Check Out NMA    Learn More About our Partnership
Close and Enjoy Drawabox Ad-free

250 Box Challenge

1:44 AM, Saturday April 9th 2022

250 Box Challenge - Album on Imgur

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

Find, rate and share the best memes and images. Discover the magic of th...

At long last (a few months after lesson 1 haha) I have finished all 250 boxes.

R.I.P. to the 150 boxes I drew incorrectly because I initially skimmed the instructions. (Started over from zero, that's why the first 50 or so boxes are muddled by colorful tape, incorrect numbering, etc.)

the Imgur titles are correct, not the hand-drawn ones scribbled on each page.

I would most like to know what your recommendation regarding next steps is!

Thank you,

Silla

Report
0 users agree
12:34 AM, Monday April 11th 2022

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

Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. 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:

  • Good work drawing your construction lines confidently, this keeps your lines smooth and prevents wobbling.

  • When hatching you're taking the time to space each line evenly which shows that care and thought is being put into each line. This helps your boxes appear solid and tidy rather than rushed.

  • Seeing as how line weight is not a requirement of the challenge it's nice to see that you're applying it. It's a useful tool but one that most people need some mileage with before they feel comfortable applying it. Getting an early start like this will help you see better results sooner.

  • You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations, and proportions. 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:

  • You often don't extend all 3 sets of your lines as instructed.

  • I'd like you to experiment with rates of foreshortening more. Currently you keep your vanishing points far from your boxes and try to make your lines as close to parallel as possible. Try bringing them in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically.

  • At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes. This leads to you extending your lines in the wrong direction and your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are actually diverging from where the vanishing point would actually be. Here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place your vanishing points and line extensions more consistently. Here are some examples as well if you need them.

  • 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.

I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.

To be completely honest with you your submission puzzles me a bit. You mentioned that you realized you skimmed through the instructions and missed some so you felt the need to restart. I'm glad you noticed but it still appears like you missed a bunch of the instructions creating issues that wouldn't exist if you took your time and read through them properly.

It's definitely a lot of information but I encourage you to take as much time as you possibly need to read through them in the future because not following them results in revisions that will take longer than reading will, it's a better use of time for everyone involved.

That being said there is some new information on the box challenge as well as this big reminder section now to help point out that these are things that should be worked on. I hope you'll give the page a proper read.

I'll be asking you to draw 25 more boxes please. Extend all your sets of lines, experiment with rates of foreshortening, and do your best to place your vanishing points/line extensions consistently in the right direction.

Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.

I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.

Next Steps:

25 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
11:49 PM, Saturday April 16th 2022

https://imgur.com/a/IPio6e7

Thank you for the thorough critique and for the reasoning and instructions for my revision. The diagrams and examples you gave were particularly helpful.

I also went back to study the official article. Of all the specific advice you gave, foreshortening was the hardest to implement. I feel like trying to make my boxes less basic increased the overall distortion.

I hope these 25 show some improvement however.

Would love to know your thoughts,

9:47 PM, Monday April 18th 2022

Hey there,

There are some improvements here and some things to work on still.

The majority of your lines are extended in the correct direction now but I would like to quickly point to these 3 boxes.

If you were to get rid of the line extensions and hatching you'd see that the boxes themselves are actually pretty solid but because you hatched the wrong side you actually ended up distorting the box and extending your lines in the wrong direction. The planes facing the viewer should always be hatched and larger than the rear facing planes.

It's entirely possible that this was just a mistake from being tired/distracted just do your best to keep yourself focused going forward and taking breaks if you need them.

Besides those 3 boxes there's still not much experimentation when it comes to rates of foreshortening. There is the occasional line or set that converges a bit closer but you're still keeping your vanishing points way back the majority of the time which leads to attempted parallel lines ending up diverging rather than converging.

I'd like you to draw 5 more boxes but with a few extra instructions that will hopefully make your future attempts go smoother.

After you draw your initial Y shape I'd like you to place your 3 vanishing points on the page fairly close by. Having concrete points like this will hopefully help your brain prevent you from trying to keep your lines parallel.

If you have any questions before getting started feel free to ask.

Next Steps:

5 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
10:20 PM, Saturday April 23rd 2022

https://imgur.com/a/EVDAnO9

Here are the revisions.

I had no idea there was a wrong way to hatch the boxes! I was literally doing them on a whim. It really does to show how subtly difficult this challenge is. I learn something new with every revision.

I know I didn't exactly hit the vanishing points, but they really helped with visualization.

The grayish lines were done with a sparkly silver pen, so that's why they look weird.

Thanks again!!

View more comments in this thread
The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
PureRef

PureRef

This is another one of those things that aren't sold through Amazon, so I don't get a commission on it - but it's just too good to leave out. PureRef is a fantastic piece of software that is both Windows and Mac compatible. It's used for collecting reference and compiling them into a moodboard. You can move them around freely, have them automatically arranged, zoom in/out and even scale/flip/rotate images as you please. If needed, you can also add little text notes.

When starting on a project, I'll often open it up and start dragging reference images off the internet onto the board. When I'm done, I'll save out a '.pur' file, which embeds all the images. They can get pretty big, but are way more convenient than hauling around folders full of separate images.

Did I mention you can get it for free? The developer allows you to pay whatever amount you want for it. They recommend $5, but they'll allow you to take it for nothing. Really though, with software this versatile and polished, you really should throw them a few bucks if you pick it up. It's more than worth it.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.