250 Box Challenge
4:24 PM, Monday August 10th 2020
I definately feel improved, thank you a lot for teaching!
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2:18 AM, Tuesday August 11th 2020
Heya, TA qzhans here!
Before we begin, I just want to congratulate you on giving those 250 boxes a good ol’ pen and ink smackdown. It is a MASSIVE undertaking and you’ve joined the prestiged club of its completers.
You’ve diligently drawn through all your boxes and extended every single last line out to check your errors, and your boxes have been better for it. Indeed, you’ve made a marked improvement throughout the set, with the boxes on your last page looking pretty nice.
I also like how you've used line weight to reinforce the silhouettes of your boxes and help them pop out. However, I do notice that there are some places where the line you've used to reinforce can get a little wobbly. Remember to always execute strokes with confidence, placing that above accuracy. I also noticed that there were a few times where you reinforced the inside lines of the box, rather than the silhouette. This signals to me that you might have an unconscious urge sometimes to patch-up, or try and fix, lines, which is something you shouldn't be doing. Attempt every line once (and confidently).
Also, although you've done a pretty perfect job with convergences, there are a few cases where the back middle line is going astray. It's minor enough to the point that I'm sure it'll fix itself over time, but I'll say this anyway: When you go to draw a line, think only about the lines that are supposed to be parallel to it (share a vanishing point). Lines closer to an existing line will converge slower, while the opposite is true for lines further away.
Additionally, you've stuck to a rigid 5 boxes a page, but I would've liked to see a few especially big ones here and there. But that's just a small nitpick, and a reminder to you that when you pull this out for warm-ups to try some more variety of boxes.
Overall, this is a strong submission, and I have no worries sending you along to Lesson 2!
Next Steps:
Lesson 2
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Sakura Pigma Microns
A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.
In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.