Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
11:31 PM, Sunday January 2nd 2022
I used didgital instead of physical
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6:19 PM, Monday January 3rd 2022
Hello :) I'm a beginner myself so I'm sorry if there's any mistakes in my feedback. First, I want to say great job. I looked through each of your pages and I can see the hard work you put into each exercise, keep it up!
Part 1: Materials
If possible, I suggest you find a way to work through this course with a pen and paper. I've also tried to go digital and it complicated my learning of the material. Depending on your set up, it can be hard to rotate your page when using the ghosting technique. It can also impact your ability to achieve straight lines and come into the habit of using your shoulder to draw. If you're not submitting for official critique, you can even use a ballpoint pen to work if you can't get your hands on a fine-liner. However, the lessons are all still doable digitally (at least as far as I know, don't quote me on this) it'll likely just be harder and longer to achieve the results you want.
Part 2: Lines
Your lines look nice. For example, for your superimposed lines, there is little fraying at the beginning, which is good. There is fraying at the end of the lines though, but that's okay at this stage. I do see wobble in your lines in places. This can be caused by going slowly, or not using the pivot of your shoulder to draw. Remember to shoot for clean, confident strokes. When you warm up using these exercises, keep in mind the image of the end result you want, and bit by bit you will improve. For reaching that second point when doing ghosted lines, try stopping just before you hit the dot. If that doesn't work, experiment with different stopping times.
Part 3: Ellipses
For ellipses, make a conscious effort to use your shoulder to draw them out- even for tiny ellipses. In the end, drawing ellipses with your shoulder will cultivate smoother lines. Your ellipses, for example in the Ellipses in Planes and Table of Ellipses assignments, bend unevenly and wobble in some places to stay within the boundaries. Here, I feel you should worry less about staying within the lines for now and focus on executing confident strokes. As you work to build that confidence, your awareness of keeping within the boundaries will also improve. Don't forget to go over your strokes 2 - 3 times before completing the circle. As always, keep in mind your end result when drawing these out.
Part 4: Cubes
The same advice I wrote above mainly applies here too. As for things specific to boxes, there are a couple times when your depth lines, when traced back to the horizon line, didn't touch the horizon line at all and instead ran parallel to it. This happened to me a lot too! For moments like these, refer to the boxes you made in the plotted perspective exercise. Pay attention to how they behave, what angles are seen. Slow down, and think about what lines would make sense in reference to the vanishing point. However, I won't go into perspective much more than that. The 250 Box Challenge will improve your perspective and help you get more comfortable with drawing in 3D. I have yet to do the challenge myself, so my knowledge is limited.
One last thing, unless stated otherwise, don't forget to plot your lines. I think that using the ghosting technique was implied to be used throughout, so even in the Organic Perspective assignment, make sure to draw out those dots. (I'm not 100% on this, so apologies if I'm wrong).
Thank you for reading. This is my first time writing feedback on this website, so I hope it's okay and that it helped you out a little.
Next Steps:
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Remember, before every drawing session (when you sit down and do your for fun art) dedicate 10 - 15 minutes practicing one of the exercises you submitted here.
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Tackle the 250 box challenge.
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Try to use pen and paper going forward if you can, if not, just be aware the lessons can get more complicated otherwise.
11:06 PM, Thursday January 13th 2022
Thank you for reviewing my work.
I have not run into any problems using digital, I don't find rotating a problem (it's something I use regularly anyway). Though having an undo is nice but I feel like that is hindering me from making progress, I am trying to not use that at all. Other than that I don't feel like it is problematic for me, especially considering that I don't plan to do traditional art. I might be wrong though!
I always first and formost try to keep my lines smooth by doing confident movements with my entire arm, but I guess I still need to work on that. Plus I get quickly worn out, I guess I just never used these muscles this much.
I try to plot out what I want to draw most of the time, but a lot of times I just don't have the accuracy to draw to where I want/marked
3:49 AM, Friday January 14th 2022
Hello! Your welcome!! I'm glad digital works for you. Either way you go about this, you'll be improving your art skills in the end through consistent practice :) The soreness should get better too, after a while. I started only recently, so It was a struggle to draw from my shoulder for long periods of time. It has got a little better though. Anyways, I just wanted to say, keep it up and good luck!!
0 users agree
5:01 AM, Sunday September 11th 2022
Are you drawing on a screen, or with a wacom tablet? I find that the way the wacom tracks makes it really hard to draw curved lines accurately. You end up fighting and correcting, and getting wobbly curved lines. It's less of an issue with straight. You may at least try paper and pen to train your muscle memory for the accurate ellipse work.
The organic perspective looks good with line weight and converging lines. Just a few sorta extreme perspective boxes.
Do you have to hike your shoulder a bit for it to freely move? If I don't have a low enough desk to work on, I sit on a stack of books so I don't have to shrug my shoulder while drawing.
5:10 PM, Monday January 16th 2023
I've been drawing on a wacom tablet without a screen, in any case I have decided to move foward with physical drawing.
I don't really have trouble with curved lines with the tablet.
Right, low desk! That makes a lot of sense, I'll find something higher to sit on!
Thanks a lot!
9:07 PM, Wednesday January 18th 2023
I've actually used a clipboard in my lap while sitting on a regular folding chair (I didn't have a low desk or books that day). I also tried a regular table, but the lap-clipboard setup was better, cause my arm was able to move freely.
It's not a perfect setup for creating beautiful art, but got me through the daily stuff when I otherwise wouldn't have had time to do it. Perfect is the enemy of good!
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