10:07 AM, Saturday February 12th 2022
Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.
Congratulations on completing the box challenge, it's definitely a lot more work than most people expect. Not only does it help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. Be proud of what you've accomplished and that desire you've shown. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.
Things you did well:
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Good work drawing your construction lines confidently, this keeps your lines smooth and prevents wobbling.
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When hatching you're taking the time to space each line evenly which shows that care and thought is being put into each line. This helps your boxes appear solid and tidy rather than rushed.
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Seeing as how line weight is not a requirement of the challenge it's nice to see that you're applying it. It's a useful tool but one that most people need some mileage with before they feel comfortable applying it. Getting an early start like this will help you see better results sooner.
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Excellent work experimenting with orientations, proportions and rates of foreshortening. It's important to experiment when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding of new concepts. This habit will serve you well in the future so I hope you'll continue to build it as you move forward.
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Early on you were extending lines in the incorrect direction and imaginging your vanishing point between the box and the viewer. I'm glad to see that you realized this on your own and corrected it about halfway through the challenge. If you're still not feeling 100% certain of how to place your vanishing points correctly here's a guide I wrote that will hopefully help you place them and your line extensions consistently.
Things you can work on:
- There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.
The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.
Overall while you did make a few mistakes your boxes are improving so far and with more mileage you'll continue to become more consistent. That being said I'll be marking your submission as complete and moving you on to lesson 2.
Also in regards to your pens, early on I feel like your lines were actually quite light so it may be a case of your earlier pens were smaller than 0.5 or maybe you just have a very light hand, regardless your last 10 boxes look good to me so I see no issue using the pens you have. Maybe Uncomfortable will say otherwise once you get to lesson 3 but I doubt it.
Anyways, keep practicing previous exercises and boxes as warm ups, and good luck!
Next Steps:
Move on to lesson 2.