I've posted these in order. I know that some of them aren't perfect but would appreciate any advice that you have to give as I embark on the 250 box challenge. I'm serious about this - about getting better and finishing at least the first three lessons, possibly more.
Hello and congrats on completing lesson one. My name is Rob and I'm a teaching assistant for Drawabox who will be handling your lesson one critique. Starting with your superimposed lines these are off to a fine start. You are keeping a clearly defined starting point with all of your wavering at the opposite end. Your ghosted lines and planes turned out well. You are using the ghosting method to good effect to get confident linework with a pretty decent deal of accuracy that will get better and better with practice.
Your tables of ellipses are coming along pretty good. You are doing a good job drawing through your ellipses but you are bit too concerned with accuracy which is leading to some deformed ellipses. This is carried over into your ellipses in planes as well. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/12/deformed This is likely happening because you are too worried about accuracy and are probably slowing down your stroke to compensate which is leading to deformed ellipses and wobbly linework. Try and rely a bit more on the muscle memory of the motion you build up while ghosting and almost make your mark without thinking. This will be less accurate at first. Although accuracy is our end goal it can't really be forced and tends to come through mileage and consistent practice more than anything. Your ellipses in funnels are having the same issues. One thing you could have done with these is start with a narrower degree ellipse in the center and then widen the degrees of the ellipses as they move outwards in the funnel. Please check the example here. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/13/step3 There is a plenty of room for improvement when it comes to your ellipses both in terms of overall consistency of shape and accuracy so make sure you keep practicing these in your warmups as they can take a while to get used to.
The plotted perspective looks great, nothing to mention here. Your rough perspective exercises turned out pretty good. You are getting a mix of confident linework here along with some wobble creeping back into some of your lines. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/9/wobbling This is probably happening because you are more concerned with accuracy now that you are constructing boxes and you are slowing down your stroke to compensate. The other possibility is that you have reverted back to drawing from your wrist for some of these lines. Just something to keep an eye on. You should be drawing from your shoulder for basically every line you draw even shorter ones. The wrist should be reserved for detail work only. You are doing a good job extending the lines back on your boxes to check your work. As you can see some of your perspective estimations were quite off but that will become more intuitive with practice.
Your rotated box exercise turned out decently. I like that you drew this nice and big as that really helps when dealing with complex spatial problems. You also did a good job drawing through your boxes and keeping your gaps fairly consistent. You are running into a pretty common issue of not actually rotating your boxes in some cases but instead simply drawing them moving back in perspective. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/16/notrotating This is a great exercise to come back to after a few lessons to see how much your spatial thinking ability has improved. Your organic perspective exercises are looking pretty good. You seem to be getting comfortable using the ghosting method and drawing from your shoulder for confident linework which is great. I am noticing that you are redrawing lines on occasion and this is a habit you should try and get out of. Try and stick with the initial line you put down even if it's a bit off. Adding more lines just makes things messier and harder to read. Your box constructions are solid for the most part but there are some wonky ones here and there so the 250 box challenge will be a great next step for you.
Overall this was a solid submission that showed a nice deal of growth. Your line confidence while drawing lines and boxes is coming along quite well but I still think you need to get slightly smoother ellipses before moving on. So I'd like you to do one more page of ellipses in funnels as a revision. This time worry less about accuracy and try and get a smoother ellipse shape overall. Make sure you are ghosting your ellipses and then drawing from your shoulder with confidence. Otherwise, I think you are understanding most of the concepts these lessons are trying to convey quite well. Once you get that revision submitted I'll take a look and you can most likely move on to the 250 box challenge.
Next Steps:
One page Ellipses in Funnels - Focus on smooth ellipse shapes and don't worry about accuracy as much.
Hi, Rob -
Okay. It's been a while - here's what happened .... I got bored with drawing ellipses and started taking CE classes with RISD, bunches of Proko classes, and then an anatomy class with Marshall Vandruff. AND. GOT. STUCK. Draw the body as set of boxes, cyclinders, and circles, he said. Interlock the shapes, he said. The body is architecture, he said.
I can memorize the bony landmarks and the significant muscles of the body till the cows come home. AND BELIEVE ME, I HAVE. IT'S ALL FOR NOTHING IF I CAN'T DRAW A FLIPPING BOX.
So I'm back. Here are my ellipses. I'm back on the challenge. Moving back so I can move forward.
I doubt these are any better, but I listened to what you had to say and practiced. If you want more ellipses, I got 'em.
Hello,
I know it's been a while since you've worked on drawabox but one of the key things to work on while drawing ellipses for these lessons is to make always make sure you are drawing through your ellipse shapes multiple times. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/12/drawingthrough This even applies to all the ellipses you will be drawing in future lessons as well. You are also deforming your ellipses at times by slowing down your stroke for the sake of accuracy. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/13/deformed So before moving on I'd like you to give this exercise one more try to at least get into the habit of always drawing through your ellipses before I mark this as complete and you move on to the 250 box challenge.
Next Steps:
One Page Ellipses in Funnels - Make sure you are always drawing through your ellipses
Hahaha.... i am bad, bad, bad, at following directions. BAD. SO. The 250 box challenge is ... done? It took me about 30 hours. However, I will not submit it until you approve my ellipses. I'll do the ellipses and upload them now.
Please see my upload with drawn through ellipses:
I just wanted to make sure that this went through:
Here are two pages of re-drawn through ellipses.
Like the Staedtlers, these also come in a set of multiple weights - the ones we use are F. One useful thing in these sets however (if you can't find the pens individually) is that some of the sets come with a brush pen (the B size). These can be helpful in filling out big black areas.
Still, I'd recommend buying these in person if you can, at a proper art supply store. They'll generally let you buy them individually, and also test them out beforehand to weed out any duds.
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