Hello, Chiara:
Welcome to drawabox! Let's see how you can improve:
There is fraying in both ends of the superimposed lines exercise. It's common to have it on the end of the line but not at the starting point. Try to start your lines where you mark them. Every step in the execution must try to mimic what you planned beforehand. The easier to achieve that is to start from where you want.
Your lines feel confident and smooth and that is a good sign. One of the critical things to grasp in the first lesson is to prioritize smoothness over accuracy and precision. You did great there.
You used your marks correctly and all the lines seem as confident as previously. Keep in mind that marks are very important, don't stop using them in future lessons and exercises. It will help you draw better and help us to critique you with more information.
I think some of your lines arc a bit when they are long enough. That's a sign of not drawing from the shoulder. You should try to lift your elbow. It's not a matter of locking it but relying less on it as the main axis of rotation in the motion you perform. You can practice against the wall, just with your hand as if you were holding a pen, playing around with the motions as if you were construction lines and planes. Try to remember how it feels in your body so you can differentiate which muscles work in a shoulder motion and which ones with the elbow. In practice, you are going to use a mix of both, but as explained in the lesson this is an exercise and we try to force the use of the weakest part (usually the shoulder) so you can improve the most.
Ellipses look good to me. Confident and smooth.
You struggle a bit aligning the minor axis. The solution to this is practice, so try to warm up using the funnels exercise so you can start working on that. It's not a priority but will come in handy for lesson 3 and organic drawing in general.
I think you rushed the rough perspective exercise and that's the reason why those lines seem worse than the rest of the submission. Don't rush through the exercises, training patience is part of this course. The lessons will become longer and longer the more you move forward. Also letting your mind rest between exercises is the only way to let that knowledge sink in. We learn the most while we sleep.
Rotated boxes are great. It's usually one of the toughest exercises and you made it excellent.
Organic perspective boxes have less quality than what you are capable of. It was optional but you didn't draw through your boxes here, which would be useful for the following challenge.
You have a good foundation to continue to the 250 box challenge. Try to not rush through it. Make some time to review other students' lesson 1 so you can learn from others along the way.
I hope my critique was useful to you and good luck with those boxes!
Next Steps:
Continue with the 250 boxes challenge
A thousand thanks! In fact, the organic perspective exercise I did it a bit in a hurry, or rather, it was difficult for me to visualize the various poses of the boxes outside my comfort zone, and I got nervous. Hope to do better next times! Thanks :)
These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.
Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).
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