The submission is split across 4 albums because I had trouble uploading.
Firstly let me address the elephant which is my apparent inability to count. There are some mislabelled boxes but I believe the total number is correct. I tried to do specific rotations for many of them but went back to drawing them every which way towards the end.
Not sure there's much else to say. Thanks for any help.
Congratulations for completing the 250 Box Challenge!
From what I can see your line work is fairly well done and your boxes are coming along well. I can see you made some good improvement with the quality of your mark making. Your lines steadily become straighter and more confident looking as you progressed through the challenge. You also do a better job of getting your sets of parallel lines to converge more consistently towards their shared vanishing points!
I see that throughout many of your boxes, you appear to have purposely tried to keep your sets of lines parallel on the 2D page, drawing them all to an "infinite" vanishing point. As explained in this section, because these boxes are oriented with us looking at the corner of the box, we should be drawing it in 3 point perspective - meaning with 3 concrete vanishing points, each set of lines converging towards a real point in space, even if that point is far off and the convergence is gradual.
I noticed that you drew many of your boxes quite small. Part of the reason for the 5-6 boxes per page rule is so that students have enough room to draw their boxes larger while having room to check their convergences. Drawing bigger also helps engage your brain's spatial reasoning skills, whereas drawing smaller impedes them. This, along with varying your foreshortening and orientations of your boxes will help you get the most out of the exercise.
While your mark making has improved, I do see some areas where you are still hesitating with your mark making. This is likely due to prioritizing your accuracy over creating a smooth, confident looking line.
Just remember that the confidence of the stroke is far and away your top priority. Once your pen touches the page, any opportunity to avoid mistakes has passed, so all you can really do is push through. Hesitation serves no purpose. Mistakes happen, but a smooth, confident mark is still useful even if it's a little off. Accuracy is something that you will improve on as you continue working through Drawabox and practice ghosting.
Now, while it is important that you use the ghosting method of each mark you make while doing Drawabox one thing you can try to help with ending your marks closer to where you want them is lifting the pen off of the page rather than stopping the motion of your arm.
I also see a few areas where you have gone back to try and fix some mistakes. When working through Drawabox, you should never go back and fix or hide mistakes. If the line is wrong we leave it and move on. I would also recommend that you read this comment by Uncomfortable, where he talks more about hesitation.
One thing I notice about your boxes is that you still struggle a bit with applying your extra line weight. When you go to add weight to a line it is important that you treat the added weight the same way you would a brand new line. That means taking your time to plan and ghost through your mark so that when you go to execute it the mark blends seamlessly with your original mark. This will allow you to create more subtle and clean looking weight to your lines that reinforces the illusion of solidity in your boxes/forms. I recommend that you try adding your extra line weight in no more than 1-2 pases.
Extra line weight should never be used to correct or hide mistakes. You can also read more about this here. Something to keep in mind as well, when you are working through Drawabox you should be employing the ghosting method for every mark you make. This includes the hatching that we sometimes use for our boxes.
I did also notice that you were checking your convergences incorrectly for some of your boxes. Checking your convergences is an important step so you should always take your time and make sure you are extending your sets of lines away from the viewer and towards their vanishing points. You can refer to the diagrams in this link if you are ever confused or uncertain.
Finally while your converges do improve overall I think this diagram will help you further develop that skill as you continue through Drawabox. So, when you are looking at your sets of lines you want to be focusing only on the lines that share a vanishing point. This does not include lines that share a corner or a plane, only lines that converge towards the same vanishing point. Now when you think of those lines, including those that have not been drawn, you can think about the angles from which they leave the vanishing point. Usually the middle lines have a small angle between them, and this angle will become negligible by the time they reach the box. This can serve as a useful hint.
Before moving onto lesson 2, I am going to have you draw 30 Additional boxes. I will be checking to make sure that all of your boxes are converging towards their shared vanishing point, in 3 point perspective as I mentioned above. I will be looking to see if your lines are straighter and showing a proper application of the ghosting method is being used (no fixing mistakes). For each of these boxes you will also be applying extra line weight to each of them in a single pass.
Make sure you visit every link I have left for you and reread the challenge instructions in their entirety before beginning your revisions.
Next Steps:
30 Additional boxes additional boxes as described in the critique.
Thanks for the critique Scyllastew! Some of that was very helpful. Particularly the link about confident strokes. I have very shaky hands, making me basically the poster child for "why slow careful lines don't work", but damn is it tempting sometimes.
I didn't realise I was supposed to ghost for the hatching but will do so. I think my attempts to add extra line weight were messy because my lines are inaccurate, not because I'm doing too many passes though. It's something that is improving but I still suck at. As you said though, there were also times where I attempted to fix incorrect lines, and that is something I can fix immediately that should reduce the messiness.
A quick question about ending lines. I've been going back and forth between lifting the pen like you said, and trying to stop dead. I just rewatched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtmiQgW6As and it seems like Uncomfortable does stop his movement before lifting his pen, but it's not entirely clear. Is there more detailed guidance on this anywhere? I've experimented with drawing through where I want to end my line but lifting the pen off the paper, as well as lifting the pen at a steeper angle, creating a more circular motion.
When I mentioned lifting your pen to stop a line as opposed to stopping the motion of your arm to end your line, I meant for it to be an option that you can try and see if you find that works better for you. The same applies to the speed you execute your lines with.
Often times students find it easier to "push through with confidence" by making their marks quickly. Later on however, you may find that varying the speed you draw your marks at might produce a better result.
So long as you abide by the ghosting method and take your time, executing your lines confidently and from the shoulder, the speed at which you draw is your choice and you should feel free to explore that and find a speed that works for you, shaky hands and all.
Ok thanks I'll keep experimenting then.
Okay they're done. Bigger boxes, corner facing, more confident strokes without "corrections" (mostly), ghosting even the hatching and correct convergance checking. I think I did everything.
Ghosting the hatching was surprisingly helpful. I thought it would disrupt my rythm and take a ridiculous amount of time, but it was only awkward at first and I think my hatching was better for it in the end.
I realised that sometimes I accidentally touch the paper while ghosting and that can make it look like I tried to fix lines, (eg. fig A, box 12) so some of what looks like failing to follow instructions is actually just poor execution. For better or worse.
This is a very good improvement!
I can see your mark making has improved along with the extra line weight. Your boxes look more confidently made and your sets of lines do a better job of converging towards their shared vanishing points.
I'm going to mark this lesson as complete. You can now move onto lesson 2!
Good luck!
Next Steps:
Continue to lesson 2!
Thanks for the critique Scyllastew!
P.s. I really like the art you posted in your sketchbook.
Here we're getting into the subjective - Gerald Brom is one of my favourite artists (and a pretty fantastic novelist!). That said, if I recommended art books just for the beautiful images contained therein, my list of recommendations would be miles long.
The reason this book is close to my heart is because of its introduction, where Brom goes explains in detail just how he went from being an army brat to one of the most highly respected dark fantasy artists in the world today. I believe that one's work is flavoured by their life's experiences, and discovering the roots from which other artists hail can help give one perspective on their own beginnings, and perhaps their eventual destination as well.
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