tiamal

Hello!

Congratulations on getting through your first lesson!

Now to the critique:

Lines: Overall your lines look nice, smooth and confident. However I see some curving on your lines so remember to take time to draw each line thoroughly using the ghosting method and use your shoulder always when executing the lines. Also, in the superimposed lines I see a little bit of fraying on both ends so remember to start your lines from the same point.

Ellipses: The accuracy in your ellipses is still off, which is completely normal, in the ellipses in planes exercise the ellipses should touch all the sides of the planes, in the tables of ellipses there should be no overlap between the ellipses and in the funnels the minor axis should cut the ellipses into two symmetrical halves. I am pointing out these for later reference. Your priority should be drawing smooth and confident ellipses. The thing I would focus on most is getting your ellipses to be evenly shaped. Accuracy develops overtime with practice.

Boxes: Your plotted perspective exercise is done really well! The only minor thing I would point out is that your crosshatching has been applied to different facing planes on different boxes, which makes it visually little confusing. This however doesn't the perspective on the boxes which you have done correctly. In the rough perspective remember to keep the width lines parallel to the horizon line and height lines perpendicular to the the horizon line. In the rotated boxes, the boxes further from center aren't rotating enough. Organic perspective exercise is done well.

Overall your exercises have been done well. The boxes section is hard for a reason and I wouldn't worry about those exercises. You can address the things I have mentioned in your warm ups but you are free to move on to the 250 box challenge. Good job!

Hello!

Thank you so much for your critique! This was really helpful!!!

Hello!

Congratulations on getting through your first lesson!

First of all, to answer your question, I would look at the workspace. For example is your table too high? If your work surface is too high it will already limit your shoulder movement. Try to make it so that you can move your shoulder freely. Other thing is that if you are working on sketchbook you will probably limit your range of motion to not fall of the page. So i would suggest laying a flat piece of paper on a table and seeing how that feels. On that notion, if your workspace is crowded you might be subconsciously trying to avoid bumping into anything and tense up? Also is the surface how smooth? I like to have a glove or a smooth piece of copy paper under my hand when drawing to avoid friction between my hand and table as I have found that to be really distracting. It could also be that you are afraid of making mistakes which makes you tense up? For that, you would probably need to over any mental blocks you might have such as fear of failure? For that do keep in mind that no one is expecting perfection from you! We are all here to learn so mistakes happen.

However, as I am not professional, take these things with a grain of salt. I would suggest for you to test out different things and just draw smooth, straight lines on a paper without any pressure of anyone else seeing it to see how it goes.

Now to the critique:

Lines: In the superimposed lines there shouldn't be fraying on both ends instead the lines should start from the same place. Your lines also seem wobbly at times which is most likely from you tensing up. The lines seem to be accurate though in most cases, so remember to prioritize smooth and confident over accuracy. Accuracy comes later as you practice more but shouldn't be anything to worry about now. In the ghosted lines you have also drawn very short lines which are really hard to draw while using your shoulder.

Ellipses: Ellipses should be smooth and keep their shape. Your tables of ellipses exercise looks overall good, but in some cases and later on there seems to be a slight wobble to them. It would seem that this too is because of you tensing up. In the ellipses in planes, ellipses should be touching all sides of the plane and in funnels the minor axis should cut the ellipses into two symmetrical halves. These, however, should not be anything to worry about now as the accuracy improves overtime. This is just to keep in mind as you move further along.

So the biggest thing for you is to be able to draw confident and smooth lines and ellipses using your shoulder. For now accuracy should not be a priority. In case you think it might be helpful I would recommend going back to the drawabox videos and texts in lesson 1 concerning drawing ellipses and lines.

Boxes: Overall the exercises look really good! You have done a great job with plotted and organic perspective! Little things to keep in mind are: In the rough perspective make sure that width lines are parallel to the horizon and height lines perpendicular to the horizon and in the rotated boxes remember to rotate the boxes further back enough. These exercises were meant to be hard though so I wouldn't worry about as you will learn more about boxes in perspective in the 250 box challenge.

Overall I think you understood the concepts taught in this lesson really well! On that note I think you are ready to move on to the 250 box challenge. However it would be good to solve the problem with you tensing up your shoulders as the 250 box challenge requires for you to be able to draw smooth and confident lines. As said before I would suggest testing different things to see if it helps. You can also ask in other places such as drawabox's discord server or subreddit to see if anyone else would be able to provide you some advice. Moving on, the things I pointed out can be addressed in your warm ups.

Great job on finishing your first lesson!!! Drawabox is not easy course so be proud of yourself for making it this far! :D

Hello! Congratulations on getting through your first lesson!

Now to the critique:

Lines: In the superimposed lines exercise remember that there shouldn't be fraying on both ends. Instead lines should start from the same place every time. In the ghosted lines exercise your lines look good! They are smooth and mostly accurate. However in the later exercises they wobble in some places so remember to ghost lines enough times and then execute them confidently: they shouldn't curve or wobble. Also, refrain from drawing a line again even if it doesn't turn out the way you want it to which, by the way, is perfectly normal as you are learning.

Ellipses: Overall your ellipses look good! I would still though remind you to prioritize smooth confident lines over accuracy as in some of the ellipses there seem to be a slight wobble. In the funnels the minor axis should cut ellipses into two symmetrical halves. That, however, improves with accuracy over time so it is nothing to worry about now as long as your ellipses are smooth and confidently drawn.

Boxes: Your exercises in this section are done really well! Especially the rotated boxes one! There are some little things to keep in mind: In the rough perspective exercise remember that width lines should be parallel to the horizon line and height lines perpendicular to the horizon line. In the plotted exercise remember to keep the boxes in between the vanishing points to avoid distortion.

Overall your exercises were done very well! Even if there are a few things to keep in mind, you seem to have understood the concepts taught in this lesson and you are ready to move on to the 250 box challenge. You can address the things I have pointed out in your warm ups.

Great job on finishing your first lesson!

Hello!

Congratulations on finishing your lesson 1!!

Now to the critique:

Lines:

Overall your lines do look good. However on some occasions they do seem to be arching so remember to use your shoulder to execute the lines confidently and smoothly. If arching lines becomes a problem you can't get rid of you'll want to arch your lines in the opposite direction in case you subconsciously arch your lines in a certain direction. In the superimposed lines, remember to start from the same point always as there should be no fraying on both ends. Also it is really important to remember to use ghosting method so focus on that as well. And on that note never redraw your lines. Even if they don't turn the way you want you should still leave them as they are. It is also good to keep in mind that all of these exercises will be just for your practice so don't worry about things being perfect or not meeting some criteria you have set yourself. Everyone makes mistakes after all.

Ellipses:

Your ellipses do look good: your ellipses are smooth and confidently drawn. Some little things to mention is that in the exercise ellipses in planes your ellipses are not touching all of the sides of the planes so remember to ghost enough times to improve your accuracy. However your priority should be drawing smooth and confident ellipses and not accuracy which improves overtime as you practice. Your funnels look good and most of the time minor axis cuts your ellipses in two symmetrical halves as instructed.

Boxes

Your plotted perspective exercise is really well done! In the rough perspective remember that width lines should be parallel to horizon and height lines perpendicular to horizon, which you have mostly accomplished. In the rotated boxes exercise some boxes in the back are not rotated enough but overall your boxes look good! To me it seems like you have understood the concepts taught in this section and are ready to move on to the 250 box challenge where you get to practice putting the boxes in perspective.

You can address the things I mentioned in your warms up as you move on to the box challenge. Your lesson as a whole was really well done! You have done a very good job with these exercises! :D

Hello!

Congratulations on getting through your first lesson!

Now to the critique:

Lines:

Your lines seem to be at times wobbly so remember to ghost through them before confidently drawing the line. Your lines should be smooth and straight over accuracy. On the superimposed lines you also seem to have some fraying on both ends so remember to start from the same place always. Your lines also arch sometimes so remember to draw using your shoulder, If it becomes an issue even when taking your time to draw the line properly consider trying to arch the line on the opposite direction in case you subconsciously arch it in one direction.

However you have done a good job with your lines as well: there are ones that are accurate, straight and smooth. So just remember to be patient when drawing your lines! :D

Ellipses:

Overall your ellipses look good! They seem to be, for the most part, drawn confidently and smoothly and you have remembered to draw trough them twice. In ellipses in planes exercise some of the ellipses are deformed and don't touch all the sides of planes. So remember ghost them properly. However accuracy does take time and now your main priority should be keeping the ellipses smooth and confidently drawn, Your funnels look good, There are cases where the minor axis doesnt cut the ellipse symmetrically in half but again accuracy improves overtime so I wouldn't worry about it,

Boxes:

First of all your plotted perspective exercise is really well made! On the rough perspective, remember to keep the height lines perpendicular to horizon and widht lines parallel to horizon. On the rotated boxes: remember to rotate the boxes enough as some of the boxes aren't rotating enough throwing the whole picture off. However putting boxes in correct perspective and getting it rotate is a hard task which you will get to tackle in 250 box challenge so don't worry about this.

You can address the things I pointed out in your warm ups but all in all you did really well! You are free to now move on to the boxes challenge! Good job! :)

You are welcome!

Also if I may add it is completely fine to struggle with the perspective! (although if you feel like it is something you really need help with you can ask about it in the drawabox discord server et cetera)

Anyways good luck with rest of your boxes! :D

Thank you for the critique!

You are welcome :)

Hello!

First of all no need to apogolize! It's a good thing to ask.

And no. You should do the warm ups for around 15 minutes before working on a drawabox lesson.

Rather than doing warm ups regularly it is better to try to do the challenges and lessons regularly (which come with warm ups so two birds with one stone?). However regular doesn't mean daily as that might not be a realistic goal. Remember you will improve even if you don't draw daily and getting a burnout is not going to benefit you.

The reason I told you to practice those things in your warm ups was so that you won't focus on improving your lines when doing boxes as that challenge is meant to tackle other things.

Also just to mention you are probably going to see the things I pointed out in your lines when doing boxes which is completely normal. And in general you will always see things that need improvement.