riktigKing

Hello Phall!

Congratulations on finishing Lesson 1! Hopefully my critique can be of some help to you. I'll focus on lines, ellipses and boxes respectively. If I'm not mentioning any one specific exercise it means I think you did it according to instructions and whatever general comments I've made on lines/ellipses/boxes may apply. Let's get to it!

Lines

The ghosted lines are great, keep practicing them and be sure to include some longer ones to get used to that as well!

I see a bit of a problem with fraying at both ends on the superimposed lines so make sure you're properly lining up your starting point every time. As you mention yourself there's a bit more of an arch in the lines in the rough perspective exercise.

Ellipses

Here's a bit more to work on. The tables of ellipses are showing some problems: make sure you draw through your ellipses no less than 2 times and no more than 3. The ellipses should fit snugly within the borders and follow the same angle in a section. Ghost your ellipses thoroughly and keep practicing this. It seems your control gets a bit better in the funnels so good job! Just try to make sure you align the minor axis correctly.

Boxes

In a couple of places i can see some re-drawn or "fixed" lines. Resist that urge. I know you may know this but: if you mess up a line, leave it as if it was correct and move on. Fixing/re-drawing lines only creates bad habits and messier drawings. There's no point in trying to cover our mistakes, we want to see them clearly so as to improve from them.

You've made a great effort with the rotated boxes and the organic perspective. For some reason it seems the accuracy of line is suffering in the organic perspective. Make sure you ghost your lines enough, even if the end result is a box and not a single line or plane.

All in all: you've done the exercises according to instruction and seem to know what to be aiming for!

Good job and keep it up!

Alright, thanks!

Oh I see! Thanks!

Hello! I think the 50% rule means that 50% of the time you spend drawing you just draw whatever it is you want to draw. If your dream is designing jewelery - do so! If you start following along tutorials that would probably count as focused studying, where your primary concern is learning and be included in the 50% that includes the Draw a box lessons.

edit

To answer your question:

just sitting down and draw "something" without really knowing what Im doing?

Yes, as long as that "something" is something you want to draw!

edit end

Hope that helps!

Thanks for your reply! I see, I couldn't find it in the FAQ. So this would mean I shouldn't be doing any critiques at all? Since there's not yet two people agreeing on my submission for lesson 1?

I understand the general rule because of the risk of someone misunderstanding an exercise or concept.

But I'd argue that, at least conceptually, there's a difference between being able to assess our own homework and seeing whether another student has followed the instructions/understood what to aim for in a specific exercise.

Anyway, thanks again for replying!

Hello Botnoodles! There seems to be some problem with your upload, I can only see the ghosted lines?

Your lines have a lot of confidence, but I see some lines missing both of your plotted points. Take some more time in the preparing-phase and make sure you line up the starting point properly before making your mark. Accuracy is always less important than confidence, but making sure your line starts where you want it to is crucial. I can see some slight arching in your lines, not a big problem but make sure you're drawing from your shoulder and if the problem persists try to compensate in the other direction.

I obviously can't mark this as complete having only seen one exercise.

All the best.

Hello Koalala1031!

Congratulations on finishing Lesson 1! Hopefully my critique can be of some help to you. I'll focus on lines, ellipses and boxes. If I'm not mentioning any one specific exercise it means I think you did it according to instructions and whatever general comments I've made on lines/ellipses/boxes may apply. Let's get to it!

Lines

Your ghosted lines do need some work, but not to worry since we're gonna keep doing this for the remainder of the course so there will be plenty of time to practice! Just keep in mind, every line has three stages:

1. Planning: This is where you decide where the line should go. Place your dots and try to visualize the line where you want it.

2. Preparing: Ghosting the motion, preparing physically to make the mark. This is the only chance you have in affecting whether the line will be accurate or not.

3. Putting it down: Let it go and just push trough the motion, one more time. If you have ghosted enough, this will not be a problem.

If you separate these three concerns, one step at a time, and remind yourself that confidence > accuracy (missing the mark is'nt that big of a deal), you're gonna make great ghosted lines! In future warm-ups be sure to include some even longer lines, accuracy will suffer but doing those motions will really drive home the point of drawing from your shoulder.

Ellipses

Generally, good job, but needs practice. It's always a bit hard to tell how many times you've drawn through an ellipse but make sure it's no more than three and no less than two. The ellipses in planes seem to have been drawn through a few times too many.

Another problem is the alignment, for example in the funnels. Mid line (or minor axis) is supposed to cut through the ellipses in two equal halves and the major axis (longest crossing-line in the ellipse) should be exactly perpendicular to the minor axis.

I recommend doing a table of ellipses as warm-up (maybe not even a whole page) where you practice keeping the same angle and degree, or change the degree gradually smaller or bigger.

Boxes

You're stating that the Rotating boxes "look awful". That's beside the point friend!

• Did you follow the instructions to the point?

• Can you infer from the image what mistakes you're making?

• Can you from these mistakes infer what you need to do to improve?

Then it is a success!

The way I see it, the only problem is that you don't "dare to foreshorten". Really look at the demo, see how dramatically the angles of the boxes silhouette change? Try to make some really for shortened boxes looking at this gif.

The box-exercises are well executed. I'd recommend in the future to do a more dramatic change in size, big to small for the organic perspective as the boxes travel back into space. Boxes closer to us = bigger, farther away = even smaller than now, just as you're starting to do in the second page of this exercise.

Generally, good job! You made all the exercises and you followed instructions. It seems you know what you're aiming for!

Onwards and upwards

Hello Aspart13!

Hopefully my critique can be of some help to you. I'll focus on lines, ellipses and boxes. If I'm not mentioning any one specific exercise it means I think you did it according to instructions and whatever general comments I've made on lines/ellipses/boxes applies. Let's get to it!

Lines

Solid work. Very confident ghosted lines. Only small problem I can see is you're worrying a bit too much about accuracy (as do I!). This can have the effect of a slight waver at the end of the line. Try to remind yourself that confidence > accuracy and the satisfying feeling of hitting the mark spot on is even better when you've thoroughly ghosted the line and made it with true confidence. But to reiterate - great lines! In future warm-ups be sure to include some even longer ones, accuracy will suffer but doing those motions will really drive home the point of drawing from your shoulder.

One thing to add, on the last panel of the last page of the rough perspective I see you've redrawn or "fixed" some of the lines. Resist that urge. I know you may know this but: if you mess up a line, leave it as if it was correct and move on. Fixing/redrawing lines only creates bad habits and messier drawings. There's no point in trying to cover our mistakes, we want to see them clearly so as to improve from them.

Ellipses

Wow, good job! The funnels especially have very consistent angles and degree (or gradual change in degree). Only room for improvement i can see is the accuracy of major axis, or the "size". In the future practice making the ellipses fit snugly in the funnels/tables. I think it will be fixed with some more ghosting and practicing the ellipses.

Boxes

On the rough perspective I see you've made some self-criticism. A bit harsh, but I generally agree. Very nice work on rotated boxes and organic perspective! The extreme corners of the rotated boxes, the shouldn't be facing away from us. I think the remedy for this would be keeping the boxes a little bit tighter together. There are some problems with the back facing planes of the boxes looking skewed, but all in all great job! Mayyybe a bit heavy on the added line weights on the organic perspective. But as you might be able to tell, I'm grasping at straws here.

Good job, on to the 250!

Onwards and upwards

ok great! thanks again!

Hi Ksilenomen! Hopefully my critique can be of some help to you.

I know it's fine to use a ballpoint pen starting out, but I really do recommend using fine liner/felt tip going forward. It makes a difference. And it makes a difference in how much you'll learn and be able to take away from these lessons, so not using the recommended materials can be considered a bit of a waste of your own time. Just a reminder, now onto the real stuff:

Lines

For the most part the superimposed lines look confident, but make sure you line up your starting point so you don't get "fraying at both ends". I see some wobble, and arching in the superimposed lines, but that looks a lot better in the ghosted lines. Same for your ghosted planes, overall confident lines but a bit of wobble and arching here and there.

Ellipses

Good job! You're drawing through them 2-3 times and no big problems of shakiness. The major issues I can see concern alignment/angle. Practice this by trying to keep the angle of all ellipses in a panel of your table consistent.

For the funnels: make sure that ellipses are properly aligned with the minor axis going straight through, cutting them in two equal halves, with the major axis perpendicular.

Some of the ellipses in planes seem shaky though, remember: confidence > accuracy.

Boxes

Rotated boxes: you did too many :) There should be 5 horizontally and 5 vertically. Not a big problem but always try to make a point out of following the instructions exactly. What I do think is a problem here is that you're making them quite shallow and in the extreme corners boxes start facing away from us.

In the rough perspective your line start to look a bit less confident, but you seem to follow through and not re-draw lines that much, good job! About re-drawing lines to fix them: don't. It doesn't fix a line, it only makes for a messy drawing. What we want is a clear drawing, where we can see our own mistakes.

Overall your lines do look better in the ghosted lines and planes than in for example the organic perspective or rough perspective. This is not that odd since when you start drawing boxes you're not drawing lines. Try to separate these concerns. Every line must go through the three stages:

1. Planning (making dots, deciding where the line should be drawn),

2. Ghosting (going through the motion, preparing yourself physically) and

3. Executing (actually making the planned and prepared pen stroke).

Your only place to decide wheter the line will be confident or not is in step 1 and 2. As soon as the pen hits the paper in step three all you can do is follow through on that trajectory and be confident you made the proper preparations. No backsies!

All in all: Great job!