250 Box Challenge
3:00 AM, Monday December 25th 2023
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6:59 PM, Monday December 25th 2023
Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.
Congratulations on completing the box challenge, it's definitely a lot more work than most people expect. Not only does it help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. Be proud of what you've accomplished and that desire you've shown. 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:
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Your construction lines are looking smooth and confidently drawn.
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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.
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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.
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You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations, and rates of foreshortening. 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:
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I'd like you to experiment with proportions more. Mix in some longer/thinner/wider boxes to see how your lines behave in different scenarios.
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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.
Overall while you did make a few mistakes your boxes are improving so far and with more mileage you'll continue to become more consistent. That being said I'll be marking your submission as complete and move you on to lesson 2.
Keep practicing previous exercises and boxes as warm ups, and good luck.
Hope you enjoy the promptathon and the holidays.
Next Steps:
Move on to lesson 2.
2:15 AM, Tuesday December 26th 2023
Hi, thank you for the reply! I'd like to ask how to NOT converge my lines in pairs. This usually happened due to the lines at the back not matching with those in the front. I'd place a dot (or corner) where 2 of the lines could converge "correctly" but the third one always goes the wrong way. How should I work on it?
Happy holidays to you too!
3:13 PM, Tuesday December 26th 2023
As we are currently running our promptathon event to give our TAs a chance to take a break, I figured I'd jump in and answer this for you.
At its core, it comes down to ensuring that you're paying attention not just to two edges at a time, but rather all four edges of a given set - including those that haven't yet been drawn. When we focus only on two at a time, it inevitably results in the focus being on only how those two converge.
Placing dots at the corner is a good strategy (this video from ScyllaStew explains leveraging the dots from the ghosting method in this manner can allow us to gauge the trajectory for two edges that meet at a given corner, and I've got a new video about the Y method which tackles it similarly that'll be released on January 2nd along with others for the Lesson 1 box exercises), but it's important to remember that if you're drawing a dot for the corner, the two edges you're focusing on (the ones that meet at that corner) belong to two entirely different sets.
This exercise is tricky because it requires that we take a lot of information into consideration - the edge we want to draw, the edge that it meets at that corner, and the other edges that exist in its own set to ensure that they're all oriented such that they'd converge as consistently as possible to a single VP.
It is challenging, and it takes practice, which is why this exercise (line extensions included) will continue to play in your warmups. Do your best to pay attention to all 4 edges simultaneously (for those that haven't yet been drawn, you'll be thinking about the trajectory they might follow), and then allow the line extensions to point out where your approach can be adjusted to achieve better results. Additionally, take note of what's written here (specifically the third point there) in regards to worrying about the back corner vs. the front, as it's more of a distraction than anything else.
5:18 AM, Monday January 22nd 2024
Very late reply, but I appreciate your advice. Thank you!
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