Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

10:01 AM, Thursday April 16th 2020

Direct Link: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282688262635550/superimposed-lines-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282696760557569/superimposed-lines-1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282623024431135/ghosted-lines.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282624928776252/ghosted-planes-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282627097100328/ghosted-planes-1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282618046054500/framed-ellipses-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282621443309578/framed-ellipses-1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282612941455400/ellipses-in-planes-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282616468996106/ellipses-in-planes-1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282708043235438/tunneled-ellipses.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282635016208464/plotted-perspective.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282656553697290/rough-perspective-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282678142042112/rough-perspective-1.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282669233209364/rotated-perspective.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282629529927710/organic-perspective-0.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/581213933734723594/700282634244194374/organic-perspective-1.jpg

Sorry for sending these separately. Phone broke and difficult to get new sim card for new gen phones during lockdown, so cannot verify account on imgur. I'm hoping I can make albums starting with next lesson's exercises.

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1:03 AM, Saturday April 18th 2020

No worries with the links, but for future reference you don't need an account to post albums to imgur haha.

So starting with your super imposed lines you are doing a good job being confident and drawing from the shoulder. You've got some decent fraying at the ends so make sure you're working on finding a good pace to tighten up those groupings over time. Your ghosted lines are also drawn confidently, with only a few wobbles here and there. You are getting especially wobbly as you reach the end points of the lines so keep that in mind.

Moving on to your ellipses you are continuing to do a good job drawing confidently from the shoulder. Your ellipses have no sharp corners or flat portions and you maintain a good flow as you draw through the appropriate number of times. Your ellipses in tables are nicely packed to leave no room for ambiguity, and your ellipses in planes are ok in that regard. There are some spots where you missed making contact with the plane but overall not too bad. With your ellipses in funnels you are doing a nice job keeping your minor axes aligned pretty closely to the funnel axis as well as keeping them within the funnel bounds and continuing to draw confidently.

Now Looking at your rough perspective exercises you do a good job being mindful of the orientation of the boxes keeping your vertical lines perpendicular to the horizon and your horizontals parallel. Your converging lines are on track and you correctly applied you extension lines. The biggest problem I'm seeing is your tendency to redraw your lines. This is a habit you need to break before it sets in. This is why we draw with pen - we plan our marks and confidently execute when ready. If we redraw lines it only causes visual clutter and draws the eye to places we would rather not be focused on.

I am noticing more of the same in your rotated boxes. If this is you trying to add line weight then you have the right idea and just need to practice your super imposed lines exercise more. You are doing a good job starting to rotate your boxes but they could definitely be pushed further. Watch this gif again now that you have context and study how the rotation is driven by the motion of the vanishing points. In your corners you are letting your spacing get a little big so you cannot properly leverage adjacent lines as perspective guides, but in the main body of the exercise your spacing is a lot tighter. Overall though you did a good job here. You drew large and you took it to completion which is the only thign we expect of students here as it is to introduce you to new spatial problems and ways to solve them.

Finally let's look at your organic perspective. Line quality, line quality, line quality. You are extremely scratchy here and it almost feels like rushing or a lack of planning and ghosting your lines. Always adhere to the ghosting method and using your shoulder for single confident strokes. Your boxes themselves are pretty good with a good attention paid to trying to get the lines to converge to vanishing points. Your scaling is pretty good indicating a foreground and background and you could have pushed the illusion of depth with some smaller boxes in the background to really make them feel like they are receding into the background.

Next Steps:

Overall you are off to a good start but please keep working on drawing single confident lines and when adding line weight working on keeping your super imposed lines tighter. You'll have plenty of practice with this as you go through the 250 box challenge as that is your next step. Keep up the good work.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
7:24 AM, Saturday April 18th 2020

Thank you very much for the critique!

The scratchy lines are a combination of the pens becoming scratchy very fast if held at 45ish degrees, rather than almost vertical (went through 3 pens in this lesson), and, indeed, my tendency to correct lines now and then. I had this habit and trying to get rid of it, so I'll keep working on this as well. (some extra fraying was from adding line weight, but some was just me keeping the bad habit)

One question, though, if I may, on just this: I'm now going through the 250 boxes challenge and sometimes I feel I really need to correct a line because it's diverging rather than converging with its parallels. Is it ok to at least correct glaring perspective mistakes while doing these? Or just scrap that whole box and start over?

Thank you again! :D

1:56 PM, Saturday April 18th 2020

Just finish the box and move to the next one. In the grand scheme of things, we will mess up lines from time to time and it's best not to get too hung up on it. Just make sure you using the ghosting method and planning every line and apply your extension lines at the end of each page.

3:42 PM, Saturday April 18th 2020

Ok, thanks again for all the info! :D

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