Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

12:36 AM, Wednesday November 24th 2021

Lesson 1 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/7cxPuj1.jpg

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

A bit late submission. The ellipses says page 5 because I was so disappointed in result (still am lol). I'll make an effort to not overdo the homework anymore and instead do the recommended amount.

2 users agree
4:47 PM, Thursday November 25th 2021

Third time I'm critiquing somebody, alrighty

Lines

Superimposed Lines seems confident enough. Though I do see that your lines arc a bit. This might be due to sitting/drawing position.

Ghosted Lines looks alright. Ghosting lines means to plan out your lines, and to know roughly what specific motion your shoulder needs to make to make the mark you're working on. It looks as though you're doing the execution step correctly (making the stroke, with confidence), but you might have not prepared enough for the line you're going to draw. If anything, you shouldn't rush the preparation phase of ghosting. Preparation lets your arm know what it's supposed to do.

Ghosted Planes looks really good. From the looks of it, you did more preparation, resulting in straighter lines. Nice job. You might want to work on less undershooting/overshooting. Practice on the timing of lifting your pen as it moves past the end point.

Ellipses

The Tables of Ellipses look rough. But this is the first time you're ghosting something other than a line, so don't be hard on yourself. I'd say you should ghost/prepare more, and when you're executing the mark, relax. Don't think too much on how it's going to turn out. Just let your arm do its thing, and press onward.

You might be worrying too much on accuracy. Do keep in mind that you should prioritize confidence over everything else. If your ellipse overshoots but it's smooth, that's pretty good. I can see you got better with it, so just let focus on confidence more.

The Ellipses in Planes looks decent. There are some cases where you let your arm do its thing, and there are some where you tried controlling where your pen goes. Again, confidence is a needful choice for smooth strokes.

Funnels look pretty good. Though some look like you hesitated, it looks like you got more confident. Nice job.

Boxes

Plotted Perspective is done right.

Rough Perspective looks rough. I'm seeing a lot more curving in your lines. If that is due to hesitation, it's understandable, as you're worrying about more than just lines in this exercise. If anything, do not forget the ghosting method and its purpose. It's meant to prepare you for the best mark possible. Also, don't be afraid of overlapping lines/boxes.

Rotated Boxes looks iffy. Nice job on straighter lines. Your gaps weren't narrow enough to use neighboring lines to guess off of. You might want to spend more time planning. Really put more thought onto the points of your lines.

Organic Perspective looks pretty good. Though you shouldn't be putting extra lines for just one mark. Your lines got straighter though, nice work at your first time on this spatial problem.

Conclusion

Really work on confidence. When you're ready to make a mark, really make sure you're ready to trust your arm to do its best. You should be able to commit to the motion you're going to make. Any and all opportunity to make a mistake passes by as you make the mark, so just keep pushing onward with confidence. This may need more preparation in the ghosting. If you're rushing it, don't. It's better to make a few confident strokes than many wobbly lines.

Drawing confidently is a choice. You might want to take a piece of paper and just draw random lines. This will tell you that you can pull off smooth strokes if you just let your arm do it.

I'm also seeing some comments you made on your own work. Again, do not be hard on yourself. This is our first time playing with these concepts, so we should only strive for doing things the best of our current ability. If you fail horribly, that's okay. Some of these exercises are meant for us to flop the first time.

Next Steps:

Ghosted Lines - Find roughly one good motion you could do, and stick to it when you're executing the mark.

Table of Ellipses - Work on confidence, then accuracy. Once you have confidence down, you can focus on what you need to snugly fit the ellipse.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
2:13 AM, Friday November 26th 2021
edited at 2:14 AM, Nov 26th 2021

Revisions Imgur:

https://imgur.com/a/rsV6NeO

I feel more confident in my revisions, but there's definitely a lot of room to improve for sure. Also I appreciate the motivational words. I suppose I could be a little less hard on myself. The ellipses certainly bring out the worst in me, not gonna lie. Still not quite happy with it but more comfortable doing it now. Thanks for the effort you put into your critique. Found it incredibly helpful.

(Also, sorry my pen seemed to be dying out in the ellipses exercise)

edited at 2:14 AM, Nov 26th 2021
6:51 PM, Friday November 26th 2021

Wow, these look really good. Really amped up on the confidence! Keep at it. If you lose confidence again, step back, and regain it.

Yeah, the ellipses are a pain to ghost sometimes. So it's understandable that it brings out the worst in you. (To be honest, I got irritated on ellipses too.) But it looks like you let loose and smooth on these ellipses, so great improvement!

Glad I was able to help out!

Next Steps:

Rough Perspective (at least 2 frame)

Rotated Boxes (or at least half of it)

The more I realized it, I should have requested revisions on these too. So, just to be sure you've got a decent idea on boxes (before moving onto the 250 Box Challenge), I'd like you to do at least a revision on each.

If you feel rushed to complete these, that's okay. Just slow down a bit when you do catch yourself rushing. Although we're aiming to be efficient at drawing, we need to take learning very delicately. So if you have the time, do take as much as needed to tackle these spatial challenges. Good luck!

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
3:51 AM, Tuesday December 14th 2021

Revisions Imgur:

https://imgur.com/a/BGO2Juq

Finally did it. I think I did better on the rotated boxes this time, but I still hate it xD

Pen really made a big difference in comfort (got it when I did the rotated box revision)

View more comments in this thread
The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
The Art of Brom

The Art of Brom

Here we're getting into the subjective - Gerald Brom is one of my favourite artists (and a pretty fantastic novelist!). That said, if I recommended art books just for the beautiful images contained therein, my list of recommendations would be miles long.

The reason this book is close to my heart is because of its introduction, where Brom goes explains in detail just how he went from being an army brat to one of the most highly respected dark fantasy artists in the world today. I believe that one's work is flavoured by their life's experiences, and discovering the roots from which other artists hail can help give one perspective on their own beginnings, and perhaps their eventual destination as well.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.