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Completing the program with arachnophobia

11:16 PM, Monday November 10th 2025

This is probably more of a question for Uncomfortable than a discussion topic, but I couldn't see a better place to ask this question. I have severe arachnophobia (despite, or maybe because of growing up in rural Australia, where they can get to be the size of your hand :o).

I have decided that I would like to complete the DrawABox program with feedback. I did the first couple of chapters a couple of years ago without feedback and found them very helpful, and I'd like to take my drawing to another level now. But I absolutely cannot handle the thought of drawing spiders. Even little ones now give me a panic attack!

Insects are fine, and I'm happy to draw a few extra to makeup for the missing spiders, or maybe draw a couple of extra scorpions or octupuses or something.

If I start going through the program, will it be ok to skip drawing the spiders when I get to that part? Can I just message the teachers at that stage and negotiate drawing something else? I would hate to get through the first two chapters and then be blocked from proceeding, but there is no way you'll ever get me to draw a spider! Thanks in advance :)

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5:09 PM, Tuesday November 11th 2025

Yes, it is totally okay to skip spiders altogether and focus on other subject matter that you are able to deal with. The purpose of the constructional drawing lessons (lessons 3-7) aren't that you are exposed to every kind of thing that falls under a given category, but that the category itself tends to feature certain elements that we want students to be exposed to. Just sticking to insects is fine, but another option is also to do studies of crustaceans like shrimps, crabs, lobsters, and so forth. There are a couple demos on the informal demos page which deal with crabs and lobsters, but my intent is that as we gradually work through updating the course material (we're currently at Lesson 2, and it'll be a good while before we reach Lesson 4) that I shift more of the demos to being focused on crustaceans so that students with arachnophobia are better accounted for.

7:44 AM, Wednesday November 12th 2025

Thank you for your reply! It's nice to hear that you're looking out for us arachnophobes!

I'm looking forward to starting to work through the material again soon. Now that I've spent a couple of years drawing and encountering some challenges, I think I'll get a lot more out of the exercises as well :)

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