This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
2 users agree
7:26 PM, Saturday November 6th 2021
Hello, Thedigeridontt:
Welcome to drawabox! Let's see where you can improve:
Lines
You started with a lot of wobbliness but your progress is undeniable. I'm going to tell you some tips so maybe you could find them useful. Try to keep the ghosting and the final execution as one single phase. It should feel as if someone pushes your hand down when he notices that you are ghosting well enough.
I didn't see arching anywhere so you are drawing from the shoulder correctly or the wobbliness hides the missing arching. If you find yourself in the second situation, try to draw imaginary lines and forms in a wall while standing in front of it with your arm fully extended. That's how you can identify the muscles needed to draw from the shoulder. From there you can pinpoint where your problem is.
Planes
You did mark the corners but not the middle lines. This is a problem because every line you want to put on paper should be planned and marked before doing it. This serves a double purpose, it lets you assess your progress on execution, and the reviewer assesses what you planned to do even if you miss the line. This will come in handy in future lessons when you should plan forms that are hard to execute but easy to mark.
Ellipses
There are more to comment on here. Great job drawing 2 times over the ellipses (believe it or not, is not that common to see that on lesson 1 submissions). I see that you struggle a bit making them smooth (although you get it a couple of times). The thing that worked for me was finding the sweet spot between speed and control. You need enough speed to not be course-correcting mid-action and enough control to draw both ellipses on top of each other. Also trying if clockwise or anti-clockwise is worth it.
You also have to improve in matching the minor axis of ellipses where you want. It's an awesome skill to learn before reaching lesson 2 where organic forms start to gain importance. Warm with the funnel exercise to polish it.
Boxes
You have some horizontal lines not aligned with the horizon in the rough perspective but is a problem of execution so I'm going to leave it as it is (see the importance of marks for reviewers).
Rotated boxes were perfect. I know the execution could be better but you got the point of the exercise, rotation respect a pivot point that is outside the form you are rotating. If you try this exercise on your own, try to make the boxes bigger. That should be easier, giving you more space to work with.
The organic perspective was good too. You didn't follow the recommendation of drawing through boxes there and as advanced student advice, try to do every recommended thing you read because that is how you will get most of your journey. It is a bit more grindy but you will have time between submissions to rest while waiting for critiques.
Verdict
You got all the fundamentals of lesson 1. You still need the practice but don't worry that's one of the reasons the 250 box challenge exists. I recommend you to do it slowly and take your time to review a couple of lessons 1 so you can reflect on other students and apply that knowledge to your own before reaching lesson 2.
I hope my critique was useful and good luck with those boxes!
Next Steps:
Keep practicing funnels.
Continue with 250 box challenge, take your time while doing it and review a couple students in lesson 1 along the way.
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.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)
Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.
Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.
These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.
We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.
Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.
Remember that when you agree with something another user has written, you are putting your own reputation behind it.
Consider the following:
- If it's homework feedback, does it address each section of the lesson/challenge, or only briefly touch upon one or two exercises?
- Does it provide clearly defined next steps for the student to follow?
- Have you read through it thoroughly, or are you simply agreeing so the student earns a superficial badge?
- Replies you agree with will be visible in your sketchbook
Agreeing blindly just to be nice is a good way to get your permissions associated with this function revoked, so make sure that you genuinely feel that the response is beneficial to the student.