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

In the future when doing challenges like this if you could number each attempt it'd be appreciated. It's much easier for us to just point to say box 150, 182 and 237 (random numbers, don't worry about these at this point) than it is to have to describe which box we're referring to when pointing out issues.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

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:

• Your construction lines are looking smooth and confidently drawn.

• It's good to see that you're taking the time to plan and evenly space your hatching lines. This helps keep your boxes tidy and makes them look more solid.

• Line weight isn't a requirement of the challenge so it's nice to see you're applying it anyways. Most people need to build up some mileage before they feel comfortable applying it so I always recommend starting early. The sooner you feel comfortable the sooner you see better results.

• 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:

• It appears like you may redrawing and possibly using your line weight to hide it. Redrawing doesn't erase mistakes and instead just makes your work messier. I'd recommend trying not to do it in the future, mistakes are valuable and you learn from them which is part of why we work with ink, so that we have to work with them.

• I'd like you to experiment with rates of foreshortening more. Currently you tend to keep your lines close to parallel and push your vanishing points far from your boxes. Try bringing all of your points in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically. Remember that experimentation is important.

• At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes (the top right box of your final page, and the bottom left of page 157-162 are examples of this). 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. If you need some more examples you can find them here and a simplified guide below.

• 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.

I'd like you to draw 30 more boxes please, focus on experimenting with different rates of foreshortening and extending your lines consistently in the correct direction. For the first 15 I'd like you to draw your boxes' vanishing points explicitly on the page after you've drawn your starting Y, this will make it so you have to keep these vanishing points in mind. For the latter 15 go back to the challenge's method without drawing the vanishing points which will hopefully be easier after the first set.

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.