Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
9:32 PM, Thursday March 16th 2023
This course is so cool!!!
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
2 users agree
7:31 AM, Saturday April 8th 2023
Hey there, I will be handling the critique for your lesson 1 homework.
Lines
-
Starting with the superimposed lines, you are doing a good job at staying at a well-defined initial end, and keeping all the fraying on the other, however, there are some wobbliness and arching is apparent, this is due two not engaging your whole arm when drawing, please try to be mindfull of this issue on your future practice.
-
Next is your ghosted line, your linework is solid, but you still seem to have some troubles undershooting/overshooting your lines, https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/10/lifthand may help. However, keep in mind that at this stage, staying confident as you move your pen is much more important.
-
The same can be said to your ghosted plane, overall very well done.
Ellipses
-
Moving on to your table of ellipses. It is looking tidy instead of rushed, and you are being mindfull of their positioning. The ellipses themself also are a fine job. You also have gone through them the required ammount of time.
-
You have prioritized smoothness over positioning. And have made an effort to get it to touch all of 4 edges. You hard work have clearly paid of, as your ellipses in plane is looking antiseptic, albeit some inconsistency.
-
Onwards to your funnels, your ellipses are aligning quite well.
Boxes
-
Your rough perspective is well done.
-
On the rough perspective you have tried to keep the alignment of the horizontal sides parallel and the vertical ones perpendicular. However, it seems that you have gone through your lines a number of times, in turn making it quite heavy. No matte how off a line is, you shouldn't repeat it, just keep it as if were correct and move on, I know this is a hard task, as it is a nuisance to face see your mistakes affecting your process. Don't sweat it, they will be dimmed to oblivion as you practice more.
-
You have done a fine job with your rotated boxes, the gaps between boxes are kept narrowly and each quadrant is looking roughly the same size. On the other hand the same mistake as your rough perspective has become much more perceptible. In addition, your hatching isn't being done from your shoulder, https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/3/consistent broke it down nicely.
-
Finishing with the organic perspective, here your box constructions are looking solid and believable. They have some inconsistencies but all of this will be addressed in the box challenge. You have did a good job with your first drawabox submission, and feel free to move on to the next challenge. Best of luck!
Lastly remember to practice these exercises as warm-ups, they should take only 5 minutes, and is a great way to sharpen your skills.
Next Steps:
250 boxes challenge.
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 I've used myself. 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.