Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes
9:19 PM, Wednesday April 22nd 2020
Still trying hard to overcome my habit of chicken scratch, but hopefully this will be good enough to move onto the box challenge.
Hello! Congrats on clearing up lesson 1! Here's my crit for the lesson!
Before we get into specifics, I want to stress an important concept in DaB: Not redoing lines that are incorrect. Whenever you draw a line that is incorrect, say it wobbles or arcs, or any number of mistakes, do not try to redo the lines. This only serves to draw unwanted attention to the point, and so make the line look of a lower quality than it should. Instead, try to work with your mistake, and move on. I won't mention this again in this critique, so keep it in the back of your mind as I go through this critique.
Lines: Overall, not a bad attempt. In general, I think you should strive to make longer lines. Doing so would allow you to test yourself on not only your ghosting, but also the ability to utilise your shoulder. Thus, mistakes would be easily pointed out and you can work towards them better. In addition, some of your lines seem to arc. This, in my experience, tends to come from mixing up your pivots unintentionally, so try to pay attention to your elbow and wrist, especially if you're not gripping the pen tight enough. Finally, there is a point or two I see that you undershot the line, then you tried to extend it (which resulted in wobble). In DaB, focus on making a straight confident line first. Worry about accuracy later, that comes with practice. On a more minor point, try to make your "planning points" smaller.
Ellipses: One of the things to keep note with ellipses in DaB is that they are to be drawn through twice, thrice maximum. In your ellipses, I see several ellipses that are drawn through more than that, so keep that in mind. As with lines, the main focus of ellipses is to create a smooth, confident ellipse over an accurate one. Thus, after your ghosting, trust your ghosting in execution, even if the ellipse appears inaccurate. I see that some of your ellipses are nice and confident, though there are still some with jagged edges. Remember to ghost mindfully. That said, most of your ellipses in the funnels exercise are well aligned, so good job there.
Boxes: You've done a great attempt here. Mostly, I think you've grasped the concepts behind the exercises at hand. Do remember not to sacrifice line quality here, even if the lines you draw are less arbritrary. In the organic perspective exercise, I think you can further push the relationship between size and proximity to the viewer. The change in size isn't very significant, so keep that in mind. You can also use line weight to clarify overlaps in the future.
With regards to your rotated boxes, I can see some boxes, particularly the boxes not on the "+" with issues of guessing, as in https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/16/guessing. Having the lines be close to each other helps prevent this issue, and makes things more orderly. I understand that its quite messy doing things like this, but this is one of the benefits of drawing larger, makes it easier to deal with these things. Another thing I noticed is that some of your boxes aren't drawn through, as in https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/16/notdrawingthrough. This could lead to a worsening of the point mentioned above, as you can't really judge the lines well. Finally, you should also make sure that the lines for each box converges at a different point. I find that this guide tends to help out those that struggle with the concept. Give it a read!
Overall, I think you've made a good attempt at the exercises. Though not perfect, you can make good progress by doing your warmups. Remember not to grind and to bear the 50/50 rule in mind. I'll mark this as complete.
Next Steps:
You've 250 boxes to work through. Remember not to redo your lines, and do your lines with confidence. Good luck!
A lot of my students use these. The last time I used them was when I was in high school, and at the time I felt that they dried out pretty quickly, though I may have simply been mishandling them. As with all pens, make sure you're capping them when they're not in use, and try not to apply too much pressure. You really only need to be touching the page, not mashing your pen into it.
In terms of line weight, the sizes are pretty weird. 08 corresponds to 0.5mm, which is what I recommend for the drawabox lessons, whereas 05 corresponds to 0.45mm, which is pretty close and can also be used.
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.