your value as a person, after all. A little overlaps attempt will do!

- Organic forms ellipses/contours

Ellipses section

Your organic forms are mostly well-drawn, keeping them simple will certainly helps out a lot while doing this exercise. Though I've said that, some of your sausages are odd in certain places, so I'll provide this link just in case.

What I believe needs working the most is your ellipses and contours, that I'll go deeper in a few moment.

To start us off, your ellipses, though confidently drawn and retain its proper shape, are very similar in angle. Consequently, makes viewers have a harder time to buy in the illusion of its being 3d. This is an example made by Uncomfortable himself. Notice how it feels more dynamic and more "3d". Here's another example you might want to pay attention to. This is one and only point I highly recommend you to attempt to fix for the organic form ellipses section.

Contour section

As I've previously mentioned, this exercise also experienced difficulty from the same problem as the last one, Shift in angle. Contour are very similar in its nature with ellipses. as a result, the same theory that's should be apply to ellipses should also apply to contour as well. That, of course, includes Degree shift. Your contours are very similar in angle. as a result, It felt flat and makes viewers have a hard time relating to its 3dness.

(Additional notes) Take this with a grain of salt, this is entirely my own opinion

• I think it would be great if you could fit larger organic forms in there too. And it might be wise to also increase the number of organic form you drew on a page too.

• Once you've dealt with problem that I've mentioned above, you should try and experiments with your organic forms contour a bit too! Just like in this image.

Texture and Detail

Texture analysis.

This exercise mainly look great! I can clearly see your attempt to draw shadow shapes instead of lines and there's no random scribbling too. (A little side notes, It would be great If you could write texture name on it too.)

Though I might be misinterpreting it, I saw a little bit of lines instead of shapes in your exercise instead of shadow shapes. I'll be providing this link just in case. But if you've made conscious effort toward doing that (and those cracks are really really small.) then pay this no mind.

Another cherry to pick is You forgot to transition from dense to sparse in the beginning. In this picture you can clearly see the Seamless transition from dense to sparse in the third picture. Don't forget to do that also!

Dissections

Your dissections is nicely done. Just two tiny tidbits from me is that you should mind the curvatures of the forms. I've saw you did this for some and ignored for others Mistake page. And You shouldn't be afraid of breaking the silhouette I've saw this on your second page so I suppose mentioning it'll be of help. Like in this example.

(Additional note)

It might actually be a good idea to do seamless transition just like in texture analysis too. Going from dense on the edge to sparse in the middle.

Construction.

Form intersection

Let's start with our first main point, stick to equilateral form. Some of your forms are larger, smaller or have sizes that are quite different from their neighboring form, which might've distracted you from the core of the exercise.

My second point is that, you seem to have left out quite a bit of intersections and some of your intersections you've drawn seems a bit odd in places. Here's a little draw-over I've done for you. As long as you mainly deal with these 2 problem, you'll be fine.

Organic intersections

Lastly, Organic intersections. Firstly, I believe you should attempt to draw bigger on a page. Not only will this give you more room to operate, It'll also give the person who's reviewing your work a better view of any mistake you've done.

Secondly, Your shadow seems to be sticking to the form a bit and they seem erratic and chicken scratchy at time. It might be a good idea to check This image out.

Thirdly, Don't forget to draw the center line of those new sausages form you've piled up on top of one another too! In the video, Uncomfortable draw those lines out too. If you haven't check the video here's the link. https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/9/video

Other than those 3 point, I believe you've done quite ok for this exercise.

Thank you for your critique Beck! I'll try my best to improve on the points you've mentioned.

Thank you for bearing with my revision, Now i'll be moving on to critiquing your work.

Overall you've improved and follow the instruction nicely, (Drawing through form, using line weight only to show dominance where the form intersect) While being confident with your line too, There isn't really much to critique here Except mini unstable sausages form on the right, Which felt like it's about to fall off a bit, But I think you've done well

Hello Josemoore, And welcome back again on lesson 1, I am Doctormein and I'll be handling your critique from here,

• Lines sections

Superimposed lines

Your superimposed line is very good, Nearly no sign of wobbling at all, While also making sure that you're not fraying on both ends, nicely done.

Ghosted lines

I felt this exercise page is a little bit empty, You could've put a little more line in there to make it fuller, I'll still critique it regardless, Your line is, As usual very confident, However you seem to be struggling a bit with overshooting , undershooting your marks, https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/lifthand This usually get fixed as time goes on (While doing those exercises as warm-ups) so another nicely done.

Ghosted planes

This exercise is simply an upgraded version of the previous one, So the previous critique point still applied, but for this one you seem to be Arcing in a very little bit of them, But this is very nitpicky of me to point that out, For the most part you've gotten the gist of the main stuff.

• Ellipses sections

Table of ellipses

Your table of ellipses is very confident and very well drawn, You're following instruction properly (Drawing through ellipses 2-3 times, Ellipses are kept within bounds, Clear forethought before drawing) and are also executing them properly too, I have no critique for this section Well done

Ellipses in planes

The same goes for this part, You've done largely well in this area (Being confident, Ellipses kept in bound, etc etc.) Some of the ellipses are going out of bound but this is simply a matter of time before it gets iron out, Another Nicely done.

Funnels

Your ellipses in this part is also as well done as the previous 2, So i won't mention all that stuff, Although some of your ellipses are Misaligned with the minor axis line, This is a super common mistake, As i mentioned above it'll goes away with time and practice, Good job https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/14/notaligned

• Boxes section

Plotted perspective

Well done, You followed the instruction nicely,However When applying line weight to the boxes, Apply them to the silhouettes instead, Since this will help the boxes to be perceived better as a 3d form This information isn't really given on lesson 1 (It was given on 250 boxes challenge) so it make sense that you would miss out on it, So no worries!

Rough perspective

You followed the instruction nicely for this exercise, You didn't make any of the common mistake, So instead I'll be critiquing you on other stuff, When doing this exercise, Always keep in mind that the width line is parallel to the horizon, While height will be perpendicular https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/368870697742630912/963668850224791572/unknown.png This is quite a hard task for student, So no worries if you didn't get it right on the first time, But you should still keep it in mind so you could iron this out while doing exercise as a warm-up

Rotated boxes

You've done quite a good job for this exercise! Most of the boxes seem to be rotated nicely, and you kept everything together too. Some of those boxes may felt a little bit weird and not converging properly but you'll get a ton of chances to practice them while doing 250 boxes, Overall another nicely done exercise.

Organic perspective

There's really no need for me to critique this harshly, Since most of the stuff i would critique is gonna be in your 250 boxes challenge anyways, Soooo... Another well done i guess!

Ah, I think that example was an old one, watching video of the lesson might have clear things up, Since many people got quite confused too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgcmB26CHLY Goodluck with your revision though!

Hello! Ivopedro, I am Doctormein and i'll be the one in charge for critiquing your work today,

• Organics Arrows

Your arrows looks great! You're not afraid to let the arrows overlaps each others and you apply the perspective properly, On top of that your line is also confident too, One thing i would like to critique on is the line weight accuracy although it wouldn't be really fair to judge you harshly, Since many student also struggle with this area (Including me), One thing that might help you out is to practice Superimposed lines But instead incorporate more Curve into your practice, Overall you've done well.

• Organic forms with Contour lines

(Ellipses variant)

Your organic forms so far looks good too, There's a few stuff i would like to critique though, Firstly Your ellipses felt a little bit deformed, This might be the result of you trying to kept them tight and snuggly (Which is a good thing) But always remember that Confidence comes before accuracy,

Secondly is that I don't think that you should draw organic form way too straight (1 sausage {one without center line} in page 2 is elongated), It might fall into "Complex sausages" categories https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/5/simplesausage so try to keep them a little bit "Flowy" (Although i am not very sure myself) "{You might also wanna practice more of those sausages shapes, I saw you're struggling a bit (Which is absolutely normal) They'll come in handy while doing lesson 4 and 5 (Speaking from experience)}

Finally, This is more of a suggestion rather than a critique, It might be a good idea to make your ellipses shift in degree a little more dramatic, Right now i can clearly see the degree shift, But it would probably be wise to also exaggerate it a little to make it more visible.

(Contour variant)

The critique for this section is all probably mentioned above, (Including the degree shift suggestion) I still think you've done quite well! So i'll provide you with this https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/368871002584907776/867744968432549928/QTEqgJa_1.png?width=618&height=601 (A picture of a little more advanced version of this exercise, That i've obtained via official drawabox discord) It might be a good idea to start praticing those shift in "Ends" too!

• Texture Analysis

Your texture assignment is surely well done! I can clearly your conscious effort toward drawing the cast shadow instead of lines with all marks having been done purposefully too, However i still see quite a little bit of lines present (Mostly in woods texture), https://imgur.com/M9JJfr4 When attempting to draw very small or narrow shadows, You might want to draw first and try your best to observe the reference and draw very small shapes accordingly

Even with all of that said, You've done a well done job for this exercise, So nicely done.

• Dissections

For this exercise, I think the main takeaway is that The principles from texture analysis exercise still apply here, You should still be drawing shapes instead of lines, (Like bricks , soldier helmet , tentacle)

You are also not breaking silhouettes in your first page https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/4dd5336a.jpg but this got fixed in page 2, So i think it's fine

• Form intersections

Boxes only pages

For your boxes only page you tend to repeat your line a bit, Although i understand for some boxes it's for line weight, Always remember that line weight should only apply to the silhouettes, While being confidently drawn, Don't stop them half way, There's no need for applying line weight to those inner part of the boxes

Now for the meat and potatoes of the exercise, Making the form resemble the same scene, It might also be a good idea to stick to Equilateral form to focus on the core of the exercise, https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/8/video But overall i think you've done pretty well in term of making them resemble the same scene (I also saw a little bit of clear divergence on those boxes, It would be a good idea to iron them out via 250 boxes warm-up too)

Non-boxes pages

For the non-boxes page i felt a little mixed, The form is resembling the same scene, but quite a few of your form are being drawn a bit hesitantly, As always Confidence before accuracy so try your best to be confident, But overall i think the main point of the exercise is still achieved.

• Organic intersections

Wrapping up this critique with Organic intersections, The biggest thing i wanted to mention is that Don't use the clean up pass, You seem to be drawing the organic form quite faintly before going over it with dark lines, Don't do that. https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/8/cleanup because this undermine the whole construction as a whole, When you put your line down, Be confident and be bold, Even if the line isn't exactly where you wanted, don't go over it and try to fix it, Leave it as it is.

Finally is that You're not drawing through your forms, If you don't draw through your form, It'll be harder for you to understand the relationship between those object in 3d spaces.

Your drawing looks solid in term of how those sausages sag and interact with each others, But those 2 are the main components that is missing.

I'll be moving on to conclusion for now.