Hey; welcome to drawabox! I’ll be looking through your submission today. From a cursory glance, it looks like there’s some major issues with it, mainly to do with your chosen tool (a thick marker, by the looks of it?), your method of using it (you’ve drawn over your original lines, it seems), and the understanding, or lack thereof, of the instructions for the exercises that haven’t been drawn in this way, which there aren’t many. I’ll, ultimately, request a full lesson re-do out of you, and I’ll use this critique to give you some general advice, as well as some exercise-specific advice, so you can hopefully perform a little better next time.

Let’s start from the top. For patrons, tool requirements are absolute. There’s some wiggle room, in that you can use any fineliner in the 0.4-0.6mm range, and, for the first 2 submissions, you’re allowed to use a ballpoint, but the focus is still on us being able to accurately judge your linework. If your tool is any thicker, or, if you’ve reinforced your lines to such an extent that they’re no longer visible (both are the case, here), then we’re unable to do this. So, for starters, I’ll recommend grabbing one of the recommended tools, and paying attention to the instruction that says that each line is drawn once, and only once, regardless of how it turns out. As far as general advice goes, this is it. Let’s now talk about each exercise individually.

The second page of the superimposed lines exercise is drawn using the correct tool. Your lines start off a little wobbly, but improve considerably by the end. Try to be a little more careful in regards to their trajectory, still. I also notice that you’ve not tried any arcing lines- please do. In general, you want to look at the ‘example homework’ at the end of each exercise as a guide, and try to mimic its composition to the best of your ability. The ghosted lines (of which there’s 2 pages, for some reason) are drawn using a marker, so I can’t comment on their confidence, but I’ll remind you that, though it’s fine for them to stop short of, or overshoot the end point, they need to be lined up to the starting point. Speaking of, your points need to be much, much smaller. The idea is that a perfect line should swallow them both. You’ve got an extra (and, looking at some of the backsides of your pages a few extra) pages of planes, too. Please follow the recommended page requirements. I’d much rather you spend that same amount of time on a single page, if you can. Anyway, for this exercise, I’ll look at the last page, the one that seems to have been drawn using a proper fineliner. A few of your lines are quite good; others are wobbly, and scratchy. Outside of the ‘draw each line once’ advice, which I mentioned earlier, I’ll also mention that the goal is for our lines to be confident, more so than accurate. To this end, we ghost them until comfortable, then commit. Any earlier, and our insecurities will be reflected in our marks.

You’ve, unfortunately, re-drawn your ellipses in page 1, and drawn them once, but using the wrong tool, on page 2. I’ve no complaints in regards to their confidence, in that second page, so there’s that, but I will mention that you’ve not drawn through them, as instructed. Remember: draw through each ellipse 2-3 times. Also, ellipses need to touch all available sides of the frame. That is to say, they can’t be floating, like in row 5, column 1. The ellipses in planes haven’t been drawn through, either, on either page. I’ll choose to focus on the first one, the one that’s been completed using a fineliner. Your ellipses here are wobbly, indicating to me that you’re more concerned with their accuracy, than their confidence. This is incorrect. It’s perfectly fine for their accuracy to suffer, so long as they’re smooth, and rounded. The ‘rounded’ part is especially important. Be careful that they don’t strain to fill the plane, to the extent that they lose it. There’s an extra page of funnels, too. First, I’ll recommend using a tool for your frames (a ruler for the minor axis, at least, though ideally some sort of tool (a plate, perhaps?) for the arcing lines, too.) Spend some more time constructing it, too. If the frame is incorrect, there’s no hope for the rest of the exercise. Second, remember that the purpose of this exercise is to align your ellipses to the minor axis (that is to say, have them be cut into two equal, symmetrical halves by it), and snuggly fit in their frames, at the same time. To aid this, see if you can make your funnels a little bigger.

The plotted perspective exercise (of which there’s an extra page) is missing some of its back lines, so be mindful of that. Be careful, also, to use a ruler for everything in this exercise, including the hatching, and especially the frame. Frames are always drawn using a ruler. There’s also, in the second page, some issues with your lines not being fully perpendicular to the horizon, or not fully extended to their respective vanishing points, so be careful in regards to that, too.

In the rough perspective exercise, you’ve not extended your depth lines. Not only does this make it difficult for me to judge your boxes, but it means that there’s little improvement between your pages. The idea is that you look at your mistakes, which the extension of the depth lines highlights for you, with a critical eye, and come up with ways to improve them, which you then try out in your second page- them being missing, that is missing, too. Speaking of missing- some of your lines are. Remember that each box has 12 lines; 8 lines for 2 planes, and 4 lines connecting them. I’d also like to confirm that you’re, as per the instructions, planning your lines. That is to say, ghosting them, plotting points, to mark their starts/ends, confirming that they’re correct, by ghosting them a second time, and then committing to them. Be careful, also, that your lines are confident. Though the exercise itself is complicated, it’s still, at the end of the day, just a collection of lines. And lines, we’ve drawn plenty of. The process of drawing a line doesn’t change depending on the exercise- it’s the same. And if they can be confident in simpler exercises, they can be confident in more complicated, too. Recall the unit of work section in the ghosted planes section.

The rotated boxes exercise is missing 4 boxes. Of the ones that are here, not all have been drawn through, also. In general, I’ll recommend spending more time on this exercise, properly considering each line- how it should behave, and why. To that end, I’ll recommend drawing a little bigger, also- try to fill the entirety of your page.

The organic perspective exercise is, save for the aforementioned errors in tool, and linework, really good. Your boxes properly follow the flow line, increasing in size, and even having some extreme size near the front, as well as maintaining a consistent, shallow foreshortening. This does a good job of suggesting flow. You’ve even gone through the trouble of drawing their backsides, which, though not necessary for this exercise, has been immensely beneficial for you. I’ll have you, just for the record, and to reinforce the things we’re trying to impart in regards to technique, re-do this exercise, but if you’re wondering, it’s not one that you need to re-do. It’s quite a lot better than expected, actually, for this stage.