heckacentipede

I use tiny tablets because I don't have space for anything larger than a small paperback book on my desk and as I've done DAB I've found myself using my shoulder for long lines that I want to get straighter and the like.

The only time I've found myself restricted to ONLY wrist movements is when I have "mouse mode" (sometimes called "relative mode") on versus "pen mode" (aka "absolute mode"). The pen mode has a 1:1 comparison to your screen where mouse mode works just like a computer mouse. I used to use mouse mode but recently switched to pen and my wrists have thanked me!

Awesome! Excellent work here. I would still do the line extensions on the boxes you abandoned, but I'm pretty happy with these additional boxes.

It seems like you may have struggled more with the second page than the first.

First off, I see that the second page has some interesting boxes that are more 2 point perspective than 3 point perspective. Do you see how only two sides of boxes 10 and 11 are visible? This is a more difficult angle to check, and you may want to extend your green lines in the opposite direction on those two boxes. This happens when one of the inner angles in the initial Y shape is greater than 180 degrees (on both box 10 and 11, that's the angle formed by the top two lines). Not a problem, just an interesting conundrum.

Second, you have a lot of problems with diverging lines on at least one of your three sets of lines. One way to fix this is to check that your dot is placed appropriately and, if it's not in the right spot, to move it! I have had up to 4 dots before I make one that's satisfying. To check that a dot placed will lead your lines towards convergence-place the dot, then ghost from a pre-existing corner as far as you can go. If you're starting with the Y shape, you'll have the matching Y line to check it against. If you notice that the line diverges from the Y line, then make a new dot that is closer to that Y line.

These guidelines are to help assist you into the future! Next step: lesson 2~

I agree with what Wister808 commented, but there are three additional things that I'd like to point out before I agree with their post and mark this as complete.

First off, every single straight line you make for draw a box should be ghosted-this includes the hatching lines. Ghosting requires a start and end point so that you have a distinct goal.

Second, a good number of your early boxes have line extensions going in the wrong direction. As you practice boxes in perspective and check them in the future, always start from the center point of your initial Y shape. Box 24 has all of the line extensions done correctly. Box 21's blue line extensions should be going left instead of going right. You do it this way because the perspective lines will only cross in one direction and it doesn't matter how far apart they go in the other direction.

Third, as I go through this I'm noticing that you included a lot of half finished or otherwise incomplete boxes in your final count. I think you need to do 10 more boxes so that you don't cheat yourself even if there is great improvement from start to finish. Maybe try some that are at a less extreme perspective?

The problem that Comfy wants to try and eliminate is when people get hung up on something looking good or not. If your primary goal is to have a piece that looks good, then what do you do when they only thing you can make looks bad?

Many people give up at that stage and it's such a shame, so like Comfy has said here, learning to live with something that happens to look bad that was drawn anyway is really important.

Uncomfy already covered the Draw a Box side of things, but I do think it's important for people to realize why sketches can look so good compared to completed lineart.

When you look at those examples, there are many individual lines involved. That part is obvious, but what is less obvious if how your subconscious decides to interpret those lines. The brain is great at picking out the best parts of each line, or the average of all the lines, to combine them all and make them seem better. In other words, your brain fills in the gaps and gives you outcome that looks like most "right"

This becomes an issue when we go to do lineart because we have to choose which line(s) is correct....and we often choose wrong. Like Uncomfy said, artists have to think a lot about the nature of each mark they draw. If you aren't practiced at considering what you're drawing, and are only thinking that you need to trace your sketch, then you'll often find yourself led astray.

Aw man I really appreciate your patience with me getting around to actually critiquing this.

Superimposed lines

Like Siegfried mentioned, you have some arcing on your superimposed lines. Generally this can be solved over time. What's more important is confidence (a line that does not wobble) and trying to avoid "hooking" at the end of your line. Hooking happens when you stop drawing your line and then lift the pen from the paper, causing the little hook right at the end. Better to try and practice lifting your pen from the page as you end the line so that you aren't going to risk making a hook.

Ghosted lines

These have the same arcing issues as the superimposed lines, and a few have hooks, but overall pretty good.

Ghosted planes

The first page of planes in the gallery is solid with only some minor arcing. The second page of planes (which I assume you did first) suffers from some wiggly arcing. It may be a good idea to experiment and find the sweet spot of line making-too fast and you're prone to arc, too slow and you're prone to wobble.

Tables of Ellipses

These are all fairly round! Seems like you struggle a little with ending your ellipse (which can be fixed with the same "lift the pen right before the end of the line" trick as before), and thin ellipses which get a little lumpy. Lumpiness can be ironed out with some more ghosting in my experience, though overall a good job.

Ellipses in Planes

Same general guidelines as the tables of ellipses here. Since your ellipses are already relatively round and confident, the next step is to work on accuracy-getting the ellipse to hit the four sides of the space that it is in.

Funnels

Only unique issue here is keeping the ellipses lined up, which is a symptom of the accuracy problem.

Plotted Perspective

Not much to say here, you followed the directions and your boxes look lovely.

Rough Perspective

We have some wobbles creeping back into the lines, and you seem to have misunderstood the correction lines. Drawing the correction lines from the VP may help, but you are supposed to draw the lines from the lines of the box that you drew. This becomes relevant during the box challenge, as the VP is often off the page or otherwise invisible. You did do this correctly on the extra third page, though even here you should make sure that your correction lines extend as far as they can go.

Retain confidence to the best of your ability, follow the example homework as closely as possible, and keep up the good work.

Rotated Boxes

This exercise is difficult and complicated, so I'm not surprised that you seemed to have struggled with it. Good job for completing it to the best of your abilities. If you are confused on how to make one of these look closer to the perfect example, I can give you some resources, but I don't think you need to worry about it now that you've finished it!

Organic Perspective

Honestly your organic perspective isn't half bad. There's some issues with some of the boxes, as is to be expected, but you have many that overlap, there's a relatively clear progression from closest to furthest away in size, and you successfully turned them around in space! Great job!

About the discord, since this part is shorter: What I do to prevent distraction is to do a few versions of the exercise (example: 2 superimposed lines, or 1 ghosted plane), take a photo, and post that to the discord. I ask if I'm on the right track, and request a ping so that I can continue working without checking back on the server. Then I finish the page, post that, and continue to the next page or exercise.

That aside.....

Drawing fun stuff is incredibly important!!

I always use the example of nature documentaries. If you are only drawing to learn (only draw a box/loomis/brent eviston/etc) then it is like only ever watching a nature documentary for a test. Drawing for the sake of drawing (referred to as "drawing for fun", or the 50% rule) is like watching a nature documentary for the sake of the documentary.

In both cases you learn and take in information, but if you only ever watch documentaries for tests then you're probably going to get sick of watching documentaries. In the case of DAB/learning to draw, that means burning out-like a candle reaching the end of its wick.

That doesn't mean you have to draw things exactly the same as DAB, just that you're still drawing. To go back to the nature documentary example, drawing on paper is like watching documentaries about birds, where drawing digitally is like watching documentaries about fish. Both are still nature documentaries, though they don't go over the same things. It gets to be an issue when you start to think about sculpting or 3D modeling, which are more like documentaries about WWII or engineering. Still creative (documentary), but war and machines have very little to do with nature.

Your revision is great! Good job overall, and best of luck with those 250 boxes~

I honestly haven't thought much about it, but I think I would suggest looking at your start point to place your pen and then just look to your end point and ignore where your hand is starting...if that makes sense?

I wouldn't recommend a full page of ellipses every day, since there's diminishing returns to grinding like that, but definitely include them occasionally in your 10-15 minute warmups. That said, while not suggested by draw a box I have heard the advice to keep making the circle (not ghosted, pen to paper) until it is circular so that you have a visual helping you see when things are round.

Eagerly awaiting your organic perspective revisions~

Alrighty those look great! When you do the funnels in your warmups you'll want to make sure to have a mix of wider and thinner ellipses through the funnel, but these are good.

You'll proceed to the 250 box challenge, and make sure to get to at least box 100 before starting lesson 2, since the box challenge is a prerequisite for the form intersections exercise.