scoobyclub

Well to me its pretty much like the superimposed lines exercise. So its about confidence.

I would suggest just doing everything in this course like it is supposed to be done. Misunderstanding are fine and thats what critiques are for. But if you know its suppose to be done a certain way then id do it exactly like that.

I can understand this feeling 100%. I have just started to try and learn to draw for the first time in my life and now that I want to produce something good, all the stuff I do looks bad to me or I can see the flaws. What I am trying to do is train myself see the flaws AND the successes. Sometimes the success is very small. I drew a face and it is really bad, but the tip of the nose is correct or the left eye (not the right eye also, no, no, that would be time for a party!) looks good. I take all the work I do in a week, check it out, look for the good and the bad, staple it all together, date it, and throw it in a box. My plan is to check it out in a year and look at my progress then. I did some gesture drawing the other day. Filled 5 pages with drawings and came away with "Well the head and neck on that one is not bad. Yeah". Progress. Tiny, tiny, progress.

I'm going to give a little bit of a different take here. I completely agree that the 250 box challenge can seem really daunting at first, it did to me too (I just finished it). I did a page or two and it was taking about 20 minutes a page at first. But then something strange happened. I incorporated the pages spread throughout the day, one in the morning, one at lunch, one or two after work and pretty soon it was just part of my day. I also stopped thinking about the whole task and started focusing on one line at a time, trying to get each box correct (which only happened occasionally). I started to get a little bit of satisfaction after each page check and before I knew it I was done. I am including drawing a box and error check into a daily warm up to keep the skill up. My advice is to concentrate on what the task is trying to teach rather than completion. I think you will be done before you know it.

So short answer: No, it is not counter-productive.

First of all i think you have a good approach on draw-a-box, i liked how you said that you want to finnish it in a marathon. This is a very healthy approach.

In the end its all a matter of what situation you are in. If you were trying do to as many courses in a shortest period of time possible, that would be counter productive. This way you would try to gain as many informations and knowledge about drawing as you can, but things just dont work like that. In the end it all runs down to you having to draw a lot, courses will only point you into a certain direction or path so to say.

Draw-A-Box is not supposed to be some kind of prison or dark room you need to stay in till you finnish every single last lesson. Furtermore its no "betrayel" if you want to gather informations about other topics such as anatomy. Im just gonna say it as it is, as the same name already suggets "draw-a-box" is no complete guide to every single field of the spectrum of art, that means that you will sooner or later will need to do other courses if you want to gather more skills. Draw-A-Box strengthens fundamentals, which will always be very very important. You learn how to construct primitive form and how to put them into perspective. Essentially things will always run down to these fundamentals, thats why it is so important. You will soon realize how anatomy becomes easier for you because you are able to abstract those organic shapes into simplier ones. Thats why i think that putting other courses in addition to draw-a-box might help you actually apply those things you learned in draw-a-box to other topics.

Now to still warn you and not let you dive into some rampage of doing new courses every week. Just dont overgrind. Remember the 50/50 rule uncomfortable talked about. Always keep yourself a piece of fun that you can come back too. Im not saying that courses are always super dull and stuff but i think you already know what i mean. If you expect too much of you, you will just burn-out and stop drawing. We all dont want that.

Put the straight edge along the lines of the box you drew and draw that line - wherever that line takes you. If there are three sets of 4 lines, each perfectly leading you to three distinct points, congratulations, you are a robot.

For the 250 box challenge you are not supposed to pick vanishing ponts before hand and try to draw to them. Instead, you are meant to develop an intuition about the direction all the edges are converging.

Go to other people's submitted box challenges and look at how they did it.

Here: https://drawabox.com/community/homework/RWRIQI46/1

Or, review the written material and rewatch the video here:

https://drawabox.com/lesson/250boxes

Hi! So my first recommendation is to use easier references for the animals. Remember the goal of the lesson is not to learn how to draw animals, but rather to use drawing animals as an exercise to learn construction. Worrying about things like foreshortening or harder orientations would detract from learning the primary goals of the lesson, and is an unnecessary challenge.

Of course, all of that being said, you are completely free to challenge yourself as long as it doesn't take away from learning the main concepts in the lesson. How I approached drawing an animal from 3/4 view is to not worry about foreshortening when drawing the individual forms, but rather capture that foreshortening in the size of the form relative to other forms.

For example, when placing down the major masses, assuming the animal is coming towards the viewer, I would make the head a bit larger than normal, and the pelvic mass a bit smaller than normal. Same with the legs, while there's no foreshortening within the leg itself, there would be a size difference between the two pairs of legs.

More important than the foreshortening I feel is capturing the correct angles (or degrees when it comes to the major masses and contours). For example, the ribcage and pelvic masses would be a lot more circular in an animal seen head on compared to in profile. In addition, most quadrupeds in 3/4 view tend to have their pelvic mass higher on the page than their ribcage mass (unless they're sitting down or standing). A contour curve across the middle of the torso sausage I've found is also an effective way of really capturing how the animal is oriented. Finally, don't forget that the contour curves defining the intersections between forms are also a great way to define the orientations of forms.

Hope this helps!

Wow!! Amazing start.Hi there!. I'm chiran and thanks for submitting the assignment to the community.today I'm gonna go over your submission and try my best to provide helpful and effective feedback as possible.

this feed back will consists of three parts. alright! lets explore the three parts.

PART 1: PRAISES ( The work you did well):

From observing your submission, I get the sense that, you got good grasping of lesson 1 exercises and you did executed each individual marks to the best of your ability prioritizing confidence over accuracy.

• starting from your lines; they are smooth, confident and consistent through out with no fraying on the starting point so that job well done.

• The job of ghosting is done very well here, meaning you did take time to plan where your lines starts and ends by plotting out the points. I get the sense that you are using shoulder and ghosting method to draw lines.good job on prioritizing confidence over perfection. so I can say you're on the right track.

• your Ellipses are awesome! They are smooth, confident and are drawn through 2 times. great work ! for striving to fit ellipses within the bounds and snuggling each other gently.

• Boxes; your boxes are great and they are drawn through so thats perfect!. I get the sense that you are familiar with the perspective already

PART 2 WHERE IT WENT SLIGHTLY OFF?:

1. Lines: since line exercise is the first exercise where you begin to use shoulder to draw its quite normal to have the lines that arch a bit and frays on the end point. subtle S curves are slightly visible in ghosted exercise but thats ok. through practice ( warm ups) they will get better gradually.

2. Ellipses: nothing to mention in the table of ellipses and ellipses in planes exercise, they are good!. but there is still room for improvement in ellipses in funnel exercise.

3. Ah! man your boxes are so good. I Suspect that you are using the ghosting method( plotting out the starting and end dot) to draw your boxes. you got great grasp of 3D space already.

4. Just to mention here: if you want to apply line weight to the boxes. make sure to apply to the body( silhouette) of the box with a confidence line ( remember to keep it subtle)

Alright! lets move on to part 3

PART 3: THE POINTS TO BE KEPT IN MIND IN ORDER TO IMPROVE:

these are the points that you can incorporate during your warm ups in order to improve in your further exercises:

• Always continue to mention your conscious mind that to always use shoulder and ghosting method to draw lines, ellipses and even boxes. ghosting method will really help to hon both flow and accuracy.

• feel free to experiment with different speed of drawing your lines from point A to point B during your warm up session and opt for the smooth and consistent ones. Increasing the speed of execution can really help in reducing wobbly lines and subtle S curves. If arching persists even after using shoulder to draw the lines then they can be reduced by arching consciously in opp direction to compensate the error. through practice they will get better.

• next time when doing the ellipses in funnel exercise as warm up,continue to strive to align ellipses to the minor axis as possible ( the axis which divides the ellipses into two symmetrical halves)

• of course continue to draw 2-3 times through your ellipses cuz, they will help in developing the muscle memory

• over time after you gained sufficient confidence in drawing you can work on accuracy as well.

• feel free to revisit these exercises after completing the 250 boxes.by that time your spatial ability will be more improved.feel free to add some various degrees of rotation of boxes in organic perspective as well.

• last but not the least, continue to incorporate these exercises in your regular warm up routines. pick any 1 or 2 exercise and try to do it for 10 -15 min with striving towards the goal. because these warm ups are the hard requirements for any artists at any skill level !

  So overall, i think you are quickly headed in the right direction and ready for the 250 box challenge.

  Yippee! congratulations on completing the lesson 1. I hope this feedback helps. Have a wonderful journey!.

  Thank you .

Hi! I think If someone knows just one thing about DaB, it is that it asks students to draw 250 boxes.

You make it through the same way you climb a mountain, one step at a time.

Keep drawing for fun along the challenge and try to not think too much about the time it takes.

Good luck, you can do it!

Hi! You should always place dots to plan your lines throughout the whole Draw a Box curriculum.

And even outside DaB, it's worth noting that the ghosting method is not a beginner technique, but a tool as much as any other that you are free to use whenever you need it, regardless of your skill level.

Edit: good luck with the challenge!

A single Staedtler, when I was wise enough to store it horizontally, lasted me 3 months, during which I had been able to go through Lesson 1 and roughly half of the 250 Box Challenge, doing warm up exercises every day.

But you must be very careful: do not press hard on the nib, keep the pen almost vertical when you draw and, at least for the Staedtler, store it horizontally.