senj

Hello Laurada, I’ll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Organic Arrows

The flow of the arrows proves to be smooth and consistent within both pages.The direction of compression on your arrows is clear; the width of the arrows gets smaller as they grow further away, which conveys proper perspective. Although, the line weight added to the overlap sections are quite harsh and done haphazardly when they should instead be subtle. Just to call back to lesson 1, when deciding to place down any mark on the page smoothness is key, even if it strays off the initial path (confidence first, accuracy secondary). Be mindful of how those extra strokes are added. The hatching lines also tend to wobble or lean in some sections so make sure that all instances of exercises are receiving the same level of line quality.

Organic Forms

Starting on your forms, sausages clearly show the intent of a tube with two spheres on opposing ends, a few cases of pinching or bloating but nothing major. Careful when placing the small ellipses that represent which side of the sausage is facing the viewer. Based on the way the ellipses are drawn, some of these poles wouldn't be visible.

Organic Forms with Contour Ellipses

Ellipses on sausages are clearly drawn through at least 2-3 times, and the degree shift is correctly made relative to the viewer. Next up on the alignment of forms, some ellipses here aren't quite matched up with the spine The spine (or more accurately the minor axis), provides the centerline for which we divide the ellipses equally into 2 parts . A misaligned spine could also contribute to ellipses being off, making it just as important to create a centered spine that crosses the midsection of the sausage for a good foundation.

Organic Forms with Contour Curves

The alignment is much better for the curves, but the degree shift is somewhat difficult to gauge and appears to look the same across the entire length of the form. Reasonably so, it's a lot harder to convey degree shifts with contour curves. Fundamentally, contour curves are separated by the difference of only showing the visible part of the ellipse. The degree shift should be approached in the same way as the ellipses; the degree shift of the curves will change as they progress through the sausage. Try to consider the half of the curve that is not visible and how it would change depending on the degree.

Texture Analysis & Dissections

Starting with the texture analysis, it's clear you're getting a grasp on how cast shadows operate. You've done a great job on strictly utilising shapes and thoroughly understanding the concept . In the future, I recommend pushing forward black/dense sections more so the transition is smoother. Aside from that, no issues. Good approach for the dissections as well, I don't have much to add there.

Form Intersections

Solving the intersections in different forms is pretty challenging on the first go, so I'm not too concerned about your ability to cross each object. As explained on the lesson page, it's more about how cohesive the page appears —the illusion that these forms exist in the same space. That being said, this is done well according to the instructions as all forms are grouped together. Now looking at the line work, there's some wobbliness with the line construction & hatching. As mentioned previously, ensure all lines are receiving the same amount of confidence.

Organic Intersections

Forms look okay here, with the occasional complex sausage. Once again, just a reminder to keep sausages simple and avoid awkward bends when possible. The use of contour lines appropriately describes the 3D aspect. But the structure of a few forms doesn't give the illusion that they could balance on top of each other. If we think of these forms as water balloons, it's much easier to judge how the masses will behave against one another. Cast shadows project well onto forms below. In future warm-ups try experimenting by placing light sources between ranges on the top left and right of the page.

Okay, I think that just about covers it, so I'll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 3. Keep up the good work.

Hello Cheseey234, I’ll be reviewing your 250 Box Challenge today.

First off, congratulations on completing the first hurdle of Drawabox. It’s definitely a long marathon but the quality of work between the start and end pages really demonstrates overall improvement. Now let’s begin with the critique.

Things you did well:

• Lines confidence definitely was a major strength here as you practise to draw straight from the shoulder. Construction lines are relatively straight and you maintain confidence in your lines.

• Experimentation of box size and foreshortening. This is a positive habit to carry forward and helps progress our spatial reasoning.

Things you could work on:

• Sets of lines sometimes converge in pairs rather than collectively towards their respective vanishing points. When constructing a box, be aware of the initial Y line and how each adjacent line should angle itself to the vanishing point. Here's a diagram showing what to aim for.

• Hatching isn't a mandatory requirement but I recommend practising those more often as they clarify which face of the boxes face the viewer.

• Boxes tend to have the same rotation a few times. I recommend playing around more with box orientation in order to further spatial reasoning ability. Here's a range of the possible positions. Keep in mind that boxes should always drawn from imagination, not reference, so don't copy these boxes directly from the image.

• Line weight; also not a requirement however it’s a great tool to apply to subtly reinforce the form. I suggest experimenting with that in future warm-ups/lessons.

Overall, you've done a good job of steadily improving your box quality . I'll mark this down as complete and send you off to Lesson 2. Good luck!

Hello Qriousk, I’ll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Organic Arrows

Your lines prove to be smooth and consistent within both pages, and the principles of mark-making from lesson 1 are adhered to properly. The direction of compression on your arrows is clear; the width of the arrows gets smaller as they grow further away, which conveys proper perspective. At certain points, overlaps are sometimes avoided, which makes the arrows appear flat. I can agree that trying to match the initial curve after crossing the overlap is a little challenging, but we should refrain from sacrificing the 3D effect of turning the arrow in space.

Organic Forms

Starting on your forms, sausages clearly show the intent of a tube with two spheres on opposing ends, but they still have some bulging or pinching at the ends. Try to aim for the width of sausages to remain consistent throughout the entire length and to round off the ends as much as you can. Use caution when placing the small ellipses that represent which side of the sausage is facing the viewer. Based on the way the ellipses/curves are drawn, some of the poles wouldn't be visible.

Organic Forms with Contour Ellipses

Ellipses on sausages are clearly drawn through at least 2–3 times across all forms. Some wobbly lines take shape on the follow-through action, so as a reminder, remember to keep the confidence strong for all ellipses. Next up on the alignment of forms, the spine on some sausages veers off from the main section of the sausage, which affects the ability to align ellipses. The spine acts as a foundation for the ellipse minor axis here, so make sure proper ghosting is made to pass through the middle of both sides of the form. The degree shift could be pushed further as multiple ellipses on the mid sections look like they repeat themselves more than once. I suggest starting out by limiting the number of ellipses per sausage to 4-5 and evenly spacing them out. This allows for degree shifts to be a lot more distinguishable. 

Organic Forms with Contour Ellipses

The alignment is much better for the curves, but the degree shift is somewhat difficult to gauge and appears to look the same across the entire length of the form. Reasonably so, it's a lot harder to convey degree shifts with contour curves. Fundamentally, contour curves are separated by the difference of only showing the visible part of the ellipse. The degree shift should be approached in the same way as the ellipses; the degree shift of the curves will change as they progress through the sausage. Try to consider the half of the curve that is not visible and how it would change depending on the degree. Similar advice as the contour ellipses: 4-5 curves, so you're given the chance to plan out how the openness of the curve will change.

Texture Analysis and Dissections

Starting with the texture analysis, it's clear you’re getting a grasp on how cast shadows operate. Although the transition is a little weak, the black bar is still fairly easy to point out and doesn’t really contribute to showing how the texture gradually changes from dense to sparse. On the opposite end, lines are used to replicate the texture lost in light. Always consider cast shadows as shapes, so instead of simply adding lines, it's better to approach them as skinny shapes. As we reach the dissections, the textures appear to be explicitly outlining many of the details. Unfortunately, this tends to overwhelm the viewer with visual noise and doesn't utilize cast shadows to their full potential. From my own experience, images that contained harsh lighting provided an easier time extracting cast shadows. 

Form Intersections

Solving the intersections in different forms is pretty challenging on the first go, so I'm not too concerned about your ability to cross each object. As explained on the lesson page, it's more about how cohesive the page appears —the illusion that these forms exist in the same space. That being said, a majority of boxes seem relatively the same size, with a few outliers that lengthen in one dimension or another. Try to keep them equilateral as much as possible. Lastly, similarly to keeping forms equilateral, we want the perspective to remain as shallow as possible. Adding a combination of small and large 3D shapes will mess with the concept of forms existing in the same space.

Organic Intersections

Forms look okay here, with the occasional complex sausage. Once again, just a reminder to keep sausages simple and avoid awkward bends when possible. The use of contour lines appropriately describes the 3D aspect. But the structure of a few forms doesn’t give the illusion that they could balance on top of each other. If we think of these forms as water balloons, it's much easier to judge how the masses will behave against one another. As far as the cast shadows go, remember that they shouldn't closely stick to the form and will project and possibly land on more than one form underneath.

All in all, I think you understand the Lesson 2 concepts well, so I'll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 3. Keep up the good work.

Hello, hello, Fable, Once again, I’ll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Organic Forms with Contour Curves

Cases of pinching or bulging make somewhat less appearances compared to your Lesson 2 submission; however, I would like to stress the importance of keeping your sausages as simple as possible. It's easier said than done, but simplifying the sausage is integral to building a solid structure. Continuing on comparisons, the degree shift is definitely more apparent for the most part. Especially on the sausages with a little more bend, it's clear for the viewer how the forms turns in space.

Insect Constructions

Now for the insect constructions, once again, I think you've followed the instructions and methods of construction fairly well, so unfortunately, I won't have much to add, but I'll try to reinforce any concepts that may have been missed.

If we observe the reference images, the legs suggest there are more complexities at play that go beyond just a simple sausage. Rather than using a complete form to represent the change in form, we can start with a simple sausage and build out the bulk to establish a new form. For example, at the mantis construction, the forelegs present the opportunity to convey our understanding of additive construction. This concept for leg construction isn’t as heavily enforced as in lesson 5; however, being aware of the mass from the reference image allows us to sell the believability of our constructions. Not only to the viewer but also to ourselves.

The method of leg construction is followed pretty closely on most constructions until they tend to appear like stretched spheres on the dragonfly, mantis, and mosquito drawings. As the lesson stands right now, it's not really about creating a perfect 1:1 reiteration of the image but to capture the gesture and solidarity with chains of sausages using the reference as a blueprint to do so.

Following up on the details, some restrictions are outdated in Lesson 4, so stick to the blue excerpt on the Lesson 2 dissections page and try to ignore reflections and local color whenever you decide to add texture to form. Moving onwards, I also suggest avoiding adding cross-hatching to the ant and mosquito eyes. For the ant eye, the light appears to be casting a shadow onto the small bumps. Take this chance to imply the presence of those forms. Unfortunately, I don't think the mosquito image quality is high enough to perceive the eye texture, so you can just add some cross contours like you've done for the previous insects.

Okay, I think that just about covers it, so I'll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 5. Keep up the good work.

Hello Sasogo, I’ll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Note: There are some extra pages of exercises included in this submission. I understand the temptation to redo an exercise, but try to hold off on doing more than the recommended number of pages.

Organic Arrows

Your lines prove to be smooth and consistent within both pages, and the principles of mark-making from lesson 1 are adhered to properly. Retaining good linework for hatching goes a long way in allowing the viewer to follow the overlaps of the arrows, and it's nice to see you’re keeping up on that aspect here. You're on the right track with the execution here; however, the illusion of depth ends up being a weaker aspect. If we visualize the arrows as ribbons flowing in space, we can interpret how the arrows should flow on the page. To put this idea into practice, focus on which end of the arrow is closest to the viewer and quickly compress the space between the overlaps as a method to convey the perspective of the arrow growing further away.

Organic Forms

Starting on your forms, sausages clearly show the intent of a tube with two spheres on opposing ends, but they still have some pinching at the midpoints . Try to aim for the width of sausages to remain consistent throughout the entire length and to round off the ends as much as you can.

Organic Forms with Contour Ellipses

Ellipses on sausages are clearly drawn through at least 2-3 times, and the degree shift is correctly made relative to the viewer. However, use caution when placing the small ellipses that represent which side of the sausage is facing the viewer. Based on the way the ellipses are drawn, some of the poles wouldn't be visible. Also, don't forget to treat poles like ellipses and draw through them at least twice.

Organic Forms with Contour Curves

Contour curve degree shift is still properly applied when possible, as is hooking over the form. But the stiffness on a few of the contour lines makes the roundness of the form appear less convincing. Fundamentally, the curves are separated by the difference in only showing the visible part of the ellipse. The degree shift should be approached in the same way as the ellipses, only changing the degree shift of the curve as they progress through the sausage. It's pretty difficult at first, but try to consider the half of the curve that is not visible and how it would change depending on the degree. Same situation with poles; make sure the contour lines are consistent with which ends of the sausage are facing the viewer.

Texture Analysis and Dissections

If we take a look at the scale texture based on the observations noted, the texture contains multiple line formations. Always consider cast shadows as shapes, so instead of simply adding lines, it's better to approach them as skinny shapes. Overall, you seem to have a good understanding of how the cast shadows should behave as they progress from dense to sparse.

Now onto dissections. Overall,  there's a great variety of textures that allow for breaking the silhouette. Unfortunately, some textures fall back into explicit outlining to bridge the gap in solving the rhythm of cast shadows. It's fairly easy to fatigue observing textures across two pages of forms, but try to implement the concept of implying forms as much as possible. When it comes down to transitioning from dark to light, remember that we should keep the rhythm consistent as the form hits the light. Also I suggest pushing the dense parts further so it's easier for the viewer to interpret how the cast shadows change.

Form Intersections

Solving the intersections in different forms is pretty challenging on the first go, so I’m not too concerned about your ability to cross each object. As explained on the lesson page, it's more about how cohesive the page appears —the illusion that these forms exist in the same space. That being said, at first the boxes remain relatively equilateral but on the following pages for both boxes and prisms, they lengthen quite a bit compared to the other forms. Lastly, don't be afraid to push these forms closer together rather than just the 1 or 2 edges being connected. Experimenting like this allows us to push ourselves to solve these intersections in more than one way.

Organic Intersections

Forms look okay here, with the occasional complex sausage. Just a reminder to keep sausages simple and avoid awkward bends when possible. The use of contour lines appropriately describes the 3D aspect. But the structure of a few forms gives away the illusion that they could balance on top of each other. If we think of these forms as water balloons, it's much easier to judge how the masses will behave against one another. As far as the cast shadows go, remember that they shouldn't closely stick to the form and will project and curve onto the forms underneath. I'm assuming you didn’t have a brush pen to completely fill in the cast shadows. Alternatively you can use a chisel-tip sharpie/marker, as they work decently enough in filling in large areas.

All in all, I think you understand the Lesson 2 concepts well, so I’ll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 3. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the critique, I'll watch out for those intersections in Lesson 5.

Hello Fable, I'll be critiquing your submission today; if you have any questions, feel free to ask below. With that said, I’ll go ahead and review your submission.

Note: The form construction is still clear here, so I think the texture is fine. Following up on that point, your submission includes half of the demo drawings. (4/8 instead of max 3/8). I won't be asking for another plant drawing, but I just wanted to point it out so you don't get marked for it on future lessons that follow this guideline.

Organic Arrows

Your lines prove to be smooth and consistent within both pages, and the principles of mark-making from lesson 1 are adhered to properly. However, the foreshortening is a little lacking in conveying distance. Consider arrows as ribbons flowing within the 3D space. As they flow towards the end, we want to exaggerate the arrow width as they progress away from the viewer. For instance, the bottom leftmost arrow appears to lean closer to 2D as the compression is static during the middle overlaps and doesn't vary much. Line weight looks good here, but just be mindful of how the extra stroke should taper off.

Leaves

Overall, your leaves are well done here, and the spine is adhered to closely as you add the overlapping folds. Line work is smooth and supports the natural motions of the leaf. As a recommendation, I would play a little more with the varying types of leaf shapes and edge detail so you can challenge yourself more with breaking down complex leaf constructions.

Branches

Pressing ahead to branches, some tails are slightly visible, but it's an issue that will mostly be improved with practice, so no worries there. The method for branches is followed correctly, as the stroke is drawn to at least halfway past the second ellipse. On the topic of ellipses, degree shifts are evident, are drawn at least twice, and align to the minor axis. Some issues pop up around the attempts at drawing curvy branches. In order to relieve the cases of missing or cutting into ellipses, I suggest placing 1-2 extra ellipses to bridge the gap so it's a little more manageable in making the branch width consistent.

Plant Constructions

Now for the plant construction, overall I think you’ve followed the instructions and methods of construction fairly well, so I’ll just be pointing out the major concerns when appropriate.

If we take a look at your arum lily plant, the use of boundary ellipses works well, but the topmost flower seems to be missing the curved lip petal included on the other flowers. It's not much of a construction issue, but it helps if we include all the forms as accurately as possible.

All in all, I think you understand the Lesson 3 concepts well, so I’ll go ahead and send you off to Lesson 4. Keep up the good work.

Hello Rihral, I’ll be reviewing your 250 Box Challenge today.

First off, congratulations on completing the first hurdle of Drawabox. It’s definitely a long marathon but the quality of work between the start and end pages really demonstrates overall improvement. Now let’s begin with the critique.

Note: This was submitted before the revised 250 Box challenge so I'll be reviewing based on the old method. But I still suggest looking over the new topics for a deeper understanding.

Things you did well:

• Lines confidence definitely was a major strength here as you practise to draw straight from the shoulder. Construction lines are relatively straight and you maintain confidence in your lines.

• Hatching: from the start of the challenge, it's evident you patiently place your lines with the same confidence as every other line.

• Experimentation of box size, foreshortening, and orientation. This is a positive habit to carry forward and helps progress our spatial reasoning.

Things you can work on:

• 2-3 sets of lines often converge in pairs rather than collectively towards their respective vanishing points. When constructing a box, be aware of the initial Y line and how each adjacent line should angle itself to the vanishing point. Here’s a diagram showing what to aim for.

• Line weight is appropriately applied, however the superimposed line sometimes wobbles/arcs as it reaches the end of the box edge. We want to always apply lines according to the principles of marking making in lesson 1, so try to maintain confident lines as you add the overlapping line.

Overall, you've done a good job of steadily improving your box quality . I'll mark this down as complete and send you off to Lesson 2. Good luck!

Hello Grumdere, I’ll be reviewing your 250 Box Challenge today.

First off, congratulations on completing the first hurdle of Drawabox. It’s definitely a long marathon, but the quality of work between the start and end pages really demonstrates overall improvement. Now let’s begin with the critique.

Note: It appears this submission was under completion before the revised 250 Box challenge, so I'll be reviewing based on the old method. (If not, please let me know down below at which stage you started incorporating the new method.) But I still suggest looking over the new topics for a deeper understanding.

Things you did well:

• Line confidence was definitely a major strength here. Construction lines are relatively straight, and you maintain confidence in your lines.

• Clear experimentation of box size, foreshortening, and orientation. This is a positive habit to carry forward and helps progress our spatial reasoning.

• Hatching: from the start of the challenge, it's evident you patiently place your lines with the same confidence as every other line.

• Line weight was applied appropriately and added subtly depth to the box form. Although optional, it's great to hone this tool for usage in future lessons.

Things you can work on:

• Sets of lines sometimes converge in pairs rather than collectively towards their respective vanishing points. When constructing a box, be aware of the initial Y line and how each adjacent line should angle itself to the vanishing point. Here’s a diagram showing what to aim for. Pair convergence is less prominent towards the last few pages so this is a minor point.

• Shallow foreshortened boxes have somewhat weaker convergence accuracy, so in the future I would suggest drawing more shallow boxes as they present a good way of practicing estimating far distance vanishing points.

Overall, you've done a good job of steadily improving your box quality . I'll mark this down as complete and send you off to Lesson 2. Good luck!

Hello Pradas120, I will be handling your Lesson 1 submission for today. If you have any questions or feel unsatisfied with my response, please feel free to comment below. With that said, let's go ahead and dig into these exercises.

Lines

You start off the lesson well with your superimposed lines; the lines remain fairly consistent between each line. Fraying begins to occur as the lines get longer, nothing to worry about; that will improve with practice. Next up are your ghosted lines, which wobble slightly a bit but are very accurate, great work.

Ghosted Planes & Ellipses

Now onto the ghosted planes and ellipses. Clear planning of your lines is present, and you seem to be very accurate in each line. However, you appear to run into the issue of some looseness and wobble in your ellipses. These mistakes will most likely iron out as you work on them during warm-ups, but I want to remind you to try engaging your whole arm in order to ensure confident line work.Also make sure ellipses are drawn through at least 2-3 times before lifting your pen.

Table Of Ellipses & Funnels

Moving along to your table of ellipses, similar issues arise from ellipses in planes. Although confidence in line work improves on the second page, I'd like to call back to the principles of the mark-making section. The method by which we approach our lines dictates the outcome projected onto the paper. At this stage of the course, it's much preferred if confidence in our lines is maintained. Not to say we should totally ignore accuracy, but a part of learning that will come with time as we get more comfortable drawing from the shoulder. Lastly, as previously stated, try to draw through ellipses at all times. Note: The funnel exercise is missing from the submission.

Plotted, Rough, & Organic Perspective

Starting from a plotted perspective, the back corners are sometimes slanted, but don't be worried; this is pretty common, and as you progress towards the 250 challenge, you’ll learn where to estimate the back corners. Boxes within the rough perspective remain in one-point perspective and appear to have clear planning for each line. Line extensions are correctly taken from each corner of the box using a ruler. But make sure the extensions are drawn to their full length and intersect at the horizon line. Pressing ahead, your rotated boxes have clean lines with little space between them. But the rate of convergence alters the box size, causing different-shaped boxes; however, you appear to understand the concept overall. But you seem to be missing the corner boxes in all quadrants. Lastly, your organic perspective boxes hold consistent lines, and you show clear intentions with the ghosting method. Issues arise with convergence as nearly all boxes have sets of diverging or parallel lines. The orientation of the boxes is also static, making it difficult for the viewer to see the illusion of depth. In order to sell the depth of boxes, try to exaggerate the sizes of boxes as they begin to get closer to the viewer. I suggest looking back on the example page so you have an idea of how the forms should float in space.

Before you go forward I'll need a couple of items added below this critique:

• Missing page of funnels

• Complete line extensions on rough perspective

• 1 frame of organic perspective