Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

6:36 AM, Tuesday January 14th 2025

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I finally did everything. Now I need to find how I can do some of the exercise here as a warm up when drawing pieces. I don't think 5 minutes is enough of a warm up.

Old Homeworks:

(3/10) https://imgur.com/a/I4oYI51

(6/10)https://imgur.com/a/weCjUlL

(9/10)https://imgur.com/a/XOwSKCF

1 users agree
10:28 AM, Tuesday January 14th 2025

Hello I'm Simon and will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)

1. Superimposed lines

First of all you did a good job of drawing your lines confidently and committing to the stroke once you started it. Looks like there is some fraying on both sides of your superimposed lines, take your time before drawing each stroke to put your pen back on the starting point, this is likely due to you rushing the exercise a bit and shouldn't be hard to fix.

2. Ghosted lines

Well done your Ghosted lines do not wobble. Your lines remain straight, that's good in the future keep the habit of drawing with your whole arm so you have long confident lines! You did a good job of having your lines end up near or on the final dot, keep practicing this exercise (and the others) in your warmups to get even better at it!

3. Ghosted planes

You did a really good job of doing your ghosted planes, your lines are as good/better than the ones from your previous exercises.

4. Table of ellipses

Great job on drawing through every single ellipse twice! Make sure you keep doing that with every single ellipse you draw along the course! Some of your ellipses aren't fit snugly enough along the edges of your tables and/or other ellipses. You should try to take your time with every ellipse, ghosting it through multiple times and keeping an eye on where your ellipse would land while doing it, to then draw it confidently in the right place. As long as you keep practicing you'll get there in no time :) Most of your ellipses are evenly shaped and appear smooth good job! Getting a perfect ellipse is a really hard job but you'll have time to work on it through your warmups.

5. Ellipses in planes

Once again good job on drawing through every ellipse twice! You tried and managed to fit your ellipses right between the four sides great job on managing to do that! Most of your ellipses are evenly shapes good job here too.

6. Funnels

Here too you tried to fit every ellipse snugly along the curves well done, even if it is tougher to do with a non straight edge it's a really good practice. You kept most of your ellipses along the direction of the minor axis, keep practicing this exercise as a warmup in your next lessons.

7. Plotted perspective

As mentioned in the exercise you used a ruler to draw your boxes that's all good. You kept the first lines of your boxes perpendicular to the horizon as you should've, well done. You made sure to plot every single line back to the right vanishing point so good job, even though some back corners don't come out perfectly that's completely fine :)

8. Rough perspective

Managing to land every single line exactly back to the vanishing point is a near impossible task at this point but what's important is you tried and most of your lines do try to reach that center point! The front back of your boxes is rectangular each time, that's great. You managed to draw every line extension in the right direction, that could get a little tougher in the 250 boxes since you have to extend in 3 directions but this shows you got the base of how to do it! You seem to have used the ghosting method for every stroke that's good! Keep using it for every stroke and your exercises will look much better than if you didn't!

9. Rotated boxes

The setup of your rotated boxes is well laid out with the cross and the 4 cubes to strive for in each cardinal direction :) Your gaps between the boxes seem a bit loose or inconsistent. You should be keeping these gaps tight and consistent to guide your lines. This way, you can focus on making those lines parallel and avoid unnecessary guessing. You seem to understand how to rotate your boxes, but don’t seem to rotate them enough, that’s fine since it still shows that you understood the assignment but if you can I’d like you to try this exercise once more while keeping an eye on the side squares you drew at the start as a goal for you 2nd box on each side. Drawing through your boxes is also a key part of the exercise and is also making you start practicing this skill that will be used for every box in the 250 challenge. You drew every single box well done! Many people forget some boxes in the corner but you didn't!

10. Organic perspective

Once again using the ghosting method for every single stroke of this course is a crucial part into getting good habits for your whole drawing journey! Some of your boxes seem to have parallel or diverging lines, that's a common mistake when drawing shallower foreshortening boxes and the only way to get better at it will be through taking the time to place each stroke carefully while drawing your boxes, take your time. You will also improve on this as you move through the 250 boxes challenge! You did a good job of drawing shallower foreshortening here as some people tend to go into more dramatic foreshortening which in this exercise as the effect of making the boxes seem inconsistent in scale compared to each other, overall making the drawing less solid and less believable.

Overall really good job! For the warmups I think that 5 mins for some exercise is a bit short for others it's fine, so just do 15 Mins total before each drawing session, do an exercise for 5 mins if you feel it's too short do it for 10 and then pull another one, and do that until you reach 15 Mins,

15 mins isn't much but if you draw regularly they'll add up! Better to draw 5 mins a day than 2 hours a month

Don't forget to complete your 50/50 rule and to add these exercises to your warmups for future lessons!

Also I strongly encourage you to go review some submissions on the website :) You can review some lessons 1 and once you've completed future lessons review those as well. Don't hesitate to do a review every so often. It really benefits you so you don't forget the point of the previous exercises and helps other people who are waiting on a review :)

Next Steps:

Feel free to move on to the 250 Box challenge

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete. In order for the student to receive their completion badge, this critique will need 2 agreements from other members of the community.
4:05 AM, Thursday January 16th 2025

Thank you for the critique it helped me quite a lot, I'll try to do the old exercises as much as I can before drawing some pieces. Although I am curious since I'm done with the old exercises can I mix and match the exercises? An example would be combining Rotates boxes exercise with Ellipses in planes exercise. Although the only thing I would keep in tact is the superimposed exercise because it will greatly help with accuracy of my line art.

I've also did my 50 percent, I just don't share them.

Thank you for giving me a critique, this will help me a lot in the future

8:22 AM, Thursday January 16th 2025

Good for the 50 percent :)

Happy the critique helped

And for combining exercises I'm not sure tbh, I'd say for now just do them as they are and in a bit if you feel like trying that out go ahead :)

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