250 Box Challenge

9:35 PM, Sunday May 15th 2022

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1:55 AM, Wednesday May 18th 2022

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 great job of experimenting with orientations, proportions and rates of foreshortening. 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. We also recommended drawing 5-6 large boxes per page here.

  • At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes (boxes 181/182/183/185/186 are some later examples of this). This leads to you extending your lines in the wrong direction and your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are actually diverging from where the vanishing point would actually be. Here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place your vanishing points and line extensions more consistently. If you need some more examples there are some here and you can see a less in-depth guide in the section below as well.

  • 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'd like you to draw 20 more boxes please. Draw them larger and focus on trying to place your vanishing points/line extensisons consistently in the correct direction.

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:

20 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
2:19 AM, Wednesday May 18th 2022

Thanks for the feedback and examples. This is helpful!

3:56 AM, Sunday May 29th 2022

Here is a link to my additional 20 boxes https://imgur.com/a/ryZFAuv .

1:08 AM, Monday May 30th 2022

These are all looking really solid and you've extended your lines correctly, great work.

I have no problem moving you on to the next lesson now so I'll be marking your submission complete.

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

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
1:39 AM, Monday May 30th 2022

Thank you! I greatly appreciate the feedback and the guide.

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The Science of Deciding What You Should Draw

Right from when students hit the 50% rule early on in Lesson 0, they ask the same question - "What am I supposed to draw?"

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