2 users agree
5:39 AM, Sunday January 29th 2023

These boxes look pretty good- I could clearly see you improve a lot from the start to the end of the exercise. I only have two tips that might help you do even better in the future. First, I noticed that some of your boxes (take 119 for example) have a rear line that drastically diverges from the ones in front of it. I remember making a similar mistake, and clamped down on it by taking a step back and viewing the box as a whole. Using the lines you have already drawn to guide your plotting, especially when doing the back corner could help alleviate this.

Second, keeping track of line order may help give you a better idea of the rough area the VPs you are aiming at are. After you draw your Y, keep track of the first lines you draw extending out in each of the three principal directions (you could draw little stars or tick marks or whatever next to them). Next, estimate where these two lines meet, and use it as a target for the other lines you draw. This, in combination with drawing less boxes per page, may help you stay better organized and your lines closer to converging. Still though, your boxes were looking pretty good by the last pages, so I don't think it would be fair to ask you for a redo. Just keep these points in mind and do a few boxes on your own and you'll be good.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete, and 2 others agree. The student has earned their completion badge for this lesson and should feel confident in moving onto the next lesson.
0 users agree
7:37 AM, Tuesday May 30th 2023
edited at 7:42 AM, May 30th 2023

Hello Lucas, I agree with Ronbadonski, your boxes are good and you should feel free to move on to lesson 2. Seeing as you've gone to the trouble of getting your work added to the critique exchange spreadsheet I'll take a look and see if there's any additional feedback I can offer.

Congratulations on completing the 250 Box Challenge, it is a lot of work and takes commitment.

You've shown a good deal of improvement across the set, your perspective estimations get more accurate.

What you've done well:

  • Most of your lines are smooth and confident, and I can see evidence of you applying the ghosting method.

  • You're extending your lines in the correct direction (away from the viewer) to check your perspective estimations, and these convergences become more consistent as you progress through the set.

  • You've done a good job of experimenting with different proportions and rates of foreshortening for your boxes.

  • It looks like you applied line weight to some of your boxes. Seeing as how line weight is not a requirement of the challenge it's nice to see that you're applying it. It's a useful tool but one that most people need some mileage with before they feel comfortable applying it. Getting an early start like this will help you see better results sooner.

  • It’s good that you chose to hatch one of the front faces of your boxes, and these lines are very neat, you've done a good job of drawing them straight and parallel. They're drawn touching the edges of the face of the box, without undershooting or overshooting, which helps to reinforce the 3D illusion of your boxes.

Things to keep in mind in future:

  • Although your convergences are very good, there are times when your lines converge in pairs or occasional places you try make them almost parallel and accidentally make one of your lines diverge. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.

  • The majority of your boxes are drawn in similar orientations. I encourage you to experiment more with boxes viewed from different angles- what if we can only see a tiny thin sliver of one of the visible faces? Only drawing boxes in orientations that you're comfortable with will limit what you might be able to learn from this exercise.

  • On a few of your pages you've crammed in quite a lot of small boxes. I encourage you to stick to drawing them fairly large (no more than 6 per page) as this makes it easier to draw from your shoulder, as well as making it easier to spot mistakes.

  • There are a few places where it looks like you've redrawn a line to correct a mistake. Try to resist the temptation to redraw lines, adding more ink to a mistake won't fix it, but it can make your work messy and confusing.

Okay I think that covers it. This was a strong submission and I think you should feel free to move on to lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Add this exercise to your pool of warm ups and move on to lesson 2.

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete. In order for the student to receive their completion badge, this critique will need 2 agreements from other members of the community.
edited at 7:42 AM, May 30th 2023
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