Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

4:34 PM, Friday February 7th 2020

vVarvara's Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes - Album on Imgur

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Post with 18 views. vVarvara's Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

I've finished Lesson 1 just a few days ago, and now I'm doing the 250 Boxes challenge.

For those who eventually give me feedback, thank you for your time and attention. :)

2 users agree
5:41 PM, Friday February 7th 2020

Hello, good job on finishing the lesson! Let's get started with some comments.

For yous superimposed lines, there was some flaying at both sides in many of them. That means you did not take the time to line the pen exactly to the starting point, kind of missing the point for the exercise. This exercise isn't only to train your arm to the motion, but also as a preliminary to "planning" each point\ Even though you improved in page 2, I suggest you keep that in mind for your daily practices!

The Ghosted lines are much better, especially from a certain length onwards. I'd suggest a few things. Practice on the smaller lines (yes, they can be ghosted too, even if it doesn't seem that way and practice a bit more on the longer lines, as you seem to struggle with them (which is natural, nothing to worry about). Also, avoid "correcting mistakes" as you draw. Missed a mark by a few millimeters? Leave it there. Missed the mark? It's done. Instead, let the paper lie for the evening, and come back at it the next time and go over with a red pen seeing what went wrong. In the end, during drawing, a missed line can and will provide the chance for some personalization, and it will become invisible in the greater drawing. A correction will show forever. For the few lines that arced visibly, if you notice a trend on those long lines, try to arc the other way during your execution phase. Eventually your mind will get it.

For the planes, I noticed some overshooting. It's not major, and it seems your line confidence improved as you went on. During your practices, aim to keep that steady trajectory but also contain the line within its boundaries. Still, a good job.

For the boxed ellipses, I'd ask for a revision. There are many ellipses that were not drawn multiple times (at least twice), which will lessen the amount of practice you take. Also, the 2nd page isn't bounded to the sides, as was the first. While you might think that the page makes for the natural bound, you cannot actually go back and catch mistakes if you don't have a clear line. As such, I suggest you repost that part, following the instructions.

The Ellipses inside boxes are okay. It's natural to struggle at this point, but you did follow the instructions correctly. For your future practices, try to visualize how your ghosting hand works (you might make the circle a bit larger than what you feel you are ghosting), and play with the size until your hand and your imagination meet.

For your funnels, there are several points I'd like to make. Again, a few circles are not re-drawn over multiple times. Your ellipses are certainly better than average, but you didn't follow the instructions properly, which is the main point. In a few funnels, the ellipses are not properly centered with the axis line. And in almost all the funnels, there is no change in degree of the ellipses. This means your object doesn't twist or turn, you just view a horizontal object from the side. I'd suggesty you do this page again, and take a good look at the instructions.

For your perspective pages, there is not much to add. You got the idea perfectly, and I suggest you keep the practice frequently, taking time to do the corrections. Your freeform boxes did suffer from lack of line confince, which might suggest you did them a bit impatiently. But that's not enough to ask for a revision, I would just ask that you take the same time for each line on the box, as you do for the ghosted line.

For the rotated boxes, I traced your box perspectives and they appear to rotate around a single point in the center of the initial box. That means that the boxes do not rotate properly, as seen in the lesson. Again, this is not enough to have you revisit the exercise, as the rest of the exercise is decently done. Again, like before, do not correct lines over, and the whole exercise might benefit for some clean-up.

And finally, the organic perspective boxes. Again, you need to take a little care to make your boxes more solid, keep the lines clean and steady, and avoid overshooting. But you got the idea of the exercise, I can see the boxes "coming" from the depth. You got a little lazy in two compositions, but I expect to see you practice more.

Next Steps:

I suggest a revision of the boxed ellipses and the funnels. Read the instructions carefully, draw through your ellipses, watch for changes of degree, frame the page properly and go for them!

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
7:30 AM, Sunday February 23rd 2020

Hey, thanks for the feedback! You gave me great insights, I appreciate it.

I took some time doing the suggested revision, and here they are.

https://imgur.com/a/Z2bkmj0

I struggled a lot with a pen drying out, and I was being very stingy about it lol, if that somehow affected the results too much, I am open to redo the exercise.

Thank you o/

8:40 AM, Tuesday March 3rd 2020

I am really sorry this took so long, but I was down with the flu and wasn't able to stay at my PC at all.

You've done a superb job on those ellipses, you took the time and got the concept. That's what important. Improvement will come with practice, and that's what the warm-ups are for!

For your pens dying, this is in part to the nature of the exercises, but also in part to your use. Like me, you probably have a heavy hand and that wears them down quickly. I have improved in this regard (my pens do hold more than just an exercise, as it was when I started) but I think it'll take even more time. My advice is to keep the semi-dead pens, and practice free hand strokes, with your focus being on doing them lightly and fast. Don't go for something specific, just doodle enough to help your hand untense and relax. In time, softer strikes will become the normal.

Keep up the good work!

Next Steps:

Please proceed to the 250 boxes challenge. Take it easy, this will take quite some time, but we are here for the long run! Keep practicing your warm-ups, and pay attention to all the perspective lessons (re-read them a few times before the warm-ups, to make sure you clear misconceptions). Good luck! You have shown that you can do it fantastically, if you take the time!

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
9:04 PM, Thursday March 5th 2020

Hey, man, it's fine, nothing to worry about. I was sick last week also :(

Thank you. I'm grateful to you for sharing those tips and instructions., they helped me a lot.

I'll try those exercises to better control my marks. Nonetheless, I think that pen did a great job, because I've done the entire lesson 1 and its revision, some boxes, just using that one! And I got a bunch of super low quality, it's so cheap where I live, I bought 5 of these for less than $0,65.

Thank you again for your time and feedback. Take care.

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