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8:49 PM, Tuesday April 6th 2021
Hi Suturation,
Good job on completing the 250 box challenge. I'll be reviewing your homework.
I see great improvement in your boxes. You also have a good variety of different rotated boxes and you have extended your lines in the right direction. Also good job on drawing shallow and dramatic boxes, to practice different kinds of perspective and line convergence.
The main thing you can improve is the line convergence. I notice some divergence of lines from the inner corner and especially on the shallow foreshortened boxes. It's pretty normal to have the inner corners come out pretty off, as they are affected by the accumulation of previously done mistakes.
Now, a way to improve your convergence is to start thinking about the relationships between your set of lines, instead that just in pairs. When we are doing our boxes, we usually compare the one we are drawing with the main converging line, this is a first step. However, what's better, is to take into account all the other lines that converge into that point so we can guess better how the angle of our next line should be. Now, I know how confusing it sounds, so check this diagram and see if somethings clicks. If you don't immediately get it, don't worry, just keep checking it from time to time and it eventually will make sense.
Another way to improve your line convergence is to change the order you draw your boxes in. By drawing the inner corner before the last line of the box, some people found it easier to use the previously mentioned info above of thinking about the relationship between lines. Here's the order I'm talking about: https://imgur.com/a/DHlA3Jh. This takes into advantage something explained in the rotated boxes exercise too (taking advantage of lines that are very close), so give a look at the page if you want to know more about it.
Next Steps:
Well done! Keep doing this exercise during your warming ups. Continue with lesson 2.
Ellipse Master Template
This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.
I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.
No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.