Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

4:18 AM, Thursday October 7th 2021

Drawabox Lesson 1 - Album on Imgur

Direct Link: https://i.imgur.com/lfVSZdU.jpg

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Hello! This is my second tackle at lesson 1, I did it for the first time some years ago haha

I had a bit of trouble with the organic perspective exercise, as you can see, my lines do not converge to the same VP, but I think I will get to strengthen that on the 250 box challenge.

Thank you for taking your time reviewing my post!

Cheers! :)

-Juan

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6:22 AM, Thursday October 7th 2021

Hey hey, and welcome to drawabox. I’ll be taking a look at your submission.

Starting off, your superimposed lines are unfortunately a little wobbly. It’s important to remember that what we’re asking of you here is not for them to be accurate (i.e., for them to stick to the guideline), but rather for them to be confident. Always feel free to sacrifice the former for the latter, never the other way around. The ghosted lines look a little better in this respect, but still a little lacking near their ends. What’s likely happening is that you’re being overly conscious of their end points, and slowing down as you approach them, in an effort to not stop short of them, or overshoot. This is secondary to them being smooth, and straight. The planes go even further down this path, unfortunately. It could be that you’re thinking of the big picture, more than of the elements that comprise it; if that is indeed so, remind yourself that though the big picture may change, the process of drawing a line does not. If it could be confident in an earlier exercise, it can be confident here, too.

The table of ellipses exercise looks fairly good. At times, your first rotation will struggle, but you’ll find your stride in the second. This is certainly not okay – it’s something that you can fix by ghosting extensively, and only moving beyond the ghosting stage when you’re ready, rather than after an arbitrary amount of time – but it’s a start. Other than that, your ellipses are smooth, and rounded. The ellipses in planes are similar in all accounts. I’ll quickly remind you that a confident line is correct, regardless of accuracy; it’s a line that is able to communicate an illusion of solidity. This is the reason why a wobbly line is not, because, regardless of its accuracy, it can’t communicate that same illusion. The funnels are a step in the right direction. I’d stick to a maximum of 2 rotations, though.

The plotted perspective exercise looks clean.

The rough perspective exercise shows some nice improvements in terms of its convergences, but not enough as far as its linework is concerned. Refer to the thing I mentioned regarding the big picture. I’ll also quickly touch on lineweight. Though it may seem counterintuitive, as lineweight that’s inaccurate can not only not fulfill its original purpose, but even harm the piece further, we still want you to apply it confidently, regardless of what that means for its accuracy.

The rotated boxes exercise looks nice. It seems like you’ve actually made an effort to ghost to a vanishing point, in some cases here – this is not something that you’re required (or encouraged) to do, the idea being to estimate their locations, but if it helps you at the beginning, this is fine. As for the rest, the boxes are snug, and rotate nicely – solid work.

The organic perspective exercise starts off having some foreshortening issues, but improves nicely throughout the set. As a result of that, and their proper increase in size, the boxes flow nicely.

Next Steps:

I’ll move you on to the box challenge, but please take note of everything I’ve mentioned, with the intention of improving it through the course of your warmups. Best of luck!

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
1:54 PM, Thursday October 7th 2021

Thank you very much! I'll do my best to go for confident, smooth lines. Your critique was very helpful! :D

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