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Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

11:17 PM, Wednesday July 12th 2023

Drawabox Homework Assignments Submission | Lesson 1 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/NlTxpnI.jpg

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Hi! I don't know exactly what to write in this... Will not do the self critique thing tho haha. I did my best to draw from my shoulder everytime, but I'll admit that when the lines were too small I used elbow or wrist. Making a 1cm straight line from the shoulder is damn hard, but lemme know if that's something I should do. Also I will admit that I did a bit more than the recommended amount (ended up with 11 extra pages) for some exercises... I felt like the ellipses felt out of place in the list of exercises because we tackle them out of nowhere and then go back to boxes (and finish with boxes). But I imagine future lessons will have plenty of ellipses to make me cry lol. I also have to admit that I did not do 50/50 lessons and free drawing. Twas probably more like 70% lessons and 30% drawing...

The most dreaded exercise to me was the Rotated Boxes (seems doomed in the beginning but after a certain point starts to look right). My favorite one was the Organic Perspective (last one). It was surprisingly fun and a nice warm up for the 250 Boxes Challenge (I counted ~81 boxes from my 2 pages).

I will say that I see a nice improvement in how I feel about making mistakes. That is definitely something that always held me back from simply sitting down and drawing. If there is something that this course does right is assuring the person that making mistakes is the only way to learn and make progress, and that's OKAY.

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2 users agree
4:35 PM, Thursday July 13th 2023
edited at 4:37 PM, Jul 13th 2023

Hi, I'll be critiquing your work. Congrats on completing lesson 1.

In lesson one Uncomfortable says to use your shoulder to draw for EVERYTHING done in this course, he says we're supposed to do it because it is challenging. Also, I do not recommend doing more pages of homework than you need to, Uncomfortable says to only do the amount of work he prescribes for each lesson, no more.

Lines

I see a fair amount of arching in your ghosted lines, what I found to work for me was to try to arch the line in the opposite direction.

I also noticed there is wobbliness in some your lines, and you mentioned in your post that you were using your wrist or elbow. Don't do that, use your shoulder- and remember to prioritize making a smooth confident line. Your accuracy will improve over time, so there's no need to worry about having super accurate lines.

Your superimposed lines are looking pretty good, there were only a few cases where there was some fraying on both ends. As a reminder, remember to place your pen at the same starting position each time you make a mark.

Ellipses

Your ellipses in planes are looking pretty good. There were only a few cases where they escaped the bounds of the plane.

Your funnels are looking good too. Getting them aligned with the minor axis will improve with time.

It looks like you didn't draw through some of your ellipses in your table of ellipses. Remember to draw through your ellipses two or three times, confidently.

Boxes

In rough perspective the only real issue I noticed was that your lines were wobbly.

Your rotated boxes look great! They're all spaced out, and rotate away continuously. Good job!

Your organic perspective boxes look good too! The only mistake I saw was with how you used line weight. You only want to darken the parts of the line that are overlapping another form, you do not want to make the whole line darker. However, there isn't much need to worry about that, as you'll have plenty of time to improve that in the 250 box challenge!

Before I mark the lesson as complete, I would like for you to do just 2 rows of ellipses, with the ellipses at two varying angles in each row.

https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/f4181ea2.jpg See in the example homework, how Uncomfortable had the ellipses angled to the left in one row, and then angled to the right in another.

Next Steps:

2 rows of ellipses with the ellipses at only two different angles per row.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 4:37 PM, Jul 13th 2023
1:10 PM, Friday July 14th 2023

Thanks a lot for the critique! Will keep in mind the shoulder only drawing, line wobbliness and arching as well as the line weight. As for the 2 rows of ellipses, here you go: https://i.imgur.com/FrMkI16.jpg

(let me know if you meant for me to do it a different way)

3:42 PM, Friday July 14th 2023

Those ellipses are great, Good work! I think you're ready to move on to the 250 box challenge.

Next Steps:

250 box challenge!

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
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