kabachuha

Thank you greatly for your critique and advice! :3

Alright, I received them. Again, thank you for putting your time to get better! Now, I'll leave some comments.

• Ghosted planes. The lines look smooth and straight and it seems that you eliminated any wobbling here, amazing! A few lines still have some arching or a bump, but I think you'll improve it over time just as the matter with overshooting (it's fine for this lesson purpose).

• Ellipses in planes. Many much more even and confident than in the previous run. That big one on the right is my favorite. Some kinks remain, but it's a great advancement, you do seem to listen to my critique. However, of course, aim to fit the ellipses within planes in the future.

• Funnels. You fixed the spacing mistake — that's the main thing. Now for the most part they are just touching each other as supposed. You played with the elliptic degrees and that's great as it heavily reinforces the illusion of a 3D object. It will be crucial for making the later lessons and developing spacial thinking as a whole. Although, by the time you will have to draw similar forms again in the lessons (starting from L2), try your best to tighten the outlines of your ellipses, so the organic forms will be much more believable. And remind yourself of true ellipse forms from references once in a while.

• Organic perspective. Good to see the line confidence grown in this exercise too! Ghosting accuracy and convergences may still not be the best, but don't worry too much about it now. After all, you will have 250 more possibilities to improve those aspects!

To summarize, you made a great deal of improvement in the pointed out issues. While still not perfect, you will have a lot of opportunities to nail them in the future lessons. Be sure to read (and reread!) all instructions carefully, remebmer to have fun and good luck!

Nice to meet you, CatBehemot! I'd like to give a review of your homework. It's evident you put a plenty of effort in understanding and making this, but there is a space for improvement, and sorry in advance if some parts sound harsh.

Lines

• Superimposed lines. The main purpose of this exercise is to achieve confidence in markmaking. While your lines do fray at one end throughout the submission, there is a progression of smoothness and reduction of wobbling that is a sign of improvement. You have a defined starting point for each line meaning you are putting effort and developing control. As for the line arching, make sure you keep pushing yourself to draw from your shoulder and if the arching persists, try to compensate by arching your lines in the opposite direction. It may be useful to add this exercise to your everyday warmups.

• Ghosted lines. Although there are some wobbly lines at the start, I can see that towards the end of the page they are becoming increasingly straight. As for that "bump" segment on some of the lines, you can work on it similarly to the arching, with the exception of applying the conscious effort only on the fragment instead of the whole line.

• Ghosted planes. There is a noticeable drop in line quality due to wobbling. Is it because you're overconcerning yourself with accuracy? Remember, that in these lessons the essential goal is to get confidence in drawing and only then think of meeting the dots exactly. Use the ghosting method as much as you need, push to draw from the shoulder and it also helps to look only at the destination. I think, I'll ask you to work on it a little bit more.

Ellipses

• Tables of ellipses. The ellipses are smooth enough for the beginning, good job. They are also pretty even, yet keep trying to improve the parts near the ends of major axes — as the most deviations usually happen there. You're also drawing them from two to three times as requested trying your best to touch the walls, and it's also nice as it shows how you're keeping attention to the instructions.

• Ellipses in planes. Just like in the case with planes, you seem too much focused on making them touch the lines resulting in them often being deformed. I see in your work that the ellipses are becoming more confident and elliptical in shape, but I think you may want to put some more work on them.

• Funnels. Your ellipses often tear into each other broking the rule of spacing or not being too loose. Additionally, some of them have quite abrupt ends near the major axes resulting in breaking the shape, so it would be a good point to fix. Alignment is not too bad, but there is still space for improvement.

Boxes

• Plotted perspective. It's correct techninally, you emphasize front faces with hatching and also seemingly add lineweight to the exterior — good work!

• Rough perspective. It is supposed to be a tough exercise and I see improvement in your work from panel to panel. You keep the vertical and the horizontal lines aligned to the page dimensions as needed, and you don't forget to apply the error-checking method in a correct way — keep up the good work! (although the linework could have been slightly better)

• Rotated boxes. A mind-boggling exercise for a beginner. But you did it pretty well. The most of the boxes look rotated and you use the existing corners as a guide when drawing newer boxes. (although, the top right/left corner boxes could have been slightly more rotated) However, an important markmaking mistake emerges there — you seem to draw a single line multiple times. If it is a lineweight problem, as I think, try practicing applying lineweight with the same ghosting method as you do when drawing your usual lines.

• Organic perspective. A good attempt, you experiment with varying the rotation degrees and try to keep the foreshortening rate consistent while making the boxes diminishing with depth. But, there are two main problems: your markmaking has troubles with wobbling and redrawing the lines, and supposed parallel lines often diverge when one extends them from a front edge instead of meeting at a vanishing point. When applying the Y-method, it can often be a result of not making sure all the initial Y angles are above 90 degrees. You will work more on perspective for the 250 boxes challenge, but at the same time this exercise a great display of linework skills, so I'll reassign it too.

Now, to conclude, you demonstrated that with practice you're capable of improving your skills. The most of the lesson was just fine, but I'd like to address the rest of the crucial concept problems — wobbling/arching issues — with a couple of revisions. I hope that these comments are to the point and it's not too much work for you.

I think all you need to achieve that is to play with all possible orientations and side lengths of the initial Y-shape. If you have too much trouble with that in the beginning, you may try using the online tool Uncomfortable recommends in the 250box challenge section.

Hello, Cykachu! I'd like to give some critique on your work.

Lines

• Superimposed lines. I can notice that your lines tend to fray at the farther end which is completely acceptable as you're beginning the course. I can also see the work you put to establish the starting points, though they didn't always fit in some cases. Yet, I don't see your second page of this exercise. If you forgot about it, attach it here in the comments.

• Ghosted lines. The linework is pretty good, I didn't notice any wobbling. The only major thing to my mind is that your lines tend to make an slight arch. Make sure you keep pushing yourself to draw from your shoulder. If you keep having trouble with this, try to compensate by arching your lines in the opposite direction.

• The ghosted planes look confident and even have a plenty of accuracy, good job.

Ellipses

• The tables of ellipses are amazing! They tend to have a smooth surface without wobbling and a pretty symmetrical shape with no lagging at the ends. I'd say, they are better than mine after the seven months of DaB. Also, you are drawing them through two or three times, just as requested.

• The ellipses in planes are also in general smooth, however, keep in mind that you are supposed to prioritize the elliptical shape over it touching the borders. Preserve this exercise as a part of your warmups and you will improve.

• While the ellipses in the funnels are of okayish quality, I can't help but notice that they are starting to loose that even shape from your previous tasks. Also, a large number of them doesn't touch the funnel sides which would have helped in the latter lessons to set up the forms in 3D and which this task is trying to foreshadow. Though it shows that you have some understanding and that you try playing with the elliptical degrees, which is a good sign, I think you'll need to work more on it.

Boxes

• I start to see some very disturbing signs on your plotted boxes. Overshoot hatching, clearly redrawn lines, some totally confused lines when the hatching conflicts with the initial and the new line (right-bottom of the third panel). It really breaks the believability of the forms, so you'll need to tighten the grip on markmaking.

• Great work on rough perspective! There is a visible improvement of their convergence. Still... the same double-lines problem shows up in a few of the boxes.

• The rotated boxes are neat. I can see you actually trying to rotate them and using the neighboring boxes as a guide. You also put the work to emphasize the order with hatching. Wonderful!

• The organic perspective pages are not so great. Again, I can see you second-guessing yourself and redrawing the lines whereas the very thing drawabox attempts to teach is that any decisions are permanent. Additionally, a huge distortion of some boxes is present there, make sure you have the constant rate of foreshortening. Seeing how a few boxes are also divergent, I'd like you to revisit this exercise. (don't forget to reread the lesson content before each revision)

Now that we have come to the end I'd like to congratulate you on making the first step into the world of Drawabox. While it may not have been smooth, you'd shown that with effort you were capable of making a significant progress on this subject. I believe you'll be doing just great after a couple of revisions.

Thank you again for your time and your careful observation of my work. I think all of your remarks are to the point and I'll continue to work on them.

Good luck on your journey too!

Hello, AzureTestament!

Thank you greatly for your thorough review! It has definitely pointed out my weak moments.

I made the revisions and tried my best to fix those mistakes in this new work, especially, the degrees and smoothness of ellipses and the lack of edge details (although, some ellipses ended up wonky anyway despite all the warmups I made). Spreading the work on multiple days was also of a great help for the more challenging plants.

The resubmission is here, with the references:

https://imgur.com/a/v76HPzV

I guess, it's my time to apologize for the wait.

First of all, you didn't get discouraged and quit after receiving not-wholly-positive feedback on your work, that's great! It means that you have the drive and that you'll get there eventually.

Now, to the revisions.

The line quality in the boxes and planes sections looks fantastic! Very good job and it's evident that you put the necessary effort. The funnels are also much better. The alignment is a good part of the further constructional lessons, where you'll work on them in a more practical way to get rid of the remaining problems.

Although there are some divergencies in the first two panels of the boxes, their number steadily shrinks as you get towards the end — you're improving in front of your own eyes! I think, after the 250 box challenge you'll finally nail this topic.

With that I'll mark this lesson as completed. Stay persistent, learn from your mistakes and never give up!

Hello, lunyssa! These are my comments about your work.

Lines

• Let's start with the superimposed lines. I can see you lines fraying at one end, but it's normal as you're beginning the course. I also notice that you keep a single starting point for each line, that's good. However, there is some wobbling in the lines, perhaps, due to the lack of confidence at the moment. You may want to add this exercise to your drawing-warmups as mark-making is a gradually improving skill.

• The ghosted lines are generally fine, but to my eye they tend to have a slight bump when approaching ends. Again, prioritize confindence over accuracy. Try examining your arms movement with a conscious effort and then counteract on difficult fragments, so it will compensate arcing and bumping of your lines. There are some ink leftovers near the line ends, you may try lifting your pen off the page the second you hit that end point to get rid of them.

• I see that you're ghosting your planes, that's a good thing. Again, the same markmaking comments about the end bumps apply to these lines, but overall a solid work.

Ellipses

• Continuing with the ellipses in planes, I see that you tried to keep them touch the edges and each other. Yet, you've overdone the exercise a little bit and drawn through some ellipses more than 3 times. Remember, that for Drawabox you should do it only 2-3 times for each ellipse. Prioritize the symmetry — especially, pay attention to the parts when they are crossing the invisible major axis — and try to make their shape closed. This exercise is particularly useful for warmups.

• The ellipses in plane are drawn with the intention of touching the lines, but you should keep more attention to the eveness of their shape, so you wouldn't not get them deformed. However, I see that you improve in this exercise.

• The ellipses in funnels are okay, the spacing and alignment is also good. One thing is you could've played a bit more with the degree shift, it would've become useful in the later lessons where this tool is used to convey perspective of round 3D shapes, but it's not required this time.

Boxes

• Plotted perspective looks good, hatching of the front sides is also clean, nothing to add here.

• Rough perspective is a tough exercise, you did a nice try and used the error-correction method. As you can see, the farther boxes miss the VP more often ending more closely than they should, so just as with the markmaking you may want to try to overshoot it consciously, see that will be the result and then correct again until you nail it.

• The rotated boxes task looks surprisingly good, my congratulations! You kept in mind the rotation and used the side of adjacent boxes as hints to draw your other boxes. Maybe, some hatching to emphasize the front sizes would be helpful, but entirely not required.

• The organic perspective boxes look rather confident, ghosted and not distorted. Their supposed parallel lines also visibly converge to some VPs, that shows your understanding of the task and how the 3D space works. You will work more on that in the 250 boxes challenge.

To summarize, it looks like you got the purpose of each exercise and put the effort to achieve it. Outside of minor markmaking issues (like arching in the end), that you can fix by paying more attention on them in your warmups and ghosting, in my opinion it's a well-done submission and I'll mark it as complete.

No, no rushing, I try to go in a comfortable rate. I'm very glad you think there's improvement in the form intersections excersice, it's actually pretty amusing, makes me feel like I'm a brutalism-style architect.

Again, thank you for your review!