Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
9:01 PM, Monday February 21st 2022
Perspective is a pain but it was a fun ride so far
Welcome to drawabox! Let’s see how you did.
Your superimposed lines look mostly good. I say mostly because, though they’re smooth, and of a consistent trajectory, some of them (the longer ones, in particular) aren’t properly lined up at the start. Try not to confuse drawing quickly with drawing confidently – they’re not the same thing. The ghosted lines/planes look good, though they seem to be the start of a trend that I noticed quite a bit skimming through the rest of the submission (because your pages are out of order…): a tendency to rush. Take your time drawing these. Ghost until ready, and then commit. And do so at an appropriate speed. One way to know what that is is to draw a few lines at varying speeds (from super-slow, to super-fast), and see which of those gives you the most accurate, though still fully confident lines. Another thing: see if you can make your start/end points a little smaller (the idea is that a perfect line should swallow them both). And for the non-diagonal center lines of the planes, actually plot some of them!
The ellipses in the table of ellipses exercise look quite confident, if a little rushed. Remember that you’re meant to be drawing through them a minimum of 2 times (that’s 2 full times, not 1 and change!), and no more than 3. Also remember that they’re meant to touch all available sides of the frame, rather than floating inside of it, as some of your smaller ones do. Save for the fact that they’ve not been drawn through a full 2 times, the ellipses in planes look solid. They do a good job of maintaining their prior confidence, despite these more complicated frames. The funnels, too, look quite good, though they could’ve benefited from some further ghosting, as they’re at times a little misaligned. By the way, if there’s no more axis to align it to, either extend the line so that there is, or simply don’t add another ellipse. Similar to the table of ellipses exercise, an ellipse without a goal is of no use to us.
The plotted perspective exercise looks good, if a little bare-bones – you could’ve fit a few more boxes in there I feel like. Also, the back line needs to be perpendicular to the horizon. If it’s not (understandable), you should estimate its location so that it is.
The rough perspective exercise shows some improvement throughout the set, as far as its convergences are concerned, but it seems like anything beyond that was added in a rush. In other words, it seems like you carefully plotted your points, and then quickly added the lines and called it a day. Though you’re correct that the former are the most important part of this exercise, every element of it deserves patience.
The rotated boxes exercise is similar. Actually, I don’t even see any start/end points here – it seems like you simply drew the lines, aiming to copy the original as best you could. And even there, you missed the 4 diagonal boxes. Patience – specifically, forethought, and planning – is one of the major skills we seek to impart through this course. But it won’t happen automatically, you’ll need to work at it; please do.
Aside from all those issues (and I should take this time to mention, if it’s not clear to you, that every single line that you draw needs to be drawn using the ghosting method (plot start/end points, ghost, execute)), the organic perspective exercise looks solid – your boxes flow well, as per their size and foreshortening.
Next Steps:
Keeping you here just to ensure that the patience thing has been properly absorbed wouldn’t be fair, but, so that you don’t end up redoing the box challenge in its entirely, please do make sure that it has been. Move on to it, and good luck.
This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.
I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.
No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.
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