250 Box Challenge

2:28 PM, Monday November 8th 2021

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Hey there, thanks for taking your time to take a look at my submission!

Took me a couple of months since I submitted Lesson 1, I did about a page a day excluding weekends and additional breaks I needed to take.

I feel like I have visible ups and downs throughout the entirety of my work, I did get myself discouraged from time to time and sometimes rushed a bit, however it did help me to actively learn how to manage my time and energy with such a project.

Would love to hear any feedback you've got!

2 users agree
6:10 PM, Tuesday November 9th 2021

Hello, Gekki:

It should have been a tough journey but I think it paid it off. You have improved a lot compared to where you started. Don't worry about spending too many days on a particular lesson because most of the learning happens at night when you go to sleep. You have to let the knowledge sink into your brain and muscles. It can't happen quickly and rushing through a lot of content in a short time would have ended in a lot of practice time being less efficient. Being constant is key.

Now, talking about the mistakes I've spotted:

I see that you attempted multiple times the same line. This is not a problem if it's to add line weight to an already established line, if that's not the case, please don't hide your mistakes, it makes them bigger and attracts the attention of the viewer (that's also the purpose of line weight).

There are some wobbly lines in your boxes. Even in the final ones (236 for example). As a tip with the ghosting method (a thing you should be already doing), try to treat the ghosting and the execution as part of the same phase. It should feel as if someone pushes your hand down while you are ghosting. It's a bit tricky at first, especially putting the hand down where your initial mark is, but you will get it in a couple of days. That should avoid your brain from course-correcting. I'm going to let this herein case you need a more visual approach to learn this.

Verdict

I think you did a good job overall. Try to have all the mistakes pointed out in future lessons.

I hope my critique was useful.

Next Steps:

Continue with lesson 2

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
6:38 PM, Tuesday November 9th 2021
edited at 6:43 PM, Nov 9th 2021

Hi Raulillo, thank you for taking your time to review my submission!

I appreciate the kind words and I agree, I also observed that the most improvement I've gotten was when I was taking breaks and especially the next day after a good sleep. I'll try to keep this in mind especially if I get the urge to overwork and rush through.

Regarding the repeated lines, for the majority of them it was an attempt to add line weight, which took me a long while to start getting right, as you've seen. Bringing Superimposed Lines from Lesson 1 into my warm-up routine helped me a lot with that. However you are correct as there are some examples where I did try to fix a line by drawing over it again, I believe I have done very little of it since I paid extra attention to it, but the old habit is still in the process moving out. Thank you for reminding me!

Regarding the wobbly lines and ghosting - that's something that is still somewhat mystifying to me. I have used the ghosting method consistently since I was taught it in Lesson 1, however my efficiency with it goes up and down - sometimes I do them perfectly during the warm-up and suddenly mess up during the exercise, sometimes it's the other way around, sometimes it's mixing and matching (which is sometimes frustrating to see.)

Line confidence is the skill that so far fluctuates the most for me, and I am not completely sure whether the issue is with my method or whether it is a question of time. I'm definitely gonna keep working on it and attempt to revisit my approach by going over the learning material again, experiment with different amounts and speed of ghosting, etc., and I'll keep in mind your analogy as well.

Thank you so much for your feedback, both for the validation of progress and the reminders of what I should work on.

edited at 6:43 PM, Nov 9th 2021
0 users agree
4:36 PM, Wednesday November 10th 2021

Good job!!!! I struggled with rushing my work too, putting on relaxing music or thinking in terms of time instead of numbers of boxes was helpful, as well as taking a break whenever i noticed it happening.

Things you did well

Hatching: your hatchwork is neat and even, making each box much easier to process

Line confidence: this is also something you could improve on, but it seems like you have a good grasp on this. When your lines wobble, they keep wobbling if that makes sense. For example there will be a group of wobbly lines, whcih tells me its just a problem because of rushing. That might be something to be aware of.

Depth variety: you pracitcied a lot of box orientations

Things you could improve

Drawing lines parallel/divergent: this improved over time; its a pracrice thing but you have a strong pattern of converging towards the viewer instead of away. This might be do to rushing, but try to imagine the whole box together

converging in pairs

Drawing larger: this will help practice with your shoulder and make it more readable.

inner corner: the inner corner is usually the most off. This is normal, but something that can help is drawing the back side of the box ( the inner corner) before completing the front.

I feel like youve learned a lot, but since you were rushing so often i think i want you to draw 10 more boxes. Just try to slow down a bit, and try to viaualize the whole box at once. I want this to just be an excercise in patience.

Next Steps:

10 boxes pls

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
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