Hello, and welcome to drawabox. I’ll be taking a look at your Lesson 1 submission today.

Starting with your superimposed lines, these are looking a little wobbly, I’m afraid. Remember that the goal isn’t for the line to stick to the guideline, so much as it is for it to be smooth. Also, I see a lot of empty space on your page – do yourself to fill it to the brim, you’ll find the extra practice useful. The ghosted lines/planes look a little better in that respect, though they’re not perfect, also. In particular, they seem to hesitate a little near their ends. Likely, you’re slowing down as you approach your end point, in an effort to not stop short of it, or overshoot, but that’s not quite right. After all, what we’re most concerned with isn’t the line’s accuracy, but rather its confidence.

Moving on to the ellipse section, the table of ellipses exercise also consists of a frame that’s much smaller than its page. As for the ellipses themselves, they exhibit the same misunderstanding as your lines; that accuracy matters more than confidence. This is incorrect. A confident ellipse that stops short of its bounds, or overshoots them, is perfectly fine – it’s correct. A wobbly one is incorrect, by default; all the accuracy in the world can’t save it. The ellipses in planes are similar, and they’ve also been drawn through a little too much, at times. Remember: 2-3 rotations, no more, no less. The funnels are a little bit better, confidence wise, but I see quite a bit of hesitation (especially in their first rotations) here, too. Still, you’re on the right track.

The plotted perspective exercise looks clean.

The rough perspective exercise starts off quite rough, and though there’s some improvement throughout the set, it’s still not in a great place by the end. There’s a number of misunderstandings here, but rather than have you re-read the exact same instructions, let’s see if we can deliver the same information in a different way. I’d like you to watch this video. I’d like you to just watch until she finishes the first 2 boxes, and then draw alongside her for the next few, until the entire first frame is done (correction lines too!) What I mean by ‘draw alongside her’ is draw the exact same boxes she draws, in the exact same places she draws them. Pause the video, after every decision of hers, and make the same one in your page.

The rotated boxes exercise is… exactly as expected, actually. Good on you for seeing it through to the end, despite it not coming out exactly as intended. The boxes are, for the most part, decently snug, and doing an acceptable job of rotating. Their issues start showing once we look at their backsides – they’re flat, as a result of not being snug to their neighbors – but that’s expected, and perfectly fine for now. As you progress through the box challenge, you’ll be able to make some better decisions here, so hold out until then.

The organic perspective looks really good. I’m happy to see so many boxes on the page, and so many of them that are correct, too. Really, the only issue I notice is the occasional automatic reinforcing (in other words, you correcting an incorrect line by redrawing it). This isn’t something we like to see under normal circumstances, but especially here, where a thick line pops to the front, and in so doing destroys the delicate hierarchy the size/foreshortening of the boxes creates, it’s a problem. Nonetheless, this is mostly good.