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250 Box Challenge

3:28 PM, Saturday May 30th 2020

250 Box Challenge - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/6nEqhpy.jpg

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Okay so I will do a quick self-crit on the things I noticed as I went so I can get some feedback on issues that were reoccuring and challenged me.

  1. when drawing through my boxes, I very regularly misjudged the angle of where that hidden line should extend

  2. there were several instances of optical illusions that caused me to not recognize which planes were hidden so i messed up on a few of those when I tried to visualize (a few of the instances of this happening were on box #60, #85, #94)

  3. I messed up on page numbering so I hope that is not confusing, but all 250 boxes are there and should be numbered correctly

Did any of you guys have these issues, and if so, any advice on these would be great! Thanks in advance for you time and comments

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3 users agree
7:56 PM, Sunday June 7th 2020
edited at 8:24 PM, Jun 14th 2020

Hi, Molly. Congrats for going through this challenge. It's not an easy one, but I hope you understand the benefits of doing it.

After going through your work, one think I noticed is that you seem to be using a pen that is much thicker than the recommended ones. Now, I understand the rules don't apply so strictly for non-patrons, but I still recommend you used something in the range of 0.4-0.6mm, as using a too thick pen might hide possible mistakes (like lack of smoothness). It's always good to easily identify your own mistakes in order to improve faster.

While your line work seems overall good, you still struggle a bit with some aspects, mainly on how to extend your lines. This step is very important, because it's what helps you check if your boxes are correct in terms of perspective.

Because it's virtually impossible for me to analyze each of your boxes, I'm going to dissect one of them, hoping that explaining what went wrong might help you improve your further work.

Take a look at your box No. 242

You extended the blue lines in the wrong direction. Actually, the red lines that you crossed as incorrect are correct, but you wrongly assumed that because your box is converging up you should extend the lines up as well. Sometimes, students have the idea that the lines should be extended in the direction to where the box converges. This is wrong because if the box is converging in the wrong direction, you end up extending the lines also in the wrong direction, which is what happened here.

Reread this section to better understand what I mean.

Also, pay attention to this part of the 250 boxes video and notice how Uncomfortable says (around minute 6:30) that each line of the initial Y point to a vanishing point. So, after you finish a box, that direction to which the lines of the initial Y point is where you should extend your lines to.

Understanding this well is what will allow you to easily point out your mistakes and focus on avoiding them on the next boxes.

You have plenty of boxes where you extended some of the lines in the wrong direction.

Also, remember that the planes that are facing the viewer are the ones that touch the lines of the initial Y.

If you get these concepts right, you will definitely draw better boxes.

If you have any doubts, don't be afraid to ask.

Next Steps:

I ask you do draw 2 more pages of boxes. Five boxes in each page.

Draw them a bit larger then what you did in these 250 ones and use the method described in the video. That is, draw the initial Y that will determine the front planes of your box. Also, don't draw weirdly shaped boxes. In reality, most boxes have rectangular sides. Some are wider and others are thiner, but they are all simple boxes. Don't venture into trying to draw pyramid shaped boxes or similar things before you are able to decently draw simple ones.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 8:24 PM, Jun 14th 2020
10:21 PM, Saturday June 13th 2020

Hello and thanks for your time to critique and give me some feedback. It is greatly appreciated. I have obtained pens in the correct size finally so that has been very helpful.

Neither of the links you shared with me worked but I was able to find the spot in the video and I kind of was able to guess the part in the text that you were referencing for me to review, and from there I tried to draw some more boxes. Here are 2 more pages

I drew the boxes bigger and I tried to be mindful of the things you mentioned as I drew them this time, paying much more attention to vanishing points and which directions my lines would extend.

I focused on the initial Y shape creating the planes that are facing the viewer, but I guess one doubt that I have, or something that I am not quite clear on, is if I have been picking the correct face of each box to be shaded.

Thanks again for your reply and your patience for recieving a response from me. I was thrown off a bit by my sleep and work schedule getting rearranged, but now I'm back and ready to keep drawing. Hope to hear from you soon :)

9:39 PM, Sunday June 14th 2020

Hello, again, Molly.

I'm glad you took the time to draw two more pages as requested. Regarding the links I shared, I noticed they had some typos, which prevented them from working. They are fixed now.

Now, on your new boxes you managed to draw all the extended lines in the right direction, although you forgot to draw a set of them on the bottom right box of your first page. This one specifically would be a good example of the importance of extending the lines correctly, because if you extend the lines you're missing, you'll notice that some of them will never meet, since they are moving apart from each other. This should never happen. If the perspective is correct, the extended lines should move closer to one another and meet at the same point. The same happens on the box in the center of the second page. The green lines will never meet.

Now, it's nearly impossible to get every box with a perfect perspective, where all lines meet in a single point, but our goal is to make sure that the lines meet in points that are close to each other. This segment of the video explains it better.

Regarding the side that's facing the viewer, here you have picked all the sides correctly, as you did on most of the 250 first boxes. An example of a box you shaded the wrong side would be box nº. 45.

Overall, these last boxes are much better than the previous ones and it shows you corrected your previous mistakes.

Don't forget to keep practicing some boxes during warm ups, as this will help you keep improving. Good luck for lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Lesson 2.

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