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Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

10:21 AM, Thursday September 10th 2020

drawabox lesson 1.pdf - Google Drive

Google Docs: https://bit.ly/33doso9

This is my first time learning art since highschool. I work as a developer full-time, and don't plan on working in the art industry (I love my main field too much), though I do plan to spend a good few hours a day for the rest of my life learning how to create art properly because it's pure joy as well.

A friend recommended drawabox to get started on the fundementals, and I found the exercises really fun. The thing I struggled most with was understanding convergence points when drawing boxes. I'm better at drawing square boxes than rectangular boxes at the moment. The 250 box challenge will help.

I made a little ebook out of my assignments. I drew everything on cheap paper with a fineliner. If you want to do the same, I used the Simple Scanner App to scan the page with my phone camera. Then I used Affinity Designer to remove the background of the sketch (click on the sketch, then click on the cog icon in the layer panel and in the "Source Layer Ranges Panel", then drag the right node down so the line goes from being straight to a diagonal from top left to right bottom). Finally, I used an ebook template on Canva to create a little ebook of them all.

I did this because while I can't draw properly yet, I wanted to celebrate the effort that went into doing these challenges. It'll be fun to revisit.

I'd really appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you!

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6:09 PM, Friday September 11th 2020

Hello Becca9941,

Sorry to tell you this, but simple pictures will do. Please do not use any editing on your homework pages. You do not need to put your homework in a fancy format. Thank you for placing your homework in order.

2 filled pages of Superimposed lines - These are looking good. You followed the rules perfectly. With more meaningful practice your lines fraying on the other side will become tighter.

1 filled page of Ghosted lines - Really good overall. Please do try to take advantage of your page space. I see a lot of empty white space.

2 filled pages of Ghosted planes - I read that you reused this for your ellipses in planes exercise. Good job! Your planes are looking good.

2 filled pages of Tables of ellipses - Very nice. You will get better at this exercise with meaningful practice.

2 filled pages of Ellipses in planes - For a beginner, this is really good. When you approach this in the future, please take time to ghost your ellipses and make sure your ellipse hits all four interior edges of your plane.

1 filled page of Ellipses in funnels - Good overall. Some of your ellipses break the boundary of your funnel. Next time, please make sure to keep that in mind.

1 filled page of Plotted perspective - Good job! You did this correctly.

2 filled pages of Rough perspective - Please make sure that the width lines of your boxes are parallel to the horizon and height lines perpendicular to the horizon. Some of your lines are wobbly, but you will improve with time. I can see you drew through some of your edges a couple of times. That is a mistake. I mess up frequently too, no worries.

1 filled pages of Rotated boxes - Good, but you missed many boxes. As I can tell by your comment. This is a scary exercise, but you still did well. When you tackle this again, I would use this as a reference: https://d15v304a6xpq4b.cloudfront.net/lesson_images/5f4fef59.jpg . It can help orient you when you are unsure of what box to draw next. Over time you will become super confident and you will be able to do this exercise easily.

2 filled pages of Organic perspective - Good good. One of your boxes goes off your line, but I am assuming that was a mistake. Another box is really skewed, but all of your other boxes are good. After you do the 250 box challenge, you will be able to do this exercise much better.

You did really well! For the next time, you do not need to make a fancy pdf. Just submit the homework pages in order. Don't make more work for yourself when you could be doing meaningful drawing practice. I do have to say, you made a really nice pdf!

Lars

Next Steps:

Next steps:

1 page of ghosted lines

1 page of rotated boxes to the best of your ability (please use the reference I mentioned above)

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
4:29 AM, Saturday September 12th 2020

Thanks so much for your feedback, I appreciate that you pointed out specific things to work on, it was way more than I expected. Thank you. I'll come back to this review to check the points against future practice sheets too.

I totally understand not needing to make the pdf because it takes time away from drawing, though honestly making a cute pdf of them really helped motivate me and it didn't take long to do. Is that format specifically a problem for review submissions? I'm happy to submit the photos instead if so.

1:20 PM, Saturday September 12th 2020

No problem and no worries. In general a simple imgur link to your photos is the best. I like it when people submit their homework in order like you did. Do whatever floats your boat. I was just suggesting you don't make more work for yourself.

8:07 PM, Sunday September 13th 2020

I really appreciate that! I'll remember to keep them in order too for the next challenges. How long have you been doing drawabox for? I'm really loving it and not even seeing it as a grind which is weird. It's nice being able to see concrete improvements and spot mistakes (with the help of feedback like yours).

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