Lesson 1: Lines, Ellipses and Boxes

6:04 PM, Wednesday June 23rd 2021

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I had some focus issues, going to work on that.

Also wondering how to avoid over-focusing on a specific spot, such as in the rotated box excercise there is a large gap due to focusing too hard on creating the box itself and not relying on the surroundings enough.

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7:42 PM, Tuesday June 29th 2021
edited at 1:24 AM, Jun 30th 2021

Hello Kenny! I will take a look at your submitted work.

Beginning with the superimposed lines exercise, your straight lines are mostly smooth with little to no wobbling, and fraying only at one end. Now, as you have pointed out yourself in your page, there are times the line does start out with some fraying, meaning you rushed a little and did not take the time to place down your pen. Also note that in your curved lines, there are at least 3 instances where fraying appears on both ends. While you managed to draw most of your straight lines confidently, you prioritized accuracy on your curved lines, evident by how wobbly most of them turned out, especially in the second page. Another thing I noticed is the arcing present in the bigger lines here and in the ghosted lines exercise. This could be a natural habit of your, in which case consciously bending in the other direction will cancel it out, however, because it is mostly present in your longer lines, I suspect the reason is that you are not drawing from your shoulder and pivoting from the elbow instead. Keep in mind that the elbow does complement the shoulder, but it alone can not churn out a smooth line. So make sure you are using your whole arm. Your ghosted lines are smooth for the most part, but unfortunately I can not say the same in the ghosted planes exercise. It appears that you prioritized accuracy over smoothness, which resulted in a wobbly line. Drawing lines confidently is something you can do right now without much issue, accuracy on the other hand takes a lot of practice and something you should not concern yourself with at the start.

Your table of ellipses is coming along nicely, you drew through each twice and kept each withing each box and snugly against one another. Do note the small tip at the major axis that does appear occasionally, as well as some egg shapes. This could be a result of starting or ending at the major axis, and you noticed that you were about to miss the spot at the end, so you attempted to fix its course. One way you can avoid this is by starting and ending at the minor axis instead, that way your ellipse will not lose its symmetry. Your ellipses in planes is mostly good, you strived to keep each tangent to the box’s edges and drew most with confidence. However, there does seem to be some noticeable wobbling, mostly concentrated on your second page while more infrequent on the first. Your funnels also have some problems, while each ellipse has been kept within the bounds of each funnel and were fit inside snugly without much overlapping, the minor axis on many is misaligned, a common issue among most students when starting out, and some seem to lack symmetry which I suspect is because you focused too much on accuracy. Remember that ellipses must have two equal halves when folding them over the minor axis. One thing that could have helped you here was starting out with a narrow central ellipse, which is missing, but they still gradually increase in size or degree the further apart they are from the center. To refine your ellipses making, I suggest you return to these exercises as warm-ups before tackling future lessons for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Not much to say about your plotted perspective other that some missing back lines on some boxes, mostly on the third attempt, and some back lines not being parallel with the rest, noticeable on the first attempt. For your rough perspective, it appears you forgot to draw through each box, so expect a revision for this one. The rotated boxes have some problems. Addressing your previous comment, the best advice I can come up with is to simply not think about how the end result will turn out, and do as instructed. Sounds simple, but it is easy for us to get carried away, so it is understandable that you are having this issue, and it is good to hear that you are working on it; I am sure it will be resolved with time. Your bottom half did turn out well for the most part with narrower gaps, but the top appears to have too much guessing due to focusing too much on the end result of those boxes, as you stated. What you should do next time is to start at the bottom, using the neighboring boxes as guides to keep your gaps narrow. Another issue is most boxes lines do not converge towards the same vanishing point. Good effort still! This is an exercise that is worth returning to in the future as a warm-up, doing one corner before tackling a lesson, for example. Finally, your rotated boxes was done pretty well, there is depth to the scene and your box construction is good too, improving a lot in your second page. Do note the angle of the initial Y, to prevent the awkwardness of some boxes, the angles must be greater than 90 degrees. I would also like to point out that some of your lines were fixed because the previous attempt did not turn out well; this should be avoided, simply work with it no matter how bad it turned out. And your line making does need to improve, there is a lot of wobbling here due to focusing too much on accuracy so keep this in mind.

You are almost done! All I am going to ask you is to finish the page of rough perspective with the missing back lines and some extended lines (remember to not focus on accuracy and keep your lines smooth.) So take your time and reply to me with the link once you are done.

Next Steps:

Finnish the back of each box in the rough perspective exercise before moving on.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
edited at 1:24 AM, Jun 30th 2021
10:03 PM, Wednesday June 30th 2021

Thank you. I drew a few ellipses real quick following that advice, and it helped a lot, i think that was my exact problem.

Honestly a lot of my issues with lines are from going too fast. I really an trying to focus its just a habit i need to work on breaking i suppose.

I have no clue how i missed drawing through the boxes on rough perspective (probably rushing), thank you for catching that.

Thank you for this, your advice is really hepful and i appreciate it.

Here is the rough perspective revision: https://imgur.com/gallery/ounyPkr

3:52 PM, Thursday July 1st 2021
edited at 4:56 PM, Jul 1st 2021

Hello, hello!

Congrats on completing lesson 1! Your line work does need some improvement still so remember the 10 - 15 minute warm-ups. You did forget to extend some lines but I think you understood the exercise so no fuss. As for the rushing, in the end it is something we choose to do and the best I can give is, if you feel that you are rushing your work, try to slow down, put the pen down even and try to remind yourself that rushing is unnecessary and take a break. Sorry, wish I had a better solution but that's the best I could come up with.

I will mark your work as complete. Congratulations again for completing lesson 1 and good luck on the challenge!

Next Steps:

The 250-box challenge.

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.
edited at 4:56 PM, Jul 1st 2021
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