Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

8:09 PM, Friday January 10th 2025

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/EMiB7lS

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

Also, if possible, could someone answer a question I have about perspective? So, I've been dabbling on some tavern drawings and I have a question whenever I am placing a support beam that is inclined. Do I need to create a new vanishing point for the inclination angle? (Like, create a new vanishing point perpendicular to the old one, as I do whenever I create an elevated plane for a stair?) Or do I out a new vanishing point on a different place on the horizon line? I am talking about those beams at the left side of the building on this link (https://bit.ly/3WdtuNQ).

Thank you very much!

2 users agree
10:28 PM, Sunday January 12th 2025

https://imgur.com/a/KXWMh0d

I'll get to your review in a second but to answer your question about perspective I'm not sure are you talking about the beams like n°1 that are horizontal to the ground or the n°2 that are in a sort of diagonal ?

11:10 AM, Friday January 17th 2025

Hey, sorry for taking so long to answer. So, I am talking about the nº2, the diagonal ones. I drew them with a vanishing point above the horizon line, perpendicular to one of my main vanishing points, and I think it turned out okay. So I think that's how to do it (like when drawing an inclined ramp).

2 users agree
10:38 PM, Sunday January 12th 2025

Hello I'm Simon and will be reviewing your Lesson 1 :)

1. Superimposed lines

First of all you did a good job of drawing your lines confidently and committing to the stroke once you started it. Fraying is only visible on the end of your lines that proves you took the time to start each stroke on the same point, well done!

2. Ghosted lines

Well done your Ghosted lines do not wobble. Your lines remain straight, that's good in the future keep the habit of drawing with your whole arm so you have long confident lines! You did a good job of having your lines end up near or on the final dot, keep practicing this exercise (and the others) in your warmups to get even better at it!

3. Ghosted planes

You did a really good job of doing your ghosted planes, your lines are as good/better than the ones from your previous exercises.

4. Table of ellipses

Great job on drawing through every single ellipse twice! Make sure you keep doing that with every single ellipse you draw along the course! You tried to fit every ellipse and circle snugly along the borders of your tables good job, it is tough to achieve but as long as you keep striving for it you'll improve! Most of your ellipses are evenly shaped and appear smooth good job! Getting a perfect ellipse is a really hard job but you'll have time to work on it through your warmups.

5. Ellipses in planes

Once again good job on drawing through every ellipse twice! You tried and managed to fit your ellipses right between the four sides great job on managing to do that! Most of your ellipses are evenly shapes good job here too.

6. Funnels

Here too you tried to fit every ellipse snugly along the curves well done, even if it is tougher to do with a non straight edge it's a really good practice. You kept most of your ellipses along the direction of the minor axis, keep practicing this exercise as a warmup in your next lessons.

7. Plotted perspective

As mentioned in the exercise you used a ruler to draw your boxes that's all good. You kept the first lines of your boxes perpendicular to the horizon as you should've, well done. You made sure to plot every single line back to the right vanishing point so good job, even though some back corners don't come out perfectly that's completely fine :)

8. Rough perspective

Managing to land every single line exactly back to the vanishing point is a near impossible task at this point but what's important is you tried and most of your lines do try to reach that center point! The front back of your boxes is rectangular each time, that's great. You managed to draw every line extension in the right direction, that could get a little tougher in the 250 boxes since you have to extend in 3 directions but this shows you got the base of how to do it! You seem to have used the ghosting method for every stroke that's good! Keep using it for every stroke and your exercises will look much better than if you didn't!

9. Rotated boxes

The setup of your rotated boxes is well laid out with the cross and the 4 cubes to strive for in each cardinal direction :) You kept the gaps between each box tight and consistent. That's a key to having a good result with this exercise. You are correctly rotating your boxes, if you traced the vanishing point of every box you'd see it moving as your boxes rotate more and more! Drawing through your boxes is also a key part of the exercise and is also making you start practicing this skill that will be used for every box in the 250 challenge. You don't seem to have properly drawn every box of the whole set though, if you go and look back at the demo of this exercise you should see that there are two boxes in every single direction of the central boxes, achieving at the end a sort of 5x5 square being wrapped around a ball, I strongly encourage you to finish this exercise before you move on to the 250 boxes challenge!

10. Organic perspective

Once again using the ghosting method for every single stroke of this course is a crucial part into getting good habits for your whole drawing journey! Looks like your boxes don't have parallel or diverging edges for the most part well done! That's already a great skill to have moving forward in the 250 boxes challenge. You did a good job of drawing shallower foreshortening here as some people tend to go into more dramatic foreshortening which in this exercise as the effect of making the boxes seem inconsistent in scale compared to each other, overall making the drawing less solid and less believable.

Don't forget to complete your 50/50 rule and to add these exercises to your warmups for future lessons!

Also I strongly encourage you to go review some submissions on the website :) You can review some lessons 1 and once you've completed future lessons review those as well. Don't hesitate to do a review every so often. It really benefits you so you don't forget the point of the previous exercises and helps other people who are waiting on a review :)

Next Steps:

You can move on to the 250 Box challenge when you're ready

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
Below this point is mostly ads. Indie projects, and tool/course recommendations from us.
This section is reserved for low-cost advertising space for art related indie projects.
With how saturated the market is, it is tough for such projects to get eyes on their work.
By providing this section, we hope to help with that.
If you'd like to advertise here, you can do so through comicad.net
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 we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Sketching: The Basics

Sketching: The Basics

A lot of folks have heard about Scott Robertson's "How to Draw" - it's basically a classic at this point, and deservedly so. It's also a book that a lot of people struggle with, for the simple reason that they expect it to be a manual or a lesson plan explaining, well... how to draw. It's a reasonable assumption, but I've found that book to be more of a reference book - like an encyclopedia for perspective problems, more useful to people who already have a good basis in perspective.

Sketching: The Basics is a far better choice for beginners. It's more digestible, and while it introduces a lot of similar concepts, it does so in a manner more suited to those earlier in their studies.

We use cookies in conjunction with Google Analytics to anonymously track how our website is used.

This data is not shared with any other parties or sold to anyone. They are also disabled until consent is provided by clicking the button below, and this consent can be revoked at any time by clicking the "Revoke Analytics Cookie Consent" link in our website footer.

You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.