250 Box Challenge
6:05 PM, Monday May 8th 2023
FINALLY DONE
Hi Melos,
First off, congratulations on completing 250 box challenge. This challenge is a test of patience and perseverance, but you managed to push through. Here are something I would like to point out based on your work. I will rank them from the easiest to improve to the hardest:
Section 1. Extending Lines. You understand how to extend your lines to check for convergence. However, you miss a set of downwards extending lines for box 87; a rightwards extending line for box 168. You extend your lines in the wrong direction for box 49 (orange lines), and box 50 (brown lines).
Section 2. Make sure ALL THREE angles of the initial Y are greater than 90 degrees. See this image: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/365180330103013388/716494148093607946/unknown.png. A corner of a ruler is 90 degree so you can use it to check if every angle meets the requirement. Boxes having one angle that doesn't meet this requirement are: 138, 144, 147, 151, 152 (I might have missed some boxes but you get the idea).
Section 3. Your mark-making. For mark-making, there are three types of lines to consider: (1) lines that make up your box, (2) hatching lines, (3) line-weight.
You did a decent job for lines (1) as they come out relatively straight & smooth. There are occassional wobbliness but they are miniscule. Lines (2) see a bit more wobbliness than lines (1), most noticeable are hatching lines for box 145, 147, and 149. Make sure to take as much time as you need for ghosting so your lines can come out smooth & clean.
Lines (3) show three problems:
- Problem 1. You only add line weight to the front plane. We use hatching to differentiate the front plane from the rest already so there's no point for such line weight. Rather, we use line weight in order to reinforce the form. Because of that, only add line weight to all 6 lines that make up the silhouette of the box. (See this image, only add line weight to blue lines and nothing else: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/365180330103013388/1104600381616574504/image.png).
- Problem 2. Line weight doesn't come out as clean. Take box 197 for example, the line weight of your most bottom edge doesn't have consistent thickness. The middle portion is thickest but on both end, the thickness is slim. For box 195, your most bottom edge has line weight that looks serrated.
- Problem 3. Your line weight is too thick compared to the rest. (See the image of this section: https://drawabox.com/lesson/250boxes/1/lineweight)
Both problems 2 & 3 can be solved by following this: Ensure to apply ghosting technique for your line weight and only draw over a line once. If it doesn't come out as accurate, ignore and move on. Correcting a line by drawing over it multiple times is considered a mistake as well (your vertical line of back corner in box 210 shows this mistake).
Section 4. Diverging & Parallel sides. I'll inspect box 3 for diverging and box 26 for parallel to explain why both diverging & parallel are a mistake (see 1st image of this link: https://imgur.com/a/s4qS8ls). Other boxes that have diverging issue are: Box 5 - purple lines; Box 7 - orange; Box 207 - orange. For parallel issue, you have Box 25 - orange; Box 26 - brown; Box 76 - brown. See 2nd image of this link: https://imgur.com/a/s4qS8ls to avoid those mistakes in the future.
Section 5. Convergence in pairs. See this image for example: https://imgur.com/KSHwTwo. This is a concurring issue that I see from the beginning until the end. Here are some examples: Boxes 2, 4, 5, 6, 30, 79, 111, 130, 157, 181, 184, 199, and 229.
This falls into the same issue that I mention in Section 4, the difference is it happens between a pair of lines instead of an entire set of lines, most notably between the initial Y & the back corner. It happens in a smaller scale but it involves back corners so it's much harder to fix. See 3rd image of this link before continue reading: https://imgur.com/a/s4qS8ls.
For Box 6 - orange lines, extending lines of the initial Y & the one of the back corner stay parallel and this results in the same mistake as well. There are instances when it's ok for both of them to remain parallel (see this for example: https://imgur.com/8PqQLE0) but for Box 6, both lines I mention must be converging.
Section 6. Back corners. This mistake is to be expected because it is the accumulation of small mistakes we make in our estimation of other corners. Therefore, it is also the most difficult to overcome. My favorite way to tackle this issue is plotting the back corner before the third corner. See this image for more explanation: https://imgur.com/a/Xg1JDpy. Colored lines are ghosting lines and they do not appear on the paper. Combine with the notes in Section 5, especially this image https://imgur.com/8PqQLE0, and you will have a better idea on how to deal with the back corner.
Not related to the rank but here are some suggestions for future warm-ups. I don't know how big your notebook is, but I suggest you working with A4 size papers. Draw bigger boxes because the majority of them look fairly small. Most of your boxes have similar shapes as well. You can try out other shapes like toothpaste boxes, pizza boxes. Also try out boxes with more shallow foreshortening. The majority of your boxes have dramatic foreshortening.
Overall your submission is good and I can see a lot of improvement as well. Due to this reason, I'll mark your submission as complete. Remember to warm up with this challenge from time to time and apply the notes I provided above. You will show even more improvement in the ability to draw boxes!
Next Steps:
Move on to Lesson 2
Add this challenge to your warm-up routine
Thanks a lot! onto lesson 2
Hi, sorry for commenting like this but can you please review my 250 box challenge so I can work on my lesson 2 as fast as I can, please tell me where I can improve
An assignment this big requires a proper critique and I just can not provide that for you. However, if you go into the drawabox discord server (critique exchange channel), you can get your assignment added to a queue. All you need to do is review five lesson one submissions. You can also click pinned messages to see the instructions on how to go about it. Hope I was able to help, you can reply if you have any more questions.
Thanks this will help :D
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