Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

4:54 AM, Saturday January 9th 2021

DrawABox Lesson 1 Hwk - Google Drive

DrawABox Lesson 1 Hwk - Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1spF5cL647YbPNLvvrGpoZ0h232wpx-C2?usp=sharing

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Last submission, rather than submitting a link to the whole folder, I only gave a link to a single drawing! Oops. Here is my actual Level 1 Hwk submission. Please ignore my previous submission.

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6:36 AM, Saturday January 9th 2021

Hi! Let’s take this one exercise at a time.

Starting off, your superimposed lines are… okay. They’re certainly smooth, and of a consistent trajectory, but not really lined up at the start. Be sure to take your time to line up your pen. It’s important to put yourself in the best position to succeed. I also notice that you’ve not tried any arcing lines, as per the text instructions, and the suggestion in the example homework. Be a little more attentive to the instructions, please. The ghosted lines/planes look better, in regards to that, but these seem to have been drawn a little too fast. I’m not necessarily saying you’re rushing, though it could be that, too, just that the speed at which you’re drawing each individual line seems to be a little fast. Take some time to experiment, if you can, with different speeds. The one to settle on is the one that gives you the most accurate, though still confident, lines. Be careful, also, not to forget to plot start/end points of the non-diagonal center lines of your planes. All lines need those, because all lines are drawn with the ghosting method.

The table of ellipses exercise looks good, if a little loose. For one, I’ll recommend drawing the entirety of your frame on the page, rather than having its edges serve as the edges of the frame. Second, I’ll recommend being a little more attentive to the number of times you’re rotating around your ellipses. A minimum of 2 times, but no more than 3 times, is the recommendation. Finally, spend a little longer ghosting them (the smaller ones, especially), if you can, to eliminate the occasional stiffness in them. The ellipses in planes exercise looks good (you didn’t need to draw new planes for it, by the way (and the ones you’ve drawn are missing their non-diagonal center lines.)) Your ellipses are smooth, and round, despite the more complicated frame- that’s the way to go. The funnels exercise has been drawn using the wrong tool, so I’ll need to look at it again, properly. For now, I’ll say that it looks alright, though I’d spend a little longer on the actual construction (the frame) of each funnel.

The plotted perspective exercise looks good. The lineweight here, by the way, should’ve been applied using a ruler, too.

The rough perspective exercise is a bit of a mess. For one, you’ve redrawn quite a few of your lines. I’m assuming the purpose of that was to clarify the front face, rather than correct mistakes (though you’ve done this to quite a few of the back lines, too…), but either way, I don’t recommend doing it again. Second, it doesn’t seem like these lines have been drawn using the ghosting method (plot start/end points, ghost, execute), but rather arbitrarily. Third, and an extension of this, a lot of them don’t even connect to each other, so your ‘boxes’, here, aren’t really boxes. An effort has been made to have the lines converge, and be parallel/perpendicular to the horizon, certainly, but this is mostly unacceptable, and I’ll need to see it again. Please take your time with it.

A lot of the same issues (no ghosting method, redrawn lines) are present in the rotated boxes exercise, too. There’s some new ones, as well (like the sloppy (I’m assuming drawn using the wrist?) hatching), but the main issue here is that the exercise isn’t finished. It’s missing 8 boxes. It’ll be a little difficult, considering the sloppy foundation, so you wouldn’t be incorrect in restarting this page, if you choose, but either way, I’ll need to see it finished to be able to critique it properly.

The organic perspective exercise has a few issues, as well. The boxes themselves look mostly fine (though, again, please plot start/end points, ghost, etc.), but they don’t make too much of an effort to stick to the flow line, nor maintain a shallow foreshortening throughout, so they don’t convey much of the illusion we’re trying to convey. The lineweight, too, makes a lot of the further back ones stand out, as if they’re in front, which isn’t something we want.

There’s quite a few things we’ll need to work on, before you’re able to move on to the box challenge. I’d like to see:

Next Steps:

1 page of superimposed lines (properly lined up at the start, including arcing lines.)

1 page of funnels (drawn using the correct tool, more care put into the frame.)

2 pages of rough perspective,

1 (finished) page of rotated boxes,

1 page of organic perspective, all following the instructions in their respective sections.

Good luck.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
8:44 PM, Tuesday January 12th 2021

Hello!

Thank you so much for your frank and constructive feedback. It brought my attention to a lot of shortcomings. I hadn't read a lot of the instructions and I'm greatful to you for pointing that out and for insisting that I do the exercizes properly before moving on.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10B3L9ky2vbIQo-8jgm4bdrt6fkr6QAbz?usp=sharing

Here is the re-done homework you requested.

5:38 AM, Wednesday January 13th 2021

Hi again! Let’s see…

The superimposed lines look much better. The funnels themselves are constructed a lot more carefully, this time around, though there’s still the occasional issue regarding their ellipses. They’ll sometimes be a little stiff starting off, other times a little pointy. Be sure to ghost until comfortable, and be especially mindful of your pivot (all lines should originate from the shoulder- check back often to ensure that this is the case.) The rotated boxes exercise is missing the 4 boxes. This hasn’t impacted your rotation, but please follow every single instruction, every time; regardless of experience. The boxes themselves look good: drawn through, snug, and properly rotating. The far planes look quite good, too, and the linework is on the whole confident (save for the hatching- I’m guessing you used your wrist, for this?) The rough perspective exercise looks much, much better. Most issues I’ve brough up have been addressed; including the convergences, though they do need some more work. I’m not noticing too many unused points on the page, so I’ll remind you that you’re not obligated to stick to your original guesses. Once you’ve got a point down, ghost it all the way to the horizon line, and see where it intersects it. If you’re not satisfied with it, i.e. if it doesn’t intersect it at the vanishing point, absolutely adjust it so that it does. It’s only lines that you’re not allowed to adjust; points are fair game. Finally, the organic perspective exercise looks really good, too, having addressed all of the things I pointed out, though I will mention that the foreshortening here is a little dramatic. We try to keep it shallow, in this exercise. That’s of little concern, however, as you’ll have plenty of time to experiment with that in the upcoming challenge. Speaking of, I’m marking this lesson as complete, so head on over to it. Good luck!

Next Steps:

250 box challenge

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
6:58 AM, Wednesday January 13th 2021

Your feedback was so specific, constructive and helpful! Thank you so much Benj and cheers!

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5:51 AM, Wednesday January 13th 2021

congratulations on finishing lesson 1, overall the work is really good, keep in mind that you only get better with practicing by that what i mean is do few of these exercises each time as a warm-up and ypu will just keep getting better. Now after seeing

your work there are a few things that i think you should keep in mind:

LINES

superimposed lines take your time and and line up your starting point

ghosted lines draw through the end points.

In the ghosted planes exercise a few planes don't have the corners completed because i think you under shot the line , that happened to me too when i was thinking too much on ending the line on the end point rather than going through the end point.keep going through the end point one that becomes second nature you can start to think about precisely stopping the line where you want it.

ELLIPSES

try vary the degree of the ellipse in your table of ellipses because they are looking the same to me only the size is changing but not the degree.

funnels do a few more and change the degree..also go through DAB article on funnels again and see the picture on how it should look. In the article there are 11 funnels.

BOXES

the Rough perspective boxes have some wobbly lines which can be fixed as a result of getting better at ghosted lines so keep doing those ghosted lines with confidence.

in general keep doing ghosted lines and boxes and vary the degree of the ellipses.

whenever you are in doubt read the articles on the respective exercise and/or watch the videos.

GOOD LUCK on your art journey..do your best.

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11:00 PM, Thursday February 18th 2021

For my criticism on the three sections (firstly on the Funnels exercise), make sure to put the short major axis in, as it is not present in the drawing. Some of the lines on the Rough Perspective exercise also appear to be drawn multiple times, when they are only meant to be drawn in one, consistent stroke, so make sure to only do the one stroke (though you still can use ghosting).

Furthermore in the Rotated Boxes exercise the center box is a little too thin and needs to be more squarish, with the height and width equal to each other.

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