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7:34 PM, Friday September 23rd 2022

Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Currently your link leads to a single page rather than all of them, reply to this comment with a corrected link and I'll handle your critique as soon as I can.

To quickly answer your question, how you choose to handle warm ups out of the course is up to you. Warming up will always be beneficial so it's recommended but as you progress you may find exercises more suited to whatever your current task is (maybe a value study if you're planning on painting etc.).

Just keep in mind that Drawabox as a course is here to teach you how to practice - how you use the tools it gives you is up to you, though you'll be better equipped to make those decisions as you progress through the course.

Next Steps:

Submit a corrected link please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
9:25 PM, Friday September 23rd 2022

My bad, here's the right link! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LHGEXejbazVawxp-BfZPABkVO9QB-_WB?usp=sharing

11:10 PM, Friday September 23rd 2022

This works, thanks.

Congratulations on completing the box challenge, it's definitely a lot more work than most people expect. Not only does it help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. Be proud of what you've accomplished and that desire you've shown. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.

Things you did well:

  • Your construction lines are looking smooth and confidently drawn.

  • It's good to see that you're taking the time to plan and evenly space your hatching lines. This helps keep your boxes tidy and makes them look more solid.

  • You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations, proportions and rates of foreshortening. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.

Things you can work on:

  • Line weight isn't a requirement of the challenge but I do recommend practicing it in your future attempts. It's an incredibly useful tool but one that people often require a fair bit of mileage before they feel comfortable applying it. The sooner you start to build up that mileage the sooner you'll see better results.

  • There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.

The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.

Overall while you did make a few mistakes your boxes are improving so far and with more mileage you'll continue to become more consistent. That being said I'll be marking your submission as complete and move you on to lesson 2.

Keep practicing previous exercises and boxes as warm ups, and good luck.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
2:38 AM, Saturday September 24th 2022

Thank you so much! I really appreciate these critiques (though I suppose I am paying for it, but still)!

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Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens

Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens

Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.

Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.

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