Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

8:32 PM, Tuesday March 24th 2020

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Post with 40 views. Drawabox Lesson 1 (redo)

Hello. An eternity and a half ago I completed lesson 1, but after that I had a very long break from Drawabox. Because of this Uncomfortable told me to redo this lesson. So here is my second try at lesson 1. It's okay by me if this counts as an official review with deduction of credits etc.

Here's a link to my original criticism BTW: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/comments/5sa1vw/lesson_1_lines_ellipses_and_boxes/dggvpso/?context=3

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1:02 AM, Thursday March 26th 2020

Hey there! Welcome BACK to Drawabox and kudos to you for going through the whole first lesson again! In comparing the two, I would say you've improved quite a lot since your first attempt, which is really great to see.

Lines

These are looking pretty strong with very little evidence of a wobble. I do note that your superimposed lines show a little bit of fraying at the starting point, which tells me you may be going a little too quickly. You want to be going slowly enough that you have time to think about where you're placing the pen down at the starting point.

That said, with the smoothness and confidence of each line, you're clearly heading quickly in the right direction. The next thing you'll want to focus on is your accuracy. Your aim is to be hitting the end points without over- or undershooting. You can accomplish this with continued use of the ghosting technique, to bridge that gap between flow and accuracy.

Ellipses

These are looking pretty decent as well, but have a bit more of a wobble to them. You can iron that out by using the ghosting technique in a similar way to your lines, tracing the pen over the paper to build that muscle memory and once you put the pen down, you commit. You may be sacrificing a bit of control, but in mark-making flow should come before accuracy.

On the topic of your control, these look pretty snugly placed in their planes, tables, and funnels. Nice job with that!

Nice work on your funnels. You keep your ellipses aligned with the minor-axis, which is great to see. That will be important for later lessons with organic forms. Nice work!

Rough Perspective

This is very strong! In terms of perspective, you nailed it, keeping your boxes aligned with the horizon - the horizontal lines are parallel to the horizon while the vertical lines are perpendicular. This helps you focus on your depth lines and avoid any unnecessary guesswork.

As for your mark-making, your lines are smooth and confident, but this is a good time to point out how overshooting your end points while ghosting can weaken the illusion of 3D form. There are a few examples here and while your boxes do read, this is an area that could use some improvement.

Rotated Boxes

This is looking great. You did an excellent job with this challenge. Your mark-making is clear and readable, you kept your gaps pretty consistently spaced, and your get very close to that full 180 degree rotation. Really nice work all around. If you attempt this challenge again, I would recommend that you do do a little bit of hatching to help clarify your boxes. Likewise, to achieve a fuller rotation, you'll want to focus on the VP of the box you're working on in relation to the VP of the previous box. If you're able to move that VP far enough along the axes past the VP of the previous box, you'll get it to rotate, rather than simply move back in space.

That said, your rotation is quite strong, which tells me your sense of 3D is coming along very nicely.

Organic Perspective

These look so solid, it's great. Your mar-making is also pretty strong aside from the overshooting, so really wonderful work here! There are a few convergence errors, but overall, these are looking great. Nice work!

Next Steps:

Really significant improvement over your last attempt at this lesson! That's so great to see! You'll want to put focus on your accuracy going forward by using the ghosting technique. Other than that, I'm happy to mark this as complete and send you on to the 250 box challenge. Good luck!

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
6:14 PM, Thursday March 26th 2020

Thanks for your review. Boxes it is!

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