Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.
Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.
Things you did well:
Your construction lines are looking smooth and confidently drawn.
You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.
Things you can work on:
You tend to draw fairly small, I'd like you to draw larger in the future. Drawing large will help you become more comfortable working from the shoulder and allow you to see any mistakes you've made more clearly.
Your hatching lines could be tidier (you only need a few lines rather than trying to shade in the entire side). Just like any other line we want to take our time planning them using the ghosting method, space them evenly and draw them confidently.
Line weight isn't a requirement of the challenge but I do recommend practicing it in your future attempts. It's an incredibly useful tool but one that people often require a fair bit of mileage before they feel comfortable applying it. The sooner you start to build up that mileage the sooner you'll see better results.
I'd like you to experiment with proporitons and rates of foreshortening more. At the moment you keep your boxes fairly similar throughout the challenge, try mixing in longer/thinner/wider boxes to see how your lines behave in differente scenarios. Currently you also tend to keep your lines close to parallel and push your vanishing points far from your boxes. Try bringing your points in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically. Remember that experimentation is important.
At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes (boxes 140-142, 214, 238, and 243 are examples of this). This leads to you extending your lines in the wrong direction and your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are actually diverging from where the vanishing point would actually be. Here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place your vanishing points and line extensions more consistently. If you need some more examples you can find them here and a simplified guide below.
There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.
The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.
I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.
I'd like you to draw 30 more boxes please. Focus on experimenting with proportions and rates of foreshortening, as well as extending your lines consistently in the correct direction. For the first 15 I'd like you to draw your boxes' vanishing points explicitly on the page after you've drawn your starting Y, this will make it so you have to keep these vanishing points in mind. For the latter 15 go back to the challenge's method without drawing the vanishing points which will hopefully be easier after the first set.
Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.
I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.
Next Steps:
30 more boxes please.
Here's the link for the extra 30 boxes: https://imgur.com/a/l3sPkBc
Since it's Christmas' Eve and there's the Promptathon happening, I understand if you aren't able to check these out, but it would be awesome if I could get input beforehand (crossing my fingers.) Mainly because of how the credit system works and it being the end of the month/year and all.
I found this sorta difficult, but at the same time I did kinda see some of my boxes sort of 'pop' with life? Can't explain it.
There are a few things worth discussing here, but to start.
Keep in mind for the future that it's okay to pause your pledge and only pay when you need credits, if your budget is limited, as explained here. This is how the credit system allows us to provide feedback at a more accessible price point for students, while still ensuring TAs get paid fairly.
I need to stress the explanation above because it also appears that you may have rushed through these revisions in order to keep on top of your self-imposed schedule. Your line quality took a noticeable hit, you're no longer utilizing the ghosting technique or the principles of markmaking as much as you were (this applies to line weight as well, just like any other line draw confidently and your accuracy will improve with mileage). You're redrawing and breaking lines up into multiple segments which are all things we frown upon in the instructions and course work.
That said, your hatching is tidier, you're experimenting more and all of your lines are extending in the correct direction which is good to see.
I'm hopeful that with the credit system being clarified, and your schedule that will only harm your own progress removed that you can address the line quality issues on your own. Know that if it's a problem in your future work you'll be asked for more revisions.
I'll be marking your submission complete. Keep practicing boxes and previous exercises as warmups and best of luck in lesson 2.
I hope you enjoy the promptathon and the holidays as well.
Next Steps:
Move on to lesson 2.
These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.
Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).
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