Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
4:27 AM, Tuesday February 7th 2023
The struggle is real. :)
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7:09 AM, Wednesday February 8th 2023
No stress – it’s normal! Hello and welcome to drawabox. I’m TA Benj, and I’ll be taking a look at your Lesson 1 submission today.
Starting off, your superimposed lines are looking great. They’re a little dangerously close to fraying at the start, but they don’t yet, so you’re good (but maybe an extra second lining up your pen wouldn’t hurt!) Beyond that, they’re smooth, and of a consistent trajectory – nice work! Your ghosted lines/planes are quite confident, too. I’m especially pleased to see that you’ve not neglected to plot start/end points for the non-diagonal center lines of your planes (most students do!)
Moving on to the ellipse section, the table of ellipses exercise is well done, and shows a nice degree of improvement from page 1 to page 2. By the end, your ellipses are smooth, rounded, and properly drawn through. (By the way, it’s normal to struggle with the smaller ones, so don’t stress about it if you are!) Speaking of stress, the ellipses in planes seem a little insistent on fitting inside of their bounds (sometimes at the cost of their confidence) – but there’s no need to. Simply draw them so that they’re smooth, and rounded, and the best they’re able to fit while remaining so, is good enough. The funnels are a little same-y, but what’s here is good.
Onto the box section, the plotted perspective exercise looks clean. You’ve gone a little too hard on the hatching lines, however. Often, a single superimposed line is enough to convey a sense of hierarchy, so try not to be too overt. You always need a little less than you think, is a piece of advice for all things art!
The rough perspective exercise shows some nice improvements throughout the set. The convergences go without saying, but I’m especially pleased to see the improvements in linework, by the end. It’s important to realize, as you have, that there’s really no difference between these lines, and the lines in the ghosted lines exercise. They add up to a different big picture, sure, but is the way in which they’re drawn any different? And if not, why can’t these be as confident as those, you know?
Leaving aside any observations regarding lineweight (which we’ve already gone through in a previous exercise), the rotated boxes exercise looks great. It’s big, its boxes are snug, and they do a great job of rotating. It’s clear that you’ve been very mindful of their neighboring edges, here, and this has also helped your far planes, and depth lines. Of course, as we progress through the box challenge we’ll get even better at this, but even for now, this is perfectly satisfactory.
Speaking of boxes, the organic perspective exercise is really nicely done! You’ve got some really interesting compositions here, and your boxes are well-constructed (doubtless due to the time spent planning them (as evidenced by the many unused points on your page)). Beyond that, they also flow well, as a result of their size, and foreshortening, so nice work, all around. I’m happy to mark this lesson as complete.
Next Steps:
Onto the box challenge, and good luck to you! Be sure to not neglect your warmups, and drawing for fun!
6:00 PM, Thursday February 9th 2023
Very insightful critique, thank you!
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