Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

6:43 PM, Saturday March 19th 2022

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Hi, I would like a critique of my lesson 1 homework.

I may be misunderstanding the Ellipses in Planes exercise. I understood the quote ("remember those planes you drew as part of the lines section of this lesson? Find those pages, because we're gonna need 'em") as meaning we draw over a previous exercise. I could be wrong but I'm not sure, and can redo the exercise if needed. I think one of my biggest weaknesses coming into this was over-shooting my lines, but feel I came to a better understand of the relationship of control to speed by the end of the lesson. Not perfect, but better.

Thanks.

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8:14 PM, Saturday March 19th 2022

Hello Giantvillain! That sentence is only for saying you should draw the ellipses on the ghosted planes you already drew, which is what I think you already did since you only submitted two of them, so nothing to worry about!

The overshooting thingy is completely normal, I'll explain more on the critique but it'll get better with practice. That said, let's go on to the critique:

Starting with your lines you're doing a great job committing to your lines and drawing them confidently even if they're going to miss then ending dot, which is just what we're looking for!

One important thing is that sometimes you're repeating lines that were off but no matter how off a line is, don't repeat it. Keep going as if it was correct as drawing them will make the drawing messier and can encourage bad habits like automatically redrawing your lines after you miss.

Another thing is that sometimes I can see a bit of fraying at both ends of the lines, make sure that whenever you draw a line you carefully place the pen at the starting dot so the lines can fray on maximum one end.

Lastly sometimes your lines get a little bit wavy on the ends, keep an eye on that and do your best to always draw them as straight as you can.

Other than that you're doing a great job planning each line and executing them cleanly, so good job!

Moving onto your ellipses they're confident just like your lines on the lines section, which is exactly what you're meant to do!

Your accuracy is pretty good in general as well, there are a few cases in which you don't get the ellipses to touch the sides of the adjacent ellipses or them to touch the top or bottom lines, but in general I think you're aiming for them. Keep practicing and accuracy will improve with time!

Another thing is that your ellipses get a bit deformed at times. This applies as well to the ellipses on ghosted planes, which I think they're a bit more deformed and wobblier than the others. You might be thinking that the centre of the ellipses is the same as the centre of the planes or that you should modify the elliptical ellipse shape so it touches the contact points, but this is not the case. Ellipses have to be symmetrical and have the same shape regardless of where they are, so the only things you can change is how wide the ellipse is, which position it is in and their size.

Lastly on the funnels you're doing a good job in general alligning them to the minor axis! The only thing with them is that you aren't drawing them close together. Make sure you aim for the ellipses to touch, not overlapping or being separate.

Finally in your boxes a few things:

-Lines are in general just as good as they were on the lines section! I can see you took your time with them and didn't get confused by the boxes! There are a few cases on which they get a bit wobbly so keep an eye on that, but great work!

-Just like on the lines section you're sometimes repeating lines that were off, make sure you do your best not to repeat them here neither even if they're part of boxes.

-On plotted perspective you did a good job following the instructions of the exercise, good job! Only thing is that you aren't following the format of the exercise, both here and on the other box exercises. Not specially important on these ones, but following instructions is suuuper important on drawabox as a whole, so make sure you pay more attention from now on.

-On rough perspective you are already some good attempts at guessing the perspective, but you still seem to have trouble at times keeping height lines perpendicular to the horizon line, and width lines parallel to it. I know it's hard, but make sure you always are aiming for it. You can check if the starting and ending dots are correct or not, and if you find that they aren't you can change them. You can put down as many dots as you want as long as it's before drawing the actual line, so give it a shot!

-On rotated boxes you've done a great attempt apart from the line issues I mentioned. Most boxes are rotated and all are kept close together, good job! The only thing is that some of the boxes on the outer ends aren't completely drawn, so keep an eye on that in future attempts at the exercise.

-On organic perspective, the main thing is that I think you aren't drawing starting and ending points for all of your lines. If this is the case make sure you do it because it's super important for applying the ghosting method properly.

Remember also that you can add lineweight to the parts of outer lines that overlap with other boxes to clarify which ones are on top and which behind, so give it a try next attempts you have at the exercise!

Lastly you are already doing some good attempts at the perspective of the boxes. Good job! They still have some issues, but that's not a problem as you'll work on them on the box challenge.

Overall like I said you've done a pretty good job, but I want you to do one more page of rough perspective so I know you can draw lines on boxes planning through them and without repeating them. Good luck and keep up the good work, you're almost there!

Next Steps:

1 page of rough perspective

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
4:49 PM, Wednesday March 23rd 2022

Hi there, thanks so much for such a thorough critique! I've been trying to to take all your points on board.

I also see what I did wrong on rough perspective, so here is my extra page: https://i.imgur.com/9kOcnQB.jpg I didn't repeat any lines except for one in the box far top left, which was a bit of an accident. Hope this is better than my first attempt.

Thanks again!

7:08 AM, Friday March 25th 2022

Thats much better! Some lines wobble a little bit so keep an eye on that, but good progress!

Overall like i said on the earlier critique you've done a pretty good job so i'll mark this as complete.

From now on you need to do warmups before every session so don't forget to do them, and remember to ask any questions you might have.

Good luck on the box challenge and keep up the good work!

Next Steps:

250 box challenge

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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