Which side of a box faces the viewer?

2:09 AM, Friday May 22nd 2020

I read and watched the 250 boxes page/video and I can't quite understand which side I should fill and why Uncomfortable says that if the left side was the front it would be completely messed up at this part of the video: https://youtu.be/jlJ6rwj3PKg?t=1162

5 users agree
8:06 PM, Friday May 22nd 2020

There's always 3 sides of the box that are facing the viewer and 3 sides which are facing away from the viewer (assuming your are following the Y method of drawing boxes).

You can choose one of those 3 sides facing the viewer to fill it with hatching. Any of them will do.

Now when doing line extensions away from the viewer, keep in mind which sides are towards the viewer. You should not contradict yourself and extend your lines in the same direction that one of those sides is facing.

This is how the exercise checks your understanding. If you contradict yourself with the hatching and line extensions then you dont really understand which directions are towards the viewer and which are away from the viewer.

2 users agree
9:22 AM, Friday May 22nd 2020

I'm guessing he is actually pointing at the back plane not the left plane. It is confusing though as the arrow could be pointing to either. If he is pointing to the left plane then I am confused too.

12:18 PM, Friday May 22nd 2020

Oh, it makes sense then

2 users agree
10:00 AM, Thursday June 11th 2020

Hi, I don't know if this is helpful or not, because I didn't understand that part either, but what I do is, taking into consideration that when I draw the initial Y (to make the three axes of the box) I know that the intersecction is the point the viewer is looking at, and those three faces are the visible ones. Then when I finished the box with all the remaining lines, another Y is created which represent the interior of the box, what I do then is to hatch the face that covers that second Y, because I think that if that face covers that second Y is because is more perpendicular towards the viewer. I hope this helps a bit.

1 users agree
3:02 PM, Wednesday May 27th 2020

yeah, its hard to know what Unc is pointing to sometimes. did he highlight the FRONT left face or the BACK left face when he said it'd be messed up. He's very unclear a lot of the time, which is a shame since he literally has all the digital tools imaginable to make it understandable.

in my opinion, you certainly could make the front left face the focus and shade or hatch that. No problem.

i think the fact that you recognize that means you do understand perspective, so dont let him confuse you on that point.

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