Tygerson

Congrats on finishing lesson 3--this looks fantastic!

Arrows: You clearly understand the idea here, and have the smooth swooping lines and hatching in. On just a few (like the upper left and lower right), the ribbon looks a bit wonky on the close side, but hey, this is fineliner work.

Leaves: Nice variety, and you got some good folds and bends. You continued to add variety in the 3D shapes, with some rippled edges in the plant drawings themselves.

Branches: Again, these look good, and the lines are smooth. I can see it's a bit difficult to hit everything with perfect accuracy, but that will keep getting better with time.

Plant drawings: These are lovely, and such good variety! You definitely lend a sense of 3D space as you follow the forms, and the texturing is really beautiful. There is so much volume to be felt here. One minor nitpick is that on a few occasions, the ellipses are tilted a bit from where the minor axis should be (such as the stem of the mushroom on the very left), but you generally nail it, so I wouldn't worry too much. Overall awesome work!

Thank you very much! This was very helpful!

I asked Elodin for feedback on my feedback, and this thing won't let me edit the last bits. (Ignore the bit I wrote about the straight stems.)

Here is what Elodin said:

-the main issues I see are the wobbly lines, that they're doing scribbles on the texture and that they aren't drawing through some parts (like the pots)

-not sure what u mean about the stems being only upright? i don't think thhat's that much of a problem

if the ref is like that then the ref is like that

-also another important thing is that they're drawing too smol

-i'd tell them to do one drawing per page

Well, I've never developed a skill I cared about without some sort of slog, and that's pretty normal.

I've also never gotten as far developing skills in isolation as I have with a supportive group. This goes for both hobbies and the work it took to get a college degree.

Having a few consistent art buddies (like, you know each other's names/usernames and styles and communicate on occasion), even if it's just online, goes a long way to staying motivated. It's not just for beginners. This guy has art improvement buddies ( https://www.instagram.com/algenpfleger/ ), as does Proko, and probably many other pros do.

I'm at lesson 6 in DAB, and would have quit ten times over if it wasn't for my study group.

Congratulations on completing lesson 3, and nothing wrong with taking a hiatus! Overall, this looks really good. The lines are smooth and confident, you have a variety of plants, and you demonstrate a solid sense of space.

That said, you'd probably like to hear the nitpicks too, and here they are.

1. On the daisy, the petals seem to be growing in an odd way. Something about the foreshortening and the very tall petals in the back (along with very short in front) kind of breaks the illusion of space for me. The reference is a bit like this, but the closest petals are wider on the page than that far ones (2D space). That said, this isn't even the emphasis of this exercise, so it's not that important.

2. On the arrows, it seems a few had the hatching backwards. With the arrow on the middle right of the page, the increasing size of the arrow implies that the head is closest to you, but the hatching implies that the small tail is closer. There's a similar issue on the lower left arrow--the head is small and "far away," but the hatching implies the head is closest.

All 4 arrows on top of the page work, so maybe those others were just early attempts.

3. Leaves: these look great!

4. Stems: also great!

5. Plants: you have a great variety, draw through, confident lines, some texture, overall good work!

Congratulations! You're done and these look fabulous! The lines are clean and confident, you have a variety of box types and convergences, the hatching is pretty, the colored lines check everything correctly.

Your line quality improved visibly between the start and end of this challenge, and it looks like you have a good sense of space here.

Hey, congratulations on getting through lesson 3! It's great that your spatial understanding continues to improve.

Now, before we get into this, I'd like to ask about line quality. Do you have any particular condition that cause it to be difficult to create smooth lines? If this is the case, I don't need details, but if you have something (like hands that shake or whatnot), ignore this next bit.

Line quality: Your understanding is increasing, which is excellent. However, if you wish to have clean looking drawings, you'll want to specifically work on your line quality. This took me a few months, and I'm still working on it. Here are some suggestions.

1. Warm up 3-5 minutes before you draw. I personally pick one song on youtube and warm up until it's over. Especially do the ghosted lines, frayed lines (and curves), and tables of cylinders. It's okay if you don't fill a whole page. Just go until the time is up.

2. Keep a piece of scratch paper nearby. When your lines go wobbly, do a few smooth, wild sweeps across the scratch paper to "reset" yourself.

3. Gradually learn your "Goldilocks speed," not to slow, and not too fast. Too slow, and you'll get wobbles. Too fast, and it will be inaccurate.

4. This is hard for me too--if you draw a line and it isn't accurate, leave it rather than trying to redraw it. (Do whatever you please in your 50% work, though.)

Arrows: You're starting to see with some depth here, and getting some folds in the ribbons. Next level will be to try to get the ribbon to dramatically narrow as it recedes into the distance. It can help to draw one sweeping line, then put dots underneath at the bends to plan where your second line needs to go.

Branches: Again, the idea is there.

Leaves: These are okay, but I noticed none bend over. Folding the leaves is hard, but it can help if you first try to bend a "sheet of paper," or a small chunk of ribbon. Then you can add the leaf inside. Like this: https://imgur.com/a/cQ98k6f

Plants: So these are a good start, but I notice that most of your plants have straight, upright stems and leaves/petals that face the viewer without folding over. The bell shaped flowers and mushrooms start to move away from this trend, but they need some construction lines. For example, an ellipse that marks the bottom part of the bell, which the petals are built around.

Fabulous, that's what I was looking for!

(Also, you don't have to do all the things for warmups each time--just pick one each day.)

Congratulations on getting through lesson 3! It's okay--all these assignments push the limits of what we can do, which is the place of growth. With that in mind, here is some feedback.

Arrows: It seems you are starting to see the idea here. You've got some tapering, and some overlaps. Some arrows have this sort of "river" effect on a few bends, where the edges don't overlap ( https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/4/overlap ). Putting dots down to sort of mark the path of the second line can help you plan it out. Draw the dots before this step ( https://drawabox.com/lesson/2/4/step2 ).

Leaves: You have the idea here! I like to think of leaves sort of like rectangles that can bend, like so: https://imgur.com/a/cQ98k6f

Branches: This one didn't seem to upload.

Plants: It looks like you're drawing through most of these, although the venus fly trap doesn't seem drawn through, except for the planter. I'd try to construct this some more, or maybe pick a plant/view that lends itself to construction.

Overall: Your line/ellipse confidence isn't yet where you're going to want it for clean looking drawings. Make sure you warm up each time you draw, for 3-5 minutes (I like to put one song on youtube and warmup until it's done). Work on frayed lines (both straight and curved), arrows, plus tables of ellipses. The next two lessons will have a LOT of curves and ellipses, including large ellipses that you'll need to draw with confidence.

Congratulations on making it through lesson 3! This is looking good! Your line confidence varies a bit across the exercises, but I think this will continue to improve as you do 3-5 minute warm ups with ghosted curves and ellipses.

Arrows: Looks like you understand the gist of the exercise, and are able to make these flow in space. When you do them later in warmups, you may want to try for a smoother taper/narrowing of the arrow. It can help to draw dot guidelines on the curves.

Leaves: Most of them have some good flow, although a few look like the leaf on the left ( https://drawabox.com/lesson/3/2/exerciseleaves ). One thing that helped me (and again, you can try this in warmups) is to draw rectangles that bend like leaves, then draw a leaf that matches it. (Sort of like this: https://imgur.com/a/cQ98k6f )

Branches: Your drawing through all your branches, and I can see on your plants you're starting to consider what approximate degree the ellipse might need to be. This will come more naturally as you draw more ellipses in later lessons.

Plants: These are looking great! I can feel the 3D-ness of the palms in page 2, and you chose a nice variety, even getting some solid texture on the corpse flower. The acorn-shaped flower and one next to it were some interesting constructions, which you handled well.