Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

10:56 AM, Friday September 25th 2020

Lesson 1 Lines, Elipses and Boxes - Album on Imgur

Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/rzkOu1U

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses, Boxes

I submitted this lesson yesterday before I joined patreon. Only after submission I found out that I should have joined patreon before submitting my homework. Im on patreon now and submitting my homework again with a request for official critique. I hope this is ok.

0 users agree
5:49 AM, Saturday September 26th 2020

Hi! That’s perfectly fine. In fact, you’re encouraged to submit your work to the community often, so that it’s the best it can be, by the time you submit it to us. Be sure to look into our discord server, if you haven’t already. Anyway, let’s go through this~

Starting with your superimposed lines, these are looking good. They’re smooth, properly lined up at the start, though not always of a consistent trajectory- be a little more careful in regards to that. Also, as you’re starting out, and getting familiar with the shoulder pivot, I recommend longer lines (particularly when it comes to the arcing ones), as they’re easier. The ghosted lines/planes look good, if a little small. Same logic here, in regards to their length. Also, be sure to ghost a line until you’re comfortable. That way, even if you commit to it, and it comes out a little off, you know that it’s the best it could’ve been, and aren’t particularly tempted to correct it (by extending it, or even re-doing it entirely). Finally, try to plot some start/end points for the non-diagonal center lines of the planes, too, if you can.

Moving on to the table of ellipses exercise, this is looking okay. One (major) issue with it is that you’re more focused on accuracy, than confidence, but this should be the other way around. A confident mark, however inaccurate, can still serve as the foundation of a solid construction. A wobbly mark, however, accurate, cannot. In the context of this exercise, it’s far more important for our ellipses to be smooth, and rounded, than it is for them to fit in the confines of their frame. If you’d like your ellipse to be more accurate, don’t slow down, just ghost more. Though their confidence is a little better in the ellipses in planes exercise, their roundness is not. They’ll often strain to hit all 4 sides of the plane, to the point that they become deformed, but, for the same reason as earlier, this is unnecessary. Save for the aforementioned problems, the funnels exercise looks good, but I’ll make a note of the automatic reinforcing here, too. Try to only draw each line once, and only once.

The plotted perspective exercise looks clean- nicely done. The rough perspective exercise is a big of a mixed bag. For starters, I’ll point out your line quality. These are much less confident than your lines in the ghosted lines/planes exercises, though they really shouldn’t be- you’re doing the same thing, essentially; drawing a line from point A to point B. Be careful not to assume that the unit of work is anything more than a line. Of course, here, too, try not to re-do a line, even if it’s incorrect. The ‘is this line correct’ step comes in-between plotting the points, and drawing a line between them. You do it by ghosting it to its end point, and beyond, to the horizon, to see where it intersects it. If it doesn’t at the correct point (the vanishing point), then feel free to adjust the points, and try again. Once you commit to them, however, it’s too late to make any changes- you are at that point making the claim that that is the best of your ability. That’s something I would recommend in general, too. The right-most box in the last frame, for instance, has 2 mistakes that should’ve been fairly obvious, had you taken the time to consider whether they are. That’s alright, though. Solid attempt at the rotated boxes exercise. I’m especially pleased to see how big it is! This is a good thing, as it gives your brain some much-needed room to think. The exercise itself looks good, though there are some spacing issues, and the hatching seems to have been done using a lesser pivot (remember: shoulder, always.) Finally, the organic perspective exercise looks good. I like all of the points on your page- it tells me that you’re taking your time, considering each line. The boxes themselves look quite good, and, as a result of a constant, shallow foreshortening, and a believable increase in size, the illusion is quite convincing, too.

Overall, though there’s a few issues with it, this is a solid submission, and whatever you’re lacking, you’ll be able to improve upon in your warm-ups. Good luck, and feel free to move on to the box challenge!

Next Steps:

250 Box Challenge

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
5:02 PM, Tuesday September 29th 2020

Thank you for your critique. I draw everyday and do warmups. I have already started the 250 box challenge and it is a challenge. But I will be patiently practice:)

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Ellipse Master Template

Ellipse Master Template

This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.

I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.

No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.