Can I move on with the lessons with no work marked as complete?

1:43 PM, Sunday November 19th 2023

Got into Drawabox a few years back but had to take a break because of irl stuff. Planning on getting back into it in the following weeks but couldn't help but wonder if it's fine to keep advancing through the lessons even if i haven't gotten any critique so far.

I usually asked for opinions and feedback on the discord for the exercises I did and also looked over critique of other submissions for any advice that can be applied to my own, and I feel that has helped a lot, but I wonder if i'm losing something by not getting direct critique.

Just something I wanna clear up before jumping back into Drawabox. Thanks in advance!

2 users agree
5:22 PM, Tuesday November 21st 2023

While students are certainly allowed to use the lesson material in whatever way they see fit to try and study and improve their skills, we certainly do stress the importance of "not working in a vacuum" and have developed the various methods for submitting work for feedback for a reason. Students simply aren't well equipped - especially when it comes to those at the very beginning, and those dealing with the fundamentals - to understand for themselves what they should be paying more attention to, and what is a perfectly normal area to struggle in. Those that rely only on their own judgment - mind you, judgment that is not based on experience, skill, or really any kind of knowledge that we can reasonably expect them to have - are more prone to getting caught up grinding on things that are of far less significance, and ignoring things that they might want to address right now to avoid problems later on.

Ultimately when it comes to community critique, while the unofficial Critique Exchange program being run on the discord certainly helps students receive more reliable feedback in more reasonable timeframes, it's still far from guaranteed - so there are definitely situations where people who can't afford official critique aren't for whatever reason getting any free feedback, and thus end up having to decide to continue on of their own volition. That's understandable, as long as the effort has been put in to seek out feedback in the first place.

2:35 PM, Sunday December 3rd 2023
edited at 2:35 PM, Dec 3rd 2023

Hey Thanks a lot for the reply!

This made things a lot more clear for me, I'll definitely keep trying my best to take part on the community and try to one day submit my stuff for official critique if I can.

Once again thank you for the input.

edited at 2:35 PM, Dec 3rd 2023
The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Color and Light by James Gurney

Color and Light by James Gurney

Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.