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7:56 PM, Saturday June 11th 2022
edited at 7:57 PM, Jun 11th 2022

Hi again! I actually spend more time on this 50 boxes than probably on the 250, I made sure to analyze each box to figure out the mistakes, I still make a lot of them, but I think that my eye understood better the 3D space where the box is supposed to be, looking at the first pages and at the last ones where I focused on doing larger boxes to make harder to eyeball the VP's overall I feel more comfortable.

I would like to share what I think that are my bigger mistakes and compare with your view

  • Wobbling lines: This time I slowed down and my lines got worse and even worser on the second pass to dark the sides

  • Back Side of the box could be better: The first boxes I draw the back side was worst than on the latest, but I'm still making mistakes by the end of the task on this regard

  • VP's interpretation: There are some boxes where I had mistakes on the correction pass since I wasn't sure where the VP should be. When I started to worry 90% on the VP's and trying to make different boxes I drawn some where the VP wasn't too accurate, this mistake got better in my opinion page to page

  • Front Side interpretation: Even though I understand the concept of the plain position and the viewer point it's harder to make it obvious on the paper compared to the mind, so it worked against me during the entire task.

Sorry for rushing the 250 box challenge, I worked several years to open the possibility to learn how to be an animator. I'll start the art school at October and I'm scared since I'll face youngers students with more skills than I and I'm kind of scared haha.

Well sorry for the off-topic and thank you so much for taking the time of reading this and checking my work.

Forgot to say! If you feel that I need to redo the entire challenge just ask for it, I'm totally sure that you know what is the best for each of us and I totally trust your eye over mine

https://imgur.com/a/MbZSIgo

edited at 7:57 PM, Jun 11th 2022
2:26 AM, Sunday June 12th 2022

Hello again.

There are a few noteworthy things about these revisions so let's get started:

  • I'm glad to see that you tried to apply line weight and hatching.

  • While there's still the occasional bit of wobbling your boxes appear more confident overall which is good.

I'd like to comment on a few of the things you brought up as well:

  • You mention that you tried slowing down and your wobbling got worse, that's correct. When you slow down while drawing lines it allows your brain to try and course correct, as instructed you should be taking your time to ghost your line, plan where it will be start and end up and then draw it confidently in one smooth confident motion. To recap, slowing down doesn't mean draw the line slower, it means take more time doing everything around drawing the line itself.

  • The back side of the box is drawn last so it reflects any mistakes you've made up till that point, while you should try your best it will rarely be perfect. That being said there are some things you can do to get better results which I'll be going over after addressing the rest of your points.

  • Vanishing points are noticably something you're still struggling with, it still feels like you're not taking enough time to actually plan where they are before you begin making marks on the page.

  • The front side planes should always be larger than the rear side planes, the initial Y you draw in the beginning dictates where your vanishing points are and roughly creates these 3 planes, since your lines should converge towards your vanishing points the rear facing planes will be further away and smaller due to perspective.

Some important issues worth noting as well:

  • At times you're placing your vanishing point between the viewer and your boxes (boxes: 8, 13, 16, 25, 26, 27, 36, and 47) . This leads to you extending your lines in the wrong direction and your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are actually diverging from where the vanishing point would actually be. Here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place your vanishing points and line extensions more consistently. You can find some more examples of incorrectly extended boxes here as well as a simplified guide below them as well.

  • You're not experimenting with rates of foreshortening, instead you try to draw your lines as parallel as you can and push your vanishing points far from your boxes or it doesn't feel like you have clear ones in mind. Try bringing your vanishing points in closer so that you get experience working with lines when they have to converge more dramatically.

While there are improvements here there are still some notable issues with your understanding of vanishing points occurring. Besides placing them between the viewer and the box at times your convergences don't feel consistent which makes it feel like you don't have them in mind while drawing your sets of lines.

This also ties into how fast this revision came in, I noted in your original submission that you tackled the challenge way too quickly and that it's normal for it to take a month. You mentioned that you spent more time on these 50 boxes than on the challenge which is great, but it doesn't change the fact that these revisions came in just 3 days later than they were assigned, I can't stress the fact enough that you need to take your time.

I'm happy to hear that you're trying to chase your dream of being an animator, and I do understand that it can be a bit anxiety inducing if you feel like people are younger than you and can get better results but I would like you to try your best to realize that it really doesn't matter all that much. At the end of the day it's all about the quality of practice you put into the time you're using, if someone is in high school and they doodle for 4 hours a day you're going to pass them in ability quickly if you put in good quality practice. The people who are younger than you that get better results may be younger in age but they're your senior in terms of hours of work they've put in, that's nothing to be ashamed of, those are people you can learn from.

You mention multiple times that you're happy to redo the box challenge if it's asked of you, and that's noble but not required. While we do assign total redos at times, they're not common for the box challenge and I don't think it would be beneficial here. If I asked you to do the entire thing again and it was just rushed it wouldn't be any different and would just risk burn out. Instead I really want you to spend your time, and put in your best effort.

I want you to draw 20 more boxes but there's going to be a condition along with it, do your best to think of where your vanishing points are and how your lines should extend towards them. Bring them in closer to get experience working with more dramatic rates of foreshortening. Avoid placing your vanishing point between the viewer and the box.

The condition for these revisions is that you can't hand them until 5 days from the time this comment is posted. How you choose to use those days is up to you, if you chose to do all 20 boxes right away and then wait 4 days and hand them in it'll be noticeable and you'll be assigned more. The way I would go about doing it is read through all of the instructions again, read through your critiques, look at your submissions and identify the mistakes that have been pointed out to you, once you've done that draw 4 boxes, reflect on them and call it a day. The next day look over the boxes you've drawn again, then draw 4 more.

While it's great that you're excited and you want to learn you'll find that rushing ends up taking longer than if you just took your time to begin with. If you have a week to complete a project that will take 3.5 hours, you'll likely get better results spending 30 minutes a day on it than if you tackled it all at once.

You may also find ScyllaStew's videos helpful. She recorded herself working through some of the lesson material, it can often be helpful if people don't understand just how long it can take at times.

This definitely was lengthier than I originally intended but hopefully it provided some clarity, if you have any questions before getting started feel free to ask them of course.

If you have none then I look forward to seeing your work 5 days from now at the earliest.

Next Steps:

20 more boxes submitted 5 days from now at the earliest.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
8:01 AM, Friday June 17th 2022

Hi Tofu!

Here is my job: https://imgur.com/a/tWBWtVM

Let me explain something; first, I really appreciate the time you spent on your reviews and on the very good in deep guide you shared.

Actually I learned more about drawing than drawing boxes, I started over with the lectures on lesson 0 and 1. I must admit that I wasn't fulfilling the 50% rule, first I thought that it was a rule to avoid some people to burnout, but it's actually a rule that not only makes you better at drawing, it also teaches you how to have fun and thats why I worked so hard to start on art school, I liked drawing so much than I want to work on this, but I wasn't having fun.

More about on the exercise:

  • I actually learned why this can take 1 month or even longer

  • I think I improved in any aspect, but still far from perfect

  • There is notations that I did for me and for you about the mistakes I spotted during my correction and study

  • I started a sketchbook and now I'm still drawing plenty of hours a day, but not rushing Drawabox but having fun drawing whatever I want to

  • There are still boxes that end up being too well made with too far VP's, I struggle with this because closer VP's have dramatic results and there I start to make lines wobblier, and this is probably the most important point that I must to achieve, since it can leads to non convergence and sometimes divergence.

7:43 PM, Friday June 17th 2022

No problem.

I'm glad you learned to appreciate the 50% rule and took your time, it's really important.

Overall these are a big improvement and represent what was being asked of you originally. There's still room for you to experiment by bringing your vanishing points in even closer but this is a great start. I'm sure as you continue to practice boxes in your warm ups you'll continue to see improvement so I'll be marking your submission complete.

Keep practicing boxes and previous exercises as warm ups and good luck in lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
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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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In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.

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