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11:32 PM, Monday June 6th 2022
edited at 1:17 PM, Jun 7th 2022

I am currently struggling with exactly the same problems as you describe. I have banged my head against this one exercise longer than the 250 box challenge now, felt like I was stupid, lost all motivation and am now dreading to pick up the pen to continue working on this course because it means I have to return to this texture stuff. The only reason I have not quit yet is that I set up multiple external systems like commitment devices that make me continue Allthough i procrastinate on this exercise as much as I can. I have developed an actual headache multiple times while trying to work on this and drawing feels like a punishment by now. I know all the „it‘s not supposed to look nice“ talk and the other advice, but as you pointed out, we know we CAN do this if we put the effort in and not putting in that effort feels like we are not doing it right. With the amount of struggle and absolute misery this exercise causes for me and apparently others, I want to point out three things about it, that massively bother me beyond that I feel too stupid to do the exercise by now:

  1. the instruction page mentions that there are problems with this exercise and lists a few things to keep in mind. The first of which is „do not outline your form“. Yet all the examples given below seem to outline the forms. So does the video. The video also shows gradiation on the sausage which none of the example results in the description does and so on and so forth. So that is the first problem For me: there is no clear target or example to show what to actually strive for. Every example given (written, picture, video, previous analysis exercise) tells us different, contradicting things about what to to. Why in the name of god do you leave the exercise in this state if you know it causes problems? Please be aware that you are actively causing suffering over extended periods of time with this (Weeks to months for some people) for something that seems like you want people to „just try out“ on the side. I am sure if someone is new to drawing that is what they will do. I was stupid enough to start and quit learning how to draw multiple times now however and got stuck in a place where I know what would be „correct“ and that I could get there, but doing so feels like torture by now.

  2. As you mentioned, the feedback on these exercises is a vague „focus on cast shadows and shilouettes“ but what that actually implies is that you draw the shadows without seeing/drawing the shapes first. Not only that but you have to draw them along a curved surface and imagine how the shapes you don‘t see affect the shadows. If one form casts a shadow onto another form, that shadow gets distorted or blocked from view entirely. That is not an easy concept to grasp, especially not for someone just starting out. You have to imagine the entire geometry in your head beforehand to do that (or analyse the texture to death, draw it a million times and gain enough understanding of the shape to improvise shapes of light and shadow as you go. Usually people draw the actual shape a lot for that though.) What is the point of hitting people over the head with so many new concepts at once, this early in the course? Which leads me to 3

  3. What is the point of having this exercise in here this early? All lessons carefully introduce one concept after another (draw straight lines, circles, 1 point, two point and three point perspective, etc) and gives you many exercises to solidify this knowledge. Then you get to texture and you are suddenly supposed to understand observational drawing, light and shadow, microstructure, form casting shadows on other forms on curved surfaces and a completely new technique to render something (cast shadows only). Why do you do this in lesson 2? When I first found drawabox years ago, this exercise is what always stopped me from attempting it myself. This makes it seem like the difficulty jumps like it has seen a tarantula spider all of a sudden and in my opinion is the main reason why people either never start drawabox or quit once they hit this exercise. For what exactly? Later in lesson three you begin to introduce this concept with the bumps on the cactus and it feels way more organic and in tune with the difficulty level.

This is NOT the same as lesson 1 with the rotated boxes that form a sphere. That is challenging, yes, but it uses the concepts introduced before and presents them to us in a challenging way. This texture exercise introduces several new concepts at once AND presents them in a mind bogglingly challenging way. If you want to keep this, why do you not introduce these concepts one at a time like before? The way it is, there is no point to this other than „produce crap results and feel miserable while doing so potentially for months“. This does not get me thinking about texture, this gets me thinking about quitting drawing for good but not before poking out my eyes with the pen first to prevent me from ever trying something so stupid ever again.

So in summary: Even for what it is supposed to be (get us to think about texture) I think this is confusingly described, introduces way too many concepts at once and hits students over the head way too early. Say „only draw to the best of your ability“ all you want that doesn’t make anything better because that is what I am trying right now. It is horrible and nothing killed the joy in drawing for me more than this exercise.

edited at 1:17 PM, Jun 7th 2022
2:19 AM, Saturday June 25th 2022
edited at 2:21 AM, Jun 25th 2022

Hi Vyse,

Sorry, I've not checked my notifications for a while . . . been busy :)

I totally get your frustration. The difficulty and pain is real! I too really dreaded this exercise. The biggest thing that has helped me move forward with this exercise (though, I'm not finished yet; as I said, I've been busy) is to do practically no preparatory drawing before attempting to apply the texture to the sausage. Following this advice likely means you're not going to be happy with the results of your efforts; that's okay. As with the rest of the exercises the goal isn't to produce good work; the goal is to perform the exercise as closely as instructed as possible. I know it's painful to accept that your textures will probably look ugly (because you know that you can do so much better if you just put in enough time and effort); though the texture exercise is incredibly more difficult to do "correctly" than drawing a box and seems so different and more complex, as Splatted pointed out earlier, like with all the other exercises, I don't think we're supposed to try to prepare ourselves too much for this exercise.

Think back to the 2nd "box" of the Texture Analysis exercises (the 1st box was a direct texture study; the 2nd box was for a few notes; and the 3rd box was for a texture gradient from black to white); in that box you had just enough room to take a few notes from your observations and doodle one or two features you noticed; that's it! When doing the Dissections exercise I have found it helpful to skip the initial study from the Texture Analysis exercise and limit myself to the same kind of note-taking before attempting to apply the texture to the form. Again I say, Do your best, but the results will probably turn out far below your standards for what you know you can do if you just put in the time. Please try doing the exercise without too much prep (i.e. just a few notes and doodles; like 15 to 20 minutes of observation before you begin applying the texture) and let me know if it helps; even if you don't like the results, at least you will gain a bit of satisfaction that you're making progress on the exercise.

A note about the status of the Drawabox course: I do know it is frustrating sometimes that the course isn't perfect yet, but do try to remember that Comfy has a lot to do and has to try his best to prioritize his time; he is working on revamping the content. After all, he has provided the drawing community with so much value . . . basically for free (unless you're paying for feedback; even then it's pretty inexpensive). Please be patient and do your best.

I want to comment on what you said here:

Then you get to texture and you are suddenly supposed to understand observational drawing, light and shadow, microstructure, form casting shadows on other forms on curved surfaces and a completely new technique to render something (cast shadows only).

What you said here really resonates with me because this is how I used to feel; though, I will mention that the lesson materials did clearly say that you're probably not going to understand textures yet and that that's okay.

Comfy said:

While we've had some exposure to texture now with the texture analysis exercise, we're not really expected to have any kind of mastery or even comfort with it.

At the end he says:

. . . it might look like a steaming pile of crap, and that's totally fine as well. Just complete the required number of pages to the best of your ability. This is just the beginning.

Try to do a little bit each day: maybe just one or two textures. Don't forget to spend time drawing for fun to keep the flame alive!

This stuff is hard, yes. Tackle it head on. Be humbled by how much you have yet to learn. Press on! And remember, you haven't failed until you give up! I hope to meet you at the finish line!!!

edited at 2:21 AM, Jun 25th 2022
9:40 PM, Sunday February 5th 2023

So after finishing this exercise now and then taking a longer break due to work related reasons, I am now back, working on lesson 3. Since texture is also a topic there and I wanted to read up on some of the things that were explained, I returned and stumbled over this post and your reply. First of all, thank you for taking your time to reply to my rambling back there. I was not in a good place mentally and I guess that showed in the way I phrased this post.

Allthough I am in a better state of mind right now however, I do wish to point out that my main frustration was not that the result did not look good at the end but rather that I never felt like I understood what I was supposed to be doing in the first place. I am fine with an ugly result. I am fine with not having the full picture, too. (I did not fully grasp perspective but I did the rotated boxes exercise nonetheless and it was even fun) What really got to me though, was the way this exercise is presented. As I mentioned, nothing seems to match up. The text, the pictures and the videos all seem to be trying to convey different ideas. There is also no build-up to the concept like in lesson 1 and the exercise introduces multiple new concepts at once. Having at least one or two "correct" examples that are clearly marked as such so it becomes clearer what we are even supposed to strive for would be very helpful. It is a bit like lesson 1 would never really explain perspective or boxes and jumped straight into "Do the rotated boxes exercise and don't feel bad if it turns out ugly. Here are pictures that all convey more or less unrelated topics to help you." Lesson 1 gives you a map and a clear goal, then sets you on a very difficult path to get there. Lesson 2 just says "go over there, no there, no uhm… You know what? Just wander through this marshland somehow. It is difficult, you will probably drown, but don't let that discourage you."

Having a clear goal and no idea how to get there is fine and can be motivating. Having a clear way to go without understanding where it leads can also give valuable insights. Having no clear goal and no clear way to go is what it means to be lost and that is how I felt while doing this exercise.

I understand that Comfy is busy and that this course is free. However, leaving the lesson in this state claiming there is a revamp of everything coming that will be uploaded once everything is perfect rather than providing a few clearly marked correct examples of what we are supposed to be doing in the lesson as it is right now, seems a lot like the kind of perfectionism that we are supposed not to strive for in this lesson. This whole thing may have gotten to me more than others for various reasons, not the least of which being that I was under a lot of stress from work back then. I would still humbly suggest, that a few minor tweaks and examples that match the instructions might prevent a lot of unnecessary headache early on in the course.

2:26 AM, Monday February 6th 2023
edited at 2:29 AM, Feb 6th 2023

Hi Vyse,

I agree; unfortunately (as I recall) the examples weren't aligned with the instructions, but I do think the instructions and exercises were still really valuable. It strengthened my ability to mentally hold a form in my mind and try to project the shadows onto the surrounding forms without actually having to draw it first. I'm still not very good, but I can see the potential value in actually getting that level of control of form and shadow. I think the exercise also helped me grow in my ability to receive instruction, and I also leveled up in Perseverance and Tenacity :)

I hope you're getting along well with Lesson 3. I have yet to begin Lesson 6 as I'm working on making more finished art for now, but I plan to try to carry on with DAB as well.

If Uncomfortable happens to read this comment, I would suggest that maybe he could request permission to use the work of a student who did the exercises correctly as an example until he has time to redo it himself.

edited at 2:29 AM, Feb 6th 2023
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