Drawabox | A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing

Anyone can learn to draw. It's not some magical talent a few people are born with. It's a skill you can train. We can help.

Drawabox is a set of free exercise-based lessons that focus on the fundamentals - the skills you'll need to make sense of all the other resources and tutorials out there. First we focus on the basic mechanics of mark making, and how to use your arm. By the end, we develop a strong understanding of form, 3D space and construction.

I won't lie to you - our approach is tough and involves a lot of hard work. It's also structured and gives you a clear path with concise explanations and assignments you can complete and submit for review.

You can read more about Drawabox and how it came about here.

Or you can join the community of thousands of beginners and professionals alike and get started.

Homework

Once you've completed a lesson, one of the best ways to refine your understanding of that material is to help others by critiquing their work. After having done thousands of critiques and having improved immensely over the last few years, I can attest to that myself.

  • Lesson 7: Applying Construction to Vehicles

    CyTori

    5:40 PM, Monday April 29th 2024
  • Lesson 5: Applying Construction to Animals

    senj

    7:18 PM, Tuesday April 30th 2024
  • Lesson 5: Applying Construction to Animals

    Quat

    7:39 PM, Wednesday May 1st 2024
  • Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

    Gyanyu

    4:29 PM, Tuesday April 30th 2024
  • Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

    CyberKitty

    7:54 PM, Friday May 3rd 2024
  • Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

    kotka

    2:50 PM, Wednesday April 24th 2024
  • Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

    Cornball

    5:23 AM, Monday April 29th 2024
  • Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

    tamagaft

    9:40 AM, Tuesday April 30th 2024
  • Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

    toai3

    3:44 PM, Sunday April 28th 2024
  • 25 Wheel Challenge

    Absolute

    10:11 AM, Sunday April 28th 2024

Questions/Discussions

Take a moment to answer someone's question, or contribute to a discussion, if you have anything to offer.

  • 250 box challenge related questions

    hotwire12

  • 50 Percent Rule Clarification

    Marmoolak

  • ok for placing 2nd vp from the y in the boxes challenge

    anstupidartist

  • Questions regarding form intersections

    Tuanz

Sketchbooks

Along with Drawabox work, our community members also post other artwork to their sketchbooks.

  • GravyBanker's Sketchbook: Jack Goes to Wok

  • Vivelli's Sketchbook: BG3 Class Icon - Nexusmod

  • mergenlerney's Sketchbook: The 50% rule

  • Clamboree's Sketchbook: 50% Rule for Lesson 1

  • Kangaroo's Sketchbook: Random contour line sketches

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 I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
PureRef

PureRef

This is another one of those things that aren't sold through Amazon, so I don't get a commission on it - but it's just too good to leave out. PureRef is a fantastic piece of software that is both Windows and Mac compatible. It's used for collecting reference and compiling them into a moodboard. You can move them around freely, have them automatically arranged, zoom in/out and even scale/flip/rotate images as you please. If needed, you can also add little text notes.

When starting on a project, I'll often open it up and start dragging reference images off the internet onto the board. When I'm done, I'll save out a '.pur' file, which embeds all the images. They can get pretty big, but are way more convenient than hauling around folders full of separate images.

Did I mention you can get it for free? The developer allows you to pay whatever amount you want for it. They recommend $5, but they'll allow you to take it for nothing. Really though, with software this versatile and polished, you really should throw them a few bucks if you pick it up. It's more than worth it.

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