empecinado69

much better!! when you move on to lesson 5 try to perform this step to give it more of a 3d look.

https://drawabox.com/lesson/4/2/step5

lesson 4.complete!

Thanks for the great feedback.

I will keep it all in mind as I continue to repeat the hybrid exercise. I really feel you should ask people to do more of those. Or maybe an optional challenge. It is really fun and it proves the power of the method in itself. :)

Hey. In all fairness. Uncomfortable says it in the initial description. This approach is tough. And IMO this is Drawabox's method most valuable lesson. Not the huge perspective gains you can get from the 250 boxes or the awesome constructive method that can help with drawing just about anything in 3d.

It is the discipline to work trough a huge amount of repetition of exercises which you might not even like at times. Because honestly, that is the only way to learn to draw real good.

For example. I had not drawn an animal in my life. Decided that I wanted to be able to draw horses competently so I decided to draw 50 horses on the side of lesson 5 just to get better at it. Have I improved? Yes, proof here: https://imgur.com/gallery/CG6N0Br

To be honest this is how a structure my learning now. I decide on what to focus on and I set myself a challenge to do which is challenging and will take about a month or more. Right now I am on a 30 color studies from film frames. And also did 30 light rendering challenge in photoshop, Mostly boxes, cylinders and such but this head was number 30 and I am pretty pleased. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRJbArOrLH8/?utm_medium=copy_link

Like a said, repetition. Learn to embrace it or you will never get to be a decent artist.

About how to do it. Slowly, to be honest. If you try to power through it you will at best burn out and drop. At worst, you will rush it and do a lot of rushed repetition, which will teach you little. Start your daily practice with a warmup and do a bit of your boxes before moving to other more fun art that you want to do (the 50% rule). Personally for me it topped at 5 boxes which took me 50 minutes at the beggining of the 250 boxes challenge and around 30 minutes by the end. All in all it was 45 days in which I spend an average of 40 minutes daily.

All that said, do expect to loose some sanity.

My disecctions took forever as well. Did not say it in my previous message but your dissections are quite good, your struggles were rewarded. Good job ;)

Its pretty good in general. Only thing I see you do miss is in the dissections exercise. Most textures are not turning enough at the edges of the shapes. you are being to timid.

I suffer also from this. But look at the artichocke texture. In that one I think I nailed it.

https://imgur.com/a/Vh0hABL

BTW. Since you mention that you do not know how to handle detail in some parts of mantidfly... here is my take on the same picture. I just happened to get it done today :p

Mantidfly https://imgur.com/gallery/eXZsIOy

Details is about looking at many pictures of the insect to get an understanding of how it all works. A single picture is not enough. you need the 360° understanding to build the object.

once u understand the small details you can build them on top of the head, thorax,, abdomen like in the intersectión exercise.

IMHO. You should also work on the proportions of your shapes. Some are considerably off and give your builds a cartoon look.

Congratulations on making it through!

You would greatly benefit from drawing bigger boxes and from doing it slowly. BIgger because it allows to check easier for the correct perspective and also, any error in the direction of a line gets magnified the smaller the box is. Is harder to make long straight lines, true. But it is a good skill to develop.

And the slowly part , I am saying it because it feels like you are rushing it. All your lines overshoot their ends by a mile, and the shadowed side of the box has the lines also overshoot its side!

BTW, your papers seem destroyed. You seem to be using way to much strength/preassure into your lines. But maybe is only when you are checking with the ruler after drawing the box.

Newby here. So take my advice with a grain of salt.

Hey, congratulations for making it through.

In my opinion your boxes have improved a lot. Linework has leveled up substantially. Kudos Perspective wise you have improved for sure but I think you still have to go a little further. The back side of your boxes is usually your weakest side and where you get divergent lines at times.

A few tricks I used to get better that you can try and see if they help you are:

1. Try to visualize the whole box before drawing every edge. I tended to fix in too much on individual edges and didn't see the big picture until it was drawn. Usually, erroneusly.

2. Always follow the same process. Is much easier too find where you are deviating if you always follow the same steps. I drew the 2 front faces first, then the hidden "base" of the box and then the rest. But that is just and example.

3. After drawing the visible edges I drew the "ghost" points for all hidden edges at once and used (1) to see if they where good.

I would continue using the boxes as a warm up until you nail that perspective. But don't let that stop you and continue to lesson 2.

Thank you Tofu!