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.