This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
1:38 PM, Monday August 15th 2022
Nice to meet you, CatBehemot! I'd like to give a review of your homework. It's evident you put a plenty of effort in understanding and making this, but there is a space for improvement, and sorry in advance if some parts sound harsh.
Lines
-
Superimposed lines. The main purpose of this exercise is to achieve confidence in markmaking. While your lines do fray at one end throughout the submission, there is a progression of smoothness and reduction of wobbling that is a sign of improvement. You have a defined starting point for each line meaning you are putting effort and developing control. As for the line arching, make sure you keep pushing yourself to draw from your shoulder and if the arching persists, try to compensate by arching your lines in the opposite direction. It may be useful to add this exercise to your everyday warmups.
-
Ghosted lines. Although there are some wobbly lines at the start, I can see that towards the end of the page they are becoming increasingly straight. As for that "bump" segment on some of the lines, you can work on it similarly to the arching, with the exception of applying the conscious effort only on the fragment instead of the whole line.
-
Ghosted planes. There is a noticeable drop in line quality due to wobbling. Is it because you're overconcerning yourself with accuracy? Remember, that in these lessons the essential goal is to get confidence in drawing and only then think of meeting the dots exactly. Use the ghosting method as much as you need, push to draw from the shoulder and it also helps to look only at the destination. I think, I'll ask you to work on it a little bit more.
Ellipses
-
Tables of ellipses. The ellipses are smooth enough for the beginning, good job. They are also pretty even, yet keep trying to improve the parts near the ends of major axes — as the most deviations usually happen there. You're also drawing them from two to three times as requested trying your best to touch the walls, and it's also nice as it shows how you're keeping attention to the instructions.
-
Ellipses in planes. Just like in the case with planes, you seem too much focused on making them touch the lines resulting in them often being deformed. I see in your work that the ellipses are becoming more confident and elliptical in shape, but I think you may want to put some more work on them.
-
Funnels. Your ellipses often tear into each other broking the rule of spacing or not being too loose. Additionally, some of them have quite abrupt ends near the major axes resulting in breaking the shape, so it would be a good point to fix. Alignment is not too bad, but there is still space for improvement.
Boxes
-
Plotted perspective. It's correct techninally, you emphasize front faces with hatching and also seemingly add lineweight to the exterior — good work!
-
Rough perspective. It is supposed to be a tough exercise and I see improvement in your work from panel to panel. You keep the vertical and the horizontal lines aligned to the page dimensions as needed, and you don't forget to apply the error-checking method in a correct way — keep up the good work! (although the linework could have been slightly better)
-
Rotated boxes. A mind-boggling exercise for a beginner. But you did it pretty well. The most of the boxes look rotated and you use the existing corners as a guide when drawing newer boxes. (although, the top right/left corner boxes could have been slightly more rotated) However, an important markmaking mistake emerges there — you seem to draw a single line multiple times. If it is a lineweight problem, as I think, try practicing applying lineweight with the same ghosting method as you do when drawing your usual lines.
-
Organic perspective. A good attempt, you experiment with varying the rotation degrees and try to keep the foreshortening rate consistent while making the boxes diminishing with depth. But, there are two main problems: your markmaking has troubles with wobbling and redrawing the lines, and supposed parallel lines often diverge when one extends them from a front edge instead of meeting at a vanishing point. When applying the Y-method, it can often be a result of not making sure all the initial Y angles are above 90 degrees. You will work more on perspective for the 250 boxes challenge, but at the same time this exercise a great display of linework skills, so I'll reassign it too.
Now, to conclude, you demonstrated that with practice you're capable of improving your skills. The most of the lesson was just fine, but I'd like to address the rest of the crucial concept problems — wobbling/arching issues — with a couple of revisions. I hope that these comments are to the point and it's not too much work for you.
Next Steps:
-
1 page of Ghosted planes/Ellipses in pages — focus on your linework confidence over point/line meeting accuracy for lines and ellipses alike. Make an effort to give the ellipses more symmetrical elliptic shape.
-
1 page of Funnels. Work on consistent spacing and confident ellipse-making. It would be nice to try changing the elliptical degree as that will become handy in the future lessons.
-
1 page of Organic perspective. Focus on confident lines without wobbling and never redraw lines even if they missed the point.
8:42 PM, Tuesday August 16th 2022
Ok, i tried again, here are the revisions
11:01 PM, Tuesday August 16th 2022
Alright, I received them. Again, thank you for putting your time to get better! Now, I'll leave some comments.
-
Ghosted planes. The lines look smooth and straight and it seems that you eliminated any wobbling here, amazing! A few lines still have some arching or a bump, but I think you'll improve it over time just as the matter with overshooting (it's fine for this lesson purpose).
-
Ellipses in planes. Many much more even and confident than in the previous run. That big one on the right is my favorite. Some kinks remain, but it's a great advancement, you do seem to listen to my critique. However, of course, aim to fit the ellipses within planes in the future.
-
Funnels. You fixed the spacing mistake — that's the main thing. Now for the most part they are just touching each other as supposed. You played with the elliptic degrees and that's great as it heavily reinforces the illusion of a 3D object. It will be crucial for making the later lessons and developing spacial thinking as a whole. Although, by the time you will have to draw similar forms again in the lessons (starting from L2), try your best to tighten the outlines of your ellipses, so the organic forms will be much more believable. And remind yourself of true ellipse forms from references once in a while.
-
Organic perspective. Good to see the line confidence grown in this exercise too! Ghosting accuracy and convergences may still not be the best, but don't worry too much about it now. After all, you will have 250 more possibilities to improve those aspects!
To summarize, you made a great deal of improvement in the pointed out issues. While still not perfect, you will have a lot of opportunities to nail them in the future lessons. Be sure to read (and reread!) all instructions carefully, remebmer to have fun and good luck!
Next Steps:
Proceed to the 250 boxes challenge and continue to work on your linework/ellipses as a part of your warmups.
Staedtler Pigment Liners
These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.
Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).