Check Out NMA    About our Partnership    Collapse this Ad

Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

8:53 PM, Thursday January 15th 2026

Drawabox.com - Album on Imgur

Imgur: imgur.com/a/Z6rsUgV

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

I post my completed lessons on Bluesky, here are the remaining links to each post to make finding them easier. There was a few points where I did a little extra, and sometimes I went to make a note or correction but I think I caught myself most of the time. If there are any red pen marks that's probably what it was from. And I hope the pictures are clean enough to grade, and I think I got them all. Will gladly fix them if need be. Also I really enjoyed the process, so looking forward to some of them showing up again. Thanks for taking the time to review the work, hope you have a good day!

2 Pages of Super Imposed Lines - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mbwk632nqk2i

1 Page of Ghosted Lines - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mbwml5qrds2i

2 Pages of Ghosted Planes - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mbwua4l7e22d

2 Pages of Tables of Ellipses - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mbx4wx2ik22w

2 Pages of Ellipses in Planes - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcaz3oym2k2g

1 Page of Funnels - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcczcqlryc26

1 Page of Plotted Perspective - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcdcxj2mpk26

2 Pages of Rough Perspective - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcigx2tyq22q

1 Page of Rotated Boxes - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcdmivctq22i

2 Pages of Organic Perspective - https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mcifpkjbzc2q

Report
0 users agree
10:41 AM, Saturday January 24th 2026

Hello, I'm SeeNoEvil on discord, I'll be reviewing your work today :3

Superimposed lines

These are good, though you only needed 2 pages it is great that you also included curved lines. I can see some fraying on both ends on the first page, but It's nearly unnoticable on the next pages - love to see improvement!

Ghosted lines + planes

I see some wobble in the lines and a change in direction near the end, it looks like you are trying to always hit the mark no matter what - remember that the point of the exercise is not accuracy, but confidence in the line-making.

The wobble persists not only on the ghosted planes pages, but also the rough perspective, rotated boxes and organic perspective - It is maybe the most important skill for the course, and I cannot stress that enough. I recommend going over the ghosting material again, and incorporate it by the book going forward in the 250 box challenge.

Another point is there is no limit to the number of times you can ghost, but once you stop ghosting you have to let go of mental control, and trust your muscle memory from the "preparation" step to do the trick.

Tables of ellipses

Some ellipses are wonky and the lines look strained. Biggest point I must emphasize is you shouldn't draw from the wrist as you mentioned in your Bluesky post, it can really hinder your ability to make smooth lines and especially curves.

Ellipses in planes

Second page is much better than the first one, I can see you loosening up your arm and drawing faster - this lesson almost exclusively aims is to get you drawing confidently, and that you should worry about accuracy later.

Funnels

These look good, they fit snuggly and aim to align with the minor axis, I don't have other points that the ones already menitoned above for ellipses, more diverse ellipse degrees would be nice but not neccessary.

Plotted perspective

Looks great, love the hatching!

Rough perpective

The line extensions are applied correctly, and I can see improvement in the accuracy over the pages.

Rotated boxes

This is a real work of art! I especially love the consistent small hatching here. Only remark is the rotation of the boxes on the main axes are too similar, they look like they have the same vanishing point. But overall great job!

Organic perspective

Be very careful about line convergence - while it is not emphasized in this exercise, going into the box challenge you'll have to make sure your lines converge away from the viewer, not towards them. Also, don't be afraid to vary the box sizes or even overlap them, the point of the exercise is to get you to think in 3D and see the page as a window into the "drawing" world.

*

*

*

In conclusion, I think your intent is clear, and you are heading in the right direction.

I will asign you another page of ghosted planes together with an ellipses in planes exercise, to see you put into practice the points made above, namely drawing from your shoulder, letting go of mental control when ghosting, and focusing on confidence and not accuracy. Make sure to carefully read the ghosted lines material, and the ellipses guide.

That's it - Good luck going forward!

Next Steps:

Complete one more page of the following exercises:

Ghosted planes

Ellipses in planes

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
9:47 PM, Tuesday January 27th 2026

Hello SeeNoEvil,

Love to see your critique and advice! I don't want to make excuses but I do want to mention some things and ask for help, if you have the time. If by any means it woud inconvenience you then please just skip to my revision and thank you for your review!

For starters, sorry for the rough lines. My shoulder is really not used to these movements and I've been disappointed too but I'm working on fixing it. In my table of Elipses, you can actually see where I tested this doing one box with each joint, and my wrist is the smoothest by far. I was never a fine-tools artist so my shoulders and elbow are very untrained. I was wanting to ask if you had any advice on training that smoothness without wearing my shoulders out too much, but as I type this I realize this may be better to ask on the discord, so I'll go there too! Since you can see my work I would still appreciate your thoughts, and if you have any advice that would be lovely. As Is I just do the planes and ellipses practice a few times before getting into any drawing.

Second, this one feels kind of like reading into it too much, but this IS the type of thing where fine changes can have big effects. SO, you mention my ghosting lines being somewhat wobbly and almost course correcting at times. This is 100% correct, and when doing your homework I noticed partially why. When ghosting I start at one dot and move to the other while shifting focus between the dots. With my final attempt I focus on the 'destination' dot and let my hand follow through. This results in my line going in the general direction at first, but once it gets closer I unconciously course correct to the dot I'm focusing on. I felt like that was naturally how I should be doing it, but curious if it would help to change that habit. I tried a few different things but that way seems the best, but that could just be because it's what I'm used to. Or is this just something where doing it more will train accuracy and smoothness?

REVISIONS;

I did the one page of planes, and then drew over them for the one page of ellipses. I assume that would be fine, as that is how the Lesson 1 homework was laid out. And Hopefully I attached my bluesky link correctly. I ghosted each line at lease three times, or until I felt consistent, then one swift attempt stopping wherever was natural with minimal correction. For the ellipses, I did similar ghosting to find the shape and three passes before stopping. Aiming for swift confident marks first and accuracy second.

I made a few obvious mistakes I'll mention in a moment. Previously I focused on confident marks without worrying on maintaining speed, and I think ultimately that's what caused a lot of my problems. Partially through Lesson 1 I noticed that and you spotted the improvements the moment it clicked lol

This time I tried to do every line swiftly, confidently and smoothly, paying attention to what causes me to wobble or miss my mark. The main thing should of been obvious, but it's my poor workstation. The space I have to draw is cramped and my hand bumps the page a lot. The first box (top left box under the date, specifically the line going from top left to bottom right) is a great example, because my palm caught on the edge of the page and caused my line to wobble, and BAD in this case. Completely on me, and I'm trying to get better space, but I mostly just wanted to know what to do in those cases. Should I retake the line, mark it out in red, keep it and go on? In all attempts up to now I've just powered through, but should I keep doing that for 'non-skill-based' mistakes?

Otherwise I can confidently say the rest of the pages is pretty much my best attempts, very few mistakes like that and most of the boxes I am very proud of to represent my current abilities. The ellipses leave something to be desired, due to previously mentioned shoulder issues, but I'll do plenty more down the road and get better. Luckily it seems I enjoy this process more than most, and I thank ya'll for the reviews and comments. I hope I'm not so wordy as to be a bother to you, and I hope you have a lovely day. Thanks again!

Link to my bluesky post where I show the homework - [https://bsky.app/profile/clone20.bsky.social/post/3mdgguqjlcs2i]

11:29 AM, Wednesday January 28th 2026

Hi Clone, thank you for writing back!

Looking at the revisions I can see a lot of improvement, almost no lines have that correcting shift in direction, have come out much smoother, and the ellipses look cleaner as well.

Regarding getting used to drawing from your shoulder, I couldn't say it better than the man himself:

https://youtu.be/0_AdsK8x9Lw?si=R4gKuQvBFNzoUOIf&t=407

Rather, it is much more easy to tell when you are drawwing not from your shoulder, namely not using your entire arm in a big motion. Take note if you are not engaging your shoulder at all, if you are resting your elbow on the table, or if you are relying on the rotation of the wrist.

Also, a good work station is very necessary. Make sure you have enough space to execute shoulder motions, rotate your page around, and draw on a stack of pages to soften the surface of the table.

When it comes to ghosting, I also used to stress a lot about the logistincs of it, where i should focus my eyes, and things of the sort - in the end, it's not going to help stressing over every detail of the execution, what matters is letting go and executing the line with precisely the intent of the ghosts from the preparation stage:

https://youtu.be/LkJG6pKTuRc?si=-kNOu7EqPXPPBVWC&t=352

Your observation skills are very good, it's good to notice mistakes that you have made, but remember to not too give much importance to individual mistakes. Rather, check if you have completely understood the point of the exercise, and are striving for the best execution possible with each following line.

I'll mark the lesson as complete, thank you for taking your time to do the revisions, and I wish you the best of luck going forward!

Next Steps:

Prepare for the 250 box challenge

Add all leson 1 exercises to your practice pool

This community member feels the lesson should be marked as complete. In order for the student to receive their completion badge, this critique will need 2 agreements from other members of the community.
3:57 PM, Thursday January 29th 2026

Thank you! I felt like I improved a lot since those first pages, so glad to hear you see it too.

Yeah, I probably focus on the minor stuff too much but I did end up watching his videos again and they helped convince me to just relax a bit. After that I ended up doing a few ghosting lines for practice before a drawing session and it felt a lot smoother. So I think I just need to work on getting out of my head and just focusing on the ghosting step.

Thank you for the helpful review and humoring my critiques. I'm a fool to be excited, but I look forward to the many boxes to come. You have a lovely day

Below this point is mostly ads. Indie projects, and tool/course recommendations from us.
This section is reserved for low-cost advertising space for art related indie projects.
With how saturated the market is, it is tough for such projects to get eyes on their work.
By providing this section, we hope to help with that.
If you'd like to advertise here, you can do so through comicad.net
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.
Michael Hampton's Gesture Course

Michael Hampton's Gesture Course

Michael Hampton is one of my favourite figure drawing teachers, specifically because of how he approaches things from a basis of structure, which as you have probably noted from Drawabox, is a big priority for me. Gesture however is the opposite of structure however - they both exist at opposite ends of a spectrum, where structure promotes solidity and structure (and can on its own result in stiffness and rigidity), gesture focuses on motion and fluidity, which can result in things that are ephemeral, not quite feeling solid and stable.

With structure and spatial reasoning in his very bones, he still provides an excellent exploration of gesture, but in a visual language in something that we here appreciate greatly, and that's not something you can find everywhere.

Remember that when you agree with something another user has written, you are putting your own reputation behind it.

Consider the following:

  • If it's homework feedback, does it address each section of the lesson/challenge, or only briefly touch upon one or two exercises?
  • Does it provide clearly defined next steps for the student to follow?
  • Have you read through it thoroughly, or are you simply agreeing so the student earns a superficial badge?
  • Replies you agree with will be visible in your sketchbook

Agreeing blindly just to be nice is a good way to get your permissions associated with this function revoked, so make sure that you genuinely feel that the response is beneficial to the student.

We use cookies in conjunction with Google Analytics to anonymously track how our website is used.

This data is not shared with any other parties or sold to anyone. They are also disabled until consent is provided by clicking the button below, and this consent can be revoked at any time by clicking the "Revoke Analytics Cookie Consent" link in our website footer.

You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.