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1:23 AM, Sunday September 19th 2021

Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Not only does the challenge 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:

  • You're keeping your lines smoothly and confidently drawn.

  • When hatching you're taking the time to plan and space them evenly rather than just rush them on to the page.

  • It's nice to see that you're trying to implement line weight. It's not a requirement of the challenge but it's a tool that most people feel they need a fair bit of mileage with before they find it comfortable. Getting an early start will help you see results sooner just remember to try to keep your application subtle.

  • Good work experimenting with orientations and proportions. Experimentation is an important part of the learning process and helps ensure we don't end up only improving at one certain method.

  • Overall there are fewer diverging lines being created which results in more consistent boxes rather than distorted ones.

Things you can work on:

  • Line weight subtlety as mentioned before, remember that confidence is our first priority and accuracy will improve with mileage.

  • You don't experiment with rates of foreshortening much, rather you tend to keep your vanishing points as far as you can so that your lines are close to parallel. Try mixing it up to get more dramatic and differing rates of foreshortening.

  • 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.

I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.

You're on the right track and your boxes are looking solid but I want to make sure you understand how to change your rate of foreshortening. I'm going to ask you to draw just 10 more boxes, remember that as you move your vanishing point closer to your box the lines will converge more rapidly. Draw confidently and experiment.

Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.

I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.

Next Steps:

10 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
3:25 PM, Thursday September 23rd 2021

Hi! Thank you for the feedback. I have been drawing more boxes experimenting with closer vanishing points and trying hard not to converge the lines in pairs. I have mixed feelings with the results. Sometimes the lines converge pretty close but not always... Not sure if this is normal or I should try a different approach... I get the concept but when I put it into practice at least one of the lines goes a little off the vanishing point.

Thank you very much for your help

https://imgur.com/a/0HPVU4k

1:32 AM, Friday September 24th 2021

These are looking great so far, there are a few mistakes but remember we aren't looking for perfection and neither should you be. Mistakes are inevitable and even the greats make/made them, it's how we learn.

You've shown you can move your vanishing points and change up your rates of foreshortening so I have no problem moving you to lesson 2.

Keep practicing previous exercises as warm ups and good luck.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
10:27 AM, Friday September 24th 2021

Great, I will! Thank you so much for your comments and support. Looking forward to starting the next one!

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Staedtler Pigment Liners

Staedtler Pigment Liners

These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.

Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).

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