Meta

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and, for the most part, executing your lines confidently. There are a few places here and there that I can see signs of hesitation but these seem to iron themselves out in the ghosted lines and planes which are looking fairly confident - though I will note your pen does seem a little worn out by this point - so you might need a new one soon. It's not uncommon for students to destroy fineliners early on in their journey before learning to properly modulate their pressure.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a great start. Your linework is confident for the most part, you've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other.

Next you've made good efforts in hitting the four sides of the plane with your ellipses while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy. Throughout your ellipse exercises in general, in fact, your line confidence is really good and it's great to see you're drawing through all your ellipses 2-3 times.

Finally, you've done a good job getting your ellipses aligned with the minor axis on your funnels - there's a few skewed off here and there but it's overall well done and it's awesome to see some variation in the shape (degree) of your ellipses as well.

Boxes

A quick note on your plotted perspective - you may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You've correctly applied the line extensions and your perspective lands in a pretty normal margin of error. I will note that your line confidence takes a bit of a hit here, which is not uncommon and I see it picks up in the last couple of exercises. That said, make sure you're not going back over your lines without a clear purpose and planning - such as to add line weight.

Your rotated boxes are off to a good start - you're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one. You've actually managed a fair amount of rotation on your boxes, which is commendable given the exercise is only intended as an introduction to concepts you will explore further throughout the course.

Finally, you're getting a good amount of variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise which is creating a sense of depth in each frame. It's pretty cool to see you experiment with drawing the same box in multiple orientations/scales - this is a great way to get a firmer grasp on how these things exist in 3D space. As noted in the rough perspective section - you've gone over lines a fair bit here with a less confident stroke, so make sure you're taking the time to plan and execute each of your lines carefully and confidently.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job executing your lines confidently, however make sure you're taking the time to line your pen up properly with the start point to prevent fraying on both ends of the line.

Next your ghosted lines and planes are looking similarly confident. One thing I will note though is that it's often better to overshoot slightly than it is to undershoot.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a great start. Your linework is confident for the most part, you've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other, particularly on the second page.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've made clear attempts to hit the four sides of the plane while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy. I'm also glad to see consistently you are drawing through your ellipses 2-3 times.

Finally, your funnels are off to a good start in terms of alignment to the minor axis as well as line confidence. That said, you've left significant gaps between your ellipses, which is a mistake as outlined here - we're aiming to have them lined up tightly together. Make sure you're reading through the entire exercise page before you do these, as they often contain common pitfalls to avoid.

Boxes

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You've correctly applied the line extensions and your perspective lands in a pretty normal margin of error.

Your rotated boxes are off to a good start - you're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one. You didn't quite manage to capture the full range of rotation, tending to follow the vanishing point of the box you previously put down, however this exercise is intended only as an introduction to certain concepts you will explore further throughout the course.

Finally, you're starting to get some variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, though you could definitely push it further by experimenting with the scale between the smallest and largest boxes as well as trying to overlap the ones closest to the viewer. The boxes themselves are diverging a bit in places, however like the previous exercise, this one is simply an introduction to the concepts you'll explore in depth in the 250 box challenge.

This is definitely better. Less is more when it comes to line weight, though I believe this is covered in more detail in the 250 box challenge notes.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and executing your lines confidently. This confidence transfers to your ghosted lines and planes, which look great.

Ellipses

This trend of confident linework continues to your tables of ellipses and you've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice. They are getting a bit loose in places though, so make sure you're aiming to keep them tucked up tight against one another.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've made clear attempts to hit the four sides of the plane while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy which will improve with time and practice. Good job.

Your funnels are also looking similarly confident and you've done a pretty good job keeping them aligned to the minor axis, just be aware of that same spacing issue we saw in the tables of ellipses - we're always making marks with a clear intention.

Boxes

A couple of notes on your plotted perspective:

1. You may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

2. Your hatching is quite haphazard and messy, each line should be carefully planned an executed, including hatching. Less is often more in this instance as well. This applies throughout your box exercises in general, so I won't address it again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You've correctly applied the line extensions and your perspective lands in a pretty normal margin of error. That said, your line confidence takes a definite dip here compared to the rest of your submission - whilst it is not uncommon for students to feel overwhelmed when taking their lines and turning them into boxes, we do ask that you take the time to plan each one of your lines with as much time and care as you would for a single ghosted line.

I noticed you went back over some of the lines a number of times - this is again something that appears throughout these last few exercises and is to be avoided unless it's done with the clear intention of adding line weight and planned and executed in the same manner as any other line rather than mindlessly reinforcing the line.

You're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent on your rotated boxes for the most part, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one, though you didn't always seem to use them (notably the top right box). You didn't manage to capture the full range of rotation, tending to follow the vanishing point of the box you previously put down. This exercise is intended only as an introduction to concepts explored further in the course, however we do ask for you to complete the full exercise - you've bailed out before addressing that final layer of boxes.

Finally, you're getting a good amount of variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, though you could definitely push it further, by playing with the scale between the smallest and largest boxes as well as trying to overlap the ones closest to the viewer. The boxes themselves are diverging significantly, however like the previous exercise, this one is simply an introduction to the concepts you'll explore in depth in the 250 box challenge.

I will be assigning revisions however, as there is a significant drop in the quality of your work between the first two sections and the box section of lesson 1, as though there were some rushing to get the lesson finished or you had come back after a long break. I would recommend you carefully review the materials on each of the exercises I assign as revisions.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and executing your lines confidently. This confidence also carries over nicely to your ghosted lines and planes and overall a good effort on this section.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a great start. Your linework is confident for the most part - it was a little wobbly at the top of the first page but as you've progressed through the assigned work, you've figured out how to execute a bit more confidently. There is a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other for the most part (notable exception being the bottom-right frames of both pages.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've made clear attempts to hit the four sides of the plane while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy, which will improve with time and practice.

Your funnels are off to a good start, you're getting them tucked in there tightly and the alignment isn't too bad, particularly on the bottom left one. Your line confidence here isn't as good as previous exercises which might indicate a heightened focus on accuracy due to the increased demands of needing to align them. I find it helps with this exercise to rotate the page as much as you need to in order to get a comfy approach that aligns to the minor axis - even angles that don't seem like they'd work.

Boxes

A quick note on your plotted perspective - you may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You've correctly applied the line extensions, though it would be better to stop at the horizon line as this is easier for us to read. The line confidence here is not as good as seen previously in the lesson but this is pretty normal as many students get a bit overwhelmed when we ask them to draw boxes for the first time. One step at time, planned and ghosted with care, then executed with confidence.

Your rotated boxes are off to a good start - you're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one. You didn't manage to capture the full range of rotation, tending to follow the vanishing point of the box you previously put down, however this exercise is intended only as an introduction to certain concepts you will explore further throughout the course.

Finally, you're getting a good amount of variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise which is starting to create a sense of depth in each frame, don't be afraid to lean into overlapping the boxes closest to the viewer to really sell that sense of depth. The boxes themselves are diverging a bit in places, however like the previous exercise, this one is simply an introduction to the concepts you'll explore in depth in the 250 box challenge.

As the instructions in the exercise say, alternatively you can find a round object, but the goal is not to practice our freehand curves. You'll get a consistent result out of using a curved object and that will make it easier to place the straight lines, but ultimately it's up to you. For what it's worth, fineliner ink is generally water-based and will wash off a plate if you do somehow manage to get it on there.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, I'll address your questions before we get started.

On the first question, thinking about the line you put on the page happens mainly before the ghosting action. While you're ghosting, you may find that that projected line is not quite what you wanted, which is when you stop and adjust the dots and ghost again. How many times you need to ghost for that line isn't really that important, 1-3 times is fine as long as you're confident in the line you want to put down.

Regarding the second question, you should be aiming to apply the concepts as Drawabox presents/teaches them. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing here and you shouldn't it to steer you astray. For me, personally, I'd drawn for about 10 years before I started Drawabox and had a lot of pre-conceptions about what I already knew, but once I learned to trust the process (somewhere around the box challenge), a lot of things I'd previously learned started to make a lot more sense.

If you've got questions as you're progressing through the exercises, feel free to join us on the Discord server. People are more than happy to help and we've got a great community.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and executing your lines confidently. This confidence flows through to your ghosted lines and planes and to be honest, I'm not seeing the issue mentioned in your post with overthinking the lines/messing it up. Accuracy is a result of time and practice, so you'll get there. I did notice a little squiggle over an incorrect line on the planes though - try not to do this, it draws more attention to the error than if you had simply worked with it. This approach becomes more and more important as you progress through the course as doing so could undermine the solidity of your forms.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a great start. Your linework is pretty confident here, you've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've done a pretty good job hitting the four sides of the plane each time while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy.

Finally, you've done a good job aligning your ellipses to the minor axis for the most part on your funnels. There's a few spots where they're skewed off a bit, particularly to the outer edges of the funnel - this is pretty common. If you'd like to push this exercise further in your warmups, you could try increasing the degree of the ellipses as you move out from the centre similar to shown in the example homework

Boxes

A quick note on your plotted perspective - you may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You've correctly applied the line extensions and your perspective lands in a really tight margin of error.

Your rotated boxes are looking pretty good - you're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one and you've captured a pretty respectable range of rotation. Any degree of success here is commendable as it is intended as an introduction to certain concepts that are explored further in the box challenge.

Finally, your organic perspective is off to a good start, you've got a fair amount of difference between the smallest and largest boxes and the overlapping helps sell the illusion of depth. There's a bit of divergence in the boxes themselves but that's again, a job for the box challenge to iron out as it requests students utilise the Y method for their boxes.

All in all, this was a really solid submission, so I hope you can move forward with a bit more confidence in yourself.

Hey, thanks for submitting this. :) It's a good attempt - you've kept the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one, at least on the front planes. There's a level of hesitancy in your linework as a result of focusing hard on hitting the endpoint, so don't forget that whilst we're carefully planning things out, we're executing confidently. Accuracy will improve with time and practice.

As to the boxes themselves, you didn't manage to capture the full range of rotation, tending to follow the vanishing point of the box you previously put down, though naturally as mentioned before, we don't ask or expect any level of mastery from students at this point and the 250 box challenge is your opportunity to address both your boxes and your line confidence.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and executing your lines confidently for the most part - there are some wobbles here and there where you're bringing your arm back in towards the guideline instead of trusting the motion.

Your ghosted lines and planes are looking confident for the most part though you have a tendency to wobble at the beginning or end of a line as if slowing down towards the end. This tip about lifting your pen off as soon as you hit the end point may help with this.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a good start. You've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other. Your linework on the first page is rather loose but tightens up as you progress through the second page, though there are some wobbles here and there, so make sure you're still aiming for confident linework.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've made clear attempts to hit the four sides of the plane while remaining confident and not over-focusing on accuracy. Again, your ellipses are a little loose here and I think prioritising mileage with these in your warmups is paramount to getting some level of control over them - try playing with the speed at which you execute them.

Finally, your funnels are definitely headed in the right direction with line confidence, though I can see you're struggling with aligning the ellipses to the minor axis here. I think this probably relates to the previous point about control.

Boxes

A quick note on your plotted perspective - you may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not completely vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line (except that one box on the second page?). You've correctly applied the line extensions and your perspective lands in a pretty normal margin of error. That said, your line confidence definitely takes a dip here and whilst this is far from uncommon, make sure you're taking the time to plan and execute each of your lines with confidence - treating each line as a single unit of work to make up the box is an approach that worked for me while going through the course.

Your rotated boxes aren't complete. Whilst we don't expect students to exhibit mastery (at any level) of this exercise, we do ask them to take one full attempt at the exercise before moving on. As such, you will be asked to submit a completed rotated boxes exercise before I mark this lesson as complete.

Finally, you're starting to good amount of variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, though if you wanted to push it further, you could push the scale between the smallest and largest boxes as well as trying to overlap the ones closest to the viewer. The boxes themselves are diverging quite a bit in places and your linework is a little shaky, however like the previous exercise, this one is simply an introduction to the concepts you'll explore in depth in the 250 box challenge.

Hey there, I'm Meta and I'll be your TA today, so let's get started.

Lines

Starting with your superimposed lines, you're doing a great job lining your pen up with the starting point and executing your lines confidently for the most part. There are a few instances where you wobble a bit and seem to be leading your hand back to the guideline instead of trusting the trajectory of your lines. This does clear up in your ghosted lines and planes which are looking nice and confident.

Ellipses

Onto your tables of ellipses and these are off to a great start. Your linework is looking really confident, you've selected a good variety of shapes and sizes of ellipses to practice, and you've kept them squeezed up tight against each other. Well done.

Next your ellipses in planes are looking good, you've made clear attempts to hit the four sides of the plane while remaining confident. I did notice you marked up a few where you'd made errors but don't worry too much about this as accuracy will come with practice.

Finally, you're doing a good job keeping the ellipses of your funnels aligned to the minor axis. There's a few little skews off here and there and one or two ellipses that weren't drawn perhaps as confidently but I'm really glad to see you pushed the exercise on the first page in the album to include the variation in degree - this came out really well.

Boxes

A quick note on your plotted perspective - you may have noticed some of the back lines of your boxes are not entirely vertical - this can happen when there's slight inaccuracies in the lines used to plot the front of the box not going back to the exact vanishing point drawn. Something to keep in mind, as you will encounter this again.

Onto your rough perspective and you've made fairly successful efforts to keep the horizontals parallel and verticals perpendicular to the horizon line. You haven't correctly applied the line extensions here though, which makes it hard to tell how close you got to your goal. From what I can tell though, you would've fallen in a reasonable margin of error, though make sure in future you read the instructions closely before sitting down to work.

Your rotated boxes are off to a good start - you're keeping the gaps between the boxes tight and consistent, which has given you good cues about where to place the next one. You didn't manage to capture the full range of rotation, tending to follow the vanishing point of the box you previously put down and in some cases, rotating back the direction you just came. I noted the language used both in your album and your submisison - don't worry about not getting this exercise the first time, as it is simply an introduction to certain concepts that we explore further in the course.

Finally, you're getting a good amount of variation in the size and rotation of your boxes in the organic perspective exercise, as well as experimenting with overlapping the ones closest to the viewer, which goes a long way to conveying a sense of depth in each composition. The boxes themselves are diverging a bit in places, however like the previous exercise, this one is simply an introduction to the concepts you'll explore in depth in the 250 box challenge.