Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

4:05 PM, Sunday November 20th 2022

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Hi all,

I have used a 0,4 mm fineliner for this submission, is it okay if I use the same fineliner for the next lessons?

Also thank you so much for making learning art fundamentals so accesible!

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7:04 AM, Monday November 21st 2022

Generally, we’ll tolerate that (or its lesser friend, the ballpoint pen) for Lesson 1, since we assume that the student is, by that point, still gathering materials, etc., but no further. I suppose that if you don’t, ehem, go out of your way to bring it up…, the box challenge TA won’t mind, either, but we definitely insist that you find yourself a 0.5 or equivalent by Lesson 2 at the latest. I hope that’s not too inconvenient for you. Now, let’s take a look at how you did here.

Next Steps:

Is… what I wrote, but then when I tried the link I got a 404 error, ahah. Would you be so kind as to look at it again? Feel free to reply to this comment with a working one.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
5:43 PM, Monday November 21st 2022

Haha, thank you!

I hope this link works https://imgur.com/gallery/WOgq5L0

7:22 AM, Tuesday November 22nd 2022

Yup! Let’s see, then.

Your superimposed lines are well done. They’re smooth, and properly lined up at the start, but not always of a consistent trajectory, so be a tiny bit more mindful of that. Also, there’s some empty space on your page, where you could’ve tried out some arcing lines, or even some more straight ones – try to make use of those opportunities, because the pages we request of you are all the space you have to prove that you’ve understood the concepts. The ghosted lines start off a little rough, but really come into their own in the ghosted planes exercise. Even there, however, there’s the occasional insecurity as you approach the end points of your lines. As this insecurity is more apparent in the non-diagonal center lines of your planes, I wonder if its simply that you’ve not plotted any start/end points for those, and thus made the ghosting itself a little harder. If so, please do. Otherwise, it could be that you’re a little too conscious of those points (a desire to not stop short, or overshoot, making it such that you’re slowing down as you approach them).

Moving on to the ellipse section, the table of ellipses exercise is well done. I suspect that you’re drawing these a little faster than you need to, so consider checking if a slower speed might result in the same level of confidence, but an increased degree of accuracy, but, either way, your idea of prioritizing confidence at the cost of everything else is correct. Be careful, however, that you don’t go on autopilot. I think the ellipses that start with that little flick (consider, for instance, page 2, row 6, column 1) are ones that are drawn sans ghosting – you wouldn’t be able to make that motion if you ghosted, you understand – so try to always be mindful of your movements, and if you catch yourself going on autopilot, take a step back, and refocus. The ellipses in planes look good, particularly in their second page, where the size of the planes has made for some very ambitious ellipses. Drawing big is, actually, something we heavily encourage our students to do – something that’d have benefitted you in your funnels, actually. We, of course, don’t hold it against a student if their small ellipses are a little insecure, but it’s something that’s easily avoidable, anyway.

The plotted perspective exercise looks clean.

The rough perspective exercise shows some nice improvement throughout the set, as far as its convergences are concerned, anyway (don’t worry, we’ll unload this sentence in a second!) Still, however, and despite how many unused points you have on your page – which, by the way, I’m very happy to see – even by the end, the convergences are a little further from the point than we’d like. I’m not sure how exactly you’re checking them, but what I’ll recommend you do is ghost a line from one point to the other, and then extend it (in your head) to the horizon, note down where it intersects it, and adjust the point accordingly. That should help with the points, more than any eyeballing can. Now, I said that the convergences are well done; linework, is a little more mixed. The line quality itself is good, but there’s a lot of automatic reinforcing, which we – as you know – discourage. I’ll remind you that, regardless of how it turns out, each line is to be drawn once, and only once. Resist the urge to ‘correct’ a line by adding more ink to it.

The rotated boxes exercise has… an entire extra layer to it, but what’s here is well done, so no worries. Looking at some of the points in the center, I wonder if you perhaps tried to plot the convergences in your head, in some way? That’s admirable, but beyond the scope of this exercise – actually, we’re trying to get you into the habit of estimating them. Also, if you’re stressed about the far planes of your boxes being a little flat, don’t be – that (and more) is exactly what we’ll be addressing in the upcoming box challenge.

Speaking of boxes, the organic perspective exercise is well done. Your boxes here are well constructed, and they flow quite well as a result of their increase in size, and consistent, shallow foreshortening. Keep up the good work!

Next Steps:

I’ll be marking this lesson as complete, and sending you off to the box challenge – good luck to you!

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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Sakura Pigma Microns

Sakura Pigma Microns

A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.

In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.

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