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5:07 AM, Friday October 2nd 2020

Hey hey! Let’s take this one exercise at a time~

Starting with your superimposed lines, these are confident, and properly lined up at the start, but not always of a consistent trajectory, so be a little more careful in regards to that. The ghosted lines/planes look great, save for those instances where you notice your line stopping short of the end point, and decide to have it limp to the finish line. It’s far better for it to stop short, than to sacrifice its smoothness/straightness.

The table of ellipses exercise is on the right track, and certainly improves a lot over the set, though it could still be a little better. The main thing I’m noticing is that your ellipses have a habit of starting off a little still/wobbly, then stabilizing, so I’ll recommend trying to become a little more comfortable with the motion you’ll be performing (by ghosting it extensively), so that, when the time comes, you’re able to commit to it confidently. Also, see if you can lift your pen off the page at the end of your rotations, rather than flicking it off. It’ll remove those tails from the ends of your ellipses. The ellipses in planes exercise is in a similar place- it looks good, but it could look better, and the way to go about that is to spend a little longer on the ghosting stage. Still, for this exercise to look equally good, despite the increase in difficulty, is a remarkable achievement- well done. Finally, solid work on the funnels exercise. There’s one or two instances where the minor axis doesn’t extend as far as the ellipses do, meaning that some ellipses have been aligned to nothing, but the ones that it does intersect, are properly cut in half by it, and the ellipses here are the best in the lesson.

Nice job on the plotted perspective exercise. The rough perspective exercise is, unfortunately, as you can likely tell from your correction lines, not great. I’ll remind you that you’re not obligated to stick to your original points, here. If you judge one to be unsatisfactory (to find out if you think so, ghost it all the way to the horizon, and see where it intersects it), absolutely re-do it. Be careful, also, to ghost every single one of your points to the VP. Try not to get caught up in what you think a box should look like. For this exercise, the rules it should follow are simple. The front face has 2 sets of lines, one parallel to the horizon, the other perpendicular to it, and each of those 4 points extends towards the VP. Somewhere in the path of those (imaginary) extensions lie 4 more points, split into 2 sets: one parallel to the horizon, the other perpendicular to it. I’ll give you another go at this in a second, so don’t worry if it doesn’t make perfect sense just yet. The rotated boxes exercise looks nice. It’s big (huge positive!), and the boxes themselves are snug, though they don’t quite rotate. This is not a concern, however. Mostly, we’re just checking to see if you’ve seen the exercise through to the end, and done it to the best of your ability. You have, so you’re clear to move on. Finally, the organic perspective exercise is… not that much of a mess, actually. The line-weight is definitely a little overt, but the boxes are good, including their increase in size, and consistent foreshortening, and they overlap quite a bit, too. Yep, this is well done.

Next Steps:

Now, before I send you off, give me 1 more frame of the rough perspective exercise please. Take it slow, and really think about what each line is meant to accomplish.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
4:14 PM, Saturday October 3rd 2020

Hi Benj,

I redid a frame. I wasn't sure if a frame constituted a single frame or a page of these. If you want a whole page, please let me know.

This time turned out a little better except for the box top right. I knew I messed that one up, but I couldn't erase and start it over.

https://imgur.com/a/MTW5Bb1

5:14 PM, Saturday October 3rd 2020

This is better, as it shows some consideration of each point, but it could be better still. I’ll start by giving you a step-by-step, in the off chance that there’s something you’ve overlooked, and that’s the reason behind this being not quite there. If that’s the case, then good. If not, no worries, it’ll continue improving as you continue to practice it.

First, you plot the points for your front face. There’s 4 of them, and they form 2 sets of lines that are parallel/perpendicular to the horizon. Before you draw the lines that connect these points, pull back, and make sure that this is the case. Then, pick one of these points, and ghost a line between it and the VP, all the way to the horizon. Do this multiple times, and, when you’re ready, place a point in the path of that line. Again, pull back, and confirm that it’s in the correct place. Don’t ask ‘it’s correct, right?’, as your brain will be more than happy to tell you that it is, but rather specific questions, based on prior observations. Do this for the remaining 4 points, and remember that each following one will have more boxes it’ll need to check. For example, #2 will need to be in the path of that line (the one from the initial point, to the VP), and form a parallel/perpendicular line (depending on which point you choose as your #2) with the previous point. #3 will do the same, and #4 will need to be in their intersection. Now. All you’ve got on your page are dots. Yet again, pull back and check whether all of the above is correct. If it’s not, alter it. Then, you connect the points. And once you do this for an entire page, you look at your mistakes, take note of your habits, and compensate for them in the next attempt. In doing so, you’ll get a little better each time. If you don’t do this, then this is a great way to build mileage, but, in that sense, is no different from the ghosted lines exercise, which is much less time consuming. If you’re practicing this one, practice the things it’s trying to teach you, ideally.

ANYWAY, despite all that, I’ll be moving you onto the box challenge. I just figured it might help. Hope it did. Good luck either way.

Next Steps:

250 box challenge

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
6:40 PM, Saturday October 3rd 2020

Thanks, Benj. I will practice this in my warmups. I think repetition is the only way I'll get better. I did try to think about where the points were plotted according to the vanishing point, but I would still sometimes place points incorrectly. Once the lines are down it's sometimes easier to see where things went awry. The worst is when you have your points, ghost the line and then still mess up the line when you draw it.

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