Hello there Swampat! I'm Flippy and I will be doing your Lesson 1 critique today. (Buckle in, because it got a little long!)

First, welcome back to the course. I, as well as others, have also taken breaks form Drawabox. It's OK to take breaks, as there are no deadlines in this course, but it is definitely helpful to keep up the exercises when you are able (something I need to remind myself, too).

Without further ado, let's get to the critique.

Lines

So first we have the Superimposed Lines exercise, and I think you did a good job with this. 

I can see some fraying, which we try to avoid, but it's mostly happening near the end of the line, which means you've taken your time to properly align your strokes with the previous ones. Good work!

There is a bit of wobbling, but it's not too apparent among the majority of well-executed lines. Furthermore, the longest of your lines look very smooth, though there is some arching happening before they reach their ends. Always remember to use your whole arm to draw. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/pivots

I'd say that your lines consistently hit very close to their targets, and more importantly is that they have been drawn confidently. Confidence is always more important than accuracy, as your accuracy will improve with time and milage.

Next, we have the Ghosted Lines exercise. I'll put this in point form.

• The majority of your lines hit close, if not right on their targets

• Not many overshooting or undershooting lines

• Line wobble is minimal, most lines have been drawn confidently

Great work on this!

My thoughts on the Ghosted Plains exercise are the same.

• There is some wobble in the shorter lines

• The lines are very on-target

The bisecting lines in your plains sometimes miss their intersection, (appearing off-centered) but this more comes down to the placement of the start of the line, and is not a matter of drawing it incorrectly. I can see that they usually hit (or at least come close to) the end points with good accuracy.

One issue I want to point out is that in both the Ghosted Lines and Ghosted Plains exercises you have repeated certain lines. Do not redo lines. If a line doesn't turn out how you intended, just relax and move forward. This is a rule I struggle with too, but we must resist the temptation to "correct" lines, as this can hide a mistake but won't make it go away. We're better off confronting our mistakes head-on. That said, there is value in analyzing our own work and considering how it could've been improved.

OK, next up is Ellipses

Tables of Ellipses exercise.

Looking good.

• Ellipses are drawn loosely and cleanly

• Good placement and accuracy. You fit them together well without overlapping or going off the table too often

Always remember to draw through the ellipses 2-3 times after using the ghosting method to plan your mark (2 times is preferable, 3 at max). You did a good job. 

Ellipses in Planes exercise

This one can be a difficult exercise, but again, you did well.

• Some of your ellipses are a little wobbly and/or skewed

• In most instances you managed to align the ellipses with all four points

Remember to prioritize confidence over accuracy.

Funnels

Good job here. 

• Your ellipses are well sized and placed

• Ellipses are well-aligned with the miner axis

I would suggest experimenting more with the shift in the degrees of the ellipses, exaggerating the narrowness of the ones in the middle and working your way out to almost 90 degrees.

On to the boxes!

Plotted Perspective exercise

• Some of your hatching lines look a little messy. Remember to take your time to make them clean.

Keep in mind that line weight should be used to define the silhouette, with less weight put on the internal lines (the edge facing towards us) and the least weight on the far edge (the drawn through part).

Other than that, they look fine.

Rough Perspective exercise

• Some of your trajectory lines came quite close to their intended target, while others were far off. This is completely normal, and you'll get better at eyeballing perspective with time.

The problem here is that you've re-drawn many of your lines. I mentioned this already, so I won't repeat myself too much, but remember to draw your line, then move on. It's OK if it's not perfect, just do your best with your current ability. You'll have plenty more opportunities to perfect your lines in the lessons to come.

I also noticed there are a few unnecessary bisecting lines: one on the first page, second panel, on the leftmost side, on the top of the box; as well as on the second page, third panel, on the leftmost side, the left side and bottom of the box.  (? Hope this was clear.)  It can be easy to get lost in the multitude of overlapping lines. If you're getting confused, just take a step back, reevaluate the line's start and end goal, and only draw what is necessary. 

( This might help ? https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/16/guessing )

Rotated Boxes exercise

This exercise is meant to be difficult, and I think you did a really good job here.

• Some boxes came slightly out of alignment

• The boxes on the left side of the drawing could have used to converge a little more as they move further from our view. Other than that, I have nothing else to criticize. Good work!

And finally, the Organic Perspective exercise

Let me start this, again, by saying, this exercise is meant to be diffcult.

• The rate of foreshortening is good, seems consistent enough

 - Some of your boxes are a little distorted, but that's fine, you will get plenty of practice in the 250 Box Challenge

• The scaling of certain of your boxes is inconsistent. For example, some boxes are larger than those in front of them, rather than gradually increasing in size, as instructed. The exception proves the rule here, however, in that I can see you knew what you were doing, as the rest were drawn properly.

I would suggest exaggerating the size difference between the boxes, starting very small for the farthest boxes and only dramatically increasing the size for the closest boxes.

And lastly, while I wouldn't recommend doing this every time you do the exercise, I would suggest replicating the curvy starting line that Uncomfortable drew in the demo ( link here ?  https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/18/step1  ), as well as his scaling to the best of your ability. While it is good to experiment, by following the demo directly we can insure we allow ourselves enough room to portray depth as he does. Again, I don't recommend copying every demo directly every time unless explicitly stated in the instructions, but sometimes this can help us grasp a concept more easily.

Overall, I think you did wonderful job with this lesson, (Much better than I did!)  and I see that you have a good understanding of the concepts that were taught.