250 Box Challenge

4:45 AM, Monday March 27th 2023

250 Box Challenge - Official Critique - March 2023 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/REfnIcO.jpg

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Is there a specific way to identify the front face (ie. the face that gets the lines across it)? I find I use the face where the face that the back corner intersects in as the front face, but I'm unsure if this is the correct thing to do.

Reason for submitting during a Promptathon:

After spending 2 hours trying to upload 50 images onto Imgur, if I don't submit now I will lose momentum and likely won't submit for another couple months, even if I set constant reminders. Additionally, I was completely unaware of the promptathon until I logged in to submit this homework.

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9:22 PM, Sunday April 2nd 2023

Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.

Things you did well:

  • Good work drawing your construction lines confidently, this keeps your lines smooth and prevents wobbling.

  • When hatching you're taking the time to space each line evenly which shows that care and thought is being put into each line. This helps your boxes appear solid and tidy rather than rushed.

  • Seeing as how line weight is not a requirement of the challenge it's nice to see that you're applying it. It's a useful tool but one that most people need some mileage with before they feel comfortable applying it. Getting an early start like this will help you see better results sooner.

  • You're doing a good job of experimenting with orientations. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.

Things you can work on:

  • You tend to draw fairly small, I'd like you to draw larger in the future. Drawing large will help you become more comfortable working from the shoulder and allow you to see any mistakes you've made more clearly.

  • I'd like you to experiment with rates of foreshortening and proportions more. Currently you tend to keep your lines close to parallel and push your vanishing points far from your boxes. Try bringing your points in closer so that your lines have to converge more dramatically. As for proportions be sure to mix in some longer/thinner/wider boxes to see how your lines behave in different scenarios. Remember that experimentation is important.

  • There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.

The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.

I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.

I'll be asking you to draw 30 more boxes. For the first 15 I'd like you to draw all 3 of your vanishing points explicitly on the page after you've drawn your initial Y shape, this will force you to work with vanishing points closer to your box. For the latter 15 you can go back to the original method which should hopefully be easier an easier task after the first 15.

Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.

I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.

Next Steps:

30 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
7:55 PM, Friday April 7th 2023

Hi Tofu!

Thank you so much for your insight. I definitely felt that it helped me improve these next 30 boxes.

Link to +30 boxes: https://imgur.com/a/hV0cU0w

All the best,

Brittanie

10:06 PM, Friday April 7th 2023

These are looking solid, good work experimenting with rates of foreshortening. There's still room to experiment with proportions more but I'm sure you can do that in your warm ups.

I'll be marking your submission complete.

Keep practicing boxes and previous exercises as warm ups and best of luck in lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
6:01 AM, Saturday April 8th 2023

Thank you Tofu!

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