Check Out NMA    Learn More About our Partnership
Close and Enjoy Drawabox Ad-free
View Full Submission View Parent Comment
8:11 AM, Sunday July 4th 2021
edited at 8:13 AM, Jul 4th 2021

Looks like I finally got to meet the legend! As of time writing this I am at work and unable to read the critique given but I'll promise to do it later, l'll just ask the question regarding boxes now and post additional leaf homework sometime after.

So to the problem that has been bothering me for awhile is Am I supposed to be able to rotate any box to any direction I want with the knowledge provided from lesson 1 and 250 box challange? Ever since completing the challange I have no problem drawing Y shapes boxes, but when I imagine how I should draw them if I tilted them back my mind just goes blank as of time writing this.

Sorry for my bad English.

edited at 8:13 AM, Jul 4th 2021
3:08 PM, Sunday July 4th 2021

This course isn't something that promises to have you develop a certain amount of skill after a specific point, lesson, or exercise. Instead, it introduces you to concepts, and at specific points (like the box challenge) provides you with a bit more of a focused amount of work to help push you more solidly in a particular direction.

So that is to say, there's no expected "level" a student is going to be at once they finish Lesson 1 and the box challenge.

When it comes to developing a grasp of 3D space - that is, the ability to better understand how to manipulate forms in 3D space, and then draw them on the page, that is the main goal of this entire course - not just the first part. We go on to explore this through all of the constructional drawing lessons, from 3 to 7, as these have us continually thinking about how the forms we draw exist in space, and how they relate to one another within that space.

Long story short, no. You're not expected to suddenly be able to rotate boxes perfectly by the end of the box challenge. It's one step in a long journey, and this course as a whole is more about teaching students how to train and practice that stuff - it doesn't promise that you'll be at any particular stage at the end, and the expectation is that you'll still be practicing these exercises continually as you go forwards.

Lastly, don't forget - in Lesson 0 I mention that you should continue to practice the exercises you encounter as part of a regular warmup routine. That includes drawing freely rotated boxes and checking their line extensions.

4:53 PM, Sunday July 4th 2021
edited at 4:54 PM, Jul 4th 2021

Just read the critique and finished the additional leaf homework and thanks for the amazing critique and the reply to my question.

Not overly satisfied with the results but heres the homework.

http://imgur.com/gallery/qsG0Zcc

edited at 4:54 PM, Jul 4th 2021
5:04 PM, Sunday July 4th 2021

This is better, so I'll go ahead and mark this lesson as complete. As a rule though, in the future I would refrain from jumping straight into the work so quickly. Give yourself some time for the critique to sink in, reread the relevant parts of the lesson material, then give it a shot once you've allowed your brain to soak in it. That may make your results somewhat more satisfactory for you in the future.

Next Steps:

Move onto lesson 4.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
View more comments in this thread
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.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.

Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.

These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.

We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.

Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.

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