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:
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Good work drawing your construction lines confidently, this keeps your lines smooth and prevents wobbling.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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You often don't extend all 3 sets of your lines as instructed.
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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.
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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.
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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.