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5:30 PM, Wednesday July 13th 2022
edited at 5:31 PM, Jul 13th 2022

https://imgur.com/a/yirbGKK

Hey, thanks once more for all the feedback. There must be something I'm still doing wrong because I can't seem to draw the lines straight at all. Even after carefully ghosting up to 20 times and drawing as quickly as I can it still comes out all wobbly. I found it a lot harder to get a straight line when placing the pen on the starting dot before drawing but I know this is important to not end up with two frayed ends. I'll keep practicing but it just feels a lot like I'm still missing something and like I'm getting worse although maybe this is all in my imagination.

Thank you again

edited at 5:31 PM, Jul 13th 2022
8:34 PM, Thursday July 14th 2022

Hello! Practice doesn't matter much, it's more about how you approach the exercise. A few questions:

-Did you make sure you were drawing from your shoulder? Take a look at this website section + the video

-Are you rotating the page before drawing every single line towards your most comfortable position to draw? (If you are right handed this is normally when you can draw from bottom left towards the top right)

9:31 PM, Thursday July 14th 2022
edited at 9:32 PM, Jul 14th 2022

Yeah I have been drawing from my shoulder and rotating the page like you said. It might be because I'm drawing the boxes too small? I seem to find it easier when drawing them on a larger scale. Or maybe my desk isn't the correct distance away or something? I have no idea but I've reread the line drawing section and watched the tutorial multiple times and I'm doing everything it says to do but it still feels kind of random whether the line comes out straight or not. I'm not really sure what to do about it.

edited at 9:32 PM, Jul 14th 2022
2:50 PM, Friday July 15th 2022
edited at 2:50 PM, Jul 15th 2022

Okay, so in general I think you've understood the concepts of the lesson, just one thing, on the levels of the lines, you marked some lines as level 0 when they're level 1. Remember that any confident straight line will be level 1, it will only get to level 0 when it's wobbly.

Here are some of your lines that you didn't mark correctly.

About the lines problem, yeah, it's easier when they're bigger, but it's still important to draw them confident when they're small, so remember to focus on improving this issue through the box challenge, do your best to try to get as many lines as you can to be level 1, and until you can do it don't worry too much about accuracy. First priority is confidence.

That being said, if you go through a chunk of the box challenge and you can't see improvement on your lines you can ping me on discord (@elodin) or send me a message here and we'll look at it again!

Either way like I said you seem to have understood the concepts of the lesson so I'll mark this as complete.

From now on you need to do warmups before every session, so don't forget about them! And make sure you ask any questions you might have. Keep up the good work and good luck on the box challenge!

Next Steps:

250 box challenge

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
edited at 2:50 PM, Jul 15th 2022
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Staedtler Pigment Liners

Staedtler Pigment Liners

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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