Hi, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Congratulations on completing the challenge, not only is it demanding in terms of technical abilities but as you mentioned it takes a lot of patience and will power to get through, by no means is it fun but it is useful when tackled with a desire to learn and the instructions are followed.

Before getting into your critique I'll quickly address the points you brought up.

1) You did make progress, could you have made more? Possibly, but everyone learns at different rates and by no means did you make less progress than I would expect so don't worry. As long as you're making conscious decisions and taking your time to observe your mistakes you will improve, it can however take a lot of mileage which is part of why this is an effective exercise, it's a lot of mileage with some restrictions. You have to draw 250 boxes, they shouldn't all be the same, and you shouldn't be crossing out your attempts to grind more than what was asked so it keeps you moving forward.

2) This is normal and something that improves with mileage and as you build up muscle memory, just have to keep trying.

3) This is also normal, each box is composed of 3 sets of lines basically, and if one line is off it will effect every other line in that box so if it your rear corner feels like it doesn't line up correctly it's most likely a sign that you've already made a mistake. This means that you can't really "fix" the issue (when working with ink at least) so you just have to attempt to keep your line consistent with the rest of the set.

4) I'm not entirely certain what you mean in this point, if by not intentionally drawing boxes you mean you weren't thinking about them as you drew them this is a mistake. Starting out with a Y is totally fine (it's why it's recommended in the exercise instructions) but you should generally try to picture your box as you plan it out.

5) This is not only fine but also encouraged in lesson 1, taking the time to plan the best you can before drawing is a good thing and encourages patience.

6) It can definitely have an effect but you'll usually adapt pretty quick.

With all that out of the way let's get to your critique, I'm going to attempt to keep it pretty concise as answering everything above took longer than expected.

• Your lines are improving but you do still have some wobbling and arcing occurring which shows you still need to work on your confidence and using your shoulder.

• It's great that you drew large, it'll help you become more comfortable using your shoulder and shows you your mistakes more clearly.

• I'm glad to see you experimented with orientations and proportions as well, experimentation and mileage are two important factors in improving. If you drew the same box 250 times you'd be better at drawing that box but find yourself less comfortable when working with others.

• I'm not sure where you changed supplies but around half way through your submission I notice your line quality gets a bit more inconsistent, you also stopped hatching at this point which is a shame as it's great practice in terms of applying the ghosting method and drawing confidently. I'd also encourage you to experiment with line weight more as mentioned in the challenge instructions, it'll be increasingly useful starting in lesson 2 so there's no harm in getting more comfortable with the idea now.

• While your convergences are more consistent you do still have some moments where your lines converge in pairs rather than as a set. I'd like to point you to this example quickly, it shows how each line in a set relates to one another. You'll notice the inner pair remains fairly similar while the outer pair can vary quite a bit depending on how far the vanishing point is from your box. Remember that our goal isn't to have perfectly parallel lines since perspective plays a factor, they should always converge slightly at the very least and should converge as an entire set instead of as pairs.

Overall your submission was solid, you do have some things to work on still and experiment with but I have no doubt that with more mileage you'll improve as long as you put in the effort too. I'll be moving you on to lesson 2 and marking your submission complete.

Keep practicing previous exercises as warm ups, make sure you spend some time addressing your line confidence and good luck in lesson 2!