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1:33 PM, Thursday December 2nd 2021
Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.
Congratulations on completing the box challenge, it's definitely a lot more work than most people expect. Not only does it help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. Be proud of what you've accomplished and that desire you've shown. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.
Things you did well:
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Your lines are looking smooth and confidently drawn.
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It's nice to see you're applying hatching and keeping it evenly spaced as well. This shows thought is being put into each line rather than just rushing them on to the page.
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Line weight is another nice touch and isn't a requirement of the challenge. Getting an early start like this will help build up your comfort when applying this handy tool, it's something most people need a fair bit of mileage with.
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You're experimenting with orientations and rates of foreshortening. Experimenting is an important habit when learning any skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding of new concepts.
Things you can work on:
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You draw your boxes quite small, I'd like you to draw larger in the future because it will help you become more comfortable working from your shoulder and allow you to see any mistakes you make more clearly.
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While this is a good start I'd like you to experiment more with proportions and rates of foreshortening. You tend to draw fairly similar boxes throughout the challenge and this means you improve lot at drawing this style of box, but when faced with a longer/wider/thinner box or one with it's vanishing points at different distances you may be less comfortable.
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There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.
The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.
Overall while you did make a few mistakes your boxes are improving so far and with more mileage you'll continue to become more consistent. That being said I'll be marking your submission as complete and moving you on to lesson 2.
Keep practicing previous exercises and boxes as warm ups, and good luck
Next Steps:
Move on to lesson 2.
8:38 AM, Friday December 3rd 2021
Thank you very much for the critique!
It was an amazing exercise! To be honest it has challenged more of my soft skills.
I started getting bored and frustrated at one point and I was wondering if my pace is good.
Yes, at some point I also noticed i am leaning towards one specific position of the box and that is when i decided to try more extreme angles but i got too far with some of them and got too confused.
It took me forever indeed but combined with a 9 to 5 job I am happy I have even finished it.
Whenever I start to draw something I take 15-20 minutes to do the previous ex and draw couple of boxes - it gives me a nice ground to start fresh and be ready for work!
Lesson 2, here I come!
Pentel Pocket Brush Pen
This is a remarkable little pen. Technically speaking, any brush pen of reasonable quality will do, but I'm especially fond of this one. It's incredibly difficult to draw with (especially at first) due to how much your stroke varies based on how much pressure you apply, and how you use it - but at the same time despite this frustration, it's also incredibly fun.
Moreover, due to the challenge of its use, it teaches you a lot about the nuances of one's stroke. These are the kinds of skills that one can carry over to standard felt tip pens, as well as to digital media. Really great for doodling and just enjoying yourself.