100 Treasure Chest Challenge

4:29 PM, Sunday April 14th 2024

100 treasure chests - Album on Imgur

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Ok, done. This was really fun, for the first like 30 or so. By the end I was sick of chests and now I'm kinda glad it's over, so I don't know, 100 might just be too many, but cool challenge other than that! :D

Non of these are done from a single reference, including real life objects, like a garbage can and a fridge. By the end, I stated doing some purely from imagination, but majority was inspired by little mood boards of things completely unrelated to chests. Things like vehicles, guns, buildings or just a vague sense of some setting. Each detailed one was first doodled loosely in a sketchbook, where I did variations and experiments. Honestly, that is where most of my best work from this challenge end up xD.

Also, I assume you'll see that, but I can confirm - half way through, I did switch to drawing free hand. It helped me focus more on the design than perfect perspective and precise measurements. I still used my whole arm and ghosted most of the lines, but not gonna lie, it was not my priority at this point.

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11:17 PM, Monday April 15th 2024

Before I get to your critique, there's something I wanted to address. Some of what you said in your submission comment suggests to me that you may not completely understand how the official critique program itself works, and that may result in you looking at the assignments themselves, and all that is asked, in an incorrect context.

To put it simply, the quantity of the assignment and the specific ways in which we direct students to perform the tasks (including taking their time and care with every mark and not deciding on their own to deviate from those instructions), while serving to help provide a broad range of students with effective training, also serve to ensure that we are able to provide the service in general. The service being the feedback you receive.

As explained in Lesson 0, where we outline the requirements for receiving official critique, we explain that these strict rules are there to ensure that we can do our work efficiently, so that the limited resources we operate on can ensure that every teaching assistant is paid fairly for their work, while simultaneously offering the service as cheaply as possible. As explained here as well as in the video at the top of that page, and here in the first page of that lesson, we charge students less than what we pay our teaching assistants for the corresponding feedback, and rely on those who allow some of their credits to expire to make up the difference.

Though we try to mention this when possible in the course material, many go under the impression that we operate as any other school would, in the sense of charging the student a set amount for the service they receive, taking some of that for profit, some of that for paying those who provide the service, and some for the overhead of transaction fees and so forth. It's understandable to an extent, because that's how most services work - but it's also why you don't generally get personalized feedback for anywhere near our prices.

This misunderstanding of how we operate can certainly result in some students feeling inclined to modify the process to better suit how they feel about the work - similarly to your choice not to prioritize your linework for the second half of the challenge. And in turn, that can make the process of providing feedback more complicated and time consuming - demanding more of our limited resources. Each lesson and challenge is designed to limit the kind of issues and mistakes that may need to be discussed, and to allow the focus of the feedback to be on certain things. For example, when it comes to this challenge, which gives us the opportunity to discuss considerations relating to design not covered in the course itself (as a sort of spring board to what they can explore next), having clean linework helps to ensure that I can see the student's intent, and more accurately interpret what they were thinking about, and what they may not have been thinking about, when making their design decisions.

Furthermore, with the optional challenges - this one especially, which does not exist within the general flow of the course but rather as something one can opt to do after completing it - while the considerable volume of work ensures that I am spoiled for choice in terms of which specific design concerns I want to discuss and how many examples I can have to point at, it also serves to give the student to earn their feedback of what is again, an entirely optional exercise.

To put it simply, the less the student is concerned with following our instructions and more on following their own personal compass as they complete the work, the more it demands of us. And of course, we set things up so that we can should we choose to reject homework on that basis, but generally we don't if we can help it. We accept that these misunderstandings come not from a place of malice or entitlement, but from forgetting that our course is unique in what it offers, and how it does so, but I'd be lying if I said expressions of that misunderstanding did not constitute a bitter pill to swallow.

Anyway, getting to your critique, I've picked out a few of your designs to discuss in regards to how one might think about the objects themselves and the context in which they were produced to help inform what kinds of details you might add to further flesh them out. Detail is one of those areas where students often feel uncertain about, because they don't necessarily have a clear idea of how to choose which details to add, and why. This is fortunately something that can be explored in a more systematic fashion by finding questions for ourselves to ask about the objects themselves, the purpose they serve, the way their various components fit together, and the world in which they exist.

One thing I did quite like about many of your designs is that you tend to be mindful of the thickness of the individual components you include in your designs. So for example, if you add a metal plate or a bracket, it's generally not drawn as a single flat shape. You give them just a little bit of thickness on the side, which is something many students neglect. I also found your use of joinery techniques to be quite interesting.

Looking at this one first, I thought the hinge mechanism was very neat, but when asking myself questions about how it was put together, and how it might be maintained (for example, applying oil/lubrication to the hinge when it inevitably starts squeaking), we might consider... well, where does the hinge pin go? How does it actually get inserted into the mechanism in the first place? It's not a problem we have to solve in this design, but if we were looking for additional areas to add detail, adding an exposed hole on the side for the pin to enter, and for oil to be applied, would be an option.

Similarly, if we look at the way in which the sides of the box are secured, we could say that it simply uses an adhesive - as long as the civilization that produced this box is one that would reasonably have access to adhesives, and wouldn't be stuck using rivets and bolts for everything. Alternatively, a little ornate bracket could be used to secure two perpendicular sides together.

None of these things are mandatory, but as we think about these objects less as pretty things to draw, and more as objects that exist inside a world, things that were made and used, it unlocks all kinds of questions we can ask ourselves in order to identify what kind of details would suit the object.

Continuing on, here I noticed that you'd approached the wood grain texture of the slats that make up the box in a fairly random, haphazard fashion. This suggests to me that you weren't using your reference for this aspect. Whether that wood is meant to be rough with little bits sticking out all over, or if it's meant to be a smoother wood grain, adding details randomly will only ever make something look messy. Instead, be sure to pay attention to your reference in order to think about how you might go about simplifying it in order to convey the impression you're after. If there are little bits sticking out, like a real splinter hazard, then those sections would cast shadows - specific shadow shapes, as we discussed in the texture challenge. If it's more of a wood grain, then they tend to be made up of continuous, flowing lines - not short broken ones.

Another point I noticed here, is the missing hinges, leaving a question of how the lid actually opens and closes. Of course, again - you don't have to include them, as the viewer will assume that they're meant to be implied. But hinges are a fairly common element to something like this. I imagine your hinges could be secured to the opposite side of the box as well, although that approach is less common.

A minor point here in regards to the closed bench-style chest you've got beneath it, the keyhole looked somewhat out of place because the rest of it was so ornate, but the keyhole was left as a bare void. This seemed incongruent with the rest of the object, didn't really match the general level of ornamentation, so adding edging around it and securing it with rivets is one option of many.

Lastly, the barrel you drew for number 15 had some basic elements in play, but it definitely left a lot of questions. Firstly, the main body of the barrel, is it made up of a single continuous piece, or is it made up of many individual slats like traditional barrels? If it's a single continuous piece, that's another technological consideration - warping wood in such a fashion isn't easy, and one might consider whether the civilization producing it is capable of that sort of thing.

Of course, the barrel could be made of plastic, with industrial rubber bands or o-rings wrapping around it for... some purpose. Maybe to reduce impact if it falls over? But my assumption was that your intent was to draw a more standard barrel, in which case separating out the slats, adding rivets for each to secure the bands, and even adding some wood grain might not go amiss, as shown here.

I think you're making a lot of good headway with your designs, and most of what I've called out here are suggestions. With design there are many paths we can take, but ultimately what we want to achieve is a cohesive story. Whether it's limited to the object itself (where we would consider whether the whole object was approached similarly, with the keyhole example being one where some parts were fancier than others), or to the greater context in which the object was produced and used. Everything can tell a story about itself. Not everything needs to in every situation, but the more we think about what that story might be, the more tools we have at our disposal.

I'll go ahead and mark this challenge as complete.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
9:12 PM, Tuesday April 16th 2024

Thanks for the feedback, as always it is genuinely enlightening. I feel like an asshole complaining after all this, but I just want clear 2 things up. Merely explain my stance, since I doubt that I am the only person using this line of logic and I believe knowing it, might be useful to you.

This challenge was the only time I eased up on focusing on every singe line in equally high measure, because I was under the impression that the specific care put into the ghosting method and using the whole arm in this course was done for the benefit of helping Me, with improving the confidence in longer lines and deliberate thoughtfulness while drawing (among other things).

"(...) having clean linework helps to ensure that I can see the student's intent, and more accurately interpret what they were thinking about, and what they may not have been thinking about, when making their design decisions."

I'm sorry, but I struggle to see how this means that I must follow all of the guidelines regarding the line making techniques in this course. Ballpoint pen can make very clean lines by carefully layering and connecting short strokes made with wrist or maybe even just the fingers (to be clear, I did not do that here). I agree that clean linework in this challenge was key, but that is all the more reason to not be forced to use the whole arm, even for smaller marks, or making 2 passes at each ellipse for example. These are extra hoops I'd have to jump through, in order to get the lines as clean as possible and convey the design as clearly as possible (especially hard when adding thickness and small details), which seems to be the main goal here.

Another matter is my moan about the amount of work required here.

The only reason anyone would do this exercise is to help train their creative muscles and design thinking. From the perspective of the student, feedback at the end, is there to help point out where they can improve and practice better in the future. The problem with the amount is that doing 50 designs before receiving any feedback, takes a lot of time and effort. It's a little unreasonable to expect students to practice for tenths of hours, over a span of many weeks, with a concern that they are making the same mistakes 50 times over and developing bad habits, just to learn that at the end. But that is exactly what's expected here. It might not make it a bad challenge - and I'm aware that nobody made me take it on, so these complaints might seem a little silly - but I feel it would be improved by giving a more reasonable amount of work to students and encouraging them to continue to practice after a shorter amount of time spend on chests.

Right now, thanks to the feedback, I feel more confident that I see how I can improve my future designs, but as I joked earlier, I don't want to design any more treasure chests for a while, so this confidence is nigh (at least for chests specifically). This was not a problem for me with other challenges, since things like boxes or cylinders are easier to self critique to some degree, with each example produced. But here, I felt a little blind.

I don't like that idea about earning feedback. Positive feedback should feel earned to the student, not just any feedback at all. I empathize with your perspective as a business owner, but I really don't understand how having less examples to pick from, would make giving feedback harder. You'd have to look at less pictures, so if anything, it would take less time, no?

Regardless, thanks again, not just for the feedback above, but the course as a whole. I truly cannot express how much I owe it, and therefor You.

11:29 PM, Tuesday April 16th 2024

To put it simply, not all cases of a given issue are really suitable for explaining it. It varies from topic to topic and issue to issue, but having a really on point example can help me illustrate to the student what the issue is, as well as why and how they might avoid it. As long as the work is organized and clear, the quantity of pages to go through isn't really an issue - although in cases where they are haphazard, half-complete, and otherwise disorganized, that can definitely make things harder.

Doesn't happen often, and when it does, it's memorable - I remember on December 24th 2021, I received a Lesson 5 submission made up of half drawings across some 50 pages... That one was a challenge, and took a solid 3 hours just to explain why it required a full redo.

In most cases however, effective critique benefits from examples that are clear. It's very easy to have examples of an issue that aren't quite as obvious or neatly packaged, and that simply makes the task more difficult.

I completely understand where you're coming from, and how a student may be inclined to view the situation, but I still feel like you're missing a key point here, and it's a difficult one to make without discussing money, and who gets paid what, which is admittedly uncouth.

In your reply you acknowledge everything drawabox has done for you, and I appreciate that - but at the same time you express disdain at the idea of "earning" your feedback. That would make perfect sense in the context of a customer paying for a service - a customer should only be expected to pay for the service they receive, a simple exchange.

But that isn't the case here. Our course is designed such that people who have limited budgets can still receive the same feedback as those with more money to spend - those who can afford to allow credits to expire do so, and those who can't simply spend every credit they receive. It does not cover the full cost of the feedback they receive (by the end of Lesson 5 the total cost of feedback as paid to the TAs is $70 USD, and due to overhead fees we lose about 15% of what the students pay), but that is the nature of the system we've set up and we balance it out in other ways. Our priority is that students, despite financial difficulties, are more able to receive that reliable feedback.

While the large quantity of work associated with our course in general definitely helps make this possible (as it staggers out the homework submissions) just as the strict requirements we impose do, most of the workload throughout this course is still in line with what is beneficial for the student.

The chest challenge is quite different from everything else this course offers, however. It is entirely based on looking specifically at the very unique designs the student produces, and so it is extremely time consuming to critique. Finding those best examples, explaining the concepts in the context of the work, doing draw overs and so forth.

After the TAs get paid, and the processing/overhead fees are taken into consideration, if a student has spent every single credit they received, that leaves about $10 USD left over to cover the time I spend on critiquing everything after Lesson 5. The cylinder challenge, lesson 6, the wheel challenge, lesson 7, the texture challenge, and the chest challenge. Ten dollars to cover what averages to 3 hours of work, the last hour of which is occupied by the chest challenge.

Limiting to just the mandatory parts of the course (1.5hrs worth) we're looking at $6.67/hour. Adding the texture challenge brings us to $5/hour, and adding the treasure chest challenge brings us down to $3.33/hour. Minimum wage where we're based is $11/hour.

Now I absolutely could increase the credit price of the chest challenge, but that doesn't really align with our core principles as a business, which is to reduce the financial barriers necessary to receive reliable feedback, and eliminate them entirely for our learning resources.

The other option is to ensure that those who do decide to pursue the chest challenge are few and far between, which given the fact that it is optional and not actually a part of our core course material, nor directly focused on any of the topics we present as being among the course's goals, seems pretty reasonable to me. And of course, we do that by asking for a ton of work.

Cut the work in half, and the rate of submission increases - and at that point, we'd probably stop offering feedback on it altogether. I'm sure that would be fine for those mainly interested in being able to say they "completed" every part of the course, as the additional assignment would be taken off the table entirely, but it would be a loss for those who genuinely wanted to learn about design.

Besides - I haven't run into any issues with the other students who submitted the challenge. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but they completed it as assigned and I provided their feedback without issue or complaint.

All I ask is that you do the work in the way it was assigned, and that when I am working for below minimum wage for your benefit, upholding my end of the bargain I outlined in Lesson 0, you uphold yours and take all the time that is required of you, regardless of whether you personally feel it is beneficial. I suppose if you really took issue with the assignment but still felt compelled to do the exercise, you could have asked if your modification was acceptable, instead of moving ahead with it of your own volition.

Circling back, you may notice that the examples I chose when providing my feedback were from the first half of the challenge where you were more inclined to prioritize what was asked of you.

I hope my explanation was clear, though if you have any questions on why we operate in this fashion, feel free to ask.

3:22 PM, Friday April 19th 2024

This was a way more detailed breakdown than I expected and I must admit, it did explain a couple of things for me. A system where the most regular and trusted users of the service are bringing the biggest loss, is somewhat counterintuitive, but I can see good reasons for it working that way.

I've canceled my patreon subscription when I was done with all the materials, but after reading this, I decided to support you a little bit and resubscribed on the 'Backbone of Society' tier. This will probably be just for a month or two, but I hope it helps. For reference, in my country minimal wage, actually is just over $3.33/hour :P.

And please don't take this in bad faith. I'm not doing this to appease you or because I felt like you were fishing for it. I genuinely believe this program deserves a lot more and I am currently in position give some, so I'll gladly do. Take this as yet another honest Thank You.

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