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11:33 PM, Thursday December 28th 2023

https://imgur.com/a/N0YlcR0

Hello Bun!

First of all let me thank you for taking your time to write such a thorough critique! Since it is my first time posting here (or anywhere public at all) I was not expecting to get such detailed reply.

Regarding my first submission for some reason I thought that the repeated lines were not so apparent when I drew them but it seems I was seen through immediately XD. Same thing with the organic perspective - since it was the last exercise of lesson I was so eager to finish it I forgot to take my time during the exercise. Thank you again for making me calm down a bit and for reminding me what was the point of those exercises.

Now when talking about exercises given by you I ran into a few issues. I think (but don't know if it's true) that part of why I kept overshooting was because when drawing my fingers where really close to the tip so when ghosting i had to lift my hand a little bit. As a result when I put my pen down it was such a different feeling - it felt like as if I haven't ghosted at all. So during this submission I tried holding the pen further from the tip which felt a little bit more comfortable and natural however I think it resulted in a bit more confident but much more curvy lines (at least in ghosted planes).

I also ran into a few problems when doing the organic perspectives exercise. Firstly I really struggle drawing smaller boxes. It's really hard for me to engage my shoulder when drawing them for some reason, it feels like my arm gets caught on something on the table (even though it's perfectly flat) and stops my arm movement abruptly. Secondly it seems like I can't draw different boxes. At the beginning of each panel all boxes have the same angle even though I was trying to draw them differently... Thirdly when looking at my work I still get the feeling of "rushiness". I tried slowing myself down but I guess I failed at that. If you have some advice regarding these problems I would really appreciate it :).

This might sound like a dumb question and I realised it just now as I'm writing this but was I supposed to do some kind of "warm up" exercises before doing each of my homework submissions? Something along these lines was mentioned in a video I was watching to "freshen up" my memory for the exercises given by you but I missed it at the time. So did I have to randomly choose some exercises from previous homeworks or for now I just had to draw immediately and do warm ups when I reach lesson 2?

Again thank you very much for critiquing my work, helping me and giving some directions! :)

7:22 AM, Thursday January 18th 2024

Hiya Indecisive Lad!

Haha the ability to see the repeated lines is why this specific pen is required to be used for most of the course. Much easier to see it than if you used pencil or digital tools. :)

Anyways, regarding your question about the way you hold your pen. It's recommended that you hold it in a more comfortable/natural manner. Seems like before you were holding it quite tight which may have also meant you were pressing down on the paper quite hard which may be why ghosting and actually drawing on the paper felt so different. It's fine that your lines are a little curvy now. You have noticed that's the case and can work to improve upon it. Like I mentioned in the critique before, we mainly focus on confidence in your line more than the accuracy. Try holding your pen in the more comfortable way and practise, you might find it easier in the end even to get more accurate lines. It's basically all muscle memory after all.

About drawing smaller boxes, this is normal. It is harder to draw smaller shapes with your shoulder and is why the wrist helps with doing the smaller details. Don't worry or focus on it too much. The main take from this lesson is the confidence so even if you use your wrist more than your shoulder for much smaller objects, it will inevitably happen since the drawing area is so small. But this is not an excuse to use your wrist all the time! It's more about how much surface area are you drawing over. Use your shoulder as much as possible and only if it seems like you're drawing really small, then you may find that you're using your wrist more. That's okay. :)

Don't worry about the angle of the boxes, you will have TONS of practise for this when you do the 250 Box Challenge. Figuring out how to draw different angled boxes is part of that challenge.

About the 'rushiness', I think this is something you may find that taking the time with your lessons can help. I had the same problem but I just forced myself to not get distracted by making sure I had a 'reward' to look forward to if I finished it properly (some tv or youtube to watch or maybe a nice meal even). If I didn't, well no reward for me AND I have rework to do because clearly I didn't pay enough attention to the lesson. That was punishment enough lol. The lessons do say not to rework but I could tell when I'd been paying attention and when I rushed and there's no point doing a lesson if I had rushed it without taking in what I was learning. Almost like cramming for an exam. You always forget a few days later lol.

I'd suggest maybe concentrating on each stroke a little more as well. Almost like a meditation of sorts. Really think about how you're going to mark the paper. Easier said than done I know specially when the brain is like 'omg let's finish this quick!'. Maybe set aside like an hour or 2 a day to just work on DaB work. Don't think about how you want to finish something but rather think along the lines of 'I'll get what I can done within this timeframe and I'll do it properly'. Maybe not having an 'end goal' may help so you aren't really looking forward to finishing it. Or maybe its a opposite; choose only a small part to finish but give yourself 2 hours to do it. You can't do anything else within those two hours. No distractions. I'd say experiment and see. It's hard to give you advice here on this as I feel its a very individual thing. If you're on discord, you can maybe even join the DaB discord and ask around. I'm sure you're not the only individual who's struggled with this issue too. I feel it's very common.

For your warm ups, lesson one doesn't really have warm ups as it's still the basics. But from lesson 2 onwards, you can randomly select exercises from lesson 1. These will be your warm up exercises. So spend about 15mins doing them before you start on any future lesson work.

Sorry for the long essay but I hope I covered your questions. I'm happy with your revisions and I think you're definitely ready to move on to the 250 Box Challenge. Good luck! And remember, perseverance is key with this challenge and don't forget your warm ups. I'm sure you'll do well! :)

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.
7:57 PM, Thursday January 18th 2024

Hi Bun!

Thank you for the reply! It's reassuring to hear that what I'm doing is not completely wrong XD. Drawing requires a lot more patience than I was expecting at first. I'm hoping to get better but the progress feels very slow... But I guess it's time to tackle the next challenge - the 250 boxes, I wonder how that'l turn out!

I also want to wish you the best of luck in your creative endevours - have a nice day! :)

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