Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

12:05 PM, Tuesday September 15th 2020

SebPro Drawabox Lesson:1 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/7GFSmD7.jpg

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I know when I have messed up immediately, it is a deep felt cringe all over, and I know when I have done things right, I can feel a flow of sorts, like hitting a baseball perfectly, it just feels so smooth and easy.

My biggest weakness seems (to me) to be confident lines. Wobbly, short, rounded at times, and inconsistent start and ends, and not always hitting my plotted course.

I also have difficulties really seeing allt the sides of the boxes in 3D space. Not always, but it is hard (and fun).

Also I pressed too hard with my first pen, so I had to get a new one in the middle of Rough Perspectives. :)

I hope I can get some honest critique that will help me develop my drawing skills. I do not mind being encouraged to redo any part of this lesson. Im in this for the long run so there is no point for me in being sloppy.

2 users agree
5:46 PM, Tuesday September 15th 2020

Hello and congrats on completing lesson one. I'll be taking a look at your submission. Your superimposed lines are off to a decent start. You are keeping a clearly defined starting point on these and keeping your tapering to the opposite end. Your ghosted lines and planes are coming along pretty well. You seem to be doing a decent job using the ghosting method and drawing from the shoulder. I am noticing a bit of wobble though that is becoming much more prevalent in later exercises that I will address then.

Your table of ellipses are a bit rough but I'm noticing quite of bit of improvement with your ellipses in planes and funnels. You are doing a good job drawing through your ellipses but in your ellipses are appearing very lumpy and misshapen in your table of ellipses. I would actually consider giving the video on ellipses another watch to try and understand the anatomy of an ellipse a little better. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/5/video That said I think the ellipses you drew for the ellipses in planes and ellipses in funnels are looking far better but there is a lot of room for improvement here and I'm going to have you redo one page of the table of ellipses and another page of the ellipses in funnels seeing as how you only did one funnel exercise for the entire page you submitted. On your funnel redo page make sure you do more than one funnel exercise on the page. I think in some cases you are heavily deforming your ellipse shapes because you are becoming too concerned with accuracy mid stroke. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/12/deformed This is why you should always ghost your ellipses multiple times to build up the muscle memory of the motion in your head so when you actually go to put down your mark you almost do it without even thinking about accuracy. Your main concern right now should be with getting a smooth ellipse shape overall and you were mostly doing this with the ellipses in planes but you were having very serious issues with this on your table of ellipses.

The plotted perspective exercise looks good nothing to mention here. So as you mentioned in your post you are having some serious wobble issues with your rough perspective boxes and this is a pretty common problem I see with this exercise. This tends to happen quite a bit because this is the first exercise that requires spatial thinking so students tend to skip using things like ghosting method and revert to drawing with their wrist. I'm going to have you do one more page of these and I really want you to make sure you use the ghosting method for every single line you put down and make sure you are drawing all of your lines from you shoulder with confidence. Other than that you did a nice job extending the lines back on your boxes to check your work. Some of your perspective estimations were quite off but that will get better with practice.

Your rotated box exercise looks okay but the real issue here is that you drew it way too small. For an exercise like this with lots of spatial thinking you are much better off drawing bigger as it will help you think through the spatial problems you are facing much more easily. You did a good job drawing through your boxes and keeping your gaps narrow and consistent but you are still struggling with wobbly linework. Also because you drew this so small you can't even really see the outer rotated boxes and you are completely missing the boxes at the corners. Finally your organic perspetive feels a bit rushed to be honest. Some of the linework looks like you use the ghosting method but others feel very rushed and wobbly. You are also struggling quite a bit with your box constructions but you will be getting a lot of practice with that during the 250 challenge.

Overall this was an okay submission. You started struggling very heavily with wobbly and unconfident linework once you started working on the exercises that required spatial thinking. So I am going to have you redo a couple of exercises and I really want to read the section on the ghosting method again and make sure you use it for every single mark you put down and make sure you are drawing from your shoulder. https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/ghostedlines

Next Steps:

One page table of ellipses

One page ellipses in funnels

One page rough perspective boxes

One page organic perspective boxes

Focus on using the ghosting method and drawing from the shoulder. I think your wobbly linework needs addressing before moving on.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
6:45 PM, Tuesday September 15th 2020

Wow thank you Rob! Wasnt sure what to expect feom the critique but this is right on! Very helpful. I notice that I do better when Im immersed and focused, than when Im excited and eager. (Duh..)

I totally agree with you on your critique, I had thought of some of them myself, and you added important other bits of weaknesses.

One thing that I was struggling with regarding confident lines, both with and without ghosting, was speed. -How fast am I supposed to draw the lines and ellipses?

When Ive redone the parts you requested, what do I do with them? Like where do I upload them?

/Seb

11:42 PM, Tuesday September 15th 2020

Just reply to this message with your pages in a new imgur album. In terms of drawing speed you want to be drawing fairly quickly but not so quickly that you have zero semblance of control. If you draw slowly you will end up thinking during your mark and it will probably be wobbly. Eventually you will develop enough hand dexterity to move at any speed you want but for now I would suggest being fairly quick so thinking can't really enter the picture. All of your thinking should be done in the ghosting stage beforehand.

10:13 AM, Friday September 18th 2020

Hi Rob. here is the link to the new album: https://imgur.com/a/BZy1dvN

Everything ghosted.

At the bottom I have added two photos illustrating issues that I've pinned down, with some notes. I hope its ok, and hopefully you can give me some feedback on my thoughts there.

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5:04 PM, Wednesday September 16th 2020

Very in-depth

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A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.

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