Taelia

Well done on finishing a whopping 250 boxes, it's no small feat. I'll be going through the boxes 50 by 50, see if I can give you some solid feedback and see if there was progression while at it. I took a sneak peak at box 250, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna mark this lesson as complete by the end :)

Boxes 1-50

I had to search for a while, imgur messed up the order of the boxes.

It's a decently good start. Your linework is straight and solid, you're adding lineweights to the outside of the boxes, you are hatching your boxes properly and even the hatching is evenly spaced and you put effort and care into it.

Kudos for all that!

The perspective is still quite messy. I'm sure you have the theory correct, all four lines have to converge in a single spot. When the VP is close to the box, you're doing this wonderfully well, but when the VP is at a distance I see your lines diverging in all kinds of directions.

There are also some boxes, such as 31, where you have drawn over a previous line in what I assume is an attempt to fix a mistake. Avoid doing that! We're drawing 250 boxes after all, if you make a mistake at any one box, live with the mistake and move on. Don't ever try to fix a mark by drawing over it :)

Boxes 51-100

I see you making a lot of sets of 3 lines converging properly, and one suddenly shooting in a different direction. What might help is to realize that the two "middle" of the four converging lines will very often be going in the same direction, almost parallel even.

There's also a few boxes you forgot to extend. 79 and 97, for instance.

Boxes 101-150

Ha, I see you decided that you no longer wanted to waste paper. Generally its recommended to draw your boxes big, it will help your drawing skills a lot more than to draw a large amount of small cubes.

Having that said, the quality of your cubes did improve. There's still a weird few boxes you failed to extend (137, 144), but otherwise most of the boxes you draw actually have proper converging lines!

Boxes 151-200

Good job on experimenting with VPs! You have shallow and dramatic foreshortening mixed all together, and I'm seeing a good amount of creativity in your angles. I am lacking in creativity with your box shapes though, when you are adding boxes to your warmup pool, definitely do consider trying to draw some pizza boxes next time, or some long thin poles or sticks.

Pay attention to boxes like 196, where two of your lines are converging "in pairs", so to speak. I can tell you have the theory right, so mistakes like this don't have to happen if you are careful enough with your planning.

Every page has a box that isn't extended now. It's almost like an easter egg :p

Boxes 201-250

I have very few remarks left. I see variance in box sizes, angles, foreshortening, your lines are (generally) converging properly. You have been adding lineweight all the way, and your hatching is solid. Especially box 249 was really well done!

Overall

Very well done. Your progress over the 250 boxes has been remarkable, and I'm gonna let you move on without asking you for additional boxes. The important takeaway from this lesson is that all the four lines converge to a single point, and I think you understood that well. Your diligence in lineweight and hatching has paid off and is showing itself in the smooth straight lines you are able to draw.

If anything, I would recommend you to take a little bit more time in the planning phase of such boxes. Lines going in the wrong direction like 246, 248, 250 don't have to happen. But then again, you've drawn really strong boxes like 247 and 249 as well. Keep those up and you're gonna draw amazing things :)

Hi Penguin!

I'm afraid something went wrong with your imgur upload, only the first 100 boxes are visible. If you are able to fix that, I'll be sure to give everything a proper review.

250 boxes! I'm glad you did it :) good job. Giving it a quick peek I can already see I'm gonna mark this as complete, but not before I give you some good feedback going forward.

I'll go through the boxes 50 by 50, see if we can see some progress as well!

Boxes 1-50

The first 25 or 30 boxes are very messy, but the quality quickly picks up after that. You have the right idea about how the lines should converge, and you're already hatching your boxes properly which is great. In the first few boxes your hand is very shaky but by box 50 the lines have become.. relatively straight.

They're not as straight as you want them yet though. When placing the marks, be sure to spend enough time on ghosting them, from back in Lesson 1. Ideally, you want to spend a long time "practicing" placing a line, and then the line itself you place hard and fast- this will avoid wobbles and bobbles.

I'm also noticing a lot of lines converging "in pairs". For instance, box 26, 32, 35, 37, 39. It is important that all four lines converge to the same point. However, in box 28 you did that absolutely perfectly!!

Boxes 51-100

A lot less wobbling already, but still visible. For instance in box 67, 68 or 70. I'm also noticing you're not adding line weight to the outside of the box. Even though it's optional, it is absolutely great practice you've been skipping out on, which is a pity. Be sure to check how to do that in the Box Challenge lesson description.

I'm also noticing that your hatching in the boxes is sloppy. It deserves the same attention and straight-ness as all the other lines.

Having said that, I see a lot of creativity in your box shapes and sizes, which is fantastic! And honestly, the boxes look clean, and most of the time the converging lines are done proper and well.

Boxes 101-150

Be careful that you're not repeating lines when you make mistakes, that's really important! Quite a few boxes here, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 etc. you have doubled up on the lines. It could be that you were trying line-weight here, in which case good job! Be sure to re-check the lesson plan though, line weight should only be added on the outside lines, never on the inside. If you did it because the lines were wrong, just let them be :) that's why we draw 250 boxes, plenty time to fix it in future boxes, don't redraw over existing ones.

There's also a lot of boxes still, 108, 113, 114, where the lines are converging in pairs. It's a bit of a mix, because you also have a lot of boxes where you avoid that and draw them converging properly!

Interestingly, the hatches in the boxes have become a lot straighter. Not all of them, but you fixed that issue yourself properly!

Boxes 151-200

The boxes 171-175 look gorgeous! They're the only page drawn with a different colour, but they are so clear. Much nicer to review than the other pages.

Throughout the entire set of boxes you've been repeating the same mistake, and that is converging the lines in pairs. All the boxes on 171-175 have that same issue, and a large amount of the previous boxes as well. I think this is your main pitfall. All the other feedback is relatively minor.

Still, good job on experimenting with boxes like 197. They're really hard to draw, but you're trying, and that is wonderful.

Boxes 201-250

There are a few oddly weird boxes in here, haven't seen that in the earlier sets. 232, 233, 239 are straight up sloppy. Having said that, nothing to add that hasn't been said in the previous sections already.

Overall

Great job! Your boxes are good enough to move on to the next lesson, I won't even ask you to make some extra boxes.

However, I do want to stress a couple of points.

The biggest one is converging in pairs. All the way up to boxes 248, 249, 250 you have this issue. All four lines must converge to exactly the same point, and this is clearly not the case. (Interestingly enough, box 247 you did it perfectly fine!)

Please pay a lot of attention to that, it's the big takeaway here.

Do not redraw your marks. Make your mistakes and move on. It doesn't matter that the box is messed up, its more important to make the next box well than to fix this one.

Also make more confident marks. The wobble like in box 249 shouldn't happen. Ghost properly, practice, and then when you place down your pen, mark smooth and fast.

That said, again, well done. Lesson 2 it is, but be sure to keep the above in mind when doing some boxes during your warmup sessions :)

Wonderful, good going on completing all 250 boxes! I'll be going through them 50 by 50, see if I can find anything to give feedback on, and perhaps see some progress while at it.

Boxes 1-50

Err.. give or take box 1-50, you haven't numbered them! I'm just gonna assume you indeed drew the full 250 and just review every 8 pages instead.

For the first sets of boxes, your lines are drawn very wobbly. Be sure to keep practicing that ghosting technique from lesson 1, it's very important moving forward. Remember that speed is more important than accuracy! Accuracy will come with time, but if you make your marks too slow, you'll never learn to be both accurate and sharp.

I also see a bunch of lines where you made multiple marks on top of eachother. Just stick to a single mark, if you make errors, roll with them. That's why there's a full 250 boxes to go, plenty to fix later!

I also see you haven't done any hatching, nor did you add lineweight to your boxes. They are admittedly optional, but I still highly recommend you do it. It's a lot of practice you've been passing up on.

Lastly, your extension lines are very short. It's generally recommended to make them about twice as long as the lines of the boxes themselves, give or take.

That said and done, you are already starting out with great creativity on your box shapes, and you're drawing nice and large boxes which is only to be recommended. But much much more importantly, you have a good sense of perspective, which is what this exercise is about in the end. Your lines converge to a single point properly and consistently, very well done.

Boxes 51-100

I'm already seeing a lot less wobble in your lines, so you fixed that on the go. It's still visible in a lot of boxes, but it's much less than on the first eight pages. I still see a good bunch of re-takes and scratches in your boxes. I also see you have some issues getting the center two lines to align properly, turning it into "sets of 2" instead of four properly converging lines. This is especially noticable in boxes such as those on page 15.

Boxes 101-150

Starting to lose a bit of creativity in these boxes, a large amount of near-cubes with their VPs all at about the same distance. A lot of wobble has returned, and there's still double marks all over the place. While the initial boxes were honestly pretty good, I am not noticing much progress over the last 100 boxes or so.

Boxes 151-200

In fact, I see backwards progression. The boxes in this set feel very rushed, a lot of the straightness of the 51-100 set disappeared entirely, there's more scratching, but even the clean convergence of lines is gone now.

Boxes 201-250

I'm afraid I can't let this pass, I'm sorry :( the boxes became downright messy at this point. I'm not sure if it was impatience or not, but the quality of the first hundred boxes was much better than the last 150.

Overall

You got the theory down, but not the practice. Please be sure to check this bit of advice on the lesson page, it is really important: https://drawabox.com/lesson/250boxes/1/convergences

The red lines are how you want it. The blue lines happens sometimes, it's not always easy to get lines that close to eachother to converge. But the green lines you want to avoid at all costs, there is no reason to let a line go that far off to the side. Messups are fine but I'm afraid such boxes are relatively common in your set of 250 boxes.

If you are willing to, please go for another 50 boxes, slow and careful. Boxes like the top-right, top-middle and bottom-middle on page 43 are fine, but boxes like the top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right on page 43 should not happen after you've drawn 250 boxes with full diligence. It's fine if the lines don't land on cross on exactly the same spot, but you really, really want to make sure that all four lines at least converge.

(and go for the line-weight and hatching! Still optional, but would've helped you so much with the wobbly lines)

https://drawabox.com/lesson/250boxes/1/lineweight

In the end, you're doing this course for yourself :) the way to truly learn how to draw isn't through theory, but by really putting a large amount of time in the ghosting process, planning every line slowly and steadily before making them.

Good job getting through all those cubes! Time for feedback. I'll go through them 50 by 50.

Boxes 1-50

There is very little creativity when it comes to box shape or orientation. Am hoping that down the line we'll see more interesting shapes. And even though it's technically optional, it is still kind of important to add line-weight to the boxes as well as hatch one side of all the boxes, that is a large amount of practice you've been missing out on!

The lines you've drawn are very clean though, nice and sharp, you have no issues with wobbly lines at all! It's also clear that you understand the theory of perspective from the get-go, your lines are converging well, no critical errors at all.

Boxes 51-100

Still very little creativity when it comes to the boxes. All the VPs are roughly at the same distance from the boxes. I've also noticed you've been drawing your boxes somewhat small. Practicing with longer lines will be important down the line.

I've seen a few pages of hatches, but then you stopped doing it again! And no line-weight here either.

Your lines are still razor sharp, which is nice. You've clearly marked your starting and end points on paper and went for them. And of course now and then there'll be an odd line going in the wrong direction, but they're clearly exception rather than rule, you're doing great on perspective.

Boxes 101-150

Still the same boxes, no hatching, no added line weight. I've noticed a few odd lines though, for instance at box 106 or 107, there seem to be a few additional lines drawn? Box 130, 135 too, and a few others. Try and make sure that you draw the lines only once, making mistakes and learning from them is much more valuable than "just" drawing a bunch of boxes.

Box 128 is nice, it shows a little bit of creativity with the VP distance. Other than that, you're also doing a great job on making sure all lines converge, not just pairs of 2.

Boxes 151-200

Hatches! Lots of them, good going! I'm still not sure on the line weight. Maybe I'm missing something and you accidentally added weight to all the lines equally? Be sure to check https://drawabox.com/lesson/250boxes/1/lineweight on how to properly add lineweight, and be sure to do it on only the outside lines.

I'm seeing a bit more experimenting with VPs, and subsequently a few more blatant mistakes as well. This is good! That's the kind of things you want to be practicing.

Boxes 201-250

All hatches! And lots more experimenting too, great! I also like the shape of box 231, I wish there had been more like these.

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the additional lines in boxes like 213. Be sure not to re-draw lines you placed, at any rate. The first line is the one that matters!

Overall

You have a very solid understanding of perspective, and your diligence with all the line extensions shows. You know how to make the lines properly converge in sets of four, that's the big one. (I am not entirely sure what to make of the additional lines here and there, but that shouldn't stop you from moving on.)

I think you did perfectly fine, but I am a little bit worried for the lack of adventurousness. I'm going to ask for a few more boxes before I mark the challenge as complete!

Try a few boxes with the VPs really close. Or, for example, with only one VP close, one barely off the page and one so far away the lines are near parallel. Also, try a few flat pizza boxes, or maybe very long sticks, or a large box, paper-size!

Just 10 boxes will be fine :) get a bit of a hang of it, is all.

This review was well worth the wait, thank you for putting effort into it :)

• For the planes, I think I placed all the dots, but for later exercises I caught myself skipping them. I'm glad you caught onto that, I'll put effort into properly planning out my lines.

• I'm afraid your link to the video about funnels got lost :(

• As for the thin lines, I have indeed bought new fineliners since!

• Rotated boxes is where I started to have a really hard time keeping track of things. Your advice is very welcome, and I agree with your assessment.

I will make care to be more patient with the planning step of ghosting, and it was important that I heard that before starting with the 250 boxes.

Superimposed Lines

• You took good care of starting all the lines at the precise same point. Perfect!

Ghosted Lines

• There's a good couple of lines that are wobbly. Try speeding up drawing your lines, it will help avoid that. The ghosting exercise helps you gain the confidence to execute fast.

Ghosted Planes

• Very good. All the wobble is pretty much gone already, quick growth. The accuracy is still off, but that wasn't the point of this exercise anyway- you made the right decision to focus on confidence instead.

Tables of Ellipses

• Well done, 2-loops on each ellipse, and all the angles are in roughly the same direction.

• Not to mention, most ellipses fit snugly in their boxes!

Ellipses in Planes

• Very solidly done.

Funnels

• Idem dito.

Plotted Perspective

• No mistakes.

• Good job on the hatching as well, you have a good sense of how perspective works.

Rough Perspective

• Started out with some wobbles, perhaps your confidence dropped a bit when starting this exercise? But by the last few panels all that is smooth and straight again.

Rotated Boxes

• You definitely have the right idea on how to rotate cubes based on the position of the cubes relative to them.

Organic Perspective

• Looks good, all the boxes are in roughly the right perspective, there's some good creativity in their angles as well.

Overall

Well, that actually is a really solid lesson 1! I feel like I have to offer you critique, but I have mostly compliments. You passed "level 1" with flying colours, but there is still "level 2" and "level 3" to work on. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/levels

You followed the exercises very well and focused on all the right things, but you will want to work on your accuracy still. (That's something that comes over time and with practice, of course).

For straight lines, you have a tendency to overshoot. Try lifting your pen off of the paper at the right time, instead of trying to "stop" the pen. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/lifthand

Similarly for ellipses, some of the overlapping ellipses still go in different directions. If you aren't doing it already, mentally try to superimpose your ellipse completely before starting the practice ghosting. Ellipses have very distinct shapes, but you're good enough to get the hang of that.

As for the boxes, this is where you suddenly start doing do-overs on your own lines. Ideally you want to be more patient instead. Having to do over a line means you didn't put enough time into the ghosting exercise, to be specific step 1: planning. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/planning

All in all though, save that critique for when you start using these exercises to warm up. You're totally ready to move on to the next lesson, if you haven't already. Good job :)

No worries! That's what we're all here for

Superimposed Lines

• The fraying at the end is quite strong, but that's something you'll improve on over time! It's important that you make broad shoulder movements and I think you did, good job.

• Some of the lines start accurately, but some have fraying on both ends. A large part of drawing is mentally preparing each line, be sure to focus on the prepwork! See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/9/fraying

Ghosted Lines

• Some lines are quite wobbly. You can fix this by speeding up your marks. Keep making the broad shoulder movements, and take your time practicing the moves before you confidently place down the ink.

Ghosted Planes

• Though still visible now and then, there's much less wobble here. Also you went creative with using the full paper space, that's great!

Tables of Ellipses

• A matter of practice. You did the exercise well, but the accuracy is still low. You're overshooting more than you're undershooting so try to correct yourself in that direction. Similarly for leaving gaps between ellipses now and then.

• That said, the exercise is about confidence, not accuracy, and the ellipses are properly shaped and quickly drawn, so you did this well anyway.

Ellipses in Planes

• These are a bit messy. Keep the confidence you had in the previous exercise :( over here you tried correcting a lot, trying to hit the edges rather than making good smooth ellipses. The latter is more important, the former comes with practice! See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/13/deformed

Funnels

• Same critique as the tables. Good looking ellipses, low on the accuracy, but that's okay.

• Pay extra attention to the precise angle you place the ellipses at. Some are slanted. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/14/notaligned

Plotted Perspective

• No mistakes except for a small one at the bottom of the topright cube in the 1st frame.

• When hatching, try and be more consistent. Quoting the exercise: "You can also choose one of the front-facing faces of the box and fill it with some tight, parallel, consistent hatching lines that stretch all the way across the plane from edge to edge. Don't rush this or do it sloppily - it's optional, so if you decide to do it, make sure it's neat and tidy."

Rough Perspective

• Lots of wobbly lines, your confidence dropped here. Spend some more time ghosting and prepare for one fast, smooth line.

• I see a lot of do-overs. There is no harm in mistakes, either correct it by adjusting the next marks you place, or just let it be.

• Try and make sure all your parallel lines are actually parallel. Even though we're not using a ruler this time, most of the lines aren't actually guesswork, you can reason out precisely the shape the lines should have. See: You can also choose one of the front-facing faces of the box and fill it with some tight, parallel, consistent hatching lines that stretch all the way across the plane from edge to edge. Don't rush this or do it sloppily - it's optional, so if you decide to do it, make sure it's neat and tidy.

Rotated Boxes

• I'm afraid you didn't quite finish this exercise, some boxes are missing :(

• The front-facing faces of the cubes look quite good.

• The back-facing cubes are very hard to see, lots of overlapping lines and even worse. scribbles.

• The hatching doesn't help here, due to their random nature it's really hard to see what is intended and what is trying to cover up mistakes.

Organic Perspective

• Quite messy.

• Same as with rough perspective, after you've placed the initial Y, the rest of the cubes are no longer guesswork. You can reason out precisely the angle they are supposed to be at. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/18/step3

• The lines here are wobbly too. Try and envision the mark you're going to place first, and take your time before actually putting your ink to paper so you can place a fast and confident line.

Overall

It started out really strong, but when it came to cubes things got difficult real fast. That's ok, especially rotated boxes and organic perspective aren't meant to be done correctly! However, they are meant to get your gears turning so you start thinking about spatial problems and how things relate to eachother. Consider reading those last two exercises again, more slowly, carefully thinking about which lines you can just place down, and which have rules you need to follow.

Superimposed Lines

• Try and make sure your starting positions are closer together. Accuracy to reduce fraying at the end comes over time, but accuracy when starting the lines is a mental thing, prepwork! See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/9/fraying

Ghosted Lines

• Looking good! Confident lines.

Ghosted Planes

• All good here! Perhaps try and be a bit more daring with the shapes, a lot of them approach squares. But that's nothing too serious.

Tables of Ellipses

• Nicely done. 2 loops everywhere and pretty accurately touching the edges as well.

Ellipses in Planes

• You're undershooting more often than you're overshooting. They definitely look fine, but if you're trying to improve, consider correcting towards overshooting so you'll end up in the middle.

Funnels

• Properly angled, well on the lines, and not misshapen to correct. Nice!

Plotted Perspective

• No mistakes :)

Rough Perspective

• Try and keep parallel lines properly parallel. You're sticking to the confident lines which is great! It's indeed better to leave mistakes for what they are and salvage what you got- but try and salvage it in such a way that the new lines you place are "correct" again, don't compound the mistakes into a slanted whole. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/16/guessing

Rotated Boxes

• Looks great on first sight, but the back-face of most of your squares aren't actually rotated. You did it well on the front-facing cubes, apply the same idea to the back-facing ones as well!

Organic Perspective

• Make sure to give each mark an equal amount of attention, I can tell you started going fast here. All parallel lines will converge into the same (imaginary) vanishing point, but some of these cubes don't. Also be wary of foreshortening, it will make some correct cubes look messy as well. See: https://drawabox.com/lesson/G3SI84C/7/foreshortening

Overall

Good stuff! Most of the critique is relatively minor, nothing to redo here. You have pretty good accuracy.

If anything, make sure to keep your head on and stay focused for all the exercises. Especially when it comes to perspective, even though some part is freeform, a lot of it can still be deduced, it's not guesswork!

PS: As for training shoulder control, I got nothing. Stay aware of it and steer back whenever you can tell you're going from your wrists or elbow. Consider joining the discord and asking the same question there, more people will read and react!