Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
8:04 PM, Thursday February 16th 2023
lord forgive me I am not using printer paper.
those last 2 exercises were rough :')
Good evening! I'm kotka#1891 on Discord and I'll be your reviewer tonight. Wherever you are, I hope you have a nice evening (or morning) with lots of tasty tea.
Lines
Your lines look very confident and there is a minimal amount of arching, which tells me that you have understood the task and your shoulder movement has a good balance of control and relaxation. Fraying of lines at the end is expected and something that will slowly improve over time as you keep doing lines as warm-up, but I see some fraying at the start of the line. Don't rush, place our pen perfectly on the same spot every time, and this error will disappear. Actually, it already disappears in your second page of Superimposed Lines, which means that you already know how to correct this. Great!
You have a minimal amount of overshooting in your Ghosted Lines and Ghosted Planes which is good. Try to see if locking your eyes on the end point while drawing towards it can improve your accuracy.
Ellipses
Confidence and fluent motion is more important than accuracy here. You have understood the assignment and done your best, but, your ellipse exercises need to have a bit more variety! You seem to choose very similar ellipse degrees, try experimenting a bit more. It will help you develop your skills. For now, it's fine, but make sure to include all kinds of degrees, axis and sizes for your ellipse practices. Your major strength in the ellipse exercises is that you are good at following boundaries for your ellipses, even though the accuracy suffers a bit. Nicely done! Just take a look at the big difference between your first and second submission of Table of Ellipses: you clearly understand how you need to improve and what to do. You accuracy is a lot better in the second, too.
Your strongest ellipse exercise is Funnels, so if I'd choose one of these exercises for you to prioritize once you use them for warming up, I'd recommend you to keep doing a lot of Table of Ellipses.
Boxes
Nothing to comment on Plotted Perspective, looks correct. Next, the Rough Perspective. Not much here either, some lines are wobbly but it's not a big problem and will improve with time and practice. You have done the exercise according to instructions.
Now, The Rotated Boxes is a very hard exercise, prone to a lot of mistakes. I applaud you for clear lines (even if wobbly), not drawing over and correcting twice, and finishing the exercise as instructed. While your sphere of rotated boxes is more of a rounded square, you have done all that is expected and with a minimum of unnecessary features. You shine especially in imagining and drawing boxes above the horizon line and they are quite symmetrical on both sides of the sphere. If anything, try improving your boxes at the lower half of the horizon line as those ones are suffering a bit more.
Organic Perspective is basically preparation for the 250 Box challenge. You wrote that this one was rough, too, but I see a proper execution of this exercise, and clear communication of how you imagine the boxes twist and turn along the curve. Just keep applying line making concepts such as ghosting and planning the end points with dots as you continue your journey, and it will be fine.
Your submission is solid and confident, but remember to have patience and ghost more than less in future DAB endeavors.
Next Steps:
Stock up on printing paper, it's cheap and worth it. Trust me, you will need it for the 250 Box challenge!
If possible, use a pen that is a bit less thick (you can find recommended brands and sizes here. It will help you in the long run, too.
You are ready for your first beastly and stamina-draining 250 Box challenge. Remember, ask for help sooner than later, and vent your frustrations before you burn out. We're in this for the long run, right? Good luck!
Hi Kotka,
Wow this is great, detailed feedback and more than I had hoped for! Much appreciated, I agree with all your points and will implement your tips for the next exercise.
Have a great week :)
Michael Hampton is one of my favourite figure drawing teachers, specifically because of how he approaches things from a basis of structure, which as you have probably noted from Drawabox, is a big priority for me. Gesture however is the opposite of structure however - they both exist at opposite ends of a spectrum, where structure promotes solidity and structure (and can on its own result in stiffness and rigidity), gesture focuses on motion and fluidity, which can result in things that are ephemeral, not quite feeling solid and stable.
With structure and spatial reasoning in his very bones, he still provides an excellent exploration of gesture, but in a visual language in something that we here appreciate greatly, and that's not something you can find everywhere.
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